EndlessTravesties wrote:
Thoughts?
As someone who built a character only centered on a mount, let me tell you my story.
I had that 5-attack at level 1 animal that I could ride, and was truly pround of the theorical damage it could do.
Alas, if there was indeed some fights where my companion was devasting every foe in sight, I ran in aweful issues more than I was actually performing as good as on paper.
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First, there are indoor places. Some are not reported as hostile from the beginning and people tell you that you can't enter with your animal inside... some are just too narrow to ride...
There are also moments when an animal doesn't have the possibility to reach the foes. I was using a flying animal and roofs became a huge problem, but you can imagine just an archer in a tree for you: your cat won't be able to climb with an armored adventurer on his back, so it's powerless.
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Then, companions have low hp for frontliners. No D12 hp, no 1 hit dice per level ratio...
Long story short: My animal felt into negative hp an amazing amount of times since the begging on the campaign when using it has a main frontliner and not just a helper... and... that's a companion who had 31 buffed AC as soon as level 3!
You say your one have 23 AC, my feeling is that he could get butchered in a blink of eye until, I'll say, level 8.
Which is quite a long time for a build only focused on that animal.
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After this, another problem occured when levels grew: Spellcasters.
Any decent medium-level spellcaster tend to try to disable a melee by throwing mind affecting spells at him, and animals have all weak will saves.
When your animal is hit by a confusion or domination effect, you suddently wish he would not make so much damage, and be a bit more tougher. You also wish you could strike it with non-lethal damage efficiently.
And if you're the one hit with a disabling effect, that's almost worst.
Your animal will not recieve orders from you in that state, and you DM will then perhaps refuse that you make him do any intelligent strategical move.
Your animal could just run in a trap that his intellect is not enough to figure, with you on his back. Or flee. Or confuse an allied NPC for a foe... whatever.
Without your guidance, it's just a strong animal after all, and riding him put you in range of ALL the nastier save-or-suck spells in every spellcaster list... meani g this IS going to happen.
Believe me. I experienced that, and it hurts. A lot.
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So, long story short...
From my experience, build a character that do not do anything relevant without his animal companion is just a terrible idea.
When the companion can act, even if he's good, you're dividing your potential per 2.... and when he can't, you become just a dead weight for your party.
The best rider, in my opinion, and now the one of my party, is the rider which is dangerous on foot... and even deadlier on his mount.
Why just do 5 attacks per round when you could do 5 from your mount, then 4 from yourself, for exemple?
My character is now a riding spellcaster. Her bird does 5 attack per round WHILE she hit the other targets with a fireball during the same round.
Ok, I had to sacrifice some power of my animal to get my character efficient without the help of her pet... but as a combination, they became a lot deadlier like that, and much more able to handle special annoying situations.
A standard sohei would also outdamage your pet by combining his mount damage and the flurry of blows he can do with a simple lance.
Or by doing a spirited pounce charge.
