I'm looking to build a light cavalryman to use as a gypsy caravan guard, but I'm not sure what the best way to do this would be. I'm thinking some alternate build of a cavalier, but I'm not sure. I want to avoid heavy armor and build something more like a Dothraki with decent social skills than a Western knight, skinned as a flashy gypsy type. Any suggestions on the best way to build this character concept?
This is for a home game of RotRL with a gypsy themed party. 3PP material might be permissible as long as it isn't too broken.
Then you want a Qadiran Horselord archetype (I am putting the link text directly since I am getting some weird thing with links; remove a space found around the first %20 : http://www.archivesofnethys.com/ArchetypeDisplay.aspx?FixedName=Cavalier%20 Qadiran%20Horselord)
This cavalier archetype lets you get the double damage lance thing with 1 handed slashing weapons instead. That lets you get a weapon that is much more distinctly Dothraki, no?
It is also cool since it gives you spring attack while mounted, and that spring attack counts as a charge. This archetype is all about high mobility while getting a lot of damage.
Thanks! I think I'm going to use the Horselord archetype. I had no idea these options existed, thanks for the help.
Interesting.
I will note, the reason why lightly armored mounted troops were important is because they were fast. They could quickly harry enemies where they thought they were unchallenged. In Pathfinder, mounted combat does not represent this well.
So long as your mount can carry the weight (which is relatively trivial for quadrapeds) they can move just as fast whether they have a knight is 50 lbs of armor and are wearing chain themselves as they can if their rider is unarmored as well as them. There isn't much a difference between armored and unarmored riders as far as the rules are concerned.
Interesting, though i feel the racer doesn't do enough to show the difference. Especially when the charger can get to a point where he has full normal movement in heavy armor and be only 10ft slower than the racer.
I like the emissary archetype for cavaliers. The moving in full speed while wearing medium armor ability at level 1 is a great selling point.