Our Party Bard Has It In His Head That He Will Ride A Elk Into Combat....He's Not A Druid Or A Ranger, So It's Not A Companion. He's Not A Paladin Or A Cavalier Or Multi-Classed At All. Is This Possible?
If So, Does The Mount Get A Base Attack Bonus, Skill Ranks, Or Feats? Where Can I Find That Information? Would The Whole Scenario Be More For Flavor? Should I Just Homebrew It?
I'm A First Time GM And We've Only Played A Couple Of Sessions. I've Got The Starting Stats For The Elk Already. I'm Just Kind Of At A Loss...
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I am all for giving players exotic mounts.
Boars, goats, Griffons for Dwarves
Elks, Moose, Hippogryphs for elves
Bears, Tigers, based on region.
Ect..
Exotic mounts are fun an awesome for players. and at the point that they can either afford an exotic mount, or earn it in game the mount itself is always significantly weaker then the PCs and would not be much help in combat, the PCs should also not view this mount as cannon fodder and should try to keep it out of danger. In mounted combat scenarios i would not have the mount be targeted directly by the boss (who could one shot it with ease) but focus on the rider, there will be % rolls to determine when the mount is unable to continue fighting cause it got "hurt" or some other factor.
Having the mount fight is also a non issue cause using its base stats from bestiaries it will have a hard enough time hitting as it is and doesn't do much damage comparatively.
So giving exotic mounts to all players below level 5 will make your party significantly stronger.
Giving mounts out individually between lvls 5-10 i have found to be a non issue and does not make the group significantly stronger
Edit: to actually address the question on hand. Just use the stat block from the bestiaries. No need to home brew up something stat wise. If the players want something that is not sized right, just add a size template to it.
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It's on this page - sorry, I didn't find a direct link, but if you search the page for "elk" you'll find it right away.
Side note, is it deliberate irony that a guy with no capital letters in his name uses way way way too many capital letters in his post?
He's A Gnome. So, Size Isn't Really The Issue. My Concern Was Mostly About Stats, Etc. Which Aren't Bad Directly Out Of The Bestiary. They Also Don't Seem To Be Too Crazy For A "Combat Trained" Animal.
Does A Mount Level? Is That A Thing?
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nO, IT DOESN'T LEVEL. oNLY ANIMAL COMPANIONS LEVEL. tHIS IS NOT AN ANIMAL COMPANION. sO IT ALWAYS REMAINS JUST AN ANIMAL WITH ORDINARY ANIMAL STATS. iF HE WANTS IT TO BECOME MORE POWERFUL AS TIME GOES ON, HE WILL NEED GEAR FOR THAT. bARDING, FOR EXAMPLE. oR MAGICAL ITEMS. a RING OF PROTECTION, FOR EXAMPLE. oR MAGIC SPELLS, ESPECIALLY PERMANENT ONES.
:)
Ok, That's What I Understood, But Like I Said, I'm New To This Side Of It...
Thanks For The Help.
In mounted combat scenarios i would not have the mount be targeted directly by the boss (who could one shot it with ease) but focus on the rider, there will be % rolls to determine when the mount is unable to continue fighting cause it got "hurt" or some other factor.If the player insists on using his mount as cannon fodder, it becomes a legitimate target in my book.
Agreed, but I tend to decide it on a basis of whether the mount makes the character more effective. Obviously, a cavalier's mount is a huge benefit to (most) cavaliers, so it's worth removing that mount to shut down the cavalier. But a bard on an elk might not be more effective than a bard on the ground, so enemies might not bother with killing that elk - at least until the situation proves that the bard will be "shut down" (or at least noticeably hindered) by removing his mount.
Frankly, if I saw a gnome bard bouncing around on the back of an elk, I'd probably ignore them both and kill the more dangerous PCs, or eliminate the bard if he seems to be buffing his allies more than I can tolerate. I'd only kill the elk for food. And I think most intelligent bad guys feel the same way.
Now, if a griffon or owlbear or dire venomous puma attacks the group, well, that elk probably looks far more yummy than any PC...
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I fear the gnome will be disappointed somewhere around 5th level when the elk is merely some flavor for how he gets around between adventures because it dies a miserable death whenever it's involved in a combat scenario. Around that level, the beast doesn't even need to be targeted. It's just collateral damage to things like Fire Ball targeting the party.
Yeah, that's when i tend to have it get knocked down to 0 and they can heal it after combat, Killing off party pets randomly for no reason then they were in the way or got unlucky sucks and doesn't add to the story. Killing off pets on purpose for story reasons can add to the play if done right and your group trusts you.
I have also found that killing off helpful NPC that the party has grown attached too (so they can raise them or go on a quest to save their soul) is a little more fun for the party then killing off a PC and doing a save their soul type of quest, this way the PC doesn't have to create a new character for a limited time or play an NPC, they can still play their character and role play saving a close friend still. /End Tangent.
Yeah, that's when i tend to have it get knocked down to 0 and they can heal it after combat, Killing off party pets randomly for no reason then they were in the way or got unlucky sucks and doesn't add to the story.
I don't kill them off for no reason.
I kill them off for verisimilitude. It makes the world seem more real. When the orcs shoot their crossbows at the gnome but the griffon ignores the gnome and eats the elk, players feel like the world has a little more depth.
And when animals have plot armor that keeps them alive at 0 HP when everyone at the table knows it should have died, any sense of verisimilitude or of (game) danger goes right out the window and the game becomes a caricature of an RPG. Each to their own, you obviously like it that way, but it's not for everyone.
If the PCs don't want their pets killed, they should leave them home. Adventuring is no place for pets. Heck, adventuring is hardly any place for adventurers... Leave the weak pets home, or find ways to buff them up or replace them with bigger and better pets, or expect them to die.
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Please understand that to native English speakers (readers) it's incredibly disrupted (and incredibly rude) to have a caps at the beginning of each and every letter.Ok, That's What I Understood, But Like I Said, I'm New To This Side Of It...
Thanks For The Help.
Honestly i didn't notice until you pointed it out. I also some times do that as well, The engineer part of me likes caps on each word, we have to do that for a lot of things, or have the entire thing in all caps.
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Honestly i didn't notice until you pointed it out. I also some times do that as well, The engineer part of me likes caps on each word, we have to do that for a lot of things, or have the entire thing in all caps.Please understand that to native English speakers (readers) it's incredibly disruptive (and incredibly rude) to have a caps at the beginning of each and every letter.Ok, That's What I Understood, But Like I Said, I'm New To This Side Of It...
Thanks For The Help.
Yes, and also as a software engineer I know the difference between reading what everyone is supposed to understand and what my job demands me to understand. There is absolutely* no defined English standard that makes this manner of communication acceptable.
*hyperbole, obviously, but it's still probably true
Honestly i didn't notice until you pointed it out.
I feel so marginalized...
(which is very rare for a tarrasque)
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If My Typing Upsets You, You Should See My Handwriting...