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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 6019518" data-attributes="member: 1165">The rules for having a mount are confusing and perhaps conflicting and unbalanced.The rules for having a mount attack, or the PC attack, seem to differ from the rules for an NPC. That's fine, but it's not clear. Also, if you can't attack and have the mount attack at the same time, you're probably better off just having the mount fight beside you. No, don't ride the expensive horse you bought, just have it act like a meatshield.There's no good rules for "owning" a mount. You can theoretically own a mount more powerful than you, but you might not get all the benefits even with the Mounted Combat feat. Money is not a good way to balance mounts. They're not magic items, they're action boosters. In theory, a PC could buy dozens of war dogs, assuming there's stats for them anywhere (I haven't seen any in 4e, sadly).A mount normally only has one healing surge (1/tier, anyway). Even if the mount has more hit points than you, it can quickly be crippled. Also, this makes them poor meatshields. Companion rules might work better.Even better is (I shudder to say this, since it involves everyone's favorite drow [tradesnark]), but Guenhwyvar makes a pretty good design for a mount. Not that G is a mount herself, but a similar creature could be. She isn't an independent creature, she just has 50 hit points (she's a 21st-level ... no role, no XP, essentially a magic item, I guess) and no healing surges, but Drizzt can give her extra hit points; naturally Drizzt's hit point donation means he needs to sack his own healing surges, so in effect they use the same pool of healing surges. As a 21st-level NPC, not a companion, Drizzt has 3 surges, but each surge is worth 191 hp. For some reason, he gives 200 hp instead, probably because it's a round number that makes the math easier. (Apparently NPCs can still heal surges during short rests. If you want to kill Drizzt, wait for him to wake up and donate hp as part of his morning "rituals", then attack before he gets a short rest.)IMO, this would make a great baseline for a paladin mount. Obviously you would need to nerf their hit points for below epic mounts. Unfortunately, she still has independent attacks, including opportunity attacks, unlike a druid's animal companion (which might work even better).Another good idea is using the companion rules, which finally nixes the healing surge problem. However, companions, while probably being balanced in the sense that any two 8th-level strikers are balanced with each other and with an 8th-level controller, are adding power to a party that might not need it, and it's even worse if a companion is a henchman (or mount) beholden to an individual PC. Suppose the DM decides that everyone gets one companion of the same level - then ironically, a "cavalier" warlord might have to "buy" a horse companion, while the far less charismatic slayer gets a leader companion instead.Similar rules could work for long-term summoned monsters, at least before you get the Adjure ritual.Earlier editions of D&D supported each PC group having loads of companions, hirelings, etc, but balance issues were less discussed, and there's various issues about complexity, especially on the DM side of things. (The monsters eating the help makes sense, but what if the PCs and help are hanging out and monsters attack. Unless the monsters can pick out the PCs quickly, they're "wasting" attacks on the help. And if there's a lot of help, the DM needs some kind of mass combat system.)***ROGUES***If you're a rogue, and want combat advantage all the time, play the Essentials thief build. An enemy adjacent to any ally grants combat advantage to you, as long as you use Tactical Trick, and why wouldn't you. (Also, as long as you're adjacent to an ally, you don't provoke an opportunity attack for moving.)</blockquote>

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