One of my players wants to play a Paladin through the Shackled City AP. I told him that it is primarily dungeon and city based so a "mount" may not be much use to him. I also promised that I would look for an alternative to a mount. Does anyone know of any variants to a paladin taking a mount? Thank you in advance for any advice.
You might consider:
A familiar
A companion animal
A special ability from a prestige class
Making him wait until later to gain a mount (my choice)
Providing a mount with the ability to disappear - part air elemental say, takes time to summon (which improves as the character does)
A mount that is a device (along the lines of the Drizz't cat)
The ability to cast phantom steed for himself at will
One of my players wants to play a Paladin through the Shackled City AP. I told him that it is primarily dungeon and city based so a "mount" may not be much use to him. I also promised that I would look for an alternative to a mount. Does anyone know of any variants to a paladin taking a mount? Thank you in advance for any advice.
Defenders of the Faith has a collection of new mounts and presents rules for acquiring them.
Honestly, let him have his mount. He can't use it all the time, but at least he can summon it when he needs can/wants to. Paladin's mounts can already dissappear and be summoned, and they return carrying any gear they had on them beforehand.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/paladin.htm#specialMount
No, my player asked me for alternatives to taking a mount. Of course, I would let him have it if he wants it. Taking something else is his idea. I will check out Defenders of the Faith. Thanks for the suggestions Kyr.
What did you and your player decide to do.
...my player asked me for alternatives to taking a mount.
* Leadership
* Familiar (as Sorcerer-3)* Animal Companion (as Ranger)
* A holy sword that increases in power (ala Weapons of Legacy)
* Turning as a cleric of equal level
* Martial strike (like a Monk's Ki strike line)
* Uncanny Dodge (at 4th, followed by Imp. Uncanny @ 8th)
* Damage Reduction as a Barbarian
* 2 Domains as a Cleric
* Minor Auras as a Marshal
* Energy Resistance as a Favored Soul
* The following abilities as a Healer: Cleanse Paralysis (at 4th level), Cleanse Fear, Cleanse Poison, Cleanse Blindness
* The ability to grant move actions as a Marshal
* The ability to create a homunculus (at 4th level)
I think the magic weapon idea has a lot of merit. Instead of an improving mount, and improving item.
I know many paladins underuse the horse in some games. And I think it is also unfair to pigeonhole thme into cavalier types. That lets them have more variation.
I don't like the idea of typing them as cavaliers either.
I prefer to think of them as holy warriors.
But what did the player decide to go with?
The mount is an area that I think could be covered a lot better (I sent in a query about some stuff for mounts - haven't heard back yet) anyway. Without getting into the mechanics:
Magical Strength (as well as anyother ability)
Magical Speed
Waterwalking
Flight
Adaptive Modality - a horse that becomes becomes a hippocampus in the water, and/or can fly
Run trough various planes
Doesn't need to eat (or special dietary requirements
Size Change (or simply different size)
Resistance to various effects/types of magic
Ability to Polymorph Self - Take other Forms
Displacement (self and rider)
Blink (self and rider)
Gaseous Form (self and rider)
Dimension Door
Teleport
Fast Healing
Ability to appear disappear on command
Not all of these are necessarily for horse like mounts.
The mount itself need not be all that magical - it could be horseshoes, saddles, bridles, mane/tail ornaments, stirrups, barding, or even something in the food.
The other thing about mounts is a couple of basics how much time per day it takes to care for them - say generically with a bit of skill - 1 hour per day - just so its not overly cumbersome. Meating eating mounts strike me as difficult - especially flyers - a cow a day could get pricy - and difficult to find when adventuring.
I once used trolls with fighter levels armed with great spears mounted on giant boars with saddles that allowed them to blink. Very nasty.
Hmmm...more mount-related ideas:
Planar Enhancement (depending on paladin's alignment, mount may take on more fiendish or celestial qualities)
Flight (duh...)
Wonderous Power (turn into a small, portable figurine)
Resize
...I might think of some more later.
I was thinking of having a replacement for the mount simply being to double the damage (2 x level) of the paladin's smites and add 1 extra smite per day to their total. That says destroyer of evil to me. Thoughts?
Before:
Smite Evil (Su)
Once per day, a paladin may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 1 extra point of damage per paladin level. If the paladin accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.
At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the paladin may smite evil one additional time per day, as indicated on Table: The Paladin, to a maximum of five times per day at 20th level.
