Companion Armor

[Tegu8788]

I'm playing a Corellon Paladin with a Fey Beast Tamer theme, a young owlbear at his side. The image of a divine defender covered in charging a powerful enemy with his essentially baby baby with nothing but fur and a little skin for protection, it feels wrong as an animal handler. My DM has cleared me for having a fluff set of armor crafted.

I'm wondering, should I pursue it, what would be a fair way to put leather or hide armor on my companion. I imagine a feat for armor proficiency would make sense. I'm not skilled at seeing how AC and NADs will level up, and I'm used to having paladin defenses so I may be expecting too much.

I figure this is going to go beyond RAW or RAI, so I'm making it's own thread. What would you have companion armor cost, or if it's even really an issue. The owlbear already has a Champion's Defender on him, which gives a +1 to defenses when adjacent to my paladin. I'm not looking to maximize the defenses so much as counter the improved defenses feats that wouldn't effect the purely level based progression.

[WickerNipple]

The simplest solution would just be to purchase barding.

[Musco]

...but if you want to go crazy (you should, always fun, the best stories come from going crazy), sure, go the way of feats first.
Then, of course, you'd have to find an armorsmith capable of devising armor for an Owlbear ("human" - generic term here - armor is that way because of the way a "human" would fight, so it stands to reason than an owlbear's would be different, requiring quite an ingenious armorsmith to design it, if it's not commonplace in your game world *hint hint* *quest quest*).
After that, you'd, of course, need to pay for a custom-made suit of armor from a genius (*bling bling*), and wait for it to be ready.
Totally worth it, though, you could even get back to questing for the smith sometime later for masterwork armor (and burn feats to get it up to plate! pure awesomeness!).

[Kurald Galain]

I'm not looking to maximize the defenses so much as counter the improved defenses feats that wouldn't effect the purely level based progression.

That's not actually necessary. A companion's defenses increase by one per level. A PC's defenses increase by one-half per level, meaning they will be 15 points behind by the time they reach level 30. This is why they need magical armor, ability score increases, and feat taxes to keep up.

[Tegu8788]

The barding looks like what I'm looking for, not really surprised that someone thought of it before. And as a young owlbear counts as a mount for small races, I'm pretty sure that those rules will work if I follow that course. I'll have to check the AC progression, and if it isn't really needed then I'll just use it for the looks, but then again that's pretty cheap bonus for AC. I've already talked with my DM, and he's prepared to do the whole thing about finding someone to make it and someone to design it. I don't think I'd put anything too processed, fluff is having the owlbear a little too wild for metal armor.

Thanks everyone for the good, and quick, advice.

[LaZodiac]

Actually, mounts was changed so you can ride any creature. So you could totaly ride your owlbear into battle. Assuming I remember correctly.

[WickerNipple]

The Owlbear is Medium. So only Small and Tiny races can ride it.

[Tegu8788]

If any character could ride any mount, I'd imagine an arguement over the Minotaur riding a medium flyer would arise.

[VeliciaL]

Actually, mounts was changed so you can ride any creature. So you could totaly ride your owlbear into battle. Assuming I remember correctly.

Waaaaait... does this mean my pixie ranger can ride her hawk companion by RAW now? I haven't tried to play this character, just rolled her up for fun, but I just figured I'd need a flexible DM to allow me that.

[WickerNipple]

Raptors are Small, Pixies are Tiny. Perfectly legal.

The pixie on some sort of animal companion with a lance has become one of the charop staples for that race.

[Badgerish]

A ranger needs a feat to ride their beast companion ("Beast Rider" from a Dragon Mag), but after that, yes you can have a tiny pixie on a small raptor, or a small halfing on a medium spider.

[VeliciaL]

A ranger needs a feat to ride their beast companion ("Beast Rider" from a Dragon Mag), but after that, yes you can have a tiny pixie on a small raptor, or a small halfing on a medium spider.

That's pretty awesome, good to know. Thanks!

[Tegu8788]

I've got an idea for a gnome on a blink dog now. Would the teleport in the aura allow you to move the ridden dog, the source of the power?