D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Classes with mounts

[Soladrin]

So I might be joining a campaign sometime soon and have no real clue on what to make except for one little bit. I want a mount oriented character.

So what I'm looking for is all the classes that have affinities for mounted combat etc.

Flying mounts are probably out so please mark it if it's for flying mounts.

Thank's in advance.

 

[Sekhmet]

Other than that 3.0 PrC that lets you ride anything (from trees to ants to titans), I don't think any class grants any decent mounted abilities that you can't acquire through feats.

 

[Soladrin]

I guess what I'd really like to make is a Mongol light cavalry type Character.

But I don't think there's anything that let's me apply Scout movement feats to my mount. xD

 

[holyplankton]

Your best bet there would probably be to just go with Fighter and take all of the Mounted Combat feats. Though bear in mind these all become null if you have to enter a dungeon of some sort.

 

[Soladrin]

Well the point is, I like mounted archery.

On a side note, also trying to figure out what a fun class for a Goblin character would be. Kind of stuck on scout right now.

 

[the Jester]

Well, paladin is the obvious mount-related class, but it takes a significant investment to make it pay off. Also, very few feats to use.

Multiclassing has the drawback of lengthening the time until you have a mount and/or weakening your mount over time (it gets fewer 'powerups' from your fewer paladin levels).

There are a couple of prestige classes that build on the mount thing- there's the halfling outrider and IIRC there is a cavalier in Sword & Fist, but it isn't really all that great. I think Draconomicon may have a dragonrider type too, but can't recall any details off hand. Sorry, IDHMBIFOM.

 

[Grogg of the North]

The biggest problem you'll have with a mounted warrior is that later on its very easy for your mount to be shot out underneath you. So you need something stronger than just a horse. Paladin is the obvious choice. You get a powerful horse (or something else if you convince your GM to let you trade).

A druid or ranger could do it too depending on race and animal selection.

With both of those options, multiclassing will hurt your mount's advancement.

In terms of PrC, Halfling Outrider and Cavalier are in Complete Warrior and are good selections. With Halfling Outrider, an option is go Devoted Tracker and make your special mount your animal companion since that class advances both special mount and animal companion abilities.

Wild Plains Outrider in Complete Adventurer is also a choice.

In Book of Exalted Deeds is a PrC called Skylord where you can fly around on giant eagles. I know you said that flying mounts probably wouldn't work but I just wanted to mention it.

In the same book, Beloved of Valarian lets you become an elven unicorn riding princess. And lets you kick some serious butt while you do it.

A small Holy Liberator (Complete Divine) could ride his celestial companion. But you get that "late" in the game.

The following are options but may be considered cheesy. YMMV.

Play a centaur. You count as your own mount.

Drow Judicator in Underdark gives you a spider mount. You need to be drow.

 

[radja]

it doesn't have a very mongol feel, but in races of faerun there's also the great rift skyguard prc. they ride hippogriffs, get mounted bonus feats and some cool abilitie. It's a glod dwarf prc and it's a flying mount, so is probably not your thing.

for a mongol feel, I'd choose ranger. Light armour meshes well with the mongol theme, your combat style makes you good with bows so you have some room left for mounted feats and your animal companion/mount slowly improves. The link special ability allows you to control your mount better.

 

[Ranger19k]

Be a druid. Nothing beats a bear riding a bear into combat.

 

[frankthedm]

Multi-quote!

So I might be joining a campaign sometime soon and have no real clue on what to make except for one little bit. I want a mount oriented character.

Prepare for disappointment. Not only will your character focus be at mercy of the areas you have encounters in, there are some rules questions that need answering and issues that need resolving. You better hope the DM likes mounts, otherwise it probably won't be worth the effort.

Charge's First, you must move to the closest space from which you can attack the opponent. (If this space is occupied or otherwise blocked, you can’t charge.) looks like it interacts with Closest Creature: When it's important to determine the closest square or creature to a location, if two squares or creatures are equally close, randomly determine which one counts as closest by rolling a die.

Some don't feel this should apply to charging, I feel it is important, since IMHO charging is supposed to be moving as directly towards the foe.

1. Prior to the 3.5 Errata, was it expected a ride by attacker use the "overrun" option as part of the charge?
   
2. Where is the link to the wotc article that suggested riders now charge at the sides of their larger foes rather than AT them?
   
3. Does / should ride by attack let you pass through the square of the target?
   
4. Does a mount get to attack when the rider does a ride by attack?
   
5. If a mount gets to attack when the rider does a ride by attack, can a rider with ride by attack who has a reach weapon, can the rider strike, move 5 feet closer, have the mount strike, then continue the line of the charge?

