Need ideas for an NPC

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SzassT
Cave Troll
Posts: 30
Joined: Sun Apr 30, 2017 4:32 pm
Location: Fort Smith, AR

Need ideas for an NPC

Post by SzassT »

The game I'm running is 3.5e D&D.
One of my players has a Gold Dragon Wyrmling Cohort. The player is Level 15 with Leadership, Dragon Cohort, and a Leadership Score of 25 (Level 15 + 6 Cha Mod + 2 for having a Base + 2 for Great Renown). According the the Draconomicon, Wyrmling Gold Dragons are ECL 12. According the the Dragon Cohort Feat, the dragon's ECL is considered 3 lower, so ECL 9.

The player and I agreed to him having a dragon cohort on the stipulation that it would be similar to the Dracolyte wyrmling, in that he has been charged with watching over it until it gets older, when it will leave, so I'm not worried about it aging. The issue I'm having is that since its ECL 9 and his max cohort level is 13, I'm trying to figure out what class to give it.

For some background:
The player was given the dragon egg by an Archmage and told to protect it until it was old enough to fend for itself (basically when it decides to "leave the nest" so to speak). The player maintained the requirements to hatch the egg and was present at it hatching and has been caring for the dragon ever since.
The dragon is almost always with the party, using Alternate Form to take form of a little girl or a cat (depending on the situation). She mostly just tags along and checks stuff out with the party while they frantically try to protect her. When the party isn't dungeon delving or in other dangerous situations, at least one of them tries to spend time with her regularly and at least 2 are always keeping an eye on her. Thus far, no one has stopped her from doing what she wants without compromising with her (usually in her favor, she figured out she could manipulate them by "wanting" more than she was actually interested and compromising to what she really wanted), so overall she's been happy with them.
When spending one-on-one time with her, some players play games with her (hide and seek, tag, etc...), one of the players (Cleric/Oracle) often builds things with her (towns out of mud/stone, flower jewelry, etc...) and entertains her with magic, but always tries to tie in what they are doing to some form of education (this player is one of two that always keeps in mind that she's a dragon with a higher intelligence score than half the party, so for example, when building a town they discuss Architecture & Engineering, Politics, Economics, etc... and when making a play with illusions it is often an allegory or satire he discusses with her after).
Another player (Sorc/Wiz/Ultimate Magus that lives by a Knight's Code) discusses politics with her. He is a Baronet and he'll often talk about current affairs, such as trade deals, land disputes, taxes, etc... with her while playing games like chess, card games, or Risk-style games.
Another player (Weretiger Barbarian) buys her toys and leaves her to her own devices. She's bad with kids and uncomfortable around them and the dragon knows it, so often casually mentions that she thinks something looks neat or fun while in shops and then the Weretiger buys it for her.
Another player (Noble Elven Swashbuckler/Rogue) avoids her like the plague. He doesn't think anything good can come from having a dragon around and is trying to dodge any potential fallout.
Another player (Fighter/Order of the Bow) plays with her constantly, takes her swimming, buys her toys, and takes her on adventures (took her to a bakery and taught her how to steal snacks, takes her into caves to explore, pretend fights with her, takes her hunting, basically anytime she says "I wanna go" or "I'm bored" he does something with her.)
The player that actually has her as a cohort (Cleric) mostly scolds her (scolds her for picking up random items in dungeons since they might be trapped, scolds her for running into fights, scolds her for stealing from the bakery). He forgot her birthday (despite several other party members asking him about it), doesn't share loot with her (even the rest of the party voluntarily gives her treasures, mostly art objects, they think she might like without her even being aware of the items, even if they are worth hundreds or thousands of gold), and doesn't play with her. He has a mercenary army, runs a church, and often acts as the party's "face", so he is usually busy and finding out about things after the fact. She is well aware of his duties. He did take her to stay with a Juvenile Bronze Dragon they had made friends with a while back so she could learn more from her kind (being dragons, despite the "Type" not matching). This Bronze Dragon has a bunch of Kobold followers and servants and mostly taught her how to lead and manage followers.
The party keeps her dressed in fine courtly clothing and maintains them even on adventures (going so far as to cast Prestidigitation to clean them, Mending to repair, or even Make Whole when necessary).
The party has done an excellent job of keeping her safe, even when it has made fights far more difficult for them. She has only been damaged once in a fight (a creature used an AoE Sonic Shout and she was in the area), after which the entire party pulled all the stops and overkilled the creature.

So, for classes for her, I have been debating between (but am not set on) Aristocrat (in response to the education several of the party members are giving her and what the Bronze Dragon taught her), Rogue (in response to sneaking around dungeons and caves and being taught how to fight by the Order of the Bow member of the party, who uses Precision Damage), and Sorcerer (in response to the magic that is used around her and for her).

I don't particularly want to give her Sorcerer since shes a dragon and its not really useful to her in the long run. Rogue is Mechanically good for her, but outside of Sneak Attack, Hide, Move Silently, and Sleight of Hand, she has little reason to utilize or be practicing the rest of the rogue skill set. Aristocrat is an NPC class, so I'm not sure I want to use it on her. Mechanically several other classes would be great for her, but I don't feel I could justify (like Paladin for Charisma to Saves and Smite since she has a high Charisma).

As you may have been able to tell, I'm more focused on the roleplay for the game than the Roll-play, but I don't want to do something outright useless/stupid for her, since she is a dragon and down the road, once she's grown up some, could be a useful ally to the party.

Any ideas?

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