harmor wrote:
My mount keeps dying. And by dying I mean like every combat. Oleg is getting suspicious to say the least...
Let's have some clarification on this statement, shall we.
First, who is who, Harmor = Lenny the halfling. Evil @$$hole GM = Me!
Let's make a long story short, to late.
Mount #1 (Animal Companion dog) - 1st level - Died along with everyone else's mount during start of the campaign, mainly for an RP hook. Lenny, seek out vengeance already!
Eventually, Lenny the wise summons a new animal companion at 1st level after 3 months of mourning (he forgot he could). During the RPing of this event, Lenny's says his prayer for his new animal companion is "Summon a mount... Summon a mount.... Summon a MOUNT!!!" singing over and over. The DM is looking for what he wants to summon here and with no direct request on the type of animal companion, a wild elk stag that happened to be nearby walks through the front of Oleg’s and up to Lenny.
Many combats later.
Mount #2 (Animal Companion Elk Stag) - 1st level - Died when a grizzly bear wandered into the PCs camp looking for a night time snack. The brave Lenny ran away from the grizzly bear and told the Elk to attack it. The elk obeyed its master and became bear food in the middle of the camp.
The group levels up and Lenny decides he wants to be a ranger and learns some ranger $#!t from the local rangers. So, Lenny is now level 2, 1 Cavalier/1 Ranger and will not be able to get the link ability with his animal companion until he levels up as a Cavalier again.
Many combats later.
Mount #3 (combat trained riding dog) - 2nd level - Died when the group was attempting to slay the mighty Tuskgutter (not the normal one from the adventure, not a dire boar (long), but actually Long and Tall boar *cough* 10 ft reach *cough*). Lenny does a ride by attack on the abnormally large boar that is TRAPPED in a bear trap. However, Lenny only has enough movement to end up ten feet away from the abnormally large boar. The abnormally large boar remains trapped and Lenny attempts to ride away triggering an AoO, a die is rolled to determine who gets attacked, Lenny or his riding dog. As fate would have it, it is the riding dog. The attack hits, Lenny attempts a ride check to negate said attack with an immediate action and fails. The 2d6 + 13 points of damage essentially one shots the riding dog. Mean while, Lenny's other mount a combat trained riding pony has been used as live bait in a bear trap for the abnormally large boar by another adventurer in the group. The abnormally large boar's options are to attempt to get out of the trap or attack Lenny's bait Pony or Lenny's food looking riding dog. Being the nice GM I am, I make it a random check every round and for the most part the abnormally large boar attempts to free itself from the bear trap and fails (good thing for the group actually). Finally as the fates would have it, it does attack and the nice GM decides to go after the mount that's basically dead already rather than the bait pony that has 3 HP, the logic being one dead mount is better than two dead mounts.
Suggestions
#1 Use better tactics while in combat.
#2 Do not use your animal companion as a meat shield when you have a high armor class for a level 1/2 character.
#3 And don't forget, Knowing IS half the battle!