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I think the answer would be whichever one you can more easily convert to lawful good (by default, both are chaotic good).
...save a horse, ride a paladin?
Because nothing says "sparkles and rainbows" like a giant freaking spike on your head that gores your enemies.I can't imagine any Paladin (man or woman) on a Unicorn unless they were part of the Order of My Little Pony.
Maybe PF has reskinned unicorns to try to make them cooler, but the only thing I picture is sparkles and rainbows and the like when it comes to unicorns. I don't think you could ever run out of ball-busting material if one of your fellow Players chose unicorn as a mount.
I once had a guy go into long detail about how flying unicorns are the most terrifying things ever because they could totally ride in from out of the skies with a battlescreech, gore something, and ride up back into the air with the prey. Apparently Pegasus are pretty frikkin' manly.
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Am I the only one that thinks Hippogriffs are the Griffon's underrated kid sibling? You can get one without the Leadership feat, they're still a Large Half-Eagle-type creature, can fly, all that good stuff. I'd definitely rank Hippogriff or Griffon as high-end Paladin or Cavalier mounts.
If we're going the other way and looking for a darker and edgier Paladin mount, look no further than the Mule. What does Clint Eastwood ride in A Fistfull of Dollars? A Mule. Badass credentials established. They've been FAQ or Errata'd to being a Pony with the advanced template - That's Str 17, Dex 17, Con 18 by the way. They're smarter and more surefooted than horses. So what if they don't have a horn?
Pushed to choose from Pegasus or Unicorn it's got to be Pegasus though.
I would pity a paladin who had to ride a Pegasus or unicorn as his mount. Poor fella probably lost a bet with someone...
I prefer a good old fashioned Destrier with the best armor and training.. But i am oldfashioned.
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By any chance is Harpy an option?
Would you really want to ride something that harps you all day?
You know what, probably best not to answer that one.
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but they are never leaving the ground
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talking dirty
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"I am going to ride you like a pegasus, you filthy harpy"
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"I am going to ride you like a pegasus, you filthy harpy"
With a saddle and crop? HOw is that supposed to-
Forget I asked.
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Literally 100% of my dwarven paladins ride unicorns. Though that's because they tend to go a bit more Greek with unicorn being the word for woolly rhinos.
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a Dragon or Drake is a classic. as is a Roc, but what could also work is a Giant Dove or a Giant Butterfly. just for the cool factor.
I would opt for the unicorn, because I think it would fit better with the rather fey characters I tend to play (because FAERIES!), and because of the whole embodiment of purity thing. Oooh, and can we have a variant with magical unicorn wings, like in Madeleine L'Engle (I think it's A Swiftly Tilting Planet, but it's been years)? :)
For mounts that are more strictly plain winged hybrids, I would prefer a griffon.
Are we turning this into another "Succubus in a Grapple" thread? Really guys? Really?
Pegasus. Can't beat the mobility. Also, if you really wanted the mount to have a gore attack, you could have a horned headpiece built into the pegasus' barding.
Be it a dedicated mount or a special occasion.
Unicorns are just for elf and possibly gnome paladins. Everyone else (except the tortoise-riding dwarves) gets pegasi.
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Wait, I think...hang on, lemme check...
Yeah, I'm legally required to say this.
Earth pony, b+*$!es!
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We had a Unicorn in are last game his name was ....Charlie sadly he didn't get to go to Candy Mountain.
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But seriously, go with Giant Wasp. For real. It's a better flier than the pegasus, and it looks 20% more badass.
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But actually on-topic, I'm really surprised at all the "Pegasus" responses.
About the same strength, constitution, and intelligence, but the Unicorn is far wiser and more charismatic than the Pegasus (two really big things, if I'm going to have a sentient mount) and a bit more dexterous (meaning it's more likely to avoid stuff); as well, it's ability to cure wounds and neutralize poison (even though the Paladin can eventually do both as well) added to it's higher attack bonuses, powerful charge attack, and the fact that it's natural weapons are treated as magic means that it's often capable of either lending a hand in battle or shortening the downtime/extending the adventure day, as well as being a bit more self-sufficient. Immunity to charms, compulsions, and poisons mean that I'm not worried about my mount ever turning on me for any reason (or getting poisoned), and it's magic circle against evil means that it provides similar bonuses to me and those near me.
Now, that said, the Pegasus' detection abilities are better (detecting both evil and good, constantly/with no effort in a radius as opposed to a slow cone; granted a cone that's a free action, but still).
Now the big one is that a Pegasus has flight (which has large tactical implications)... but, compared to the Unicorn's greater teleport at will seems like it's a clear "unicorn" winner,... until you notice that the teleport is only within the forest home. This may be a strong limitation on an adventurer's career... but then again, it may not, as the "size" of said home is highly variable (from a few dozen square miles to a few hundred). That, however, pretty much makes them a bit of a wash, and heavily dependent on the kind of campaign run and the "home area" chosen or set up by the Unicorn. In terms of mobility, then, the Pegasus probably is a winner in the more generic "any game".
All that is to simply say that I don't really see the "clear winner" that many seem to side with. To me, they are really both excellent choices and mounts. Also, after reading Shadow Gate recently, I've come to the conclusion that giant eagle sizes and speeds are both too low - the former should be (at least) one step larger, and the latter should be swapped with a Pegasus'. :D
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In the end, bearing in mind all I said (except the last paragraph), I'll probably side with Unicorns. People consistently talk about "barding", but, for my money, it's easier and has less issues to grab magical flight and speed-enhancers for the Unicorn than it is to kit up the Pegasus to the equal of the Unicorn in other regards.
