Cavalier with a Scythe.... viable?

[DmonicPlague]

Going for a "Horseman of the Apocalypse" vibe with a new character in 1e. Is this build a good idea? bad idea? Any problems I should be aware of?

[VoodistMonk]

Are you going to be a Centaur... you know, a "horse-man" of the apocalypse?

So, a Centaur that worships Apollyon... got it.

Do you have any specific archetypes or Orders in mind?

Order of the Beast (from Inner Sea Combat) seems fitting.

Order of the Cockatrice could be legit... especially if you have someone who worships Desna and has Butterfly Sting.

Order of the Flame is always interesting for its Glorious Challenge...

[Wonderstell]

If you're specifically going for a charging build then you'll be noticeably behind in damage compared to a Lancer. And missing out on the Reach property isn't stellar. Other than that you'll be fine. There are plenty of builds that don't rely on charging.

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There is however an interesting opportunity available to you. At level 6 the Qadiran Horselord allows you to deal double damage with any one-handed slashing weapon during a mounted charge, as if it was a Lance. So triple damage if you have Spirited Charge and use an undersized scythe.

Then you take the Divine Fighting Technique feat for Urgathoa's Hunger:

Quote:

A number of times per day equal to your Wisdom bonus, you can feast upon the life essence of a creature that you hit with a scythe. Activating this ability is a swift action. When you do so, you gain a number of temporary hit points equal to the damage you dealt with the scythe attack. These temporary hit points last for 1 minute and don’t stack.

So while the action economy with Challenge can be a bit wonky, when you pull it off you get a ludicrous amount of temp HP. Urgathoa is also thematically a surprisingly good deity for a "Horseman of the Apocalypse" build. The favored weapon being Scythe leads you to obvious connotations, but her areas of concern are both disease and gluttony, in addition to having the War domain. That's all four in one swoop.

The Irongrip Gauntlets reduces the size penalty to 0 for 4,000 GP. So start out with a normal sized scythe and switch to an undersized one when you get the level 6 ability and can afford the gauntlets.

[Derek Dalton]

Wonderstell's idea is interesting. Here's a couple things to consider with mounts. Most are large so ill suited for dungeons. Undersize Mount is nice but as a medium cavalier you can't get a small mount. Now Wolf rider you can switch to a medium wolf and travel through dungeons. A small cavalier does lower your damage output but spells and magic can off set that.
Now another idea is this which does work. A cavalier gets an ability called Expert Trainer. You need that for the feat Horse Master. You can get that at sixth level. You take that and your total character level counts for mount abilities. You then go Sohei Monk. You get mount related feats as monk feats. You spend a Ki point and your mount gets your monk abilities as well.