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Saddle Up! - A guide to mounts and mounted combat (by RuinsFate)
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<blockquote data-quote="Nibelung" data-source="post: 6709594" data-attributes="member: 74499"><p><strong>Originally posted by RuinsFate:</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #800000"><strong><p style="text-align: center"></p><p></strong><strong>Mount Items</strong></span></p><p></p><p>-My apologies if the text colours are off in this post. It's an error in the code inserted by the forums. It doesn't show up in Firefox but does in IE, and possibly other browsers as well. Unfortunately, it is beyond my html-capabilties to fix it.</p><p></p><p>Mount Items fall into two categories: Mount Slot Items, and Barding. NB: The CB's implementation of mounts and their items is poor at best, so you will need to do a little bit more good-old-fashioned penmanship on your character sheet with them. There are also several pieces of gear for your character that have effects on your mount.</p><p></p><p><strong>Barding: (pg 14, Adventurer's Vault)</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong>As listed above in the rules section, barding still uses up your mount's one magic item slot.</p><p></p><p>Barding comes in two varieties, Light and Heavy. Light Barding grants an uptyped +1 AC to your mount and Heavy Barding grants a +2, but also causes your mount to take a -2 armor check penalty and a -1 to speed. If your mount has the Soldier role (which I have highlighted in the mounts section), both AC bonuses are reduced by one, making Light Barding of no benefit, and Heavy Barding making you trade 1 speed for 1 AC, which may not be worth it, depending on your mounts starting speed, and how much tactical value you place on movement. If not, I would highly recommend the use of at least the Heroic tier Impenetrable Barding on Light Barding for it's resist 5 all, which will come with no such penalty. Barding can not be magically enhanced, +1/+2 AC is all you get.</p><p></p><p><strong>Mount Slot Items, sorted by level:</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #33cccc">Impenetrable Barding</span>: (AV pg 123, lvl 1,11,21) </strong>Applied as Magical Barding, which means using this can still grant your mount an AC bonus. The property listed has been errated to a flat Resist 5 per tier to all damage while ridden which is still respectable. I would highly recommend all mount users spend at least the 360gp for the Heroic version, if you have no need of the other mount slot of items.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #33cccc">Mirrored Caparison</span>: (AV pg 124, lvl 2)</strong> A +1 item bonus to NADs for 520gp is decent, if slightly out-shone in effect as a passive property by the Martyr's Saddle. Unfortunately doesn't scale with level, +1 is all you get. It's At-Will power allows you to make an area attack that includes the mount as a target not include the mount, which can save it a lot of damage, but it does use up your immediate action. It can be used on friendly area attacks, for those riding Huge mounts that might be in people's way. Dependant on how much you need your immediate.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #33cccc">Horsehoes of Speed</span>: (AV pg 123, lvl 3) </strong>+1 speed to all your mount's movement speeds. Useful, and a very cheap item at higher levels where a lot of mounts have multiple modes of movement. A solid choice, although how you get horseshoes on a Dire Riding Shark is beyond me.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #800080">Saddle of Strength</span>: (AV pg 124, lvl 3) </strong>+50% carrying capacity for your mount. Only for use if you're following the encumberance rules, and even then it's largely a waste of the item slot. Pass.</p><p></p><p><strong>Ghost Bridle: (AV pg 123, lvl 4) </strong>Your mount (not you) gains resist 10 necrotic and a daily power to grant both of you phasing until the end of your next turn. Phasing has it's uses, but really dependant on how much your DM uses the Undead. A Skeletal Horse may be a better option at that point anyway.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #0000ff">Bridle of Rapid Action</span>: (AV pg 123, lvl 5) </strong>The power on this thing may as well have been a property, as there is little to no reason NOT to use it every encounter. Effectively roll twice for initiative and take the better result. There are initiative related feats that aren't that good.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #0000ff">Martyr's Saddle</span>: (AV pg 124, lvl 6) </strong>+1 item bonus to all your mount's defences. Useful, but again, doesn't scale. At-will interrupt to take 1/2 the dmg your mount would take from an attack is a good, if action-costly way to increase it's survivability, but marred by the fact that 'nothing can prevent or reduce the damage a rider takes in this way', which includes having resistance to damage. Best used only for it's passive bonus, or in a dire situation.</p><p></p><p><strong>Steadfast Saddle: (AV pg 124, lvl 8) </strong>Encounter interrupt to negate one pull, push or slide that affects your mount. Too situational for my liking, and there are other powers out there that can do the same thing better, although this will require the ability to target an ally.