Aasimar isn't really "simple, boring guy." I'd take human and the Eye for Talent racial trait, which will let you give your animal companion a +2 bonus to one of its ability scores. Your classes that you can actually use animal companions will limit you, but of them Druid might be the best for all of the buffs you could theoretically give your horse.
Although, playing a sorcerer with the sylvan bloodline (meaning you get an animal companion) could be hilarious. If you want to awaken the animal, druid would be better though. Maybe Mystic Theurge between the two? Ultimately up to you.
*Goes off to check if you can cast anthropomorphic animal on a horse.
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Summoner with a horse-shaped Eidolon.
Summoners are pretty much already "the Eidolon is the PC and the 'master' is just along for the ride'"
Make sure all skill points go into Ride, Handle Animal, Profession: Stable Hand, and nothing else.
Cavalier could work too, if you focus on the mount exclusively. Take no feats that don't involve mounted combat. The most interesting thing the guy in the saddle does is hold the lance and the banner, and re-fill the feed bag.
Ask your Dm is he would allow a Polymorphed Dragon that failed a couple of saving throws and is now a horse (maybe you do not even know it)..
Otherwise most horses just DIE all the time by the time the PCs are level 6+.... and you will be forced to get an animal companion... which is still inferior but better than a normal version of the animal.
If the DM says no... then beg him for this
Dragon Horse <--Not Polymorphed
Make him a summoner. The "horse" is his eidolon. Done.
Edit: Ninja'd.
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Problem with the Eidolon, is that it goes away.
Basically, it's gotta be something that is there 24/7.
Now, the rider/master doesn't need to be boring, but he simply not the focus.
I thought of Aasimar, for the Celestial Servant feat. Human, for the Huntmaster feat. Scion of Humanity Aasimar covers both.
If I choose to take the Racial Heritage(Dhampir) feat, I could pick up the Vampiric Companion feat.
Not sure if that would help though.
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Awakened horse paladin.
Stanley Horseman- Human Gendarme Cavalier 4 Sohei Monk X
Alternate Racial Trait- Eye For Talent
1. Skill Focus: Ride
1. Mounted Combat
3. Lookout/ Animal Affinity
5. Horse Master
5. Improved Unarmed Strike
5. Trample
6. Mounted Onslaught
7. Archon Style
9. Archon Diversion
10. Indomitable Mount
11. Archon Justice
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Problem with the Eidolon, is that it goes away.
Not if the summoner never goes to sleep.
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Human Cavalier would get a total of 17 feats, three of which must be combat feats and three of which must be teamwork feats. Is it possible to spend absolutely all of them on your horse?
If riding a horse counts as "adjacent" to it for purposes of teamwork feats, and if Power Attack counts as "for the horse" if we're only using it as the prereq for Improved Overrun and Charge Through, then I suspect it's possible. The Ranger combat style says there's at least eight "mounted" feats, plus Skill Focus[Ride] and [Handle Animal].
For teamwork feats, you want your horse to take Lookout as soon as its Int is high enough to choose feats, because granting Lookout with Tactician doesn't work so well but it's still an awesome feat. Tactician feats should probably include Coordinated Defense, Duck and Cover, Coordinated Maneuvers if you go Overrun style, and Broken Wing Gambit once you qualify for it.
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Yeah, the best non-cheese game mechanic way to do this is definitely summoner. I wouldn't worry too much about it going away when he sleeps; if you get a Ring of Sustenance you only need be asleep 2 hours a day, so you can have your megahorse available 21 hours 59 minutes out of each day.
Alternately, maybe you could pick a Druid with a horse companion, then wildshape into a horse all day and use Anthropomorphic Animal on your companion.
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Play a druid that is optimized to be a wild-shaped horse 24/7. Then take the leadership feat and have your "rider" be your cohort.
Give your druid the Wild Speech and Natural Spell feats so he can talk and cast spells while wildshaped. That way you get yourself a spellcasting, ass-kicking, more-powerful-than-his-rider horse.
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Crazy idea, but requires DM agreement and co-operation:
John Smith takes Commoner levels (pretty much a handicap compared to taking class levels), in exchange your horse get's class levels with any companion feats, familiars, etc... applying to John.
It'll require lots of tweaking and adjustment but it's fun cheese that shouldn't be game breaking and it's a unique twist on standard character design!
Or when in doubt, use the ARG to build an intelligent horse people :)
That is still the man, and not the horse.
