Hey, there. Before diving in here I want to acknowledge that yes, the cavalier isn't to everyone's taste. However, we've had something of a turnaround.
Therefore, this thread is not to gripe about cavaliers, but to offer some feedback on what's led to a positive reception. I feel as though there's something here that not only is it positive, but worth sharing. Of course, YMMV.
The cavalier's main issue and its glory is the mount. Some of the ways we've addressed the "I'm interested, but I'll never, ever take the class because I might be in a dungeon" issue is:
- Addressed the language. The cavalier does so much damage on a mounted charge that we've begun to compare their charge to smite. That is, it doesn't always work, but when it does, it's awesome.
- Addressed access to the mount by adding an option based on existing game mechanics. A PC may be able to scale a cliff, but the horse cannot. We explored a number of options, including the squeezing rules. However, the class is nonmagical and we wanted to keep that flavor.
The compromise was to have their order bestow upon each cavalier a token. This token is representative of their order and tied to the cavalier via their oath. Use of this token permits the cavalier to summon their mount in a manner similar to a paladin. In this way, it's the power of the bonded object which enacts the magic, and not the cavalier himself.
- We made the beast rider archetype "sort of" the default. That is, most any animal may be chosen as a mount so long as it's reasonable and passable via the DM. The heart of this means: expand their mount list to more awesome choices. Players want to be awesome, so why not let them?
- We've gone with a simpler, "common sense" approach regarding magic items. That is, a cloak of resistance may be a saddle blanket of resistance. While animals are unable to wear rings, they are treated as having vaguely similar item slots, though are not allowed to surpass a regular PC in terms of the number of them.
- Animals are animals. This employs Paizo's blog post, and keeps the previous point from getting too far out of hand. It's also streamlined combat--that is, a mount tends to perform along its trick list. This makes DMs, and other players, much happier and keeps things fairly streamlined.
These rules together have not solved all issues, but they have lent some enthusiasm I feel we'd not have had, otherwise. Too, some of it's just acted as a reassurance that PCs do have options, even when things are more difficult.