"Pokemount" abuses?

[Kilroy]

It's never been a problem in my 3.5 games for the paladin to keep a lance and spare gear on his mount.

Back in my old 3.0 1-through-epic game, the full mounted feat chain paladin was usually out of luck, because 9/10 adventures, the horse had to be left behind at some point or other. I think it's kinda cool that the paladin in my current 3.5 game can use their horse when it's dramatically appropriate.

 

[Gez]

My problem with that ability is its name. Summon mount? It should summon a mount, that would thus be unable to bring anything back with it when you dismiss it. Although, on the plus side, if it's killed, it's not really killed.

Same thing with summon familiar, by the way.

 

[kolvar]

My main-problem with this ability is, that it is realy hard for to imprison a Paladin. At least when the GM does not think enough. And in my opinion, most communities will maybe think about imprisoning a wizard by binding his and and putting something into his mouth, but not disabling the fighter who is actually a paladin.

 

[shilsen]

My main-problem with this ability is, that it is realy hard for to imprison a Paladin. At least when the GM does not think enough. And in my opinion, most communities will maybe think about imprisoning a wizard by binding his and and putting something into his mouth, but not disabling the fighter who is actually a paladin.

Why does the ability make it hard to imprison a paladin? The mount can't carry the paladin off with it, so the best he can do is summon the mount to fight his captors. And if he's already been imprisoned, about all it can do is let the horse appear in his cell, which can get very uncomfortable

 

[Deadguy]

Why does the ability make it hard to imprison a paladin? The mount can't carry the paladin off with it, so the best he can do is summon the mount to fight his captors. And if he's already been imprisoned, about all it can do is let the horse appear in his cell, which can get very uncomfortable

Yeah, shove him in the bottom of a 5-foot wide, 15-foot deep oubliette, and then see how much good summoning his mount does him!

I suppose if he can avoid being trampled, he could always eat it to survive!

 

[Driddle]

So no one is "abusing" the ability because it's being used the way the game allows.

I believe what was implied (if not expressed) in the opener, however, is that the ability is pretty darn cheesy. It seems abusive on its face.

 

[wingsandsword]

Or you can just do what I did in my game, use 3.5 but go back to 3.0 for some things like the Paladin's mount. I understand that the PokeMount is a lot more useful than the prior mount, but it's also extremely video-game-like. A paladin's mount has always been a loyal companion, a sidekick, his friend on the trail and his everpresent ally.

Making him only present for a finite period of time per day, and summonable at will also quietly jacks up the magic level of the game, making the PHB paladin a lot less suitable for lower-magic games, like a quasi-historic game where spellcasters are much rarer. You might not have a problem with the relatively weak and low-level paladin spells, but being able to flash a warhorse into existence at will really spoils the feel of that setting.

This is one of those places where flavor trumps game mechanics as far as I'm concerned. I know that Game Balance is the de facto religion of 3.x, but sometimes just because a thing is balanced doesn't mean it's good for the game.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

This is one of those places where flavor trumps game mechanics as far as I'm concerned. I know that Game Balance is the de facto religion of 3.x, but sometimes just because a thing is balanced doesn't mean it's good for the game.

This is true, but the core D&D game, for which the new paladin was built, is not a low-magic game. In a core, standard-magic D&D game, the new paladin's mount fits in quite well.

My "house rule" for this is that the mount always has to burst dramatically through a window, surrounded by light, or charge out of a shadowy cavern to the deep resonations of its hooves, or somehow arrive in a worthy fashion upon the scene.

I tend to visualize it as the paladin holding up his holy symbol, which flashes with holy light, and then the mount riding forth out of a "wormhole" vortex of golden light from Mount Celestia.

All depends on how tight your DM runs Paladins etc. In some cases suddenly launching an evil artifact on to a good plane can be seen as Chaotic at the least and, if potentially harmful to inhabitants on that plane, Evil.

The trick is, you don't just "launch" it onto a good plane. You give it to your mount, and tell him to drop it in the ocean. Note that the ocean at the base of Mount Celestia is an ocean of holy water. What more inaccessible place for an evil artifact (that you don't have the means to destroy outright) than the bottom of an ocean of holy water on the plane of Lawful Good?

Though to be fair, the artifact I had dropped into the ocean wasn't actually evil. It was chaotic with a special purpose of killing elves, but not technically evil. Still, the raging orc barbarians of the north are going to have a heck of a time getting it back.

 

[shilsen]

I tend to visualize it as the paladin holding up his holy symbol, which flashes with holy light, and then the mount riding forth out of a "wormhole" vortex of golden light from Mount Celestia.

Funny - that's precisely the way I describe it. It even led to soem very interesting and amusing roleplaying with the last paladin in my game, since the dumb barbarian in the group was really interested in the entire process and often had to be restrained from trying to "run up the shiny tunnel and see what's there." It didn't help that the paladin made the error of mentioning that his horse was named after his mother, which led to the barbarian telling people that the paladin's mother was a horse who lived in a magic tunnel

 

[kenobi65]

Funny - that's precisely the way I describe it. It even led to soem very interesting and amusing roleplaying with the last paladin in my game, since the dumb barbarian in the group was really interested in the entire process and often had to be restrained from trying to "run up the shiny tunnel and see what's there." It didn't help that the paladin made the error of mentioning that his horse was named after his mother, which led to the barbarian telling people that the paladin's mother was a horse who lived in a magic tunnel

Oh, that made my day, shilsen.