I had an idea awhile ago for a PaD server and you might like it. The ark is glitched and you could wind up respawning as a dino.

disgruntled dodo stomps angerly up to the compound's gates
sentry human: "Jerry! Is that you!?"
dodo: "Say one more word and I'll have your badge!"
sentry opens the gate for his commanding officer.
dodo sees all the smirks and side ways looks and shouts: "I CAN HEAR YOU NOT LAUGHING!"
half the members burst out laughing so hard they can't stand.

Or a little 60 year old city bus driver galloping across the map as a diplo dodging rexes and laughing her ass off shouting, "NO MORE TRAFFIC!!!"

Or a gamer teen who thinks it's a cool dream and chasing the poor humans as a rex snapping his jaws and shouting "FEAR ME PATHETIC MORTALS!"

So your cousin might be a glitched human stuck in dino form and if he gets killed he might wind up waking up something else. For better or worse. Gives you flexibility and you wouldn't be permanently restricted to one form, but upon death I'd roll dice DND style to choose.

Are you going to try and beat whatever map or just build stuff? The play as dino offically modified for the mod dinos will allow a human rider which can be fun. I would suggest something small because....small creatures can fit in places. Wyverns are very fun to play but they are huge and can leave you left out of some exploration. The forest wyvern is a bit smaller but still. Argent, pteranodon, the raptor are all small enough to fit in most areas.

If you use mods I would suggest a modded dino because PAD dinos don't get to be at their highest level, modded dinos tend to be much stronger. Probably Rock Drake because of multiple seatings and eventually the Rock Drake can use tek saddle to fire projectiles, but your choice is limitless over time anyways players tend to not know what they want and need until the situation shows up infront of you and the lightbulb arrives at that moment.

I personally found this difficult because for play as dinos to use a high lvl mount if they managed to earn their way to use it I would have to destroymytarget on their original body and give them a new high lvl spawntamed variant and give it to them but they would be able to jump off the dino anytime and possibiliy abuse it against turrets and other wild/ enemies dinos for taming or killing. So the Bugs have always been a challenge to deal with and too risky for the server's survival.

Originally posted by Vocal Tune:

If you use mods I would suggest a modded dino because PAD dinos don't get to be at their highest level, modded dinos tend to be much stronger. Probably Rock Drake because of multiple seatings and eventually the Rock Drake can use tek saddle to fire projectiles, but your choice is limitless over time anyways players tend to not know what they want and need until the situation shows up infront of you and the lightbulb arrives at that moment.

I personally found this difficult because for play as dinos to use a high lvl mount if they managed to earn their way to use it I would have to destroymytarget on their original body and give them a new high lvl spawntamed variant and give it to them but they would be able to jump off the dino anytime and possibiliy abuse it against turrets and other wild/ enemies dinos for taming or killing. So the Bugs have always been a challenge to deal with and too risky for the server's survival.

I'm still hoping to find a roleplay PAD server. Respawning is a known thing ingame. Teammate pisses everyone off doing something stupid and screwing up the plan, so someone who's fed up shoots them knowing that they'll just respawn safe at base. PAD comes into play because this ark is glitched and people sometimes come back as creatures and there's no telling what kind of creature they'll be stuck with until the next time they respawn. So for all anyone knows that teammate that was "sent back to base" might come back as a snail. People who wake up on the ark at first might believe that they're in a dream or trapped in a video game or whatever coping mechanism they use to deal with suddenly fighting for their lives in an impossible world and hopefully someday they come to accept reality.

I tried to do this years ago and was trying to roleplay as a wandering mantis merchant who traded resources for tools and upgrades and access to a smithy and forge. Traded for a blood wyvern eggs and he was my mule, passive fleeing while I slaughtered allo packs with pikes. But no one else wanted to roleplay.

This is something I have spent years hammering out and if anyone wants to try for it I have a lot of ways to balance it. The best part is it allows you to change what you are and there's no perma death.