A Paladin's Mounted Prestige Class

[The Souljourner]

Prerequistes seem rather light. This class is pretty strong. I'd add in Animal Handling 5 ranks and also make that a class skill.

Adding handle animal as a prereq is probably fine, however beware. The paladin only gets 2 skill points per level, and you've used all but 1 of his skill points now, if you want to take this as early as possible (8th level).

Keep in mind, he has to have 5 levels of paladin and 3 feats plus 19 ranks in 3 different skills. (Ride by Attack requires Mounted Combat, making it 3 feats to get in)

So if you're a straight paladin, you spend all but 1 skill point and all your feats towards this class then you can take it at level 8.

Flexible charge 4 times in a charge seem to much. I'd max it out at twice. It's hard to turn and keep momentum up.

It's a 10th level ability. You have to be at *least* 18th level to get that. I don't think it's unreasonable.

Full mounted attack is very powerful. You might limit that to just 2 or 3 attacks. Imagine what a 2WF could do.

This was actually taken from the Cavalier class in Sword and Fist, it also appears (in updated form) in the Kishi Charger PrC in Oriental Adventures. If it's good enough for WoTC, it's good enough for me (well, sometimes). Two weapon fighting requires a further two feats and doesn't actually help that much compared to a lance.

Divine Wrath I'd allow to be shared with the Mount.

Good idea. In fact, maybe we need to focus more on making the mount effective? Artoomis, how useful *is* your mount when you're fighting stuff as an 11th level character? My guess would be that he's not too useful, since invariably animals don't keep up with their masters' power level.

-The Souljourner

 

[Crothian]

Good point about the skills and feats. One would really have to be devoted along a straight path to get here as fast as they want to. Maybe reduce Handle Animal to 3 ranks. Still keeps it tight, but I thingk it really fits this class.

Flexible Charge: I'm not saying that it's to strong for a ability of that high. It actually might be too weak. How often are you going to turn 4 times to get a charge off? I'd limit it too 2 and then add something else.

Good point about the full mounted attack. i didn't realize that. The only mounted combat guy I've seen was a Halfling Outrider. So, it should be okay as is.

I really did expect to see more abilities that focused or helped out the mount. Perhaps you should give them Trample at some point in this.

 

[Artoomis]

Flexible Charge was intended primarily for changing directions AFTER the strike, I'll re-word it. (Ride-By Attack lets you keep going)

No animal handling is required both because plenty is already required in terms of skills and feats and because animal handling doesn't make any sense for a special mount - they are intelligent magical beasts.

Nothing for the mount because the mount keeps gaining things from the base class. I think I will expand Divine Wrath to include the mount - good idea. Though if the mount is attacking, more than likely something has gone terribly wrong.

Edit: Change Flexible Charge. You might be surprised at how handy it would be to be able to charge, attack, and then be able to keep move in another direction. But I didn't want to make it too easy to do this in a dungeon corridor.

 

[Crothian]

Flexible Charge was intended primarily for changing directions AFTER the strike, I'll re-word it. (Ride-By Attack lets you keep going)

No animal handling is required both because plenty is already required in terms of skills and feats and because animal handling doesn't make any sense for a special mount - they are intelligent magical beasts.

Nothing for the mount because the mount keeps gaining things from the base class. I think I will expand Divine Wrath to include the mount - good idea. Though if the mount is attacking, more than likely something has gone terribly wrong.

Edit: Change Flexible Charge. You might be surprised at how handy it would be to be able to charge, attack, and then be able to keep move in another direction. But I didn't want to make it too easy to do this in a dungeon corridor.

I wasn't thinking at all about after the charge. That makes sense.

So, without a special mount will the Paladin lose the use of all these special abilities until he gets another one? You might want to add that if its true.

 

[Artoomis]

I wasn't thinking at all about after the charge. That makes sense.

So, without a special mount will the Paladin lose the use of all these special abilities until he gets another one? You might want to add that if its true.

It's true. And it's already in there.

Abilities: With the exception of Divine Blessing, all the Rider's abilities apply only when mounted on his special mount, as they rely upon the bond between him and his mount.

 

[Crothian]

It was nicely hidden in the middle of the page.

 

[Artoomis]

Any other comments?

Among other things - if you were running a paladin, would you take this class?