Hello, I have a friend who is interested in playing a cavalier whenever I get around to running another Pathfinder game. However, many adventure paths tend to have large sections that are either dungeons or other indoor areas that aren't really suited to horses. I've heard Kingmaker is great for mounted combat and I am considering running it as my next PF campaign, but I was curious if there were any other APs that allow cavaliers the opportunity to make use of their mounts?
Jade Regent!
Unfortunately, a great deal of Adventure Paths have at least a few dungeons and similar areas where a mount's mobility (and thus the Cavalier's effectiveness) is limited.
Kingmaker might be the only one to support Cavaliers both thematically and in stats. Carrion Crown and Jade Regent seem fitting, the former for a knight and the latter for a samurai.
Jade Regent spends a lot of time indoors. There are many caravan-combat battles, but by default you're supposed to use caravan-combat rules for them, in which case it doesn't really matter what your character is. (Many GMs convert these to regular combat so it's unpredictable what it will be like in a given campaign.)
On the plus side, the majority of buildings in JR use 10-foot wide doors and corridors so your horse can at least physically get around.
Kingmaker might be the only one to support Cavaliers both thematically and in stats. Carrion Crown and Jade Regent seem fitting, the former for a knight and the latter for a samurai.
Note that the intended theme of Jade Regent is a group of Westerners going to explore the exotic and mysterious Orient, so "I'll play as a samurai" doesn't necessarily work as well as most people assume.
Isn't a key NPC (Ameiko) of Eastern descent though?
Jade Regent is unfortunately out until the group plays through Runelords.
I'll definitely check Giantslayer out. It seems cool in a classic sort of way.
Out of curiosity, what about Wrath of the Righteous and cavaliers? I've toyed with the idea of running a non-mythic version of it and I was wondering if it was cavalier friendly?
Wrath of the Righteous is more Paladin-friendly.
And it might work, considering demons tend to be bigger than Medium size.
I have not checked it out enough to be fully sure of that claim however. It also has balance issues.
Do you have specific character in mind? A small sized cavalier will have a Medium sized mount fitting everywhere the Medium sized party fits.
Also there's a feat in the advanced class guide that allows you to ride smaller mounts :-)
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The first half of Serpent's Skull is mostly outdoors iirc. Haven't read the last 3 modules, but I get the impression that they're mostly dungeons. SS isn't very popular and a lot of groups lose interest part way through, so by the time you're getting to the dungeon heavy parts of the AP you might be starting a new campaign. Not really sure whether to recommend it or not, though the 1st module is pretty awesome as a standalone.
I don't know for sure what exactly his race will be. He doesn't usually play small races though, so I'll probably have to account for a large mount. The feats in the Advanced Players Guide sound like they might help that problem though.
Thank you all for the responses. You've all been very helpful! :)
First of all, the size of a dungeon differs; for example, most Thassilonian dungeons/ruins were made with dragons in mind, that means that a medium PC with a large mount should be ok.
Secondly check out this feat.
Now about APs that can accomodate large mounts:
1) Kingmaker (there are still some dungeons that are either too small to really use a mount in combat and/or have parts that a mount won't be able to cross easily, fortunately there are magic solutions* for the latter)
2) Jade Regent** (again there are a few of spots that share the above problem)
3) RotRL (at books 3+ you have no issue)
4) Wrath of the Righteous (at books 2+ you have almost no problem)
5) Shattered Star (at books 4+ you should have no real issues)
*the paladin's ability to summon his mount is one of those magical solutions, the pokeball armor is another, that spell is another one (i find that it works best in scroll form).
**just ditch the caravan rules and maybe the relationship rules
I played a Cavalier for all of Serpent's Skull but I was using the Huntsmaster Archtype which trades the Hourse in for 1 or more hunting animals (Dogs or Birds, split Companion levels between how many you have).
That choice of Archtype can really alter your approach to the class. IF you are worried about where your mount can go there are several that de-emphasize it or remove it entierly
I ran a horse cavalier all the way through Serpent's Skull, but I had a homebrew Carry Companion item.
Reign of Winter has alot out doorsyness, and most of the urban enviroments later on are build for giants and trolls to be able to move through, so mounts should haven't too much trouble.
The most restrictive parts of Reign of Winter for Large creatures such as animal companions and mounts (not to mention a certain winter wolf) are, ironically enough, Baba Yaga's hut.