Here's my thought: a small carnivalist rogue with the undersized mount feat could ride his familiar if it is small as well (e.g. a goat familiar). With proper feat application, he could full attack after his mount has moved him into a flanking position. This makes sneak attack slightly more viable, right?
What other ideas does the advice board have regarding familiars and the undersized mount feat?
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Unfortunately, being mounted does not give you Pounce.
Combat while Mounted
With a DC 5 Ride check, you can guide your mount with your knees so as to use both hands to attack or defend yourself. This is a free action.
When you attack a creature smaller than your mount that is on foot, you get the +1 bonus on melee attacks for being on higher ground. If your mount moves more than 5 feet, you can only make a single melee attack. Essentially, you have to wait until the mount gets to your enemy before attacking, so you can't make a full attack. Even at your mount's full speed, you don't take any penalty on melee attacks while mounted.
If your mount charges, you also take the AC penalty associated with a charge. If you make an attack at the end of the charge, you receive the bonus gained from the charge. When charging on horseback, you deal double damage with a lance (see Charge).
You can use ranged weapons while your mount is taking a double move, but at a –4 penalty on the attack roll. You can use ranged weapons while your mount is running (quadruple speed) at a –8 penalty. In either case, you make the attack roll when your mount has completed half its movement. You can make a full attack with a ranged weapon while your mount is moving. Likewise, you can take move actions normally.
IMO, familiars are just a bit too fragile to make good combat mounts. On the other hand, there's great opportunity for spellcasters: being able to maintain mobility while using your move actions to control spells like Flaming Sphere or casting full round/1 round spells like Summon Monster or Enlarge Person is hugely useful.
Honestly, I'm excited about it for Summoner and Cavalier - now you can have a medium creature riding a medium mount. This opens up whole realms of possibilities... including some very funny ones. :P
| 1 person marked this as FAQ candidate. |
Undersized mount does not do anything. You always could ride any size mount, even fine. There is no rules in print other than in the summoner evolutions that limit the size. The actual problem is carrying capacity of medium and smaller creatures. A large 4 legged creature gets a much better bonus to its carry capacity
Doh. I can't get Mounted Skirmisher, which allows for the aforementioned full attacks, until I'm level 14...
Buuut... That spellcasting concentration while riding thing sounds nifty.
If you're a gnome and combine it with Effortless Trickery...
Benefit: You can maintain concentration on one spell of the illusion school as a swift action. This has no effect on spells of other schools or on illusion spells with durations that don’t depend on your active concentration. While you may only maintain one spell as a swift action, you may take your move and standard actions to maintain other spells normally, if you wish.
Concentrate on two spells and move at the same time.
I like.
As the carry capacity of the possible familiars is rather limited, is there any way besides spells and magic items to increase the familiar's strength and/or carry capacity?
Spirit's gift lets me apply a shaman spirit's spirit animal ability to my familiar. Via that I could give it some nice boosts, even a flight speed. But no strength increase. With evolved familiar I could give it 1 point evolutions, but again, no strength increase.
There are traits (muscle of the society) or feats (pack mule) that increase carry capacity, but I can't give them to my familiar, or can I?
Edit: I just remembered that the beast bonded witch can learn feats for her familiar. Any other way.
Undersized mount does not do anything. You always could ride any size mount, even fine. There is no rules in print other than in the summoner evolutions that limit the size. The actual problem is carrying capacity of medium and smaller creatures. A large 4 legged creature gets a much better bonus to its carry capacity
It didn't until the feat was made. Now it states that same sized mounts are "ill suited as a mount" and take a -5 to ride. Before it was up the DM to pass out that -5.
Giant Flea is an interesting option for a familiar mount. They can jump up to 120 feet as a charge.