I have a few questions. I'm wanting to play a Fighter but have a mount.
I say Fighter rather than a Cavalier somewhat deliberately. Or a Cavalier with the Gendarme archtype - which is pretty close to a Fighter even.
I am a two handed fighter archtype currently so I have Power Attack and Furious Focus. So I can invest a lot of feats tweaking my Fighter to make him more viable. But I'm wondering if I should sink feats into Mounted Combat, Spirited Charge, Ride-By-Attack or am I better to continue the path I had planned for him.
Right now I'm in a small party consisting of myself (Human Fighter), a Human Druid and a very infrequent Kitsune Bard. We are playing in a post apocalyptic setting with limited resources (especially magically). What I am finding is I love combat, but my skills are very very limited outside of that - and as I typically play casters or skill monkeys, this is annoying as hell.
I was originally thinking of modifying to a Ranger but I want to wear plate and I like my concept thus far and don't want to significantly rework him. I am familiar with Lore Warden and all the archtypes. I went the two handed fighter for raw damage and I want to play a Fighter as I've never played one before. But I am finding the lack of diversity in a campaign with few players a bit stifling (although I am enjoying it).
That said, a Cavalier ticks all my boxes (full plate check, mount check, more skills check). I even considered Gendarme to make him more Fighter-y.
So I'm wondering if I'm just pushing a boulder up a hill to make my Fighter more well rounded or should I just rebuild him as a Cavalier and bite the bullet?
1) As near as I can tell the only way for a Fighter to get a mount is using the Leadership feat to acquire a Monstrous Cohort and give it class levels. Is this right?
2) a) Is it better to get say a Giant Eagle (or Griffon?) ASAP and give it levels in Barbarian to make it beefier or, hold off and get a Dragon Horse or something later? CR being what it is, I can't see that wait paying off.
b) How does the Monstrous Cohort with class levels stack up against Animal Companion?
3) Are there any guides covering mounts in PF and options for classes other than Paladins and Cavaliers? I cannot find any.
4) I was toying with rebuilding my existing Fighter from the two handed fighter archtype to the Roughrider archtype and taking Leadership to grab a cohort. Is this move worthwhile? A Griffon with levels in Barbarian that can carry a heavy load and can fly as soon as I take him seems pretty solid to me. Roughrider would make the critter pretty darn hard.
Currently I see my character as someone that uses his mount some of the time or a lot of the time but not *all* the time. So I am debating the investment and whether I am better to stay a Fighter or just switch to a Cavalier. If I went Cavalier I'd probably just take Order of the Griffin and be done with it (it ticks all my boxes thematically). Anyone have any experience with this Order?
Thanks in advance!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You can just buy a horse. If horse dies, buy new horse.
The Nature Soul & Animal Ally (& maybe Boon Companion) feats can give anyone a mount. Only a standard land based one unless you spend a couple more feats on Monstrous Mount though.
You can actually buy mounts up to and including griffons. A combat-trained griffon costs 8K BTW.
I haven't done a detailed comparison but I suspect Leadership is better if allowed. At the very least it's just one feat rather than at least 2 for a fighter.
I'm not sure if the Animal Ally feat counts as one of the prerequisits for Monstrous Mount.
Prerequisite(s): Handle Animal 4 ranks; Ride 4 ranks; divine bond (mount), hunter's bond (animal companion), or mount class feature with an effective druid level of 4.
Or for Boon Companion,
Prerequisites: Animal companion or familiar class feature.
Though that's assuming the sentence means: animal companion class feature or familiar class feature. And not: animal companion or familiar class feature.
Well those would be sticklers in PFS. I doubt anyone would argue too much in a home game.
Take 5 levels in fighter, than a level in cavalier and take the Horse Master feat with your next available feat. This will give you a full progression horse animal companion.
Are you really wanting to focus on mounted combat? Unless you're going to use a lance and focus on mounted combat I don't understand what makes you want a mount.
Take 5 levels in fighter, than a level in cavalier and take the Horse Master feat with your next available feat. This will give you a full progression horse animal companion.