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #0000ff">Zephyr Horsehoes</span>: (AV pg 124, lvl 9) </strong>Your mount ignores difficult terrain and can cross liquid as if it were solid (Lava etc still causes damage). Useful enough, but there are a few mounts that can do this anyway, and many at later levels that can fly. More valuable if, for example, your campaign is limited to non-flying mounts.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #0000ff">Saddle of the Nightmare</span>: (AV pg 124, lvl 15) </strong>As worded, the only way to effectively use a mount capable of teleporting. Whenever your mount teleports, willingly or otherwise, you can go with it. Does not apply in reverse, so if you teleport or are forced to, you'll leave your mount behind. Uninteresting, but neccessary by rules. Ask your DM nicely if you can work around this one.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #800080">Saddle of the Shark</span>: (AV pg 124, lvl 15) </strong>Your mount gains a swim speed equal to it's land speed and both of you gain the ability to breathe underwater (And you can speak normally underwater to boot). Extremely campaign dependant and there are other ways to gain water-breathing. A naturally waterborne mount may be a better option.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #0000ff">Bridle of Flame</span>: (AV2 pg 110, lvl 16) </strong>Whenever you spend a healing surge to regain HP, your mount also regains HP as if it had spent one. Considering that mounts, as creatures, lack a decent numer of healing surges, this item is the only way to heal them that doesn't involve surge-less healing or regeneration. Unfortunate, but true. The daily power on this item grants the mount resist 20 fire, which is useful, and a 2d6 fire dmg aura (Do note that this aura targets creatures and is therefore party unfriendly). As a nice side effect, this item is part of the 'Arms of Unbreakable Honor' set, which includes the divine weapliment 'Bradaman's Weapon'. Using these two (or the Unbroken Lance mentioned further down) grants the 2pc bonus, a bonus to speed while charging equal to the number of items from this set you possess, <em>whether you are on the mount or not</em>. A good choice for a Defender's mount.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #33cccc">Skystrider Horsehoes</span>: (AV pg 124, lvl 18) </strong>Remember why you bought your character the Zephyr Boots or Airstriders? Exactly the same deal, the mount gains a flight speed (but not hover) equal to it's land speed, several levels below the aforementioned two items. A good choice, but don't forget that many mounts can already fly at this level.</p><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p><strong>Items that affect your mount or mounted combat</strong></p><p>[sblock]While technically, any item that effects or relies on adjacent allies can include your mount, the sheer plethora of items this involves precludes them being listed here. Instead I'm focusing on items that directly relate to mounted combat.<span style="color: #0000ff"></span></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"></span></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"></span><strong>Dragonrider Armor: (Dragon 365, lvl 11,16,21,26)</strong> Gain the resistance of any dragon you're mounted on, and once per day negate any fall. Useful, but very situational, and the scale-only restriction limits it fairly heavily.</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #00ccff">Lancing Gloves</span>: (AV pg 136, lvl 7)</strong> +2 damage to melee attacks while mounted that stacks with everything due to it's wording. An excellent choice, especially when picked up cheap at higher levels.</p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"></span></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"></span><strong><span style="color: #0000ff">Riding Boots</span>: (AV 2 pg 58, lvl 4) </strong>+1 item bonus to speed that stacks with Horseshoes of Speed. Cheap low level item, so not a bad choice if you don't have a decent need of your boots slot, or don't mind changing boots every time you dismount.</p><p></p><p><strong>Unbroken Lance: (AV 2 pg 111, Spear, lvl 12,17,22,27) </strong>The property for this one makes you knock any enemy you hit with a charge attack while mounted prone, and the daily (shift 3, then charge) could have tactical uses. Useful, but if you're optimising for charging, you probably have a better weapon in mind. It is also part of the 'Arms of Unbroken Honor' set, for that speed bonus to charges.</p><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p><strong>Rituals relating to Mounts</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><strong>Familiar Mount: (Dragon 382)</strong> Please see the character based support section for this.</p><p></p><p><strong>Fortify Beast: (Martial Power 2, Martial Practice)</strong> Give 6 natural beast mounts THP equal to your surge value that last until your next extended rest for the cost of one surge. A good way to up your mounts durability, especially if you're only using them for a few encounters, but a campaign with a lot of mounted combat should still look at other ways to heal mounts.