How do you get more majestic than Lion mount? Barring 3rd options, I vote for the one that flies.
How do you get more majestic than Lion mount? Barring 3rd options, I vote for the one that flies.
A lion mount... with a crown and really nice outfit? Fantasy Fashion Ahoy! With some battle armaments here and there of course. Of course I think that looks better on horses, and the detail in a lion's mane always looks matted to me in art compared to the mane of a horse, but maybe that's personal preference.
My answer was more thematic, since I was asked what "screamed paladin mount", not what would be most mechanically effective. Pegasi fly, have way less of a "druid" theme, and are way more morally centered.
That being said, they're both kinda lame, being usually Chaotic creatures. I'd say a Lammasu is the best choice, but that might be a bit weird.
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Oh, hey! I have this really awkward/sweet/disturbing story to share!
So as it's laying there dying (I treated it as auto-drop to 0 hp, then lose 1 hp/round; heal checks stop it for 1d4 rounds, and cure magic temporarily restores the hp, but it's staggered no matter how much it has, and loses 1/round*) the party manages to slay the hydra for all time, and, desperately begin scrounging around in the loot it's amassed over the years (it was sentient) for something anything that can save the unicorn as it's losing health.
One of the items they have is a ring of continuous alter self (allowing you to change once per round). Bear in mind, under this paradigm, it actually changed your creature type. In any event, they completely had no idea what it did and (doing what players do best) did something I'd never thought of... placed the ring on the shattered remnants of the horse' horn (which had, some time back, been established as about the width of a finger, due to reasons and in-character discussion). So, I allowed this, realized that there really was no reason that it wouldn't work (unicorn's aren't forbidden from wearing rings - it's just not something I've normally thought of, as their body doesn't have fingers in the classic sense). Thus the unicorn (instead of bidding a heart-felt tearful farewell at the end of an epic and dangerous quest) lived... as a humanoid (specifically a doppleganger, as that was the first humanoid I could recall that had racial hit dice).
Realizing how much she'd nearly lost, the paladin proceeded to tell the unicorn (now a doppleganger... taking the form of a half-elven male with white hair and white goatee) how much she cared about him and loved him and couldn't bear to lose him ever again.
... so she brought him to the back of the (very secluded) cave and, uh, "married" him, by, to quote her, "riding him for the last time."
... I was the only one that seemed to think that was really awkward instead of romantic, so, you know, I went with it, and, a few dice rolls later and vague hand-waving later, she had a husband GMPC who became a bard. It was later noted (in casual conversation in a Barnes & Noble cafe - again, I seemed to be the only one that noticed) that the former unicorn was a "top" (which was, incidentally, around the time where I'd just learned that phrase), but "used to be a horse" who she'd "always loved to ride".
NOTHING AWKWARD HERE, everyone that's staring at us! Nope!
* I ruled this because I thought the death would be dramatic and heroic, and it made it possible for them to say their good-byes.
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Oh, hey! I have this really awkward/sweet/disturbing story to share!
** spoiler omitted **...
I honestly am not entirely sure how to process that one right now. Not sure if heartwarmed or weirded out.
besides feeling a hell of a lot better about the subtext going on in our WotR game
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Of the two options presented, I think I prefer pegasus.
My favorite mount for a paladin was a draconic horse from one of those dragon-related 3.5 splat books. Paladin of Mystra with a draconic mount . . . man that was a fun character to take through Myth Drannor.
As for the "alicorn" issue . . . I've always preferred the term "unisus" for a winged unicorn. Alicorn is still, to me, the proper name for a unicorn's horn. Fire from the heavens shall strike down any in my games that utter that word incorrectly. Or a swarm of jinkins.
Pegasus. Flight, lances, Bellerophon, and no sodding forest hippie stuff. That said, a half-celestial spider eater, or giant wasp, or dire elephant, or woolly rhinoceros, is pretty badass. Or why not the Tarrasque? Other less well known possibilities are unicow, umber horse, or a redeemed beholder.
But Stockvillain, whenever we call them "winged unicorns" or "horned pegasi", the Earth Pony Liberation Front's recruitment drive gets a surge.
As long as they aren't pugwampis...
I think the giant eagle probably is the best paladin mount, thematically. It's the closest a paladin gets to a flying mount that matches his alignment without having the head of a creepy bearded guy.
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Be it a dedicated mount or a special occasion.
My vote's pegasus, as the requirements are less stringent.
I don't think unicorns even LIKE paladins, as they're CG and paladins have to be LG.
Pegasus. Flight, lances, Bellerophon, and no sodding forest hippie stuff. That said, a half-celestial spider eater, or giant wasp, or dire elephant, or woolly rhinoceros, is pretty badass. Or why not the Tarrasque? Other less well known possibilities are unicow, umber horse, or a redeemed beholder.
What Sissyl said. Though beholders don't exist on Golarion. And what the heck's a unicow or umber horse?
Pegasi are CG, too.
I just wish we could get a traditionally-animated paladin mount (that's not a selkie or creepy Irish fey wolf girl). Is that so much to ask?