Cavalier article up: Mounts galore!

[Tony Vargas]

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (The Cavalier's Steed)

The article presents an alternate 4th-level power for the Cavalier paladin that summons a celestial warhorse.

That's retro, alright. Even in 1e AD&D, 4th level is when the Pally summoned his mount.

I don't have DDI, so I can't tell if it's 3.5 pokemon-style summoning (as lampooned in OotS) or AD&D style 'summoning' where it's not easy to replace a slain mount?


In our old 3.5 games, the only thing that caused more trouble than the grappling rules was the paladin's mounted combat, and /charging/.

 

[Nikosandros]

I don't have DDI, so I can't tell if it's 3.5 pokemon-style summoning (as lampooned in OotS) or AD&D style 'summoning' where it's not easy to replace a slain mount?

If the mount is reduced to 0 hp, you can summon it again after an extended rest.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Mounted combat feat doesn´t have a line saying, that the -2 penalty is negated. It once was in the mounted combat section.

mounted combat allows the use of mount powers and let the horse use your skill checks... I think essentials misses something here, namely how mount powers aretreated...

or I just missed it...

 

[Perun]

I find it funny that the only image in the article shows a hippogriff, and yet there's no mention of hippogriff steed in the text itself (celestial pegasus is the closest thing)

Regards.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

I do find it amusing that one cavalier's silver dragon is exactly as tough as the other cavalier's charger, as long as the cavaliers are the same level.

OTOH, the dragon flies.

Brad

 

[Klaus]

I do find it amusing that one cavalier's silver dragon is exactly as tough as the other cavalier's charger, as long as the cavaliers are the same level.

OTOH, the dragon flies.

Brad

And the dragon can heal itself, and has a breath weapon.

 

[WalterKovacs]

One particular trick I like about the mounted cavalier:

You are considered to take up the space of your mount, so by being mounted, your defender's aura suddenly covers a wider area

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

One particular trick I like about the mounted cavalier:

You are considered to take up the space of your mount, so by being mounted, your defender's aura suddenly covers a wider area

Yeah, that's just a regular part of the mounted combat rules. ANYONE who's mounted takes up a single unified space with their mount for most purposes, though note this is no longer true for purposes of AoEs cast by the rider, you have to pick an origin square within the space of the mount as of the rewrite for RC.

Actually the whole expanded defender aura is rather more a problem than a feature. Yes, it is great for the CHARACTER, but it is not so great for game balance. Since being mounted is an option that generally only works well in a minority of situations and most of those are going to be fairly open terrain where the enemy can outflank even an expanded defender aura it isn't critical, but it is still basically a freebie thrown to defenders who use any kind of 'adjacency' mechanics. The same issue (amongst others) is why no PC race has large size too.

 

[Aegeri]

Actually it's not too bad. You forget that with higher monster damage killing a mount outright - especially with bloodied PC level HP - is not that difficult. In addition any AoE that nicks a corner of the mounts square will hit the paladin as well. So the disadvantages are certainly there with mounts, compared to simply being the same size all the time.

 

[FireLance]

I don't have DDI, so I can't tell if it's 3.5 pokemon-style summoning (as lampooned in OotS) or AD&D style 'summoning' where it's not easy to replace a slain mount?

It's similar to the 3.5e paladin mount summoning, although as noted earlier, if the mount is slain, you only need to wait until your next extended rest to summon it again, as opposed to 30 days later (or until you next gain a paladin level).

As a side note, I've always wondered why the paladin's summoning ability gets singled out for the "pokemon" label, even though it isn't very different in essence from spells such as mount, summon monster I-IX and summon nature's ally I-IX.