A horse is polymorphed into human form, but still acts under the assumption it is a horse. Now picture the paladin charging into battle with seemingly unnatural swiftness upon the shoulders of Robbie Coltrane.
I just want to see the paladin nuzzle against Robbie's mute face, feed him a sugarcube from his palm and then smooch his nose.
Could the RAW bear such a thing out? I know these are summoned creatures but what if the paladin's god has a cruel sense of humor?
|
I don’t know … Iomedae seems like pretty much the “classic” goddess of paladins, and the classic paladin mount is a warhorse – I’d say it fits pretty well.
I know that doesn’t really answer your question. Perhaps if your paladin is small sized, a trained Fire Pelt (leopard) might suit as an appropriate mount (might fit with a goddess of the sun).
Paladin's child: "What were you and Uncle Robbie doing last night, daddy?"
Paladin: "Playing horsies. Now go to sleep!"
And here that glitter bridle had me worried.
|
|
http://paizo.com/paizo/v5748eaic9l10&source=rss
Hippogriffs seem to be a creature being tamed in Varisia for mounts. :)
Giant Eagles, Owls, and Griffon all can be used as mounts and have rules in the MM for training them.
Don't forget Nightmares, Unicorns, and Pegasus.
|
Keep it a horse, but add a mysterious quality.
- It has scars along its flanks suggesting it once had wings.
- Children claim to be able to hear its thoughts.
- If you sleep in its saddle you will have prophetic dreams.
- It's pregnant, with something strange.
- It causes all other horses in its presence to fight as though they were trained warhorses.
- It snorts when someone lies.
- It and anyone who rides it is immune to the effects of harsh weather.
Minor characteristics can really liven up the average Paladin's mount.
This is not exactly what you're asking for...
But Kobold Quarterly #2 has a really cool article on alternatives to the paladin mount, written by John E. Ling.
Here is the introduction: Heavy armor; sword and shield; warhorse. These are the defining, iconic symbols of a paladin, her tools to fight evil, suppress tyranny, and protect the innocent.
For various reasons, though, not every paladin uses the stereotypical tools of her trade. In particular, the paladin’s mount is not always a viable option. Paladins who spend their careers crawling around in dungeons tainted by evil or smashing evil temples quickly learn their trusted mount typically doesn’t fit in these places. For some,
the summoning of beasts for any purpose is forbidden, as some orders consider it tantamount to slavery.
For these paladins, the three alternate class abilities presented here provide interesting options. In addition, the article presents feats to further allow a paladin to develop these alternate abilities. They all become available at 5th level and all replace the ability to summon a special mount.
Obviously I can't put up more, you'll need to buy the magazine. (And hopefully I won't get in trouble for putting up what I have)
One of those three options is very well suited to Iomedae, that is the Sword Bond..
I really recommend the article, and I recommend Kobold Quarterly in general...
I think a paladin of Iomedae should ride a lion...
I'm watching you, Watcher! Don't slip up again or the next issue will be printed on your flayed skin!
I'm watching you, Watcher! Don't slip up again or the next issue will be printed on your flayed skin!
Well, that would be a collector's piece. Will it be signed and numbered?
This is not exactly what you're asking for...
But Kobold Quarterly #2 has a really cool article on alternatives to the paladin mount, written by John E. Ling.
Thank you for the kind words about my article. It was a fun one to write.
I'm watching you, Watcher! Don't slip up again or the next issue will be printed on your flayed skin!Well, that would be a collector's piece. Will it be signed and numbered?
As many as we can can harvest off his treacherous ass!
Thank you for the kind words about my article. It was a fun one to write.This is not exactly what you're asking for...
But Kobold Quarterly #2 has a really cool article on alternatives to the paladin mount, written by John E. Ling.
It was more fun to read.
RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
|
Keep it a horse, but add a mysterious quality.
- It has scars along it's flanks suggesting it once had wings.
- Children claim to be able to hear its thoughts.
- If you sleep in its saddle you will have prophetic dreams.
- It's pregnant, with something strange.
- Its causes all other horses in its presence to fight as though they were trained warhorses.
- It snorts when someone lies.
- It and anyone who rides it is immune to the effects of harsh weather.Minor characteristics can really liven up the average Paladin's mount.
The horse is pure white and the center of its forehead has a small, broken shank of bloody bone protruding from it, suggesting that something at one time was growing there. The wound constantly seeps blood and cannot be healed. The horse has an especially mean disposition to anyone but the PC, and has almost feral tendencies.
The PC could find it somewhere, and nurse it back to health.
I'd second the usual warhorse mount. Although I recall our paladin player in a BIRTHRIGHT campaign getting a griffon mount. It was cool for him, but it made it tough for his adventuring companions since our horses would freak out every time he summoned it.
