I want to play a fighter who focuses in on mounted combat, but I don't have much experience in this area. We are level 5. What mount should I choose? What feats? Mounted Combat, Ride-By-Attack, and spirited charge are musts, but are there any other good riding feats? What about Prestige Classes? Are there any good mounted prcs? I'm thinking Half-Orc 2 Fighter/ 3 Barbarian with the 3 Mounted Feats, and Extra Rage.
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Building a Mounted Combat Fighter?
- Thread starter Tidus4444
- Start date
Saeviomagy
Adventurer
How about a war hulk?Artoomis said:
Charge!
Lance w/20ft reach!
Lance for triple damage!
50 or so strength (for a +30 strength bonus on a two handed weapon!)
Tripled!
To everyone within 20ft (massive swing)!
Owie.
Hardhead
Explorer
billd91 said:
Gnome Fighter, baby!
No, I'm not kidding!
The bad thing about mounted combat specialists is they have trouble getting their horses down the stairs in the dungeon. Paladins can summon a mount, but they don't have any feats to spend on mounted combat. The solution? Ride a Dire Wolf/War Dog.
At first level, you want to get Mounted Combat and Ride by Attack. At second level, Spirited Charge.
Mounted Combat is OK. Mainly, you want it for the start of the feat tree. Ride by Attack is key. You'll be using this a lot. Hit them with a charge, and keep moving, so you can charge them next round. If they close with you, Charge someone else. Even if you suck up an attack of opportunity, the triple damage you deal thanks to Spirited Charge is worth it!
At third level, there's a couple ways you can go. You may want to get Power Attack so your triple damage is even more (thanks to charging constantly, you should have a few points to put into this pretty often). You may want Mobility to keep yourself from being whacked by AoOs when leaving threatened spaces to go charge another bad guy (depends on how combat seems to work out for you, and how your DM plays the bad guys). You may want to pick up Weapon Foucs (Lance) and Weapon Spec (Lance) at 4th for essentially a +6 damage bonus when charging. I'd probably do this if I didn't *have* to take Mobility. I'd probably go with Power Attack after that. Then pick up Iproved Overrun around 6th or 8th lvl.
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There are some substantial advantages to a mounted archer over a mounted HTH char.
The archer can get a full attack every round that takes place at the mid point of the movement FOR THE MOUNT! Since it is the horse moving and not the archer (mounted combat rules). So it is possible to nip into the 30' range, shoot and then move out. Which is far better than Shot on the Run. This works particularly well if the mount has Expeditious Retreat on it. Of course there are penalties for attacking while the mount is moving, but that's what the mounted combat feats are for.
By contrast, the HTH char only gets 1 attack if moving more than 5' since he has to wait until getting to the target, though he can use the charge manuver which is useless to the archer.
Mounted combat is also good for giving the archer room to work in and keeping out of AoO range, since his weapon is useful up to a substantial distance. Where as melee weapons are only good at, well melee ranges.
If you can obtain a flying mount well things just get better from there, since you can just circle your enemies and rain death on them.
At only 5th level your choices as to mounts are fairly limited I would guess (check the mount rules for Paladins in "Defenders of the Faith"). So you will probably be stuck with a heavy war horse I'd guess. I know that the 3.5e MM has expanded the range of "Cohort" monsters (Ie. from the leadership feat) that should give you a guide at least to what some other possibilities are. I would look at a Dire Wolf if you want to stick to the ground (cohort lvl of 9?) or a Griffon (cohort lv of 10). A dire wolf is probably one of the best mounts short of something really wild, they have good HD, good attacks, good extras and are generally pretty tough all around. If you go for the griffon try to make sure you can get it to go up a size class to Huge as it makes a griffon far tougher and more formidable.
One last word of caution. Mounts are fragile and will generally die from one or two good attacks from equal Party-CR opponents. So be prepaired to buff it up as much as possible and replace it, if you bring it into combat.
The archer can get a full attack every round that takes place at the mid point of the movement FOR THE MOUNT! Since it is the horse moving and not the archer (mounted combat rules). So it is possible to nip into the 30' range, shoot and then move out. Which is far better than Shot on the Run. This works particularly well if the mount has Expeditious Retreat on it. Of course there are penalties for attacking while the mount is moving, but that's what the mounted combat feats are for.
By contrast, the HTH char only gets 1 attack if moving more than 5' since he has to wait until getting to the target, though he can use the charge manuver which is useless to the archer.
Mounted combat is also good for giving the archer room to work in and keeping out of AoO range, since his weapon is useful up to a substantial distance. Where as melee weapons are only good at, well melee ranges.
If you can obtain a flying mount well things just get better from there, since you can just circle your enemies and rain death on them.
At only 5th level your choices as to mounts are fairly limited I would guess (check the mount rules for Paladins in "Defenders of the Faith"). So you will probably be stuck with a heavy war horse I'd guess. I know that the 3.5e MM has expanded the range of "Cohort" monsters (Ie. from the leadership feat) that should give you a guide at least to what some other possibilities are. I would look at a Dire Wolf if you want to stick to the ground (cohort lvl of 9?) or a Griffon (cohort lv of 10). A dire wolf is probably one of the best mounts short of something really wild, they have good HD, good attacks, good extras and are generally pretty tough all around. If you go for the griffon try to make sure you can get it to go up a size class to Huge as it makes a griffon far tougher and more formidable.
One last word of caution. Mounts are fragile and will generally die from one or two good attacks from equal Party-CR opponents. So be prepaired to buff it up as much as possible and replace it, if you bring it into combat.
Now, this is in some debate, but my DM has allowed for two weapon fighting with lances... and allows for the x1.5 str damage, as per Hypersmurf's arguments. 
I saw the cavelier prc in S&F, I think I'll go for that. Since feats are at a premium, I'll go 1 Barb/ 4 Fighter and continue in fighter till I can qualify for the cavelier prc. For feats, I get 3 for Fighter +1 Human +2 levels. Extra Rage, TWF, the 3 Mounted Combat Feats, and WF: Heavy Lance are my choices. For the next few feats, I'll take WF: Longsword (required for Cavelier) and WS: Heavy Lance. At some point, I'll proabably pick up SF: Ride. I'll also be sure to get some items that boost my ride skill (some of the most underused items in the game IMHO; they're great for ride, UMD, Perform, and tumble).
I saw the cavelier prc in S&F, I think I'll go for that. Since feats are at a premium, I'll go 1 Barb/ 4 Fighter and continue in fighter till I can qualify for the cavelier prc. For feats, I get 3 for Fighter +1 Human +2 levels. Extra Rage, TWF, the 3 Mounted Combat Feats, and WF: Heavy Lance are my choices. For the next few feats, I'll take WF: Longsword (required for Cavelier) and WS: Heavy Lance. At some point, I'll proabably pick up SF: Ride. I'll also be sure to get some items that boost my ride skill (some of the most underused items in the game IMHO; they're great for ride, UMD, Perform, and tumble).
