How do you picture the riding dog ?

[Goblyns Hoard]

In the end though, any carnivore makes a bad mount (real life, not d&d) we are discussing what might make a good mount in real life for a large child, but carnivores have flexible back bones. Its because of this that that the rider is going to have a hard time. Normally we ride on herbivores because they have a more tube based mid section and their backbones are almost fused together, so when you ride them, they don’t give, unless the legs give out. A dogs back is flexible, and while may seem to lend itself well to dunging crawls because of this, it will only cause problems in the end.

I've never been happy with the idea of riding carnivores either. For both this reason and the point Frnak makes about the attitude of a carnivore as opposed to the herbivore.

The result - I gave up on the idea of riding dogs - in my homebrew the 'vertically challenged' adventurer relise on a trusty riding pig. Intelligent, clean, solid chest, and more varieties than you can shake a stick at. Upgrading to a war-boar for your canned halfing not only gets you a suitable mount but adds in tusks as well.

 

[Venator]

Theres a picture of a halfling(?) riding a dog on the cover of Races of the Wild.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I've never been happy with the idea of riding carnivores either. For both this reason and the point Frnak makes about the attitude of a carnivore as opposed to the herbivore.

The result - I gave up on the idea of riding dogs - in my homebrew the 'vertically challenged' adventurer relise on a trusty riding pig. Intelligent, clean, solid chest, and more varieties than you can shake a stick at. Upgrading to a war-boar for your canned halfing not only gets you a suitable mount but adds in tusks as well.

Now warpig - that's an idea I can get behind!

It reminds me of a story I really enjoyed once - the first part of "the men from P.I.G. and R.O.B.O.T." by Harry Harrison. Watch out for the boars of the Porcine Interstellar Guard!

 

[Tetsubo]

I've never been happy with the idea of riding carnivores either. For both this reason and the point Frnak makes about the attitude of a carnivore as opposed to the herbivore.

The result - I gave up on the idea of riding dogs - in my homebrew the 'vertically challenged' adventurer relise on a trusty riding pig. Intelligent, clean, solid chest, and more varieties than you can shake a stick at. Upgrading to a war-boar for your canned halfing not only gets you a suitable mount but adds in tusks as well.

In my last campaign the default Halfing mount was a llama. The males can carry up to 100 pounds. The party Halfling Sorcerer had two, one to ride and one as a pack animal. One eventually was killed and he upgraded to a Dire Goat.

 

[Drowbane]

A chihuahua.

A very large chihuahua.

I second the "dire Chihuahua"

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

Now warpig - that's an idea I can get behind!

It reminds me of a story I really enjoyed once - the first part of "the men from P.I.G. and R.O.B.O.T." by Harry Harrison. Watch out for the boars of the Porcine Interstellar Guard!

Never read it - I know my brother had a lot of Harrison books but not anymore - I think the only one I read was Stainless Steel Rat. Not my sort of thing.

As to the warpig - it's one that I've had as a standard since 2e. An intelligent, easily domesticated animal that has the body structure suitable for a mount. Doesn't have to be dirty or ugly - boars have nice hair if you groom it like a horse's. Plus breed 'em for good pointy tusks and suddenly your halfling cavalry is a real threat to the human one. Okay maybe the first rank is dead, but before you reset your lance they're under you and your mount has been eviscerated. In an old homebrew we had a serious nation of canned halflings that was taken very seriously by the human nation that lived next door precisely because of this.

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

In my last campaign the default Halfing mount was a llama. The males can carry up to 100 pounds. The party Halfling Sorcerer had two, one to ride and one as a pack animal. One eventually was killed and he upgraded to a Dire Goat.

How do they mount it?
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On second thoughts make that - how do they get onto it?

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

There's also a picture of a war-dog in the UA - http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/UnA_Gallery/79155.jpg

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

War Pig?

{gasp} Must...supress desire...to design...small PC...who sings...Black Sabbath songs...

{rolls dice} Oh no! I failed my save!

 

[Hypersmurf]

War Pig?

{gasp} Must...supress desire...to design...small PC...who sings...Black Sabbath songs...

You can even do it without breaking genre too much

-Hyp.