But who would see it that way? If it quacks like a duck, walks like a duck, and looks like a duck, than by golly it's a duck! Hell, make it a crazed druid who honestly believes he's a horse.
I honestly don't believe you will achieve your ideal any other way (see edit). Whatever companion creature* you come up with will in no way be powerful enough to pull it's weight in the party like a full character can.
* Excepting an eidolon.
EDIT: Well, if it's a high level character, I suppose you could cast polymorph any object on a really strong, loyal creature, like a giant.
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I really like the Celestial Servant feat, as it changes type, which alters BAB, HD, and other possibilities.
The Totem Guide Companion Archetype also seem intriguing.
As for speech, the Tongues spell seems perfect, but is not a Druid spell.
This is why I considered Oracle.
As soon as I can, the Helm of Comprehend Languages and Read Magic is a must buy for the Horse.
wild shaped druid horse who takes leadership to acquire John Smith.
Great minds think alike.
Go human mounted fury barbarian. Eye for talent will allow you to bump up its int, high con will allow you to rage longer, ferocious mount will allow your mount to rage and allow it to have any rage benefits you get, ferocious trample will allow you to run over things and get decent damage from overrun and trample, overbearing advance will again, boost the damage of your horse, superstition and ghost rager will make your horse siginifantly more resistant to spells, spirit steed or chaos totem will help with the survivalbility of your horse, a couple of energy resistances will also make your horse survive the aoe attacks better, hive totem can make your horses overrun maneuvers harder to resist, you could even spell sunder with your horse if you wanted to!
Your man would still be able to do a bit due to the rage powers he gets himself, but really, he is just there to buff the horse considerably.
As for speaking and being the party face, Im not sure how to make this one work.
I made something similar to this before, let me see if I can dig it up.
Don't a lot of those limit you to your character level?
That means that Boon Companion (and any other effect with similar limitations) become worthless once you don the robe of arcane heritage.
Do the effects of an Orange Prism Ioun Stone* and the Magical Knack trait stack?
Are the following example caster levels possible?
Wizard 10 with MK = CL 10
Wizard 10 with OPIS = CL 11
Wizard 10 with both = CL 11Wizard 9/fighter 1 with MK = CL 10
Wizard 9/fighter 1 with OPIS = CL 10
Wizard 9/fighter 1 with both = CL 11Wizard 8/fighter 2 with MK = CL 10
Wizard 8/fighter 2 with OPIS = CL 9
Wizard 8/fighter 2 with both = CL 11Some people seem to think that the character level limits of Magical Knack should extend to the Orange Prism Ioun Stone. A few examples of what the difference would look like:
Wizard 10 with MK = CL 10
Wizard 10 with OPIS = CL 11
Wizard 10 with both = CL 11Wizard 9/fighter 1 with MK = CL 10
Wizard 9/fighter 1 with OPIS = CL 10
Wizard 9/fighter 1 with both = CL 10Wizard 8/fighter 2 with MK = CL 10
Wizard 8/fighter 2 with OPIS = CL 9
Wizard 8/fighter 2 with both = CL 10This interpretation seems inconsistent to me as the Orange Prism Ioun Stone works with a fully leveled caster even when he has Magical Knack, but suddenly stops working when he is short one or two caster levels. It also turns a beneficial trait into something of a handicap, as it prevents a host of other abilities (see below) from working.
In short, it's a question of order of operations. When does one check for Magical Knack's character level limit? Before or after applying the ioun stone's benefits?
* Alternatively, Spell Specialization, Varisian Tatoo, or anything else that increases caster levels.
Yes, they stack. Magical knack grants a trait bonus, whereas the ioun stone grants an untyped bonus.
Magical knack, though, can NEVER raise your caster level above your Hit Dice. So if you have another effect that raises your caster level above your HD (like an ioun stone), then Magical Knack doesn't help.
The easiest way to deal with it is to just apply the ioun stone bonus first. If your caster level is still lower than your Hit Dice, then Magical Knack kicks in. (Magical Knack is really only for multiclass spellcasters or spellcasters with racial HD; a single-class spellcaster should never take Magical Knack since it'll never help him unless his caster level is lower than his HD, as in the case of a ranger or paladin.)
I see no reason why the above wouldn't also apply here.
