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Hello all,
I've never played a Cavalier or a mounted character really... The majority of my characters have been Support or Divine Casters. So, I'm a bit lost with how to build a decent Halfling Cavalier that works well mounted with dealing damage and keeping himself, his mount, and his allies alive.
Traits: Helpful
Racial Trait: Caretaker or Outrider? Which is best?
Stats: Best suggestion for Strength based Cavalier? I'd rather deal with the small penalty instead of spending extra feats. I'd like to use feats for more defensive or mounted stuff.
Orders: Order of the Dragon, Paw, or Sword?
Cavalier Archetypes: Honor Guard seems great, is it worth taking Emissary in conjunction or is the loss of tactician and banner too much? Free Mounted Combat, Mobility for myself and mount, and Trick Riding seems useful.
Character Concept: My main plan is to use Ride checks to prevent my mount from getting hit, to bodyguard my mount or nearby ally from attacks, my mount bodyguard or In Harm's Way to protect me from danger, and have decent focus on dishing out damage.
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So what pitfalls should I avoid and how can I make this bodyguarding mounted knight in shining armor kick butt and save lives?
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With Bodyguard's FAQ, you have to be careful with the positioning of your character. You must be threatening the enemy, as well as being adjacent to an ally who is also threatening the enemy to use the Bodyguard feat.
Other than that, here are some suggestions to assist you:
Ring of Tactical Position - Increases the Aid Another bonus by 1
Benevolent Armor Enchant - Increases the Aid Another for Armor Class bonus by the Armor's Enhancement bonus
Greater Guarding Shield Enchant - Reduce the Enhancement bonus to your shield to give the bonus to Adjacent Allies that stacks with their own bonuses
Cautious Fighter feat combined with the Blundering Defense feat - When Fighting Defensively, add half your Armor Class (Dodge) bonus as an Armor Class (Luck) to adjacent allies. This will result in a +2 bonus.
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So to jump start this, here's a few builds I've came up with so far. I'm not super familiar with Cavaliers, Mounted Combat, and whatnot but hopefully this gives an idea of what I'm kind of wanting.
Race: Halfling
Traits: Helpful, 1 Free
Stats-
Str: 14 (16-2)
Dex: 16 (14+2)
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 10 (8+2)
1) Cavalier 1: Bab +1 | Risky Striker (lvl 1), Mounted Combat (Gendarme)
2) Cavalier 2: Bab +2 |
3) Cavalier 3: Bab +3 | Combat Reflexes (lvl 3), Bodyguard (Honor Guard)
4) Cavalier 4: Bab +4 | +1 Str
5) Cavalier 5: Bab +5 | Indomitable Mount (lvl 5), Ride-By Attack (Gendarme)
6) Cavalier 6: Bab +6/+1 |
7) Cavalier 7: Bab +7/+2 | Shield Focus (lvl 7)
8) Cavalier 8: Bab +8 /+3 | Spirited Charge (Gendarme), +1 Str
9) Cavalier 9: Bab +9/+4 | Mounted Shield (lvl 9)
10) Cavalier 10: Bab +10/+5 |
11) Cavalier 11: Bab +11/+6/+1 | Missile Shield (lvl 11), Power Attack (Gendarme)
Race: Halfling
Traits: Helpful, 1 Free
Stats-
Str: 14 (16-2)
Dex: 16 (14+2)
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 10 (8+2)
1) Cavalier 1: Bab +1 | Ride-By Attack (lvl 1), Mounted Combat (Emissary)
2) Cavalier 2: Bab +2 |
3) Cavalier 3: Bab +3 | Combat Reflexes (lvl 3), Bodyguard (Honor Guard)
4) Cavalier 4: Bab +4 | Mobility (Emissary), +1 Str
5) Cavalier 5: Bab +5 | Indomitable Mount (lvl 5)
6) Cavalier 6: Bab +6/+1 | Spirited Charge (Cavalier bonus)
7) Cavalier 7: Bab +7/+2 | Power Attack (lvl 7)
8) Cavalier 8: Bab +8 /+3 | +1 Str
9) Cavalier 9: Bab +9/+4 | Shield Focus (lvl 9), Trick Riding (Emissary)
10) Cavalier 10: Bab +10/+5 |
11) Cavalier 11: Bab +11/+6/+1 | Mounted Shield (lvl 11)
Some feat retraining/shifting may be needed. Anything look wrong in the builds and is the Emissary route or the Gendarme route better overall? Emissary's trick riding allows me to possibly ignore 1 extra attack a round aimed at my mount.
Emissary:
1) Trick Riding (roll ride check vs 2 attacks a round to ignore dmg to Mount & usable with Medium Armor.)
2) No movement penalty when walking in medium armor.
Gendarme:
1) essentially 1 extra feat
2) retain Heavy Armor proficiency
3) retain Banner & Greater Banner class ability
Also, is Order of the Cockatrice worth it in conjunction with the Taunt feat and Shatter Defenses feat? I'm mainly considering Order of the Dragon or Paw but if Cockatrice is worth spending the feats it may be worth it?
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The Order of the Dragon's Aid Allies is a replacement effect to Aid Another. Since the Helpful race trait is also a replacement effect, they do not stack and you would get the one that is higher (the +4 instead of +2).
The Order of the Cocktrice's Braggart ability is helpful in reducing the attack roll of the enemy (Shaken condition), but requires a standard action to perform. With the previous suggestions that I had provided, that would prevent you from giving a few bonuses from those.
Shatter Defenses has a few conditions to it. The enemy must be shaken. You must hit the enemy. Once that occurs, then the opponent becomes flat-footed until the end your next turn. If you have difficulty intimidating an enemy, you might not have enough rounds to gain this advantage.
For example:
Round 1 - Intimidate
Round 2 - Attack
Round 3 - Attack vs Flat-Footed
You would need to have enough on your Intimidate roll (or Bluff roll if you chose the Taunt feat) to hit the threshold plus an additional 10 to reach to round 3. By that time, there might be a chance that the opponent is defeated.
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Strength based, Order of the sword in great for mounted damage. I like outrider because I like indominable mount.
I prefer to have spirited charge by level 3 when possible and power attack at 5.
You have a lot of immediate action abilities In harms way, Ride stuff just be cautious of those. I always have to remind myself if there is a caster always save them for Indominable Mount.