I'm preparing to GM a campaign (starting at level 1) for my wife and 3 friends, and we've started discussing characters. So far the classes are Samurai (Ronin), Druid, Gunslinger (Pistolero), and Magus. The Druid is opting for a mounted companion, and of course the Samurai has his Mount feature, so there's 2/4 characters that will have some mounted focus.
My players think, and I eagerly agree, that it would be a cool theme for the party to be glory-hunting outriders, and all have mounts that won't just be liabilities spending 90% of the game tied up outside a dungeon.
My ideas to make this work so far are:
- Give the other two players a combat-trained horse for free, since that would be nearly half of their starting wealth otherwise (and Gunslingers might as well be shooting gold coins every round)
- Give everyone the Mounted Combat feat for free at first level, to alleviate the worst of the feat tax needed to make mounts awesome.
- Give everyone Ride as a class skill, either through a trait or another gimme (as a note, I use traits normally).
My concerns with the above:
- Giving the other players horses might be unfair to those who have starting wealth balanced against a class feature. Granted, Animal Companions are much better than normal mounts, but most of the time they are going to be used the same way (getting from one place to another and quickly).
- The Gunslinger and Magus have distinct disadvantages when mounted that later feats in the Mounted Combat chain are meant to alleviate (concentration, one-handed weapon vs. lances, ranged attack penalties in particular). Mounted Combat might not be enough to make mounts worthwhile for them in the short term or long term (if they are too frustrated by mounted combat by the level they can invest in more feats).
- Again, those that have the Ride skill already might be cheated if everyone else gets it too, and "forcing" trait selection just to keep up with half the party is just as bad.
We don't want a powerful game (we all just came off a campaign like that, it was exhausting), so I don't want to be handing too much out at first level even if it's only to keep the players from dying from falling damage off their horse.
- I like dungeons. I like mazes and traps and claustrophobia and deeper beings of pure terror that even the darkness hides from. Personally, I will have trouble constructing scenarios that take advantage of mounts beyond charging enemy mounts from the other end of a field. This could be its own topic, but I'm throwing it in here anyways because it's on my mind.
For some context, before any of this mounted stuff came up, I was already planning on the first 2-3 levels of the game being a long-distance caravan escort. Mounts just make the goal that much easier. Any advice on the above problems, any solutions, experiences, and any more worries I haven't considered yet are appreciated.