D&D 5E New Feat for Paladin Mount. Thoughts?

[Amatiel]

Pally in my campaign is about to want his pally mount. As the find steed spell only gives an official mount of about CR 1/2., I've home-brewed the following feat to allow for more options. Thoughts ?

Divine Mount
Allows paladins to acquire a more powerful mount.
Prerequisites: Ability to cast the find steed spell.
• You can choose to call a divine mount from a variety of magical creatures. You can call to serve a mount via the find steed spell any beast or monstrosity of a CR equal to one-third your character level (rounded down).
• Your mount has abilities and game statistics determined in part by your level. Your mount uses your proficiency bonus rather than its own. In addition to the areas where it normally uses its proficiency bonus, it also adds its proficiency bonus to its AC and to its damage rolls. It also becomes proficient with all saving throws.
For each level you gain after 3rd, your mount gains an additional hit die and increases its hit points accordingly.
Whenever you gain the Ability Score Improvement class feature, your mount ‘s abilities also improve. Your mount has a personality trait and a flaw.
• Your mount assumes the traits of a celestial (good), fey (chaotic), or fiend (evil) depending on the paladin’s alignment.
Celestial Traits.
• Darkvision 60 feet.
• Damage Resistance acid, cold, electricity
• Condition Immunities charmed, frightened
• Advantage on saving throws against spells and magical effects.
Fey Traits.
• Darkvision 60 feet.
• Damage Resistance cold
• Condition Immunities charmed
• Advantage on saving throws against spells and magical effects.
• Proficiency in Stealth. The proficiency bonus is doubled for this skill.
• Can cast misty step at will.
Fiend Traits.
• Darkvision 60 feet.
• Damage Resistance fire, poison
• Condition Immunities poisoned
• Advantage on saving throws against spells and magical effects.

 

[Dualazi]

Not going to go into in-depth analysis, but off the bat, this seems wildly overpowered. You basically have a moon druid's wildshape progression tied to a ranger-pet analogue, and then it receives huge buffs after that. Assuming I'm reading this correctly, it gets an additional hit die every level past third, seemingly without any conditional on what the creature is. So at 20th level, you can have a CR6 creature with +17dX hit dice, a +6 prof bonus, extra resistances, and all saving throw profs. For one feat? No.

If your pally wants a reliable mount, roll the effects of the mounted combat into your new one, tone down the scaling, and ax the CR. IIRC Mounted Combat already allows the paladin to become the target of attacks in his mount's place, all it really needs beyond that is a way to not get hosed by AoE and possibly an easy magical revive.

I'd also discuss what your player actually wants out of the deal. If he's looking for a combat minion that's a much different can of worms than a mount you ride into battle.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I wouldn't go with a feat. Just change the find steed spell so that it can be up-leveled. If cast at 2nd level, it functions as written. It can do CR 1 mounts as a 3rd-level spell, CR 2 as 4th-level, CR 3 as 5th-level. (Or maybe the CRs should be 2, 3, and 4; I haven't done the math yet.) You can choose a flying mount for one CR lower than max available, so for example you could get a griffon (which is CR 2, if I remember correctly) at the level you could normally get a CR 3 mount.

 

[UnknownDyson]

Why does the celestial mount have demonic resistances?

 

[Sacrosanct]

I wouldn't go with a feat. Just change the find steed spell so that it can be up-leveled. If cast at 2nd level, it functions as written. It can do CR 1 mounts as a 3rd-level spell, CR 2 as 4th-level, CR 3 as 5th-level. (Or maybe the CRs should be 2, 3, and 4; I haven't done the math yet.) You can choose a flying mount for one CR lower than max available, so for example you could get a griffon (which is CR 2, if I remember correctly) at the level you could normally get a CR 3 mount.

Yeah, I think this is a better way to handle it. The thing about feats, is that you have to try to make sure they are balanced with all other feats. I know there was an article, (not sure if it's in the DMG as well), with guidance on how to create feats.

Remember, feats are also supposed to be the equivalent of a +2 ASI. So if your homebrew feat is much better than that, then you will want to tone it down.

