I'll be quick
GM, hates mounts, love paladins.
Low magic, humans only, one spell caster for the party.
Have to pick "Warrior of the Holy light" or some non-caster type. "Divine Bound weapons" too magical for some reason.
"Bonded mounts have an Intelligence of at least 6." implies sentient. So instead of a "Divine Bound mount", I just get an Human squire Warrior. However, Holy horse would be better in every way.
What would be good stats for this "Squire", and what would be good for actual abilities for this npc?
Also, Detect evil replacement, since in his campaign, "good and evil" don't exist in that fashion, so he is letting me replace that with something else instead. but Holy gun is awful, and conflicts and conflicts with the "low magic.
Since a horse would get
Size Large; Speed 50 ft;
Ability Scores Str 16, Dex 13, Con 15, Int 2(6 for pally horse), Wis 12, Cha 6; Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.
and
4th-Level Advancement
Ability Scores Str +2, Con +2; Special Qualities combat trained.
I was thinking the stats could just be something greater then a 27 point buy. I don't know how many points you would get for 6, but I'll just was 31-35 points pathfinder style.
so something like 15, 15, 16, 14, 13, 13.
Seeing how epic fantasy point buy characters are suppose to be 25 point buy, this might seem a bit extreme. Strangely enough I still rolled better stats.
and that still doesn't take into count what the rest of the Animal Companion Base Statistics would in theory, give the squire.
In all honesty, I probably would end up rather playing the squire.
For detect evil, I was thinking of just asking for Amateur Gunslinger feat and Gunsmithing like the Holy Gun, since its not that good, and it still conflicts with his no magic rule. Since he likes guns in his campaigns.
A squire rogue or fighter cohort (2 level below you) with heroic NPC ability score should not be so different from a mount if your GM gives you a little bit more gold to gear him.
Don't go to epic point buy. A character, with class ability and better hit dices (d10, full BAB for a Fighter), will end better than a mundane horse animal companion.
Is a Cohort (-2 levels) equal to an animal companion? I never would have thought so.
Technically, a Paladin's Divine Bound mount is better then a druid that picked a Horse AnCo. Then again, I don't think most druids would pick a horse when you consider some of the more crazy picks.
Does anyone else have any other suggestions?