After:
Smite Evil (Su)
Twice per day, a paladin may attempt to smite evil with one normal melee attack. She adds her Charisma bonus (if any) to her attack roll and deals 2 extra points of damage per paladin level to an evil creature. If the paladin accidentally smites a creature that is not evil, the smite has no additional effect, but the ability is still used up for that day.
At 5th level, and at every five levels thereafter, the paladin may smite evil one additional time per day, as indicated on Table: The Paladin, to a maximum of six times per day at 20th level.
Alternately you could also do something with removing the mount and their undead turning.
Options:
*Increasing ability to turn undead in exchange for mount ability.
*Removing mount and turning abilities and giving a boost to smite, lay on hands or both.
*A 'Holy Shield' ability. It would work (in my mind) like a holy fire shield (see below for example). You would need to exchange your turning and mount ability to gain this. (Possibly just your turning ability.)
Holy Shield:
Holy Shield (Su):
Evocation [Good]
Pre: Paladin level 5
Components: V, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/ 4 levels (D)
This spell wreathes you in holy flames and causes damage to each evil creature that attacks you in melee. The flames also protect you from negative energy damage up to 1 point/ paladin level.*
Any creature striking you with its body or a handheld weapon deals normal damage, but at the same time the attacker takes 1d4 points of damage +1 point per paladin level. This damage is considered holy damage. If the attacker has spell resistance, it applies to this effect. Creatures wielding weapons with exceptional reach are not subject to this damage if they attack you.
When casting this spell, you appear to immolate yourself, but the flames are thin and wispy, giving off light equal to only half the illumination of a normal torch (10 feet). The color of the flames are white and yellow.
*Each point of ability drain a paladin would normal take counts as 3 points of damage against the holy shield. Each level that a paladin would normal be drained counts as 5 points of damage against the holy shield. If a holy shield has less damage absorbtion left then the ability or level drain effect would take then the paladin makes a fortitude save versus DC 15 (ability dmg) or DC 18 (level dmg) to avoid the effect completely. This ends the holy shield no matter the result.
To complicated?
It's rather fitting that our dear ArchLich resurrected this long dead thread :)
Anyway, for alternatives to Paladins mounts, Players Handbook 2 has the "Charging Smite" option. If you smite on a charge, you deal and extra 2 damage per paladin level.
I have a player thinking about playing a paladin in my game, and I was thinking of giving him both, but letting him choose each day which one he anted to take advantage of.
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Anyway, for alternatives to Paladins mounts, Players Handbook 2 has the "Charging Smite" option. If you smite on a charge, you deal and extra 2 damage per paladin level.
Or you could look at replacing the mount with a cohort like in my re-engineered paladin WIP, but I can't seem to web-fu the link. Darn you Archlich! Darn you all to heck! :)
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Why, you should check out the recent issue of Kobold Quarterly, the spiritual successor to Dragon Magazine.
Issue #2 had an article on this very topic - options/variants for trading in the paladin's mount.
For a measly few dollars, answers to these questions (and more!) can be yours.
I actively discourage my players from having pets and one of my options for paladins is very simple--instead of getting a special mount, you smite 'per 5 minutes' (effectively per encounter) rather than 'per day'.
I positive that in one of the Dragon issues from the last two years there is an article (A Class Act I think) that has a progression for a paladin who gets a holy weapon that slowly improves instead of a mount. I couldn't tell you what issue but I know that I've seen it. I'll give a look through my copies of Dragon magazine and let you know what I found.
Found it! There's a variant class feature for the paladin that replaces the paladin's mount with a sword. The variant class feature (called 'Sword of Celestia') can be found in the Class Act titled "Law and Chaos" in Dragon 349.
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In the Expanded Classes chapter of the PHB II, there's an alternate class ability called Charging Smite that gives the paladin extra damage when smiting evil on a charge attack.
In the Character Options chapter of Complete Champion is an alternate class ability called Underdark Knight that gives you various special abilities (increased speed, better vision, skill bonuses, etc.) when underground. Could be ideal for a dungeon-y environment :)
I can't believe no one's posted this yet. Page 11 of Dungeonscape has a really cool alternative class feature for a paladin instead of a mount. It's called Divine Spirit, and it can increase your healing powers, to hit and damage, give you damage reduction 10/- and fast healing 10, and revive you if you or an ally dies a certain number of times per day.