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tuesdayscoming
2010-05-23, 01:36 AM
So a character I'm running is about to hit her 5th level of paladin (PoTyranny variant), and I'm trying to think of a fitting mount for her. I'm the DM, but I don't want anything HUGELY broken.

She's a dancer with 24 charisma and the social skills to go with it, Able Learner for hide/move silently (taking the Shadow Cloak Knight sub level from CoV at 6 for HiPS – even though she's not a gnome). Additionally, she binds Focalor every day.

Her god is a homebrewed deity – though he's a pseudo-pantheon in his own right. A god of shadows and dreams who, as a result of his punishment at the hands of a god of light, has forgotten himself entirely. In a nutshell he constantly dreams of who or what he might have been, and these possible-selves manifest in the world as vestiges. His followers worship these vestiges, and acclaimed priests will occasionally take levels in binder to commune directly with an aspect of their god.

Any ideas as to a mount that might work well thematically? Additionally, does anyone know how paladins are officially supposed to come about their mounts? I've looked around a bit, but there seems to be some debate about it. And if you do have to find them in campaign, have any ideas as to cool ways to do so?

Anxe
2010-05-23, 11:27 AM
Well at 5th level the only mount you can really make into a Special Mount is a horse or dog. It may make sense at later levels to slap the pseudonatural template onto it or some other outsider template. Maybe that Shadow template cause your deity is a shadow god.

As for how Paladin's get their mounts, yes it does depend on the campaign. Ask your DM!

Vizzerdrix
2010-05-23, 12:08 PM
One of the dragon mags had the chocobo in it as a paladin mount. what about that?

Caphi
2010-05-23, 12:14 PM
A paladin of 6th level or higher can use a celestial heavy warhorse, dire wolf hippogriff, Large monstrous spider, Large shark, unicorn, celestial warpony, dire bat, dire badger, dire weasel, or giant lizard as a mount.
At 7th level, the dire boar, dire wolverine, giant eagle, giant owl, pegasus, rhinoceros, and sea cat become available.
At 8th level, a paladin can use a dire lion or griffon as a mount.

You just have to shift the mount table up a level or so if she takes one of these. I kinda like the dire bat. They're big, scrappy, vaguely dark-themed, and can fly.

Jyrnn
2010-05-23, 12:59 PM
Shadow Creature, as Anxe mentioned, would fit your homebrew Deity as well the stealth focus of your player. Any animal mount its applied to gains a handful of neat abilities: Cold resistance, Shadow Blend, +50% movement speed, as well one additional ability per 4 HD of which fast healing 2 is an example.

Its notable that its a template that doesn't spike a creatures AC or physical stats into ranges that put front line PCs to shame.

I was sidetracked by the idea of Shadow Creature Unicorn but that might be a bit much for free.

On a side note does the Paladin gain her Binding ability from a dip into Binder or through the feats that give access to a vestige? Its been awhile since I cracked the ToM and I'm always interested in new paladin builds.

742
2010-05-23, 02:11 PM
reflavor? make something weak and flying? or an unnamed maybe a shadow critter of some sort (maybe a mini-avatar or divine servant type thing? the mini-avatar makes sense for a diety whos kind of in pieces and you could even give it different abilities whenever you felt like it and have it fit with backstory) that can cloak itself with illusions, snag the combat stats from a critter just a touch weaker than normal paladin mounts of that level (or just take one of those and subtract one from everything) and there ya go. add in other abilities as appropriate and remember: until the players figure out whats going on retcon can be applied without danger*

*while its probably best to just avoid the need for it that can be really really hard sometimes with those god damn PCs mixed up in things and the obligation to maintain a coherent plot.

and why not take the clerics of this diety and just sub out turn undead and/or domain(s) for limited binding ability?

Kobold-Bard
2010-05-23, 02:27 PM
At level 6 the Manual of the Planes has a variant that gives your Mount the Celestial (your one would obviously get Fiendish) template. Then get a rhino that because of the template is black and red and snorts steam.

