Battlemount

Jdvn1 · Feb 24, 2005

[h4]Battlemount[/h4]
Battlemounts are creatures that excel in combat. Powerful and easy to ride, their riders are formidable opponents. Many fearsome Barbarians, Fighters, Paladins, and Rangers, choose these exotic mounts to increase martial prowess, but Rogues sometimes also get battlemounts to be stealthy and spellcasters enjoy these for speed or to provide a buffer between them and other dangers.

Creating a Battlemount

"Battlemount" is a template that can be added to any Medium-size or larger animal, magical beast, or vermin (hereafter referred to as the base creature). A warmount uses all of the base creature's attributes and special abilities except as noted below.

The Animal section of the SRD describes some war animals, like warhorses, that have similar qualities of a battlemount, but different from the base creatures. This template cannot be added to those creatures as they are already considered to have the template.

Size and Type: The creature's size and type are unchanged.
Hit Dice: Same as base creature +1.
Speed: Same as base creature +10'.
Armor Class: The base creature's natural armor bonus increases by +1.
Attack: Same as base creature (modified for Hit Dice and Strength increase).
Full Attack: Same as base creature (modified for Hit Dice and Strength increase).
Damage: Same as base creature (modified for Strength increase).
Special Attacks: A battlemount gains no new special attacks.
Special Qualities: Same as base creature, plus those described below:
Battle-Ready (Ex): Due to a battlemount's training, he is easy to ride and control, granting his rider a +2 circumstance bonus on all Ride checks. The battlemount is also proficient with light, medium, and heavy armor. Vermin battlemounts do not gain the proficiencies because they are mindless.
Abilities: Increase from the base creature as follows: Str +4, Dex +0, Con +4, Int +0, Wis +0, Cha +0.
Skills: Battlemounts have a +2 racial bonus to Listen and Spot checks.
Environment: Same as base creature.
Organization: Solitary.
Challenge Rating: Same as base creature +1.
Treasure: None.
Alignment: Same as base creature.
Advancement: Same as base creature.

Training a Battlemount

A battlemount can be trained and reared just as the base creature can. The rearing process takes one year (Handle Animal DC 15 + HD of the battlemount), then trained for two months (Handle Animal DC 20 + HD of the battlemount). A vermin battlemount is mindless and untrainable. A trained battlemount is unafraid of battle and gains the Battle-Ready special quality (see above). The battlemount may be reared and trained by different people. A domestic animal need not be reared and the DC for its training is reduced by 5.

Training a Battlemount works as per the Train Creature feat.

Market Price: The market price of a battlemount is based on its Hit Dice: 100gp/HD for a battlemount of 3 HD or less, 200gp/HD for a battlemount of 4 HD or more. The price is a matter of convience in that a Battlemount cannot be bought or sold, the market price listed is for bookkeeping purposes only.

Possible change: A lot of the item creations don't take actual time here, so if this works with the same mechanics maybe we can train one per week or something? Or double the Craft Point cost?

Code:

[b]TRAIN CREATURE [ITEM CREATION][/b]
Benefit: A creature with this feat can train any creature. Training a
creature takes one day for each 1,000 gp in its market price. To train
a creature, a trainer must spend 1/25 the creature's price in XP and
use up raw materials costing half of this price (see individual training
templates for details).
A newly trained creature has average hit points for its Hit Dice.
Craft Points Gained: 300

nimisgod · Mar 1, 2005

What I don't like about this is that it quantifies the purchase price of exotic creatures. LEW is supposed to be player-centric and this opens the door to people buying/training a whole bunch of battlemounts to help them out.

We have the same policy concerning the hiring of NPC bodyguards: We simply don't allow them.

Having an animal companion or a familiar is one thing but this is something else.

That said, I can see the similarity of this to craft construct. I suggest that you model this template and the training + cost to the Craft Construct feat. The only animals you should be able to train/purchase should be animals that are far less than you in power (so that it doesn't overshadow you).

Jdvn1 · Mar 1, 2005

I added the pricing and training as a point of reference because the source I based this from (this is tweaked from MM2), included them in a similar manner. The Living EN World Judge said that he'd make an appropriate feat, so those two sections can be thrown right out.

I also dont' know how the Craft Construct feat would apply to this if there isn't a monetary amount attached to the creature -- since the gp and xp costs on Craft Construct are based on the market price of the Construct.

I was also hoping that when my Ranger gets an animal companion, that I might eventually train it to be a mount. So it is something else, but maybe not too different?

I understand the Battlemount not being too powerful but as far as I understand, there has to be some price affixed to the thing, otherwise you can't make one. We could just say you can't buy them, though. I'll make the changes, though.

nimisgod · Mar 1, 2005

At 4th level, one of the animal companions a ranger can get is a light or heavy horse. With combat riding training using the Handle Animal skill, it can fight and bear a rider into combat.

Was that what you wanted?

Rae ArdGaoth · Mar 1, 2005

I think what he wants is to be able to ride a brown bear into combat. I don't mean to sound sarcastic if that's what I come off as.

nimisgod · Mar 1, 2005

In official WOTC rules, there's precedent for a feat that makes a ranger's animal companions halfway decent. It's called Natural Bond (or something like that) from CAdv. Basically, treat your druid level as three higher for determining what powers or what kind of animal companion you get. But your druid level cannot go higher than your HD.

Rae ArdGaoth · Mar 1, 2005

Probably wouldn't do much good for Jdvn1... First of all he's level 1. And he won't be gaining too many levels for a while.

Jdvn1 · Mar 1, 2005

Close, Rae. Dire Wolf. :uhoh:

Not for right when I get my animal companion, but later on. Much later on, I know, but later on.

Can I take that Complete Adventurer feat? I'd think not, at least not without a proposal. But I don't know if proposing it would be a copywrite violation or anything, since it's not OGL. Also, any other recommendations/tweaks for the template?

Jdvn1 · Mar 3, 2005

Any other judge thoughts on this thing? Yay, nay?

nimisgod · Mar 3, 2005

Personally, I would be more comfortable with the existence of a heavily modified, LEW-ied version of a feat than a modified version of an entire template. One is a bigger change than the other. The feat also seems more player-centric than a template.

But that's just me.

Judge: Nay