</p><p></p><p><strong>Steed Summons: (EPG) </strong>Spend one hour with your mount, and at any time in the future, you can summon it once as a minor action. If used, you'll have to re-do the ritual, and only applies to one mount at a time. More fluffy than anything else, but I'm sure you'd find a nicely thematic and cinematic moment to use it. A good way to summon a back up mount if your main one dies.</p><p></p><p><strong>Handle Steed: (Martial Power 2, Martial Practice)</strong> Temporary use of a non-hostile mount, and treated as 3 levels higher for the purposes of gaining Mounted Combat mount action powers/bonuses. Again, more fluffy than anything else, but could be useful to get a specific mount bonus earlier for a build.</p><p>[/sblock]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nibelung, post: 6709594, member: 74499"] [b]Originally posted by RuinsFate:[/b] [COLOR=#800000][b][CENTER][SIZE=5][/SIZE][/CENTER] [/b][b]Mount Items[/b][/COLOR] -My apologies if the text colours are off in this post. It's an error in the code inserted by the forums. It doesn't show up in Firefox but does in IE, and possibly other browsers as well. Unfortunately, it is beyond my html-capabilties to fix it. Mount Items fall into two categories: Mount Slot Items, and Barding. NB: The CB's implementation of mounts and their items is poor at best, so you will need to do a little bit more good-old-fashioned penmanship on your character sheet with them. There are also several pieces of gear for your character that have effects on your mount. [b]Barding: (pg 14, Adventurer's Vault) [/b]As listed above in the rules section, barding still uses up your mount's one magic item slot. Barding comes in two varieties, Light and Heavy. Light Barding grants an uptyped +1 AC to your mount and Heavy Barding grants a +2, but also causes your mount to take a -2 armor check penalty and a -1 to speed. If your mount has the Soldier role (which I have highlighted in the mounts section), both AC bonuses are reduced by one, making Light Barding of no benefit, and Heavy Barding making you trade 1 speed for 1 AC, which may not be worth it, depending on your mounts starting speed, and how much tactical value you place on movement. If not, I would highly recommend the use of at least the Heroic tier Impenetrable Barding on Light Barding for it's resist 5 all, which will come with no such penalty. Barding can not be magically enhanced, +1/+2 AC is all you get. [b]Mount Slot Items, sorted by level:[/b] [sblock] [b][COLOR=#33cccc]Impenetrable Barding[/COLOR]: (AV pg 123, lvl 1,11,21) [/b]Applied as Magical Barding, which means using this can still grant your mount an AC bonus. The property listed has been errated to a flat Resist 5 per tier to all damage while ridden which is still respectable. I would highly recommend all mount users spend at least the 360gp for the Heroic version, if you have no need of the other mount slot of items. [b][COLOR=#33cccc]Mirrored Caparison[/COLOR]: (AV pg 124, lvl 2)[/b] A +1 item bonus to NADs for 520gp is decent, if slightly out-shone in effect as a passive property by the Martyr's Saddle. Unfortunately doesn't scale with level, +1 is all you get. It's At-Will power allows you to make an area attack that includes the mount as a target not include the mount, which can save it a lot of damage, but it does use up your immediate action. It can be used on friendly area attacks, for those riding Huge mounts that might be in people's way. Dependant on how much you need your immediate. [b][COLOR=#33cccc]Horsehoes of Speed[/COLOR]: (AV pg 123, lvl 3) [/b]+1 speed to all your mount's movement speeds. Useful, and a very cheap item at higher levels where a lot of mounts have multiple modes of movement. A solid choice, although how you get horseshoes on a Dire Riding Shark is beyond me. [b][COLOR=#800080]Saddle of Strength[/COLOR]: (AV pg 124, lvl 3) [/b]+50% carrying capacity for your mount. Only for use if you're following the encumberance rules, and even then it's largely a waste of the item slot. Pass. [b]Ghost Bridle: (AV pg 123, lvl 4) [/b]Your mount (not you) gains resist 10 necrotic and a daily power to grant both of you phasing until the end of your next turn. Phasing has it's uses, but really dependant on how much your DM uses the Undead. A Skeletal Horse may be a better option at that point anyway. [b][COLOR=#0000ff]Bridle of Rapid Action[/COLOR]: (AV pg 123, lvl 5) [/b]The power on this thing may as well have been a property, as there is little to no reason NOT to use it every encounter. Effectively roll twice for initiative and take the better result. There are initiative related feats that aren't that good. [b][COLOR=#0000ff]Martyr's Saddle[/COLOR]: (AV pg 124, lvl 6) [/b]+1 item bonus to all your mount's defences. Useful, but again, doesn't scale. At-will interrupt to take 1/2 the dmg your mount would take from an attack is a good, if action-costly way to increase it's survivability, but marred by the fact that 'nothing can prevent or reduce the damage a rider takes in this way', which includes having resistance to damage. Best used only for it's passive bonus, or in a dire situation. [b]Steadfast Saddle: (AV pg 124, lvl 8) [/b]Encounter interrupt to negate one pull, push or slide that affects your mount. Too situational for my liking, and there are other