Paladin's Mount Feats

[Turelim]

Hi Guys, i am asking for some help from you.

In my ongoing adventure i'm a paladin which is specializing in mounted combat... i have a good strategy to improve the HD of my mount, the problem is i don't know which feats are good for the mount so it can be very helpful in combat.

Suggestions or ideas?, i'm thinking of making my mount like a sidekick...

[Coidzor]

The Mount Handbook has a section on feats for mounts.

Partially it has to do with exactly what you're planning on doing, though mobility and survivability are always good.

[Turelim]

yeah i checked that post, but i was thinking of getting more suggestions...

[Xerlith]

Mount handbook.

EDIT: well. Swordsaged.

[Coidzor]

Well, what do you want to do and what do you want the mount to be doing while you're doing it?

Flying Ubercharger putting all of your focus into one big hit with lots of multipliers on damage in general and power attack damage in particular? Going to try to make Ride-By Attack work?

What are you thinking of having as the base creature for the mount anyway?

[Turelim]

Well, what do you want to do and what do you want the mount to be doing while you're doing it?

Flying Ubercharger putting all of your focus into one big hit with lots of multipliers on damage in general and power attack damage in particular? Going to try to make Ride-By Attack work?

What are you thinking of having as the base creature for the mount anyway?

I'm taking a heavy warhorse as mount, right now i have levels in planar ranger (celestial template for animal companion), and the feat Devouted Tracker (CA), so i can add my ranger's animal companion benefits to it. apart of that i have the feat Holy Mount (Dragon #325) so all divine class levels are added as paladin levels for calculating bonus on mount.

My idea is to doing mounted combat all the time (riding combat style in Dragon #341), if i'm not able to do that then combat side-by-side with my mount.
because of my feats selection, i will have space for more feats for the mount, that's why i'm asking for suggestions.

[GilesTheCleric]

I'll add my voice to the mount handbook.

If you want to see something like that in action, I'm currently working through a build.

If you don't want to do much work and just make your mount better, there's not much you really need to do beyond taking devoted tracker and appropriate classes. Grab the mounted combat feat chain, and you're set.

[Turelim]

thanks for all your suggestions... i think i will take some feat from the mounted handbook, meanwhile i think i will check some attack feats so my mount is more capable to fight alone.

[GilesTheCleric]

An easy way to make it capable of fighting alone might be going down the leadership route. Give your mount some levels in focused specialist conjurer so it can grab abrupt jaunt and dimension door, or go with the standard barbarian pounce, perhaps. The more mobility it has, the better it will be able to work with you.

[NoACWarrior]

If your mount has an extra feat and you want to do something completely different, you could spring for shape soulmeld.

Yeah yeah its listed as an average choice in the guide.

I sifted through the tables and found a few interesting soulmelds (I find that its faster than MoI's soulmeld section) here

Some good ones which can synergize with your mount -

Airstep Sandals - 10 ft of flying - must end up on a solid surface, but allows you to bypass things like short walls which your horse couldn't normally jump over (only take when you know you are facing pretty serious obstacles and can't ride or jump check them), essentia will increase the distance

Cerulean Sandals - Walk on water - great for when you have to literally gallop to the pirate ship or when you have an evil temple island in the middle of a lake and don't want to bother with boats (who has boats these days anyways), essentia will increase base land speed as well

Lucky Dice - +1 luck to all allies within x feet to one type of action chance to make it all types - great because the mount normally has unused swift actions, and having it give everyone +1 luck to thier actions isn't bad for the action cost, essentia will increase the numbers of rounds this is active for

Dread Carapace - +2 damage on bite and +1 on other natural attacks (taking -1 penalty on attack rolls), essentia increases the damage

Winter Mask - natural attacks (yes nat attacks deliver touch effects) can fatigue targets (ask your DM if you can stack fatigue to cause exhaustion), essentia adds extra subdual damage

Blink Shirt - 10 ft DD, essentia adds more distance (this is how your mount will avoid being munched on while alive)

Thunderstep Boots - +1d4 sonic damage on a charge, essentia adds more damage

If you could get your mount some kind of essentia, then a lot of these options would become even better.

edit lucky dice doesn't work like that!!

[Coidzor]

An easy way to make it capable of fighting alone might be going down the leadership route. Give your mount some levels in focused specialist conjurer so it can grab abrupt jaunt and dimension door, or go with the standard barbarian pounce, perhaps. The more mobility it has, the better it will be able to work with you.

Best to keep Paladin Special Mounts, especially when they have Animal Companion HD, separate from Cohorts, because the RHD and Bonus HD and LAs don't leave much room for class levels. If one wants to have a cohort mount, it's generally best to go with a Druid or Wildshaping Ranger/MoMF with the odd dip.

I'd recommend against a Ranger Animal Companion getting tacked onto a Paladin Special Mount though, not unless you're taking a level in Beastmaster and then progressing through Lion of Talisid or the like. You don't need the Ranger levels to get the celestial Template on your mount though, you can grab it through the Celestial Mount feat(Book of Exalted Deeds). Or you could convince your DM to allow your mount to be able to take a feat like Otherworldly(player's guide to faerun) and make it an outsider that way(which should improve its RHD, bypassing the restrictions on its Magical Beast Typing that restrict it to Animal BAB/Saves/HD size/skill points). The fact that they don't automatically come with the Celestial template despite coming from the celestial planes always rubbed me the wrong way, I must admit.

Although going with the Dragon Steed feat from Dragonomicon will also change the mount's type to Dragon and give it better skill points, BAB, HD size.

[ShurikVch]

Mighty Steed (from the DL supplement Knightly Orders of Ansalon). A mount with this feat counts as one size category larger for determining carrying capacity and the minimum size of its rider. It lets a Medium character ride a Medium mount, and lets a kobold with Slight Build ride a pseudodragon.

[Piggy Knowles]

Martial Study (Leading the Attack), Martial Stance (Leading the Charge), Martial Study (White Raven Tactics). Now your mount grants everyone +1/2 HD bonus damage on all charges, and can use its swift action to give you or another party member an extra set of actions once an encounter.