RIDE-BY ATTACK [GENERAL]
Prerequisites: Ride 1 rank, Mounted Combat.
Benefit: When you are mounted and use the charge action, you may move and attack as if with a standard charge and then move again (continuing the straight line of the charge). Your total movement for the round can’t exceed double your mounted speed. You and your mount do not provoke an attack of opportunity from the opponent that you attack.
Special: A fighter may select Ride-By Attack as one of his fighter bonus feats.[/QUOTE]

FranktheDM, thats exactly what I mean. The rules have been rewritten and, because Mounted Combat & Dragons isn't the name of the game, nobody has taken the time to go back over and rewrite the rules with consistancy and clarity in mind.

Rules of the Game Archive

Scroll down to the January 25, 2005 article. Very comprehensive.

Playing in Red Hand of Doom has been a crash course on peripheral D&D rules. Our third major combat involved four PCs on horses against a bunch of bad guys, including three goblins on worgs. Much ducking and weaving occured. We also questioned why I, mounted on my horse and chasing after a goblin worg-rider, was able to take attacks of opportunity when the goblin tried to move away each round. I had a spiked gauntlet, so apparently I leaned over my horse's neck and swung at the worg's.

Then we had to learn the rules for flight and maneuverability thanks to dragons and eventual winged mounts. Then there was the joy and stupidity of fighting creatures underwater, when those creatures have spring attack. Now we're having fun with multiple improved grapples by a horde of undead who have reach.

Rules is complicated, and often silly. But we have fun. And I love my mount. If my current ranger dies, I'm going to have to come back as a paladin.

All About Mounts (Part Five)http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20050222a
All About Mounts (Part Four)
All About Mounts (Part Three)
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20050208aAll About Mounts (Part Two)
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20050201aAll About Mounts (Part One)

For me to take something like Mounted combat I would need to know that the campaign is going to call for it. The first "D" of Dungeons & Dragons makes that very unlikely.

The second "D" of Dungeons & Dragons can make most mounts very short lived. Whether because they are hungry, whould rather eat a seeminly non sentient over sentient or because they recognize the danger a mounted charge poses, dragons have their reasons to slag a mount.

To me mounted combat works like this:

1) At low levels its about the beef. A warhorse actually has a nice bucket of hitpoints for low level. You make your full attack, your horse makes some attacks, and kick butt.

2) At higher levels, its about the mobility. Your horse's AC is in the toilet, but with mounted combat that changes drastically. The key is to not get hit more than once per round. Use your horse's superior speed and ride by attack to charge past enemies. Force them to charge you, don't allow them a full attack. And of course with spirited charge, one hit off a horse is as good as 3 attacks not mounted in many cases.

The key then now is to bump your horses saves and hitpoints to function against magic.

Spirited Charge looks weak when you realize what the restrictions are on charging. Plus it's annoying because the battlemats are rarely large enough to enable a mounted PC to use their speed properly. There's lots of extra rules to learn; did you know you could speed up your horse, but that causes you to inflict damage?

Without a feat like Mounted Cohort (which technically doesn't apply to warhorses), the mount is weak. PCs don't want to spend resources on buffing the mount, as they themselves don't want to die. (And your horse isn't always with you.)

Unless you're a fighter, you're probably giving up multiple feats: Mounted Combat, then either Mounted Archery or Ride-By Attack and Spirited Charge. Yet fighters don't have any ability to boost their mount. Paladins do, but not everyone wants a magical intelligent horse and they don't get bonus feats anyway.

Light fighters are weak within the rules, but if you wear heavy armor and carry a shield (like a real knight), you're going to take massive penalties to Ride checks.

Mounted combat is a powerful option for the character that invests in it.

That said, in most modules or a 'default' campaign, it would be a waste of time for medium characters that aren't Paladins. It's just not practical to take most mounts into a dungeon.

Also, at high levels normal mounts are unbelievably squishy. Unless your DM either has some houserules to make them cooler or allows you to acquire more powerful mounts, expect your highly trained war mount to die in the first round of combat.

It also depends on the level of the game. If the campaign is mainly low level, mounted combat can be absolutely devasting. At mid to high levels, only a paladin's mount has a enough hitpoints to stand its ground.

Mounts are a side set of the rules, often not being used significantly in many campaigns. Some of the mounted combat options are really only balanced by how easy it is to kill the mount from beneath the rider.