Are you really wanting to focus on mounted combat? Unless you're going to use a lance and focus on mounted combat I don't understand what makes you want a mount.
Horse Master needs Expert Trainer, level 4 cavalier class feature.
I'm not sure if the Animal Ally feat counts as one of the prerequisits for Monstrous Mount.
Prerequisite(s): Handle Animal 4 ranks; Ride 4 ranks; divine bond (mount), hunter's bond (animal companion), or mount class feature with an effective druid level of 4.
Or for Boon Companion,
Prerequisites: Animal companion or familiar class feature.Though that's assuming the sentence means: animal companion class feature or familiar class feature. And not: animal companion or familiar class feature.
Well those would be sticklers in PFS. I doubt anyone would argue too much in a home game.
I think this FAQ (although technically about archetypes and not feats) should give a basis for Animal Ally counting as a the animal companion class feature.
Archetype: If an archetype replaces a class ability with a more specific version of that ability (or one that works similarly to the replaced ability), does the archetype's ability count as the original ability for the purpose of rules that improve the original ability?
It depends on how the archetype's ability is worded. If the archetype ability says it works like the standard ability, it counts as that ability. If the archetype's ability requires you to make a specific choice for the standard ability, it counts as that ability. Otherwise, the archetype ability doesn't count as the standard ability. (It doesn't matter if the archetype's ability name is different than the standard class ability it is replacing; it is the description and game mechanics of the archetype ability that matter.)
Example: The dragoon (fighter) archetype (Ultimate Combat) has an ability called "spear training," which requires the dragoon to select "spears" as his weapon training group, and refers to his weapon training bonus (even though this bonus follows a slightly different progression than standard weapon training). Therefore, this ability counts as weapon training for abilities that improve weapon training, such as gloves of dueling (Advanced Player's Guide), which increase the wearer's weapon training bonus.
Example: The archer (fighter) archetype gets several abilities (such as "expert archer") which replace weapon training and do not otherwise refer to the weapon training ability. Therefore, this ability does not count as weapon training for abilities that improve weapon training (such as gloves of dueling). This is the case even for the "expert archer," ability which has a bonus that improves every 4 fighter levels, exactly like weapon training.
You gain an animal companion as if you were a druid of your character level
I think this FAQ (although technically about archetypes and not feats) should give a basis for Animal Ally counting as a the animal companion class feature...
Hmm yea I guess that FAQ and SKR's post here is basically saying "just go with it". Well that's pretty great.
Horse Master needs Expert Trainer, level 4 cavalier class feature.Take 5 levels in fighter, than a level in cavalier and take the Horse Master feat with your next available feat. This will give you a full progression horse animal companion.
Are you really wanting to focus on mounted combat? Unless you're going to use a lance and focus on mounted combat I don't understand what makes you want a mount.
Good catch, I was thinking that ability was gained at first level for some reason.
The campaign setting is quite open with significant territory to cover. A mount would be useful to range and explore. Mounted combat is something I'm keen to try but I certainly don't want to base my whole character on it.
I was thinking of just going for a horse. That's fine when we are at level 2. Within a few levels that thing will get one shotted.
I would like a companion to travel and roam with my character and occasionally fight. A Monstrous Cohort (e.g. griffon with barb levels) seemed less cheesy than getting a shapeshifting druid or a wizard crafter as a cohort. Roughrider seemed like a good way to up the survivability and utility of the mount.
I am willing to consider multi classing/front loading my character more as the campaign is unlikely to go to a high level. Also the GM has acknowledged he could have been more descriptive of the setting and so he is willing to allow me to rebuild my character.
Eldritch Guardian fighter with a mauler familiar can just grab undersized mount and ride his war hedhehog to battle. And then upgrade using improved familiar later into a dragon, or an imp, or anything that flies really.
The archetype only takes your first two feats (and improves your Bravery a bit) so it should be fairly easy to retrain into.
What book is this archtype in?
Ok, I've read the link. Many thanks but that has nothing to do with a mount. I'm not after a hummingbird or a cat or something that can be polymorphed into a mount, or even a pseudogragon with Improved Familiar. I'm after a *mount*.