Proceed to scare the **** out of people by charging at them :smallcool:

nyarlathotep
2010-05-23, 04:23 PM
Actually substitute mounts are in the DMG

Greymane
2010-05-23, 05:00 PM
Actually substitute mounts are in the DMG

nyarlathotep speaks the truth. There are also guidelines in there to make most any creature a paladin mount. As a warning, it uses the CR system, so sometimes you get amazing results, and others... not so much.

TheThan
2010-05-23, 07:27 PM
We had a paladin that rode a buffalo into battle it was pretty cool. Unfortunately he got eaten by a dragon.

WeLoveFireballs
2010-05-23, 10:14 PM
Giant Bunny is the best mount ever! It was a dire bat (large) but then came 5 imps with wands of wonder. Acted as 6 HD dire rat but was large and climb and swim skills were switched to jump. We did make an extra one out of a chest accidentally so you can rationalize with your DM that it managed to get past the dead fish, gnome with transplanted demons soul in it, flaming centipedes, dead dwarves, two tailed cat and convinced Ed (god of Limbo) to return it to the mortal plane just in time for it to become a paladin mount!

My my aren't 2nd ed wands of wonder something.:smallbiggrin:

vicente408
2010-05-24, 01:18 AM
Why a celestial giant spider hasn't been suggested yet is beyond me. :smallamused: Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

Keld Denar
2010-05-24, 01:29 AM
A Nightmare would be thematirically appropriate for a PoTyranny, but is probably in the realm of level -9 at least. Maybe your DM could put together a progression for a Nightmare where you get a flaming horse at level 5, and the full abilities of the Nightmare by level 10 or so.

Hint hint, if you do this, find a way to plane shift to another plane, and then have the Nightmare Astrally Project you and it onto the prime. That keeps you from being bothered by mundane things like...dying and stuff.

tuesdayscoming
2010-05-24, 01:40 AM
Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate it!



On a side note does the Paladin gain her Binding ability from a dip into Binder or through the feats that give access to a vestige? Its been awhile since I cracked the ToM and I'm always interested in new paladin builds.

Just through the feats, as it stands right now. I'm in the process of reworking the character a bit, though, which brings me to the next quote:



and why not take the clerics of this diety and just sub out turn undead and/or domain(s) for limited binding ability?

That's an interesting idea, actually. This is the first campaign I've run in 3.5, though, and I'm not quite sure I'm familiar enough with the balance to execute that fairly. Any ideas as to what might work? And, if I'm gonna be diving into the world of homebrew head first, I might as well think about your idea of reworking the mount into a "mini-avatar" – as you put it. Maybe something like subbing the paladin mount for the shadowdancer's shadow pet? Something even more drastic could work, I suppose. Any thoughts as to fitting critters?

I had thought about the shadow template, additionally. I'm still thinking; it works thematically, and I may very well wind up adding it, but I'm not convinced yet. The celestial spider's a cool idea, too, but not quite what I'm looking for. Maybe it's just that I hate spiders, who knows?

Again, thanks for the ideas, guys!

[edit]
A Nightmare would be thematirically appropriate for a PoTyranny, but is probably in the realm of level -9 at least. Maybe your DM could put together a progression for a Nightmare where you get a flaming horse at level 5, and the full abilities of the Nightmare by level 10 or so.

Hint hint, if you do this, find a way to plane shift to another plane, and then have the Nightmare Astrally Project you and it onto the prime. That keeps you from being bothered by mundane things like...dying and stuff.

Again, I AM the DM, but I don't want to break this character outright, and unless I rework the pally mechanic entirely (bindingbindingbinding), I very much doubt that this character will end up taking more than 6 levels of pally. Nightmares are always a hit, though.

Additionally, planar travel is extremely limited in my world, and such a feat as that (if it's even possible) has certainly never been pulled off successfully. Astral Project is too broken to let live.