 

[Vulf]

Use Jolydee's Beasts of Battle on the DM's guild.

You can use this for all the party's horses or non class-feature companions.
The options range from simply 1 more hit die when the party levels up, to ASI and proficiency bonus.



The Paladin's Warhorse can be pretty decent but it is a large creature and not likely to fit in most dungeons and castles. You always have the option of letting it summon other animal forms at later levels, Jolydee's has some.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Now that I think about it, from what the OP describes is pretty much the revised BM ranger. My advice would be if you want this as a paladin feature, you'd probably be best with a whole new paladin subclass, where some of the class abilities would be removed and replaced with this new one. I.e., you would pretty much have spells and then this enhanced mount feature and that's it.

 

[Amatiel]

Find Steed
Conjuration
Level: 2
Casting time: 10 Minutes
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous
________________________________________
You summon a spirit that assumes the form of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed, creating a long-lasting bond with it. Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, a beast of up to CR ½ takes on a form that you choose, such as a warhorse, a pony, a camel, an elk, or a mastiff. (Your DM might allow other animals to be summoned as steeds.) The steed has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) instead of its normal type. Additionally, if your steed has an Intelligence of 5 or less, its Intelligence becomes 6, and it gains the ability to understand one language of your choice that you speak.

The steed appears with basic tack, such as an appropriate saddle and bridle. You can outfit your steed with any amount of equipment up to its unencumbered encumbrance. This equipment will appear with the steed when summoned.

Your steed serves you as a mount, both in combat and out, and you have an instinctive bond with it that allows you to fight as a seamless unit. While mounted on your steed, you can make any spell you cast that targets only you also target your steed.

When the steed drops to 0 hit points, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. You can also dismiss your steed at any time as an action, causing it to disappear. In either case, casting this spell again summons the same steed, restored to its hit point maximum.

While your steed is within 1 mile of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. You can’t have more than one steed bonded by this spell at a time. As an action, you can release the steed from its bond at any time, causing it to disappear.

At Higher levels. When you cast this spell using a 3rd level spell slot, you may summon a beast of up to CR 1. For every higher spell slot, the CR of the beast you may summon increases by 1.





Divine Mount
Allows paladins to acquire a more powerful mount.
Prerequisites: Ability to acquire a paladin mount, and an associated alignment of the mount to be bonded.
• You can call either a beast or a monstrosity to serve as a mount via the find steed spell.
• Your mount is a superior specimen of its breed. It gains an additional +2 hit points per Hit Dice.
• The planar nature of the steed gives it advantage on saving throws against spells and magical effects.

 

[Blue]

I wouldn't go with a feat. Just change the find steed spell so that it can be up-leveled. If cast at 2nd level, it functions as written. It can do CR 1 mounts as a 3rd-level spell, CR 2 as 4th-level, CR 3 as 5th-level. (Or maybe the CRs should be 2, 3, and 4; I haven't done the math yet.) You can choose a flying mount for one CR lower than max available, so for example you could get a griffon (which is CR 2, if I remember correctly) at the level you could normally get a CR 3 mount.

I really like this solution.

But maybe I shouldn't. This makes the strength of the mount only advance with caster levels, but that means that:

1. Other classes besides paladin will get you a better mount quicker. (Full caster progression ones.)

2. If you don't advance paladin or a caster class, yur mount doesn't advance - is this a "not taking the class don't advance the feature" or is this more liek a cantrip that a mount that can survive a few AoE is part of the basic kit of the class?

 

[Shiroiken]

I really like this solution.

But maybe I shouldn't. This makes the strength of the mount only advance with caster levels, but that means that:

1. Other classes besides paladin will get you a better mount quicker. (Full caster progression ones.)

2. If you don't advance paladin or a caster class, yur mount doesn't advance - is this a "not taking the class don't advance the feature" or is this more liek a cantrip that a mount that can survive a few AoE is part of the basic kit of the class?

I up-leveled the spell, but based it on character level, rather than on spell level. I don't think anyone else has access to Find Steed anyway, but I didn't want the paladin to have to keep spending higher level slots to summon the mount (he often sends it home when they don't need it).