Aasimar Nature Oracle with mount. Since favored class bonus into the mount. Now your adding a level to your mount every 2 oracle levels. By level 14 you have a lvl 20 mount. Oh and take the feat that makes him celestial. Since the horse now has a rediculus HD it gains DR 10/evil and resist Cold/Acid/Elec 15. Now take a bunch of feats to make your mount harder to hurt (Mounted combat, Indomitable Mount) and then use your awesome self only cleric/oracle spells to buff the crap out of that horse. Nothing says OMG like a divine focus/rightious mighted horse!
Oh....and if you you wanted to abandon the horse you could take a single level of Mammoth rider and make that horse something bigger and nastier (say it with me.....Huge Pouncy Tiger of Doooooom!)
I never even mentioned the Orange Prism Ioun Stone or the Magical Knack trait.
I know you didn't. I was simply saying that, in all liklihood, Boon Companion is worthless when used with those other options (if said other options would put Boon Companion over your character level).
Yes. If pure Nature Oracle, then Boon Companion would be useless.
It would seem to work with the Sylvan Sorcerer dip, combined with the Robe of Arcane Heritage.
The moment you put on the robe, Boon Companion ceases functioning. It cannot UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES increase your animal companion to beyond your character level.
Better to save yourself the feat. It's totally lame, but that' the way the game's mechanics work (according to JJ at least).
Cavalier/ Sohei. Your horse gets flurry, wis to AC, fast movement, and such, whilest the rider sits back and plucks arrows and lets the horse do all the fighting. Idk if boon companion would work... Scratch that Druid/ sohei so I know it will. Use your spells to buff the horse! BOOM!
For gravy sake make a halfling who uses his supper aid another powers on his mount!
No it is the same as a standard druid animal companion. Paladin mounts are 6 int.
How bought springing for a permanency'd up anthropomorphic animal?. Be like mr horse from ren and stimpy. Yes sir I like it. By the way is this build linked to the book Breaking Smith's Quarterhorse?
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How bought springing for a permanency'd up anthropomorphic animal?. Be like mr horse from ren and stimpy. Yes sir I like it. By the way is this build linked to the book Breaking Smith's Quarterhorse?
Hmm. Anthropomorphic is kind of against the flavor.
The Horse is more meant to be a horse, not creepy horse man.
Not if the summoner never goes to sleep.Problem with the Eidolon, is that it goes away.
That would be a fun character. A Summoner who refuses to sleep because he's afraid his eidolon "won't be able to find her way back".
That is, fun until a couple days have gone by and the Summoner is completely out of spells.
Monastic Mount (Su)
At 4th level, a sohei may spend 1 point from his ki pool to grant his mount temporary hit points equal to twice his level for 1 hour per level. In addition, as long as the sohei and his mount are adjacent, including when mounted, the mount gains any of the following abilities the sohei possesses: AC bonus, diamond soul, evasion, high jump, improved evasion, ki strike (as long as the sohei has at least 1 point in his ki pool), perfect self, and still mind. When a sohei spends points from his ki pool, his mount gains the same benefits as the sohei.
There is that for you. Add in mounted combat feats that you don't need to meet pre reqs for... Not sure if you are still entertaining this option. If you only do a 4 lvl dip, then boon companion will cover you. Halfling fav class option gives 1/4 to saves.
Not if the summoner never goes to sleep.Problem with the Eidolon, is that it goes away.
That would be a fun character. A Summoner who refuses to sleep because he's afraid his eidolon "won't be able to find her way back".
That is, fun until a couple days have gone by and the Summoner is completely out of spells.
You don't need sleep for spells, just rest.
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Monastic Mount (Su)
At 4th level, a sohei may spend 1 point from his ki pool to grant his mount temporary hit points equal to twice his level for 1 hour per level. In addition, as long as the sohei and his mount are adjacent, including when mounted, the mount gains any of the following abilities the sohei possesses: AC bonus, diamond soul, evasion, high jump, improved evasion, ki strike (as long as the sohei has at least 1 point in his ki pool), perfect self, and still mind. When a sohei spends points from his ki pool, his mount gains the same benefits as the sohei.
There is that for you. Add in mounted combat feats that you don't need to meet pre reqs for... Not sure if you are still entertaining this option. If you only do a 4 lvl dip, then boon companion will cover you. Halfling fav class option gives 1/4 to saves.
That is pretty cool.
I really like the 6 intelligence though. Perhaps multiclassing?
Would there still be a way to get a companion past my level?
By the way, I discovered the Circlet of Speaking, which solves the speech problem.