Among my own friends, the Cavalier has long been a pitiable creature: outshone by its variants (The Samurai) and Archetypes, or relegated to niche builds (gnome/halfling lance charge cheese).
But how might we really make it work, as originally intended? What if someone, perhaps after playing with the Alain pregen, decided to keep going? What can a Cavalier really do that isn't done better by a Fighter or a Paladin? And how might a Cavalier succeed in a dungeon crawl, where they are likely deprived of their mount?
To begin to answer my own question, a brief overview of what the Cavalier has going for him/her:
- Full BAB progression
- 4+INT Skill points her level, on par with the Ranger
- Free combat-trained, light-armor proficient horse at 1st level
- No ACP on Ride checks while riding their own mount.
- Free Teamwork feat; can give this feat to the party 1/day.
- Some incredible mounted charge bonuses
And the downsides:
- Only one good save (compare to Paladin and Ranger, with two good saves, full BAB, and partial spellcasting).
- Mounted combat is a niche in a game where so much action happens indoors or underground.
- Technically speaking, the Inquisitor gets a better deal on Teamwork feats.
- Fewer bonus feats than a Fighter
- Financially responsible for outfitting themselves *and* a mount from 1st level
I notice there's no mention of the Challenge ability, or the Cavalier's order, in your "pro" section. Even the base Cavalier can be a more than capable combatant. But the thing to remember is the Cavalier is partially a support class. You can't build a base Cavalier in a vacuum. Think about how you can play to the strengths of the party.
Ranger has 6+INT for skills. so not on par with ranger in skills.
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You forgot about the cavalier Order, as well as the Challenge ability, which are both the MOST potent aspects of the class. Yeah, some of the mount stuff is nice, but the cavalier can do things very few martials can do without archetypes (at which point, we open up the Cavalier options, too).
First off, challenge is legit. It's like a weaker Smite Evil that works on more targets, and in some cases further improves your abilities or the abilities of your allies, again dependent upon your order.
Order of the Dragon makes one of the simplest, most effective martial supports in the game. Bodyguard becomes a GREAT feat choice, you get the ability to give your allies free movement, and eventually a free charge! Plus, your challenge buffs your allies as well. It's fantastic.
Order of the Cockatrice pairs well with your other melee allies, as most allies like to rock high crit weapons. Just more attacks for you, and even a little crowd control with free access to Dazzling Display.
Really, I could keep going. The fact is that all of these things usually come in ADDITION to their mounted prowess, and small-sized cavaliers are not cheesy by any means. The only argument that cavaliers might be lacking is next to Samurai, but even then they get better mounted benefits than Samurai.
In the end, Cavalier is probably my favorite melee class, just because they can be built so many different ways, even with the various mounted combat abilities.
An important question to ask when making a Cavalier is
"How does my party fight?"
Your teamwork feats and your order, should be chosen so that they compliment the group. Best way to handle that is to discuss it with the group find out how people like to fight and what can make them better.
Things like Escape route, Precise Strike or Outflank are really nice to be able to grant your allies if they are a mobile melee group that likes to use flanking.
But if you go and take Phalanx Fighting for your Tactics, they aren't going to appricate you as much.
Likewise if you have a Two weapon barbarian who loves Power Attack and Bloody assault and other things that drop his to hit to inflict more pain. He is going to like having an Order of the Dragon Cavalier with bonus to hit challenge and extra potent Aid another. There are a couple of ways to get Aid another down to a swift action too.
I think the cavalier has a lot going for it. Order of the sword pumps a save as long as you role play, order of the dragon is great for aupport, and I like order of the shield a lot. The AOO that stops them in their tracks is really cool and pairs well with the large size when mounted and the lance with reach.
Plus base cavalier can still get a tricked out mount if he's a half orc, which (by raw, even though I'd allow it in my game) a paladin can't do. Rhino-knights are way cooler than fighters.
The biggest point against cavaliers is the whole no-mounts in dungeons thing. There are several ways around this: hostelling Armor until you get to the big boss fight room, the undersized mount feat paired with the reduce animal spell (my personal favorite), or playing a small race, which I don't think is cheesy. However, the real way around this is to just talk to your GM before picking to play a cav. If your GM thinks dungeons are too spooky for your horse (or battle elephant if you're green) or that staircases and ladders are absolute barriers to animal progress, consider playing something else. Few things are as frustrating as spending 3 feats to get spirited charge and then having your GM shut you down with a DC 0 rope climb that he decides your buddy can't make because of his hooves.
I left out Challenge largely because it struck me as kind of an inferior version of the Paladin's Smite, but you're right, I should have put it on the list. The Order benefits seem variable; some of the skills given are very useful, some less so, and the level-based benefits are pretty divergent and really effect your character build, so I didn't think they fit on a 'general' list of benefits.
FWIW, I still think they're getting robbed on saving throws, but I digress. This is supposed to be about effective base Cavalier builds. I'd thought of an Intimidate-focused Order of the Cockatrice build, but for the life of me I can't really think of why that concept would work better as a Cavalier and not, say, a Fighter or Brawler.
Any good suggestions for Teamwork feats? They all seem so situational and involve considerable work to set up.
Any good suggestions for Teamwork feats? They all seem so situational and involve considerable work to set up.
It doesn't seem like much but I find Escape Route to be a really damn handy all-purpose choice for Tactician. When someone is in a pinch and needs to get the Hell out of a corner, being able to create a path of safe movement for them is a godsend, also very nice for closing in on something with long reach.
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FWIW, I still think they're getting robbed on saving throws, but I digress. This is supposed to be about effective base Cavalier builds. I'd thought of an Intimidate-focused Order of the Cockatrice build, but for the life of me I can't really think of why that concept would work better as a Cavalier and not, say, a Fighter or Brawler.
For this one the big deal is Dazzling Display as a standard action, giving you a good option for moving about and effecting the battle when you can't dig in your heels and full attack. Plus, much like how your teamwork feats benefit the party, your save-or-die casters will love you for slapping that -2 to saves on everybody.
Mounts in unusual terrain can be an issue yes, but there are dozens of ways around it. Plus Large sized enemies are fairly common; In my personal experience from PFS, dungeons tend to be fairly accommodating by to bigger folks.
If nothing else, it has enough bonus feats to get it's signature combat style off the ground at a reasonable pace and it skips that abhorred 2 skill point per level malarkey (on a non Int based caster) that forces people to feel kind of like one note wonders. If you see it as a really strange Fighter archetype with an animal companion and built-in story hooks then it looks a lot prettier.
I don't know if the teamwork thing is necessarily bad compared to the inquisitor's... done well, it can be great.
For example, if you take a 1 level dip into a full BAB class (or 2 levels in anything else, perhaps arcaheologist bard for large and consistant boost to skills), you can sync things up so you can grab coordinated charge with tactician.
That means that you give a feat that allows for immediate action charges...to everyone. Coordinate it well, you practically gave everyone POUNCE (with an extra attack). And at the very least, you mount can ready a charge to give you a free pseudo pounce.
Oh, and in general, challenge can be fairly great since it has an extension option- chain challenge allows you to declair a new challenge for free when your first dies. Some restrictions; cha mod based, and range problems...but still, that is pretty good since your challenge ability carries large damage bonuses and various things like party buffs.
The will save is not a major problem- with the right racial alt trait, trait, and feat, I can make caster clerics jealous of you until high levels.