powers out there that can do the same thing better, although this will require the ability to target an ally. [b][COLOR=#0000ff]Zephyr Horsehoes[/COLOR]: (AV pg 124, lvl 9) [/b]Your mount ignores difficult terrain and can cross liquid as if it were solid (Lava etc still causes damage). Useful enough, but there are a few mounts that can do this anyway, and many at later levels that can fly. More valuable if, for example, your campaign is limited to non-flying mounts. [b][COLOR=#0000ff]Saddle of the Nightmare[/COLOR]: (AV pg 124, lvl 15) [/b]As worded, the only way to effectively use a mount capable of teleporting. Whenever your mount teleports, willingly or otherwise, you can go with it. Does not apply in reverse, so if you teleport or are forced to, you'll leave your mount behind. Uninteresting, but neccessary by rules. Ask your DM nicely if you can work around this one. [b][COLOR=#800080]Saddle of the Shark[/COLOR]: (AV pg 124, lvl 15) [/b]Your mount gains a swim speed equal to it's land speed and both of you gain the ability to breathe underwater (And you can speak normally underwater to boot). Extremely campaign dependant and there are other ways to gain water-breathing. A naturally waterborne mount may be a better option. [b][COLOR=#0000ff]Bridle of Flame[/COLOR]: (AV2 pg 110, lvl 16) [/b]Whenever you spend a healing surge to regain HP, your mount also regains HP as if it had spent one. Considering that mounts, as creatures, lack a decent numer of healing surges, this item is the only way to heal them that doesn't involve surge-less healing or regeneration. Unfortunate, but true. The daily power on this item grants the mount resist 20 fire, which is useful, and a 2d6 fire dmg aura (Do note that this aura targets creatures and is therefore party unfriendly). As a nice side effect, this item is part of the 'Arms of Unbreakable Honor' set, which includes the divine weapliment 'Bradaman's Weapon'. Using these two (or the Unbroken Lance mentioned further down) grants the 2pc bonus, a bonus to speed while charging equal to the number of items from this set you possess, [i]whether you are on the mount or not[/i]. A good choice for a Defender's mount. [b][COLOR=#33cccc]Skystrider Horsehoes[/COLOR]: (AV pg 124, lvl 18) [/b]Remember why you bought your character the Zephyr Boots or Airstriders? Exactly the same deal, the mount gains a flight speed (but not hover) equal to it's land speed, several levels below the aforementioned two items. A good choice, but don't forget that many mounts can already fly at this level. [/sblock] [b]Items that affect your mount or mounted combat[/b] [sblock]While technically, any item that effects or relies on adjacent allies can include your mount, the sheer plethora of items this involves precludes them being listed here. Instead I'm focusing on items that directly relate to mounted combat.[COLOR=#0000ff] [/COLOR][b]Dragonrider Armor: (Dragon 365, lvl 11,16,21,26)[/b] Gain the resistance of any dragon you're mounted on, and once per day negate any fall. Useful, but very situational, and the scale-only restriction limits it fairly heavily. [b][COLOR=#00ccff]Lancing Gloves[/COLOR]: (AV pg 136, lvl 7)[/b] +2 damage to melee attacks while mounted that stacks with everything due to it's wording. An excellent choice, especially when picked up cheap at higher levels. [COLOR=#0000ff] [/COLOR][b][COLOR=#0000ff]Riding Boots[/COLOR]: (AV 2 pg 58, lvl 4) [/b]+1 item bonus to speed that stacks with Horseshoes of Speed. Cheap low level item, so not a bad choice if you don't have a decent need of your boots slot, or don't mind changing boots every time you dismount. [b]Unbroken Lance: (AV 2 pg 111, Spear, lvl 12,17,22,27) [/b]The property for this one makes you knock any enemy you hit with a charge attack while mounted prone, and the daily (shift 3, then charge) could have tactical uses. Useful, but if you're optimising for charging, you probably have a better weapon in mind. It is also part of the 'Arms of Unbroken Honor' set, for that speed bonus to charges. [/sblock] [b]Rituals relating to Mounts[/b] [sblock] [b]Familiar Mount: (Dragon 382)[/b] Please see the character based support section for this. [b]Fortify Beast: (Martial Power 2, Martial Practice)[/b] Give 6 natural beast mounts THP equal to your surge value that last until your next extended rest for the cost of one surge. A good way to up your mounts durability, especially if you're only using them for a few encounters, but a campaign with a lot of mounted combat should still look at other ways to heal mounts. [b]Steed Summons: (EPG) [/b]Spend one hour with your mount, and at any time in the future, you can summon it once as a minor action. If used, you'll have to re-do the ritual, and only applies to one mount at a time. More fluffy than anything else, but I'm sure you'd find a nicely thematic and cinematic moment to use it. A good way to summon a back up mount if your main one dies. [b]Handle Steed: (Martial Power 2, Martial Practice)[/b] Temporary use of a non-hostile mount, and treated as 3 levels higher for the purposes of gaining Mounted Combat mount action powers/bonuses. Again, more fluffy than anything else, but could be useful to get a specific mount bonus earlier for a build. [/sblock] [/QUOTE]
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