Alternatives include
-Ranger-gets an animal companion about when horses become 1 shotted. Boon companion to boost horse. Plenty of archetypes to modify flavor.
-Cavalier and Samurai- Come with a mount, are effective in combat when off of mount, many different orders for different role play. Even an order of 'I don't want an order!'
-Barbarian- At least 2 barb archetypes have mounts. Barbarians are an amazing class.
-Inquisitors have multiple Inquisitions and Domains for animal companions/mounts.
Honestly, I am so close to a reroll right now. I could change him to a switch hitter ranger or a cavalier and barely notice the difference.
How much more powerful is a ranger's animal companion vs a monstrous cohort gained via Leadership? Surely a griffon with 12 barbarian levels would rip the face off an animal companion at level 20?
Animal companion would be weaker for sure.
All depends on how your DM feels about leadership. It's banned in my games and a player requesting a Gryphon with Barbarian levels would be laughed at.
Good Mounts include Horses, Wolves, Big Cats, Camels, anything that gets large actually.
We don't play PFS - all homebrew. My DM isn't anal and we generally just veto cheesy/bad ideas. He agreed a Griffon mount is one of the far less gratuitous abuses of Leadership (when compared to cohort/follower chains and magic item crafting machines or a druid mount :P).
I'd like to go a horse until level 6 at least and get Leadership, Griffon cohort (at 8th or whenever I qualify). I can deal with replacing horses for a few levels (I think....).
BTW the party druid has agreed to max out Handle Animal to assist with training said Griffon if required. :)
Man it would be fun to get both the Animal Companion, get the feat to make it a Griffon while also taking Leadership to get a Griffon.
If I was a Hunter, I'd totally do that, max out spells on both like Magic Fang, Animal Growth and have two Griffons ready to annihilate whatever stepped in your path.
Man it would be fun to get both the Animal Companion, get the feat to make it a Griffon while also taking Leadership to get a Griffon.
If I was a Hunter, I'd totally do that, max out spells on both like Magic Fang, Animal Growth and have two Griffons ready to annihilate whatever stepped in your path.
At that point I would think you would be better served as a hunter. Just too much teamwork synergy to ignore.
|
On a related topic I am wondering what animals that are legal for purchase in pfs are worth acquiring. They don't get the animal companion perks but they do have the Bestiary statistics. I know dire animals are not allowed and neither are dinosaurs (thank god) or megafauna. But are there any other creatures which as shown in the bestiary are worth shelling out some cash for in various situations, particularly combat or servicing as a mount?
On a related topic I am wondering what animals that are legal for purchase in pfs are worth acquiring. They don't get the animal companion perks but they do have the Bestiary statistics. I know dire animals are not allowed and neither are dinosaurs (thank god) or megafauna. But are there any other creatures which as shown in the bestiary are worth shelling out some cash for in various situations, particularly combat or servicing as a mount?
On it's own? No. Even with decent Handle Animal checks it doesn't scale well.
However, you can use them as a justification to obtain an Animal Companion/Monstrous Mount/Monstrous Cohort then they become much more desirable. Although the cost is often horrendous for your wealth relative to your level (3,500gp for a griffon egg, hippogriffs costing even more).
I've decided to ask my GM to let me modify my character to the Roughrider archtype. I'll need to change a feat and one skill around but overall I think this is a better with the campaign and *hopefully*, the feat investment will not be too significant I can use a few slots to round out the character (Skill Focus for example?).
Can someone advise what are the key feats I should get? The only mandatory ones I can see are:
Mounted Combat, Ride-by-Attack, Spirited Charge.
The highly desirables are: Mounted Skirmisher. Trick Riding is a feat tax since I will be wearing heavy armor most of the time but a pre-requisite for Mounted Skirmisher.
Anything I'm missing? Plan is to focus on using a lance for charging while mounted but switch to a bastard sword for up close combat or when dismounted, and maybe a composite longbow for range. Does this sound ok?