Paladin's Mount Advancement

[Bobbystopholes]

Okay, regular Heavy War Horse and a 9th level Paladin. The horse becomes a magical creature, does this make its Hit Die go up to a d10 as the MM says a Magical Beast should have?

Also, because it is a magical beast now, does it get the feats and skills for gaining hit dice?

I don't see why it wouldn't get the feats and skills (its intelligence is as good as the barbarian's in the party!), as they are very exceptional creatures. I'm not sure about the HD though. That one seems harder. Maybe it's new HD are d10s.

Anyone know of a reference point in a WotC book?

 

[CRGreathouse]

No; no; yes: the PH. Read the description: the extra HD are d8s. The rest is arguably ambiguous, but changing type doesn't neccisarily change the rest (c.f. templates). The Sage said no feats or skills.

 

[Bobbystopholes]

Hrm, that erks me. I almost never agree with the sage. It's not my character, so I'm not losing out, but the thing gets very smart and advances just like any other magical beast. Not a good ruling in my opinion.

Has Monte said anything about this? Is it in official errata yet?

 

[Artoomis]

Multiple correct answers

There are three ways to play this, and all are correct by the rules as written (because the rules were not written precisely enough to prevent that).

Method 1: The mounts get d8 hit die (specifically mentioned in the PHB), which gives them BAB and Saving throw advancement as animals, plus they get whatever else they get from the table. I think this is what the Sage says to do. I don't like this as it does not seem to follow the rules as well as either method 2 or 3.

Method 2: As method 1, except they get BAB and Save advancement as a Magical Beast (which is what they are).

Method 3: In addition to method 2, they advance in skills and feats as a Magical Beast. I like this method the best - it seems really very, very wrong for a creature with the intelligence that a mount gets to have no skill improvements and no feats at all.

There are some comments about this in my Guide - click on the link below.