[3.5] Paladin's Outer Plane Bank

[ForceUser]

So what do you guys think of the new Paladin Mount being called in ?

My entire group remembered the Ultima Online Insta Bank Chest immediately. One even said he would call his mount "Bank" like in the game. I guess most people thought about the convenience of using the Paladins mount as an outer planar Bank safe.

Got too much treasure to haul off ? Load the poor Paladin's Mount till he cant walk anymore and then send him back to whatever plane he stays in !!! Recall him only when your in that expensive magic shop in the big city. Safe money.

Imprisoned ? No Problem... just recall the Mount with all your extra equipment in. Rogues certainly should stash (stealthy of course) an extra set of lockpicks in the Mounts saddlebags !

Anyone else have silly ideas on how to use the Paladin's dissapearing Companion ?

I'm not to worried about my players trying to "exploit" the mount. If that's where you want to leave your extra stuff, fine. Load it up too much and it might be difficult to summon your mount, hop on and fight when you need to (Help me get this stuff off him, guys, so I can ride to battle...). For the record, teleport and similar high-level modes of transportation really hurt mounts in general (not just paladins) in 3.0. Why keep a 1,500 lb. horse around when your party can zip all over the world much more easily without one? Basic canonical game assumptions completely invalidated one of the paladin's coolest class features.

So from that point of view, I think the new paladin's mount was a needed fix for standard D&D. If you don't allow magical modes of transportation in your campaign then there's no point in using the summonable mounts, for sure. When you have to ride to get anywhere, mounts, mounted combat feats, and the Ride skill suddenly become very, very cool to have.

/tangent off

 

[Rashak Mani]

I agree on the Teleport vs Mount thing.

High level campaigns will probably "like" the Planar Paladin Mount while low power and lower level campaigns will have a problem with this.

In long trips the Paladin will probably have a Light Horse just to get around. This means that if the group is ambushed or attacked in the middle of riding, you might see the pathetic 2 round spectacle of the Paladin dismounting the light horse, summoning his mount, mounting it and only then going into combat.

We will probably give the paladin the choice of how he wants his mount to operate. It certainly is very practical in the "never" die aspect. Its a major hassle when Paladin mounts die... which in our campaign seems to be with a certain regularity.

As for the Mount not accepting being a loot vault... its not that easy for the DM to control. We might be talking of holy relics whose recovery is the groups mission. When it comes to escaping imprisonment its the Paladins life that is in danger. Overall its so wierd this summoning of mounts.

 

[Particle_Man]

I find it odd that the mount resides on a Celestial Plane but is not a celestial creature. If the blackguard has fiendish servants, why doesn't the paladin have a celestial mount?

 

[drothgery]

I agree on the Teleport vs Mount thing.

High level campaigns will probably "like" the Planar Paladin Mount while low power and lower level campaigns will have a problem with this.

In long trips the Paladin will probably have a Light Horse just to get around. This means that if the group is ambushed or attacked in the middle of riding, you might see the pathetic 2 round spectacle of the Paladin dismounting the light horse, summoning his mount, mounting it and only then going into combat.

The paladin can keep his special mount around for 2 hrs/level, and doesn't get it until level 5, so it's there for ten hours a day -- longer than you're normally going to spend riding. By eigth level it's certainly possible to keep the mount around for all waking hours, and by twelfth it can be around 24/7.

 

[Skaros]

Have some fun with them.

The mount is intelligent. What alignment is it? The PH doesn't indicate, which I guess defaults it to the MM alignment, but you may be inclined to boost the alignment to LG or similar.

Either way, it would be hilarious if the party loaded down the mount with gold sacks, and called it back later only to find that it donated much of the gold to the mounts of other Paladins that were in needy situations...or to celestial servants of the Paladin's god for distribution to the churches.

Skaros

 

[Rashak Mani]

Well we could start a whole new thread about the morality involved with risking the mounts life since it will come back later anyway.

I think paladins will be a bit more reckless now that mounts are "renewable" resources.

 

[Khorod]

I think a better teleport fix would be that a paladin's mount is magical to the point that it doesn't count as any weight for teleports. The wizard casts the spell, the mount brings its own juice.

And wouldn't the mount, in his celestial frolicking, shake off the stuff *it* doesn't want to carry?

 

[jester47]

I think it would be like the car analogy. Unless it was important to the quest then using the mount as a storage device would be right out as faras the mount is concerned. I think the guideline for DMs with the mount is that players should use it, not abuse it or they loose it.

However, the new mount really does make the paladin someone to be reckoned with. A handy asset to any adventuring party. It does bring to mind the idea for a new spell for just such a purpose. (looks at PH) So, yeah, Leomunds Secret Chest is a great spell! As for teleport, if the mount aint there, it aint there for the teleport.

Because the mount is renewable, I think the mount would be sort of an adrenaline junkie, pushing the paladin to feats he would not normally do. I also think it would be great to have a mount that is older than the paladin and has a history of being a paladin mount. You could have an older ex paladin remember the horse, and tell stories about when the horse was his mount. Or have a bard point out the history of the horse.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I think it would be like the car analogy. Unless it was important to the quest then using the mount as a storage device would be right out as faras the mount is concerned. I think the guideline for DMs with the mount is that players should use it, not abuse it or they loose it.

However, the new mount really does make the paladin someone to be reckoned with. A handy asset to any adventuring party. It does bring to mind the idea for a new spell for just such a purpose. (looks at PH) So, yeah, Leomunds Secret Chest is a great spell! As for teleport, if the mount aint there, it aint there for the teleport.

Because the mount is renewable, I think the mount would be sort of an adrenaline junkie, pushing the paladin to feats he would not normally do. I also think it would be great to have a mount that is older than the paladin and has a history of being a paladin mount. You could have an older ex paladin remember the horse, and tell stories about when the horse was his mount. Or have a bard point out the history of the horse.

I bet your wizards fear casting wish too. The cool history thing is fine, but generally having the mount not serve the paladin (from your previous post) or having him get the paladin killed all the time, while at the same time banning any creative use of the mount is just being nasty.

 

[Fedifensor]

Use a bag of holding, handy haversack, portable hole, or whatever (depending on your loot-storing needs) to hold the stuff, and put that containter on the mount.

Unless your evil DM considers the home of the mount an extradimensional space...heh, heh, heh.