Did some math on what levels to give exotic mounts, would like your opinions!

[rfkannen]

So I was thinking about exotic mounts, aka anything more powerful than a warhorse, and I couldn't find anything about what levels to give them, so I did some math, and I am wondering what you think!


My goal was to figure out what levels you can give mounts without significantly changing the balance of a party, you could give a level 2 character a cr 20 mount if you wanted, but it would make you really have to make encounters differently. My hope is that the numbers I provide show when mounts are a nice boost but shouldn't really change encounter building much. I am not suggesting you shouldn't give higher cr mounts, this just seems when it wouldn't be that much of a power upgrade.


I want to be clear, I took calculus in high school but at this point I know basically no math, so I would not be surprised if I did this wrong, if you have any improvements I would love to hear them!




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My basic idea was to go off the find steed spells, find steed gives a practically immortal intelligent version of a mount, so I feel it would be okay to give a normal version of the mount at the level that someone could get the spell. I know that only paladins get those spells, and they are half casters, but I feel that the spells are balanced enough that we can do the math as if a full caster got them.


I do not think this devalues those spells, as any bought or raised would be mortal, and you would probably have to spend a lot of money training it. The same way someone buying a warhorse doesn't devalue your paladin.


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the find steed spell is second level, which means that a full caster could get it at level 3. so I would feel okay giving any cr 1/2 or lower creature at level 3, so a worg or an axebeak would be fine.


Than find greater steed is a 4th level spell, meaning a spellcaster could cast it at level 7. So at level 7 I would feel okay granting a cr 2 or lower creature as a mount, so a gelatinous cube or a giant constriction snake would be fine.


Now to make the math easier, lets bring both up by 1. So at level 4 you get a cr 1/2 creature and at level 8 you get cr 2. That means that at level 4 you can have a mount with cr of an eightth of your level, and at level 8 you can have a mount with a quarter your level.


So my extrapolation would be that, since 8 is twice 4, that at level 16, you will be able to have a monster of half your cr, that being 8


so than, what I would say is

• level 2 you can have a cr 1/4 mount
• level 4 you can have a cr 1/2 mount
• level 6 you can have a cr 1 mount
• level 8 you can have a cr 2 mount
• level 12 you can have a cr 5 mount
• level 16 you can have a cr 8 mount

and than to extrapolate without doing any math

• level 20 you can have a cr 10 mount

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so what do you think? I assume I got at least part of this wrong, how would you change it? Does this seem balanced.


another thing I couldn't figure out is what level is right to give a mount as a nice big reward. For example, a wyvern is cool at level 16, but is also kind of only okay, which was the point of this. What level would you give it as a big reward? (I will admit, this entire exercise was me trying to figure out when to give a wyvern as a mount)


Any thoughts?

 

[Blue]

CR is how much challenge a foe will be in a single encounter. It's not really the proper measure to say how well something will do long term, or as a mount, that I would use it as a gatekeeper for what can be had. Where I would use CR is as a guideline to make sure the mount isn't too fragile for the challenges the party will face - the Find Steed warhorse tends to go down quickly to area of effect attacks at later levels.

I would rather look into what abilities I want the party to have. For example, the absolutely minimum for a flying mount would be 5th when PCs could get Fly, but in reality flying all the time without expenditure of resources will be a boon in exploration and combat and maybe would hold off on that until 9th. So maybe a spider-climbing mount by 5th, or a particularly fast one.

Other special abilities the mount has need to be looked at if they will be too powerful outside an encounter. This is the same reason why certain summoned fey are much more desirable then others of the same CR - they have nifty other abilities.

 

[Th3g0dc0mp13x]

For the wyvern I wouldn't give it until at least level 10 at the earliest. Then I'd have it not obey his commands until he's made x number of animal handling checks, maximum of one a day with a 20 counting as 2 successes, and a 1 loses a success. Or until he's proven himself worthy by killing some big bad and hitting lvl 12.

 

[Li Shenron]

I like the idea... I would also toss in a minimum level limit for swimming mounts at level 4 and for flying mounts at level 8, same levels at which a Druid gets those forms from Wild Shape.

 

[transtemporal]

Yeah, what Li Shenron said. I would take into account the movement mode you want parties to have given their particular level.

When I give mounts (which is not often) I try not to give mounts that can have a significant effect on the battlefield, otherwise the pets start to eclipse the players. And, I've never given one out, but I'd be very careful giving a mount that can act intelligently of its own accord, e.g. a dragon.

 

[Storyteller Hero]

It's worth noting that a mount useable for riding will not necessarily participate in combat, and might even flee if it feels endangered, even if it's a magical mount.