Sable Company Marine

So the new group I am with is working their way through Curse of the Crimson Throne. I am playing an Urban Ranger. I taking steps toward membership in the Sable Company. Never had a flying mount thought it would be fun. Is it truely cool or is a bag of hassles or both.

I always found horses trouble. Many environments you can't take them so the tethered horse is eaten or is a constant draw for predetors. The feats to assist with ridding it call for all sorts of movement around the mat headaches.

In my home campaign, I've always found a flying mount was really good to keep up with the mages. Even though we were level 7, the mount was relied on more than the mages' fly spells.

It was a more naval oriented game than most, and it was hugely fun to grab a huge bag of alchemist fires and start firebombing an enemy ship from my hippogriff. :p

I would prefer a griffon to a hippogriff but I am thinking it would be cool.

So what is the best build for someone going ranger that will have a flying mount. I am going to take the feat Sable Company Marine from the Curse of the Crimson Throne (as opposed to archetype)

My intention was to go switch hitter. Is mounted combat style actually better than archery combat style (for this build) or am I better off going archery and using feats to agument my riding because archery is going to be much more useful?

A flying mount will be useful in many (but not all!) parts of CotCT. By all means take Mounted Combat - it's just one feat and it'll pay off quite often. However, even after you start getting 'animal companion' benefits for your hippogriff it'll be quite vulnerable to some of the tougher fights, so you might not want to go whole-hog on the mounted combat tree. On the other hand, if you have the APG, I'm pretty sure the Bodyguard feat can be used on your mount - though only the most lenient GM would allow Harm's Way to be used on a creature you're riding, methinks.

An archer ranger is going to be very handy whether or not you're mounted (provided the party has somebody front-lining): you may also want to consider the two-handed ranger archetype (for thematic reasons you could prefer a lance to the usual big two-handed weapons) or the weapon-and-shield archetype - another classic cavalry type.

Also, consider teamwork feats that both you and your mount could take.

Agree that an archer ranger could easily work with or without a mount.

This leads to the great question, that I do not really see covered. Is the Sable Comp skirmishers flying out of reaching raining down arrows or are the swooping chargers.

with a flying mount I'd almost go full archer all the way, but switch hitting would leave you with some flexibility when you cant be flying around on the mount.

As to thier tactics I'm sure they are pretty varied between members or groups of members. So in a patrol there will be some that rain down arrows from on high while others dove bomb with whatever melee weapons they favor.

Asta
PSY

Next question am I going to get more out of spells or skirmisher's hunter tricks?

Generally spells.

What Favoored enemy for Curse of the Crimson Throne?

What Favoored enemy for Curse of the Crimson Throne?