I’d like to get some input on my Huntmaster Cavalier that I’m playing in Kingmaker. Please limit the spoilers. We played the first session, and I’m realizing that I may want to be more mobile and re-think my feats over the next few sessions. My stats are Str 18, Dex 12. As a human I have two first level feats and I took Power Attack and Furious Focus. For my Tactician feat, I took Lookout. We have a Divination Specialist Wizard in the group, so this goes well with his ability to act in a surprise round.
At the moment, I’m fighting with a battleax, shield in the off hand. I’m one of two with the primary role of dealing damage. The elven ranger does a bit more with his elven curveblade, and I expect him to usually outdo me in damage, which is fine.
We just hit 2nd level.
My original plan was to take feats in the Power Attack tree like the following.
3 = Cleave
5 = Improved Overrun
6 = Cleaving Finish
7 = Leadership
I realize some of these feats are situational (adjacent targets), and I was fine with that.
However, I didn’t realize how useful mounted combat could be in this AP. I could have used a mount in most of the encounters we faced. I’m considering the following progression instead.
3 = Mounted Combat
5 = Ride By Attack
6 = Spirited Charge
7 = Leadership
Yes, there may be situations where I can’t use the horse, BUT when I can use it, the character could shine. And this may be the first AP I’ve played where these feats see some use. With my low Dex, heavy armor is in the future too. Riding a mount could really help with the speed issue. Since I took a hound as my animal companion, I don’t think there is a way to add a horse companion with RAW.
1. Any thoughts on the feat progression above?
2. Is anyone aware of feats / abilities to keep a mount alive as we gain levels?
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If you are going for the Huntmaster archetype then you need to decide up front how many Animal Companions you want to have to determine how many Boon Companion feats you'll need to take.
Currently the best recommendation is three companions (2 Dogs and a Bird) with both Dogs getting one Boon companion feat.
Everything about this archetype is companion related so improving them should probably be your first thought on feat/gear/tactics progression.
You'll want a teamwork feat that can be used as often as possible and is useful for multiple rounds. Lookout is only useful during the surprise round, which makes the length of tactician (3+1/2 cav level) irrelevant. And if your play style has your animal companions going on the same init as you, that makes the feat completely worthless.
Try escape route, which let's your companions move about without taking AoO. Outflank allows your ACs to gain a +4 flanking bonus and a free AoO on ally crits. Coordinated maneuvers gives them all a +2 on maneuvers, useful for your dog's trip ability. Tandem trip allows them to roll twice on trip attempts and take the higher roll. Precise strike allows them to deal 1d6 precision damage when flanking. With lots of animal companions, shake it off will grant a +1 to all saves for each adjacent ally with that feat.
And it doesn't matter if your ACs have the prereqs, it only matters that you do.
OK. First, thanks for all of the advice. Now, I realize I've made a mistake on what I wanted for this character. I spent too much time helping everyone else in my group come up with their characters, and I must have only glanced at the Huntmaster archetype. What I originally wanted was basically a standard Cavalier, but with a hound companion instead of a horse (at least to start). I now see that the Huntmaster really comes with a lot of things that I really don't want (only aiding animal companions, loss of heavy armor, etc). I should have just taken the horse companion and then went for a Boon Companion as I gained levels.
However, here's the problem. I could just rewrite the character and pretend the hound was never there. BUT, the hound played a pivotol role in at least two combats and the story line so far. (We were very close to a TPK with the wizard and the hound being the last two standing.)
If I were the DM, I'd probably just hand waive it and tell the player to keep the hound and gain a horse whenever he/she can. I'll certainly ask my DM if he's OK with that. However, is there a way to correct this with RAW?
There are a few ways:
1) Based on GM/group decisions, if you have 13 charisma, you can use eldritch heritage to gain an animal companion. Go sylvan bloodline for this. Not all people agree that this is legal.
2) Be a normal cav. Since you are 1st level, just have a normal wolf or dog animal, using handle animals to train it and move it around the battle field. Later on, use #1 to up the level of your dog.
3) Opposite to #2, be a hound master (not hunt master), and buy a horse using handle animal. Later on, use #1 to up the level of the horse.
Edit: Of course, you don't have to level up your normal animals using #1, just remember that they will quickly lose power as you level up. A way around this is to just have lots of them, or get bigger animals to train (such as the bison). Or just have dogs only for lower levels.
Alternatively, you could be a small cav and have a dog as a mount. That will get you everything you seem to want.
Thanks. I think #2 or #3 would work nicely. And it simplifies some of the decisions for what I will be using my feats for.
Just to make sure I'm understood, on #2 and #3, you'll still have a full animal companion horse or dog (respectively) that will level with you, and you'll just purchase whatever is needed that won't level with you unless you use #1.
