Can a non-animal mount wear barding?

A couple excerpts from the SRD:

SRD said:

—Proficient with no armor unless trained for war.

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SRD said:

—Proficient with no armor.

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So the question is, if a Magical Beast is trained for war as a mount (say a hippogrif or griffon), can it wear barding automatically--as an animal can--or does it need to spend a feat on Armor Proficiency? Or several feats, depending on the type of barding desired (light, medium, or heavy)?

First of all, almost any corporeal creatures can wear armor (unless they are ooze and such). But if they are not proficient in that type of armor, they suffer attack penalty.

Animals trained for war does not automatically get armor proficiency. War horses are not proficient in armor and thus suffer attack penalty when they make hooves/bite attacks.

There is a template called "war beast" in MM II. One of the benefit of the template is to give armor proficiency to animals.

So magical beasts trained fo war does not automatically get armor proficiency. But they can still wear armor while suffering attack penalty. If you want to give them armor proficiency, they must get that feat in some way.

Well, I'd be inclined to interpret that animals trained for war such as warhorses, warponies and riding dogs are proficient in all types of armor. Good catch, though. The point that magical beasts are not proficient in armor had not occured to me before.

I would be inclined to allow magical beasts (and other types of mounts) to gain the various armor proficiencies with 6 weeks of training and a DC 25 Handle Animal check (as per training for the special purpose of combat riding, +5 to the DC for not being an animal).

A stricter interpretation would be to allow the mount to gain the proficiencies only by selecting the relevant feats as it gains HD, or by taking a level in a class which grants the feats (such as Fighter).

As always, the usual advice to ask your DM for his preference applies.

Alternatively, since the drawback to wearing armor that you are not proficient with is applying the armor check penalty to attack rolls and skill checks involving movement, you can just sidestep the issue by getting barding that has no armor check penalty, e.g. leather, masterwork studded leather, or mithral chain shirt barding.

Agree with Firelance, a druid can teach her animal companion to wear armor see handle animal skill (I read about this in PHB or MofW but I cannot remember where is exactly) If your mount isn't an animal applies a +5 to DC
A red dragon with plate mail barding+5 are very very tough

I hope that helps

Shin Okada said:

Animals trained for war does not automatically get armor proficiency. War horses are not proficient in armor and thus suffer attack penalty when they make hooves/bite attacks.

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Well, I think in the RAW, warhorses are definitely proficient with some kind of armor, though what specific armors is not clear. Otherwise, the line under the Animal Type entry in the SRD would make no sense. Saying "proficient with no armor unless trained for war" can only mean (it seems to me,) that if trained for war, they're proficient in some kind of armor.

Still, the main crux of my query was regarding a magical beast mount, since the Magical Beast entry does not contain the same caveat regarding being trained for war. Either they simply forgot that there are a couple magical beasts that can be specifically trained to serve as mounts (hippogriff, griffon, etc.) or they intentionally did not want such mounts to be capable of wearing armor without an additional price, such as a feat.

Now, I'm my particular case the mount does have an extra feat (it's a paladin's griffon mount) to spend if the rules require it, though I'd earmarked that for another feat, and would be disappointed to have to spend it on armor proficiency.

FireLance said:

you can just sidestep the issue by getting barding that has no armor check penalty, e.g. leather, masterwork studded leather, or mithral chain shirt barding.

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Good point. As the mount I have in mind must maintain a light load (to be able to carry my paladin aloft,) I'd been eyeing chain shirt armor at the heaviest. But it may be that I'll have to get studded leather at first, then save up enough gold to commission mithril chain shirt barding later... An added cost, but at least it wouldn't require me to spend one of the mount's feats to be protected when riding/flying into combat.

FireLance said:

I would be inclined to allow magical beasts (and other types of mounts) to gain the various armor proficiencies with 6 weeks of training and a DC 25 Handle Animal check (as per training for the special purpose of combat riding, +5 to the DC for not being an animal).

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One last question on this: would you reduce the DC any for the magical beast having a 6 intelligence?

Lord Pendragon said:

One last question on this: would you reduce the DC any for the magical beast having a 6 intelligence?

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I would say no, since the mount is effectively acquiring bonus feats, and feat acquisition is not linked to Intelligence.

Warbeast template from MM2 includes armor proficiency, IIRC.

Bye
Thanee