I have no issues with the regular mounted knight on a warhorse though. I'd say its pretty unique in D&D these days with players these days always picking ridiculous or odd mounts.
But then again, mounted combat in 3.5 is pretty useless past 2nd or 3rd level, so the mount eventually will only be used for transportation, and then, only until your group's caster gets the teleport spell.
There's an important distinction people seem to be missing between a mount and a paladin's special mount. (It's really unfortunate that "Special Mount" is quite literally the name of the ability and creature; why couldn't it have been something like "Divine Steed"?) Broadly speaking, it's inappropriate to replace the heavy warhorse with a giant owl or griffon or what-have-you; having said that, there are a number of clearly-defined and perfectly balanced extant options to swap out your horsey for something more interesting.
First off the bat, I'd suggest the Celestial Companion feat from the Book of Exalted Deeds; it gives your special mount the celestial template, and doesn't have any onerous prerequisites given that you're already a paladin with a special mount. You might also want to check out the Swift Call (I think) feat from Complete Champion, which lets you summon your pokemount as a swift action instead of a full-round action. To the extent of my knowledge, there are no ways to increase the number of times per day you can summon your mount from the otherwise fixed once/day; I strongly suggest any mounted combat paladin talk to his DM about working around this oversight. Easy solutions would be to change the 1/day to once per paladin level per day, to add an "Extra Mount" feat similar to "Extra Shape" or "Extra Music", or to add such an effect into the previously-mentioned "Swift Call" feat.
But you wanted something other than a horse, right? My first, second, and third suggestions would be a sandworm. There's a very cool class in Sandstorm called "Sandworm Dragoon" which is a mounted combat class based on these sandworms, which are these very cool Large burrowing desert predators. The class has a specific option to trade your sandworm mount's poison to have the sandworm count as your special mount; this will give your sandworm progression as per special mount as well as per Sandworm Dragoon, which keeps your mount on the sort of power level you'd want to have a trample actually be threatening in any real way. This is compatible with previous options, of course, and a celestial sandworm actually is a little better, thematically, than the normal kind for a mount which lives on another plane. This is also a good option to change the thematics of your paladin; trade the old European full-plate-and-lance shtick for a breastplate and falchion!
Finally, I think there's similar "my special mount is cooler than your horse special mount" classes for other mounts; off the top of my head, I think I've seen one in Draconomicon, and I think there's at least two in Faerun books - check Power of Faerun and Champions of Valor. (Honestly, I can't be arsed to try and find out.)
Psst. There's rules in the 3.5 DMG for non-standard special mounts. Giant eagles, griffons, giant spiders, sharks, what have you. No fooling.
Pages 204-205. I only found out these existed not too long ago.
Fair enough; as much as it may look like backpedaling on my part, I was thinking in terms of a straight-across swap and not with an advancement penalty.
1. Tamed Nightmare - scaled down to lvl.
2. Lizard - possibly with wall sucker feet.
3. WoW section - Panther, elephant, ram, wolf, kodo, flying stingray, gryphen.
4. Ice elemental - Silver Surfer FTW.
5. Asian guy with a rikshaw.
1 is fundamentally unsuitable; Nightmares are inherently evil, and paladins are inherently good.
2 gives me deja vu. I swear I've seen rules for this somewhere... Races of Stone, maybe? This sounds like a gnome sort of thing to do.
5 wins. Hmm... Living Construct + Leadership...?
|
|
1. Tamed Nightmare - scaled down to lvl.
2. Lizard - possibly with wall sucker feet.
3. WoW section - Panther, elephant, ram, wolf, kodo, flying stingray, gryphen.
4. Ice elemental - Silver Surfer FTW.
5. Asian guy with a rikshaw.
1. Is from a FR book, ya the monster was evil, but they made it work.
2. Is Drow
3. Warcraft, 4.0 will prolly bring in these mounts since they are ripping off warcraft anyway.
4. Duh.
5. No living construct, just pay the guy a few copper per mile. Dont need leadership if ya got money.
Aren't lions a little small to be mounts?
Horse = Large sized.
Lion = Large sized.That was my admittedly loose criteria. You could use a dire lion instead, with a bit of tweaking (take away some of its HD).
Our SCAP game had a unicorn paladin mount who turned out to be more like another PC than like a warhorse--she was a creature of strong opinions. (And kept her faith intact when the paladin, alas, did not.) I was quite fond of her.
Now I'm really attracted to the idea of finding out what sort of paladin would properly ride a nightmare. A paladin of Wee Jas might appropriately ride an undead steed--I picture some kind of skeletal horse--except that her powers might tend to nuke her own mount unless you gave it a special exemption.
Mary
|
|
The Nightmare mount was from a "Realms of _____" series. Some PC befriendsd some bad guys nightmare mount (Not a paladin). Another story, I think "The Pools" had a undead paladin with a undead horse. And there is some sort of "Spawn" like paladin called hellbred or somethin like that. I think what it comes down to is, whats going to be better role playing and not unbalancing. If the one of my players wants something like this and it sounds good to me, I work it in.
