I can't think of anything for spears specifically that would help at this level (although Spear Dancer might be useful at a later level).
The best thing to focus on would be all the Attacks of oppportunity you get from having a reach weapon. You could try and get Combat Expertise to go for Improved and Greater Trip later. If you want to control the battlefield a bit more, you could get the Stand Still feat.
No idea about polearm specific feats. But in that sort of situation I grab either a pre-req or some generic feat that is always useful. My typical ones are:
dodge, improved initiative, toughness, weapon focus, misc +2 save feat, armor/weap proficiency, etc.
I've never been in a situation where I was saying to myself "Man, I wish I didn't have this extra HP/AC/saves"
Could also do something to focus on your mount. Mounted combat, skill focus ride, or some such.
Toughness for sure. You are still a d8 class.
Yeah, I was going to mention Toughness as well. Pads out your early survivability quite nicely.
If you want to control the battlefield a bit more, you could get the Stand Still feat.
Stand still is for adjacent squares only.
I mean...it probably still has its uses, since you have unarmed strikes... but no, it doesn't fit with the reach weapon.
I am wondering about the usefulness of Mounted Combat. I don't have a scaling mount so I will mostly be using vanilla warhorses.
Well, you could get a scaling mount. But that takes a few feats, and only fully comes on at level 7.
Animal ally basically gives you the ranger's animal companion features. With the same level-3. Animal ally requires at least level 4, which means you can only get it at level 5. And thus you have to wait until level 7 to get the feat to cover the -3.
But if you want to go this route, then you can grab nature's soul with this open feat slot, which covers the prerequisite for animal ally.
It could work out. A vanilla mount might just be patchable util level 7, since you gain monastic mount at level 4 (which lets you give the mount temporary hit points through the use of ki- enough to make it durable). And for 1-3... the horse is durable enough as is. Since you can grab a mount at level 5, it will slightly scale at level 6 before full scaling at level 7.
Anyway, since you would be using the ranger's animal companion feature, and it only really turns on all the way at level 7, you could grab a large wolf mount. This is just me throwing this out there, cause giant wolves.
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I am wondering about the usefulness of Mounted Combat. I don't have a scaling mount so I will mostly be using vanilla warhorses.Well, you could get a scaling mount. But that takes a few feats, and only fully comes on at level 7.
Animal ally basically gives you the ranger's animal companion features. With the same level-3. Animal ally requires at least level 4, which means you can only get it at level 5. And thus you have to wait until level 7 to get the feat to cover the -3.
But if you want to go this route, then you can grab nature's soul with this open feat slot, which covers the prerequisite for animal ally.
It could work out. A vanilla mount might just be patchable util level 7, since you gain monastic mount at level 4 (which lets you give the mount temporary hit points through the use of ki- enough to make it durable). And for 1-3... the horse is durable enough as is. Since you can grab a mount at level 5, it will slightly scale at level 6 before full scaling at level 7.
Anyway, since you would be using the ranger's animal companion feature, and it only really turns on all the way at level 7, you could grab a large wolf mount. This is just me throwing this out there, cause giant wolves.
You're a little mislead with the waiting till level 7, actually - the feat's prerequisites are 'character level 4th [or higher]', not anything to do with your effective Druid level for the animal companion - you can pick it up at 5th level if you want to, even with the -3 in effect.
You're a little mislead with the waiting till level 7, actually - the feat's prerequisites are 'character level 4th [or higher]', not anything to do with your effective Druid level for the animal companion - you can pick it up at 5th level if you want to, even with the -3 in effect.
Yes, but a 5-3 druid level is only a bit better than the vanilla warhorse that you just buy. It goes from a 2HD creature to a 3 HD creature, which only brings somewhat slight advantages when you are level 5. This also goes for 6-3, since the animal companion doesn't actually change between effective level 2 and effective level 3.
Thus, I view boon companion as a must. Especially since you are using the mount as something more than just a cheap bruiser, but as a piece of equipment to enable your mounted build. So, since you can't take that until the feat slot after getting animal ally, I view it as incomplete until level 7. Once you get that, the horse springs right from 3HD to 6HD.
Overall, it is fine to switch to the animal companion once you have animal ally, since it makes using handle animal easier... but past that, you don't see real advantages until level 7.
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You're a little mislead with the waiting till level 7, actually - the feat's prerequisites are 'character level 4th [or higher]', not anything to do with your effective Druid level for the animal companion - you can pick it up at 5th level if you want to, even with the -3 in effect.Yes, but a 5-3 druid level is only a bit better than the vanilla warhorse that you just buy. It goes from a 2HD creature to a 3 HD creature, which only brings somewhat slight advantages when you are level 5. This also goes for 6-3, since the animal companion doesn't actually change between effective level 2 and effective level 3.
Thus, I view boon companion as a must. Especially since you are using the mount as something more than just a cheap bruiser, but as a piece of equipment to enable your mounted build. So, since you can't take that until the feat slot after getting animal ally, I view it as incomplete until level 7. Once you get that, the horse springs right from 3HD to 6HD.
Overall, it is fine to switch to the animal companion once you have animal ally, since it makes using handle animal easier... but past that, you don't see real advantages until level 7.
Ah right, I see what you mean - yeah, definitely always go for boon companion :)