Paladin mounts: Tough enough?

[Thanee]

The DM is the limit. I don't think there are any reasonable suggestions beyond the willingness, size and CR given.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Endur]

Its mostly DM. Any mount listed in the DMG should be ok. Mounts outside the DMG should also be ok, although the DM will have to do some figuring to determine what the equivalent is.

 

[Corsair]

Well some seem unreasonable. For example:

Blink Dog, CR 2

In theory, this should be available to a 5th level paladin, but it seems quite a bit out of line with a normal riding dog, wouldn't you say? I suppose the more funky abilities it has, the more difficult it is for a DM to work right.

But the question is:

Rush monster, CR 3 + Kobold Paladin in dragonscale plate with a wooden shield and lance.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I play in a rather dangerous DnD game, and before I consider a paladin, I was wondering if the mounts were tough enough as they come in the PHB to survive without going through the efforts to make a supermount or something equally silly.

One of the key factors in their survival is the (often overlooked) Mounted Combat feat benefits. One attack per round against your mount you can negate by making a successful riding check against a DC set by their attack roll. That plus evasion to help against area attacks are really great at keeping the mounts survivable.

Plus I have to say (having thrown a brace of 6th level paladins at my party) that the offensive power of a paladin leaps upwards when he first gets his mount!

 

[FireLance]

The "mount with CR equal to level - 3" guideline implies that an 11th-level paladin can call a dire tiger or a tyrannosaurus as a mount. I think the guideline starts to break down at around CR 6 (paladin level 9) or so.