In a Savage Tide game I'm running, a half-orc paladin from the northern wastes had a buffalo (using bison stats) mount. It's surprisingly similar to a heavy warhorse.
|
|
Big LionI think a paladin of Iomedae should ride a lion...Aren't lions a little small to be mounts?
Lol.. as I recall he's a panther and went through a magic transformation before he could become a mount. But good example. ;)
It was more fun to read.Thank you for the kind words about my article. It was a fun one to write.This is not exactly what you're asking for...
But Kobold Quarterly #2 has a really cool article on alternatives to the paladin mount, written by John E. Ling.
My pardons if I committed a faux pas. I thought John really made the case for why one would even consider foregoing a special mount in the first place in those opening paragraphs..
I put this out for discussion (the topic, not the article!) on a local discussion board and again at a meeting of local gamers.. and I was surprised to hear how people thought the paladin mount was of limited value. The sentiment was that the mount was only as useful as the GM (and to a secondary degree, the Campaign / AP) allowed. They called them 'Pokemon Horses'.
And I have literally adopted the Sword Bond as an Iomedae option in my games. We'll have to see what the new gods books comes up with.
Anyway, my intention was not to rob the Kobold, but to.. you know, give a taste and get 'em hooked.
The buffalo mount happened in my campaign.
He was called Lub and he was a highland cow.
We loved Lub, right up to the point he became lunch for a Wyvern :-(
I agree that the problem with mounts is that this is typically Dungeons and Dragons, with the emphasis on Dungeons. Mounts have limited use in the standard dungeon. Druids and Rangers usually have companions that can travel anywhere. But horses have a limited use.
A male gorilla (Silver Back) would be an interesting choice, certainly big enough to be ridden, has a climb speed, good set of attacks. Just need to limit its ability to use weapons as it gets more intelligent :-)
I would impose some sort of limit on its advancement similar to a druid has if they go for a more powerful mount. Something like Paladins level -2.
Going off what All DMs said, I think a half-orc paladin rocking the "tribal protector" vibe wearing hide armor and using a battleaxe would look awesome on a bison special mount...
My pardons if I committed a faux pas. I thought John really made the case for why one would even consider foregoing a special mount in the first place in those opening paragraphs..
I put this out for discussion (the topic, not the article!) on a local discussion board and again at a meeting of local gamers.. and I was surprised to hear how people thought the paladin mount was of limited value. The sentiment was that the mount was only as useful as the GM (and to a secondary degree, the Campaign / AP) allowed. They called them 'Pokemon Horses'.
And I have literally adopted the Sword Bond as an Iomedae option in my games. We'll have to see what the new gods books comes up with.
Anyway, my intention was not to rob the Kobold, but to.. you know, give a taste and get 'em hooked.
The good squad was just a joke, brother! Bless your heart for promoting KQ and the work of the great Ling. :)
You were wondering aloud if it was okay to say even that much so I flayed your skin. Isn't skin flaying the normal reaction to people worrying about copyright etiquette?
The good squad was just a joke, brother! Bless your heart for promoting KQ and the work of the great Ling. :)
You were wondering aloud if it was okay to say even that much so I flayed your skin. Isn't skin flaying the normal reaction to people worrying about copyright etiquette?
:D I should have known better.
I have an inner dichtomy. Sometimes I can be a real jerk, and then I spend the rest of the time mortified about it. (Heck, I posted about KQ minutes after snapping at SirUrza.)
It makes me alternately bold and timid, like a chameleon that can't quite find the mood.
:D I should have known better.
I have an inner dichtomy. Sometimes I can be a real jerk, and then I spend the rest of the time mortified about it. (Heck, I posted about KQ minutes after snapping at SirUrza.)
It makes me alternately bold and timid, like a chameleon that can't quite find the mood.
I get where you're coming from. I've gone through my own character arc since first visiting this site and I think these forums breed personal evolution and hone communication, and sometimes even (despite it the electronic divide) interpersonal, skills. Perhaps a comfortable middleground between the extremes is coming your way, because the more we all converse here the more we'll learn to trust that our differences of opinion are only that. Something about vehemently arguing your way through a debate about parry mechanics has a way of clarifying just how silly and quibbling most debate really is in the scheme of things. Then you realize all that rightness within you is as pointless as it is correct, and that kindness and open-mindedness are almost always betters tool than rightness to use in attaining the respect and kinship of peers for which we so hunger.
You actually strike me as a very brave person. Look at you, though among friends you offer a sincere and self honest revelation of your own inner workings in public. Paizo is the best forum on the web, IMO. I'd come here to talk even if they sold potato peelers.
Paizo, you make me want to be a better man. ;)