Artoomis
First Post
How do you keep your paladin's mount alive?
Here's my dilemma:
The character concept is a halfling with a celestial riding dog (selected both for concept and to help survival). The idea is to be able to fight mounted when underground. The mount has proved to be quite vulnerable - he's too easily disabled by missed saving throws.
The problem is that the mount is not very survivable as written.
1. Hit points are quite low.
2. AC is not good, but barding can fix that.
3. Saves are very low - even when counting the paladin's base saves.
4. No skill or feat improvement, according to the sage, anyway(the book simply states that you get improved attack bonus and saves as you gain hit die). I don't agree with this ruling - but my DM does, so that's it as far a that goes.
5. Attacks and Saves advance as an animal (not as magical beast, per sage).
6. The mount can't use standard magic items like cloaks, vests, rings, etc.
7. His SR from being a celestial is insignificant - only spells from spell-casters way lower than normally face the party will be resisted.
On the plus side - Improved Evasion and DR from being a celestial help - but low saveing throws is a serous achilles heel.
Now what? Every ruling has gone against helping the mount survive.
The mount is key to this character concept, yet it appears the mount cannot survive for very long at all.
How is a paladin's mount - a key target in a battle - supposed to survive?
The best I can figure is to either take Craft Wondrous Items and creat unique (double-priced, pretty much, as they will have to be slotless) items for my mount to help saving throws, mostly, or try and commission items to be made. Frankly, I don't want to take
Craft Wondrous Items as it does not fit with the character concept.
I even tried creating a prestige class that focused on helping the mount survive, but that didn't work out - by the time I got to a version my DM approved, it was a no-brainer decision to stay a pure paladin.
I am a bit frustrated at this point.
So, any suggestions? How do you get a paladin's mount (that is SUPPOSED to go into combat) survive?
Here's my dilemma:
The character concept is a halfling with a celestial riding dog (selected both for concept and to help survival). The idea is to be able to fight mounted when underground. The mount has proved to be quite vulnerable - he's too easily disabled by missed saving throws.
The problem is that the mount is not very survivable as written.
1. Hit points are quite low.
2. AC is not good, but barding can fix that.
3. Saves are very low - even when counting the paladin's base saves.
4. No skill or feat improvement, according to the sage, anyway(the book simply states that you get improved attack bonus and saves as you gain hit die). I don't agree with this ruling - but my DM does, so that's it as far a that goes.
5. Attacks and Saves advance as an animal (not as magical beast, per sage).
6. The mount can't use standard magic items like cloaks, vests, rings, etc.
7. His SR from being a celestial is insignificant - only spells from spell-casters way lower than normally face the party will be resisted.
On the plus side - Improved Evasion and DR from being a celestial help - but low saveing throws is a serous achilles heel.
Now what? Every ruling has gone against helping the mount survive.
The mount is key to this character concept, yet it appears the mount cannot survive for very long at all.
How is a paladin's mount - a key target in a battle - supposed to survive?
The best I can figure is to either take Craft Wondrous Items and creat unique (double-priced, pretty much, as they will have to be slotless) items for my mount to help saving throws, mostly, or try and commission items to be made. Frankly, I don't want to take
Craft Wondrous Items as it does not fit with the character concept.
I even tried creating a prestige class that focused on helping the mount survive, but that didn't work out - by the time I got to a version my DM approved, it was a no-brainer decision to stay a pure paladin.
I am a bit frustrated at this point.
So, any suggestions? How do you get a paladin's mount (that is SUPPOSED to go into combat) survive?