I just started Age of Worms for my group and one of the players is basing a character on the Hessian in Sleepy Hollow. He's curious if the mounted combat feats are going to be a waste in the campaign.
If its possible, without giving too much away about future episodes, can you tell if these feats be mostly useless in the campaign? (The first adventure was mostly dungeon)
Thanks! and hi everyone!
I don't know the answer, but there's always the option of playing a small character on a medium mount. That shouldn't be a problem, even in dungeon crawls.
On a large warhorse, you can move freely down 5' corridors at 1/2 speed (-4 attacks, -4 AC). You can also squeeze through a space even smaller than 5' with an Escape Artist check (a horse's head is really narrow so it should fit many places). So it's not so major a hassle after all.
The bigger problem is climbing ropes, getting out of pits, etc. After some problems in their first adventure (not AoW related), the PCs in one of my other campaigns took some time off adventuring to craft a winch & harness for lifting and lowering their mounts around any tough spots.
So going mounted on a "war" animal works fairly well in most dungeons, with only some minor problems (are there any high Dex mounts with Escape Artist available?). But the character usually isn't totally helpless without their mount anyway.
I would say that there would be a mix of dungeon-based adventures, with a few wilderness adventures thrown in, and perhaps an adventure or two set in unusual locations like the Abyss or the Wormcrawl Fissure in Iuz's lands. Of course, I could be completely wrong, but I'm using the previous AP as a starting point.
How useful a mount and various riding feats are in the campaaign is largely a measure of the DM. You can modify the adventures in the AP to provide encounters where the player's riding ability is useful and he or she can shine. The player must realize though, that sometimes he or she will be forced to leave the mount outside the dungeon, or back at the inn.
As has already been mentioned, a small character can use a medium-sized mount and have no trouble getting about in a dungeon or cavern system. Even larger mounts can be used in certain areas, and that's where the 3.5 paladin's ability to summon and dismiss his mount really comes in handy!
and perhaps an adventure or two set in unusual locations like the Abyss
I seem to recall that one of the staff said there wouldn't be adventures outside the prime material plane, since this was done already in AP1.
That's right. They did say that didn't they. Thanks for the refresher. O'h well, maybe there'll be an undersea or aerial aventure then (since the wind dukes seem to be involved in AP2).
There's somewhat of a geographic path taking shape.
Campaign centers around the Rocky Hills for a time, detours a day away to the Swamp, travels by road three days west to the Big City. Then many adventures later rafts a hundred miles or more across the Endlessly Big Lake to a Medium Coastal City. A couple adventures later we travel a hundred miles or more northward into Bandit Territory (along this leg, I'm hoping we stop at a "Steamy" tourist spot to pick up 3 powerful magic items...). Eventually we stop at an Evil Village near the climax of the campaign, with a final trek a few days eastward across the Barren Plains to descend into an Underground Fissure. And we know that somewhere along the line, there's one detour via Gate Travel to a Shady Spire far across the continent near the Big Jungle (and I'm wondering if Cairn Room 3 could be the launching pad?).
For what it's worth, a Halfling or Gnome (or other Small) mounted combatant is almost always more optimal than any Medium mounted combatant.
Reason being, it's easier to get their mounts into dungeons, plus, it's possible to get flying mounts far earlier than you can for Medium races. (To my knowledge, anyway)
However, it's generally up to the DM to make sure that his player's choices aren't worthless. And there's always flavor to consider...