Paladin Mounts in Armor (among other things)

[shilsen]

I cannot place the source, but a recent Complete X book had a feat that allowed a turn during a charge, prerequisite Run. That is a natural for warhorse mounts, especially under 3.5 facing where finding a clear charge route may be difficult.

Fleet of Foot, from Complete Warrior.

 

[Seig Warheit]

A good idea for mount feats would be the various Saving Throw boosters. Improved Toughness if you can get away with it.

No way. Shared Saves, remember? I'm not sure what level you get it though... I had a Pegasus that I got at level 7 and I had him up until the DM got tired of running at level 34.

Boost Spell Resistance, if the mount has Spell Resistance.

My Pegasus ended up having a 35 Spell Resistance when I reached level 30... That was higher than anyone in the group, and we had 2 paragons in our group. I don't think Spell Resistance is necessary.


Get the weapon focus hoof for sure, and be sure to get the mounted combat feats, especially Spirited Charge. Improving Speed would be good, too. My party had to wait for me alot, because my Pegasus at flying speed, was actually slower than them...

 

[The Souljourner]

Fleet of Foot would be awesome, but it requires 15 dex, and horses all have 13. Feh.

-The Souljourner

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

For celestial or half-celestial mounts, Extra Smiting and Improved Smiting might be worthwhile. DR dramatically reduces a mount's effectiveness and the ability to get multiple aligned attacks could be very significant.

Also, flyby attack could be quite useful for flying mounts.

Speaking of flying mounts has anyone noticed how nasty a griffon mounted paladin with spirited charge could be on a dive using Skip's FAQ interpretation of dive (any slashing or piercing weapon gets double damage as well as claws)? The mount pounces, gaining double damage on both claws and both rakes as well as a normal damage bite. And the paladin makes an attack at either x3 or possibly even x4 damage (lance+spirited charge+dive). If that's a celestial griffon with a couple of extra smiting feats, the griffon could smite on both claws and the rakes for a very impressive damage total.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

No way. Shared Saves, remember? I'm not sure what level you get it though... I had a Pegasus that I got at level 7 and I had him up until the DM got tired of running at level 34.

Read the ability again. The mount gets to use the paladin's base save, but uses its own ability modifiers and does not gain any other bonuses to saves the paladin might have. So no Divine Grace for the mount. That means, more likely than not, your mount is going to have a very bad Reflex and Will save. Shared Saves is nearly a non-ability, since animals get a good Fort save, and paladins get a bad Reflex and Will save. It only really comes into play if you have, say, a Paladin5/Sorcerer15, in which case the mount would have a great Will save, thanks to its master's very un-paladin-like base save.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Read the ability again. The mount gets to use the paladin's base save, but uses its own ability modifiers and does not gain any other bonuses to saves the paladin might have. So no Divine Grace for the mount. That means, more likely than not, your mount is going to have a very bad Reflex and Will save. Shared Saves is nearly a non-ability, since animals get a good Fort save, and paladins get a bad Reflex and Will save. It only really comes into play if you have, say, a Paladin5/Sorcerer15, in which case the mount would have a great Will save, thanks to its master's very un-paladin-like base save.

Yeah. Animals actually get good Fort and Reflex saves. Share saves might give a net +1 boost here or there , but the advantage will be very, very small unless the Paladin multiclasses.

 

[Misirlou]

I never even thought about this. Does a wizard's familiar get feats (can I give my raven fly-by attack to deliver touch spells, for example)?

 

[Lord Pendragon]

I never even thought about this. Does a wizard's familiar get feats (can I give my raven fly-by attack to deliver touch spells, for example)?

No. Your familiar doesn't actually gain HD or HD benefits. It is merely treated as having 1/2 master's level HD for the purposes of determining spell effects.

 

[FireLance]

Fleet of Foot would be awesome, but it requires 15 dex, and horses all have 13. Feh.

-The Souljourner

There are a couple of ways around this:

1. Special mounts also get an ability score increase when they hit 4 HD, 8 HD, 12 HD and so on. Put all your ability score increases in Dexterity, and your mount can take Fleet of Foot when you're a 15th level paladin if you have a heavy warhorse (4 HD +8 HD, with its feat for being a 12 HD creature), or when you're a 11th level paladin if you have a light warhorse (3 HD +6 HD, with its feat for being a 9 HD creature). Riding dogs already have Dex 15 and can take Fleet of Foot when you're a 5th level paladin (2HD +2 HD, with its feat for being a 3 HD creature).

2. Invest in a non-standard magic item for your mount (+2 Horseshoes of Dexterity, maybe).

 

[FireLance]

No. Your familiar doesn't actually gain HD or HD benefits. It is merely treated as having 1/2 master's level HD for the purposes of determining spell effects.

Actually, a familiar's HD is considered equal to its master's character level. It's the hit points that are half that of the master. But yes, it doesn't gain extra feats, unlike an animal companion or special mount.