This is not so much an archetype as a option all cavaliers should have. Just as the Paladin has the option of a mount or an enhanced weapon, so should the cavalier. However, the paladin is magical and the cavalier is not. How would he acquire/earn enhancements over time?
Answer: His order supplies him with them. Just as the order supplied his training and gear at 1st level. By keeping with the order's edicts as he levels he spreads the influence of the order, thus earning the enhancements.
Depending on what order the cavalier belongs to, each cavalier would get a limited list of enhancements to choose from to enhance his weapon (just as the Paladin does with bonded weapon). The gods know that there are plenty of enhancements to choose from now to suite each order. The numerical enhancement bonus would be identical to that of the paladin. However, the cavalier could only re-customize their weapon at the start of each level.
So, the long and the short of it; free limited magical weapon enhancements instead of a free limited animal companion.
When I picture a cavalier, he is an armored warrior on a mount; the example of heavy cavalry. Take the mount away and...well. A fighter. Or a paladin.
Basically while I think your take on the matter is perfectly sound as far as the rules/balance issues are concerned, its pretty far off thematically. I do understand that any character can stop at the horse-R-us and pick up a mount just fine. But cavaliers, some paladins, and other classes that have a mount class feature have because it is very important to the theme of the class.
On the other hand, if this becomes an archetype, if can fill the same role as the anti-paladin (I loathethat name; couldn't we have called dark, shadowed, or dread paladin? Anti? Really?) quite easily. And, theme-wise, roll right into Hellknight easily.
Now I'm interested in this concept. A mount-less cavalier archetype. I will be following this thread if it goes anywhere.
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This is not so much an archetype as a option all cavaliers should have. Just as the Paladin has the option of a mount or an enhanced weapon, so should the cavalier. However, the paladin is magical and the cavalier is not. How would he acquire/earn enhancements over time?
Answer: His order supplies him with them. Just as the order supplied his training and gear at 1st level. By keeping with the order's edicts as he levels he spreads the influence of the order, thus earning the enhancements.
Depending on what order the cavalier belongs to, each cavalier would get a limited list of enhancements to choose from to enhance his weapon (just as the Paladin does with bonded weapon). The gods know that there are plenty of enhancements to choose from now to suite each order. The numerical enhancement bonus would be identical to that of the paladin. However, the cavalier could only re-customize their weapon at the start of each level.
So, the long and the short of it; free limited magical weapon enhancements instead of a free limited animal companion.
The problem with this is it turns what is a sort of vague loosely defined 'order' from the rules, which could be anything from an actual world spanning organization to a personal philosophy that many cavaliers share, into something concrete. There now has to be membership rolls, some kind of central structure, a distribution network, and signficant resources involved in these orders. After all some cavaliers will gain their levels in the middle of a major metropolis, others will be in the middle of the underdark, or in a vast desert in the middle of no where. How do they get these weapons? How does the cavalier convey the weapon he wishes to receive back to his order right before he levels up?
I personally dont see the point of a cavalier as written without the mount, but if someone wanted to play a mount free cavalier, I'd just have them use the Super Genius Games Genius Guide to Martial Archetypes. It lets you trade a suite of abilities from any class to gain a different one (one of the archetypes). For the cavalier, the mount and the mount related abilities are among the choices to trade out. You could then choose from any of the archetypes from the 4 archetype products with the martial ones being most suited to the cavalier.
I would go with something like a wizards bonded item.
Instead of a mount, a cavalier can have a bonded weapon. Starts at masterwork, and the cavalier can enchant is as if they had caster level equal to their level, and they get +5 to any craft attempts made when enchanting this weapon.
So basically, the cavalier gets their magic weapon half off. If that isn't enough, give them a 10% discount on materials when enchanting.
I've had similar thoughts with the Cavalier...the mount gets sidelined so often and can be problematic during dungeon crawls, which kind of takes away a big part of the cavalier's class features.
My idea was doing an archetype that had some kind of family heirloom instead of the mount...something that would gradually grow more powerful as they leveled up, taking the place of the bonuses they get with the mount. It wouldn't necessarily have to only be with a weapon either, but could be a suit of armor maybe.
As far as still being a mounted warrior, that wouldn't preclude them from still owning an ordinary mount and investing ranks in Ride and in taking the various mounted combat feats.
Except for the Challenge ability.
And the tactician ability.
And the Banner bonuses.
And more skill points.
Perhaps the Orders/Edicts themselves could have some hidden supernatural power to them, whether they are a philosophy or an actual faction of knights. Just as the Paladin is rewarded for walking a particular path, so too can the cavalier.