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Idea 1- with end build gestalt (prob wont go to 20, but you get the idea)
Dragoon1/cavalier 19/Paladin 20- Heroic Knight, light in the darkness, holds the burden of wanting to defend everyone on his shoulders.
Dragoon 20/cavalier20 (or some variation thereof)- Ex mercenary soldier, Doing what he can, he has no powers, no magic, nothing. He is just a man with an iron will, a firm sense of duty, and his faithful steed standing against the darkness and protecting the kids.
Assuming the dragoon & roughrider are the fighter archetypes:
1: roughrider 1 = no archetype fighter 1, it doesn't swap out anything until 2nd. Not sure what you're doing there. The cavalier makes the charge-smite even better I guess, and order of the shield should be useful and appropriate.
2: he's actually a man with a weak will in-game. Sad but true, neither fighter nor cavalier is any good at will saves; your PC could be positively dangerous to the others if mind control is about. If you could stretch your concept as far as some variety of barbarian on one side then at least you'd get the +2 rage bonus. Or a mysterious avenger swashbuckler for lots of charmed life maybe; that archetype seems appropriate to the concept too.
Spoilers: Mounts are bad for CC. If your character is focused on that, you'll have a bad time.
You want good saves and with gestalt it should be easy to get all good saves.
For the ex merc you could go with cavalier 4/sohei monk 16 and Slayer or Brawler 20. Get the horse master feat at 6 or 7.
That way you have a full mount (except at levels 5+6), in effect even a stronger one from level 8 on. Your saves are somewhat better later on due to monk.
And you have some non-magical tricks up the sleeve.
But I think The Dragon is right about mounts.
Both of your builds above presuppose 20th level; Carrion Crown - without purposeful over-leveling on the part of your GM - taps out at 15th maybe 16th. You admitted this, but I want to be clear going into that, so you don't build to minutia that you never get to.
The Dragon is correct about mounts - most locations (though not all) have contained or tight corridors where mounts just aren't a solid choice, unless you're a small character with a medium mount (or the map scale is altered). Mounts are useful in CC, just not in terms of damage-dealing builds or combat features.
Now, taking a closer look at the actual builds and concepts:
Dragoon1/cavalier 19/Paladin 20- Heroic Knight, light in the darkness, holds the burden of wanting to defend everyone on his shoulders.
This is going to be a solid build.
Dragoon gets Mounted Combat and Skill Focus (ride). Solid for getting and using a mount.
Roughrider, as mentioned, gets nothing at 1st level (though I don't see it mentioned in your build - did you change that?); while getting your mount AC later on would be cool, I don't really think sacrificing any levels of your other two classes will be doing that much.
Cavalier is pretty solid.
Paladin is going to do all the heavy lifting in this game. Smites, heals, detection, skills (knowledge (religion), diplomacy, sense motive, and spellcraft), and spells are really going to hold the day (not to mention your saves).
From having GM'd Carrion Crown, I'll just say that Paladin/anything-at-all is going to be an incredibly potent choice. Immunity to fear and compulsions, are going to wreck certain enemy tactics, and, of course, your smiteousness will allow you to wreck those (and most other) enemy faces as well.
Because you have paladin as one of your classes, I can safely say you'll do fine (unless the GM does something... unusual).
Dragoon 20/cavalier20 (or some variation thereof)- Ex mercenary soldier, Doing what he can, he has no powers, no magic, nothing. He is just a man with an iron will, a firm sense of duty, and his faithful steed standing against the darkness and protecting the kids.
This one is an excellent concept, that doesn't deliver what you're actually wanting.
If you want fighter to give you an "iron will" type of character (in addition to taking the iron will feat), you'll likely prefer the unbreakable archetype, as "mind-affecting effects" cover a larger swath than "fear effects" (while the latter are rather common in the AP, note that many of the latter have the former associated with them).
For more solid saves, you may wish to consider a martial artist, dropping any hint of magical whatsits, while still giving you a solid melee presence, decent skills, etc.
I was thinking of mentioning either the skirmisher ranger or the trapmaster ranger as no-magic archetypes, but really neither of their benefits are that solid for CC.
Of the two concepts you've got, if you want to go non-magic, I'd recommend looking at Just a Guess' idea of the Sohei, and maybe unbreakable - I'm not familiar enough with the slayer or brawler to definitively recommend either, though from my perusal they look decent.
Otherwise, I'd recommend the paladin/anything that doesn't make you auto-fall combination, because you're going to get a lot more mileage out of that one.
I'm a fan of a Dwarf Sohei/Inquisitor build myself. Well, at least when it comes to Mounted Combat. The double WIS focus is nice, and you get tons of Initiative (Half level + Wis bonus + ability to act in surprise round + automatic 20 at level 20). If you choose the Feather Domain you also become king of Perception, while gaining a free Animal Companion at the same level Monastic Mount becomes available. Plus, you'll b able to contribute both inside and out of combat.
If you aren't attached to the Judgements, you could even be a Sacred Huntsmaster Inquistor and gain Animal Focus. Did I mention Monks have perfect saves? Combine this with Dwarves Hardy, Glory of the Old and Steel Soul and you start looking pretty damn difficult to take down. This gets even better when you add in Improved Evasion and Stalwart, to help laugh off Save Or Suck spells forever.
Is this intended for the game currently being recruited for?
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yes, it would be a secondary application.
- I do like the unbreakable fighter, instead of a mounted warrior, I could potentially do something else, but I love the idea of mounts...
(also, I love the dragoon archetype because its +1/+2 weapon training with spear group)
It has to be human, or at least, half elf or aasimar.