'High level' horses?

[Gerion of Mercadia]

ok - what if you created a "template" that could be placed on any creature that could be ridden?

you could use the warbeast template as a baseline?

Oh... that reminds me of this one adventure where a Dwarven slayer friend of mine captured himself a Mastodon... trained it as a warbeast. His clerical friend gave it a set of "bracers" that allowed it to air walk. Once trained it was quite sinister. I designed a Platform for us to fight from... "Wooly Bully" or "Hannibal" 's back. Quite nasty for dealing with giants...

Have you ever seen an "Elephant" fly?

p.s. Between Me and you ... only a couple of Dwarves would dare.

 

[TarionzCousin]

How about "Dire Horses"?

http://www.enworld.org/showpost.php?p=3386488&postcount=34

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

RW,
Going with Core I would favor a combination of:

- Advance HD to 5HD and 6HD due to training {per Upper Crust's recommendation}
- 'WarBeast' Template {Special breeding, provides the Mettle special ability and an additional 2HD}
- A new feat in the Mounted Combat chain that allows the rider (as a reaction) to make a Ride check in place of thier mounts REF save.
- Magical Horse gear


With these changes a 'normal' horse would have much more survivability on the battlefield. You would still have the normal 3HD and 4HD variety running around, but combat troops would tend to have 5HD or 6HD versions..elite troops would add on the WarBeast..

 

[kingpaul]

Have you looked at RPG Object's Legends of Excalibur? They have a mechanic in there to create good and bad quality horses.

 

[Li Shenron]

Two options that are a little weird but fun and core are:

1. Hire a druid who can wildshape and use natural spell.

2. Hire awakened heavy warhorses with barbarian or monk levels.

Personally I think this is a much worse more problematic options than using even dire/legendary horses.

These two are not horses. They are NPCs with the shape of a horse. It makes it much harder to "maintain believability" since you have to explain why these powerful creatures decide to be mounted by the heroes and act more like slaves than companions.

If you don't want the characters to "pay" with a feat (a minor extension to Leadership would suffice), they could work for hire, so in that case pricing will have to be designed based on time of service, and it would be different from a one-time cost.

Also with these you're still asking the players to retire their previous mounts (unless it's these who get awakened).

I don't think it's a terrible idea, but I am puzzled because it goes into a completely different direction to what you said at the beginning of the thread... :/

 

[Gerion of Mercadia]

- Quote -

RW,
Going with Core I would favor a combination of:

- Advance HD to 5HD and 6HD due to training {per Upper Crust's recommendation}
- 'WarBeast' Template {Special breeding, provides the Mettle special ability and an additional 2HD}
- A new feat in the Mounted Combat chain that allows the rider (as a reaction) to make a Ride check in place of thier mounts REF save.
- Magical Horse gear

- Quote -

If you are limiting yourself to size "large" mounts, you might have a bit of a problem. At Mid-Level - they are just fine. Advancing animals by any means short of the "Awakening" suggested previously can only go so far.

When you get into High level combat; you need something with some more punch behind it. You don't need a "Humvee" - you need an Abrams Tank. Rocs and Elephants make the best Monster Manual creatures that I have seen to adapt to High level combat.