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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 8989353" data-attributes="member: 6799660">For the same reason that D&D worlds have open-topped castles* despite ubiquitous flying monsters -- at some level, people are coming to the game to play a 'the medieval world, but with magic' and knights on horses are part of that imagery. Mind you, plenty of people also are okay with riding dinosaurs or dire ostriches (or dragons), but if you cut out the people wanting to ride horses, you're clipping a sizable portion of your potential people-interested-in-this-game-tangent (which already probably isn't represented because there isn't enough hue and cry for it).*usually with a couple ballista on towers, just  to show that the author thought of thisProbably proceeding from D&D 3e which had the same for paladins (and druids/rangers with their animal companions). There clearly are ways to do this -- 5e giving 13th level+ paladins* Find Greater Steed is another option. It's a huge balancing issue to make pets not be either so fragile they are glorified opt-in escort missions or so powerful they are an effective second character, but it can be done.*and 10th level+ valor bards with a magical secrets slot to burnThe second issue is undoubtedly the larger problem. Building a character around a playstyle that might not be a huge part of the game (or is just completely hamstrung in a not-infrequent gaming situation) is something you can do (3e, again, had it what with mounted combat classes and feat chains and specific-element-focused mages and so on), but I can also see the reason not to do so for any core character options. Certainly building out elaborate subsystems might be a hill too steep.Early-mid 2E (or late-1E after it was realized people by in large didn't use the training costs for level) would be a perfect time for a lot of this. The devs hadn't latched wholly onto sunk cost build components (feats in 3e, or build points in late 2e) as a primary customization method, and people generally had more money than uses for it. Sinking time and effort and maybe some weapon/non-weapon proficiencies (riding NWP, lance specialization, maybe a mounted fighting style) would be perfectly reasonable and mid-cost expenditure, and then you could roll-play the finding the right steed, buying barding, maybe even tracking down a magic lance. It all could have worked, except that horses still would fall to even the smallest of dragon breaths/the first 'gotcha' trap, and the first ladder (although figuring your way past that could be good fun).</blockquote>

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