Cleric with Paladin Mount

[Babale]

I'm about to play in a game as a LG Paladin and a LE Battle Cleric have been bonded together. During the day, the Paladin rules, while at night, the Cleric does. I want them to be evil opposites, which is nice and easy, but I have one problem: I need a mount for the cleric. I want him to have some sort of nasty, giant spider. Are there any feats or alternate class features that will give a (human) cleric a paladin mount?

[Frozen_Feet]

Wild Cohort and Leadership feats can get you a mount.

[Babale]

Starting at level 4. I suppose I could wait until level 6, but the backstory kinda calls for a mount...

[Frozen_Feet]

Wild Cohort can be taken at 1st level and nets you an animal companion akin to a druid or ranger, but no spiders on the list, unfortunately. You could get a horse, though.

[Treblain]

Drow of the Underdark cleric ACF lets you rebuke and command vermin including spiders. Track down a giant spider and wrangle it under your control. A large Monstrous Spider has four HD, so you should be able to command it.

[Half-orc Bard]

can't you get a paladin mount with the prestige paladin http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/prestigiousCharacterClasses.htm

[Flickerdart]

DMG page 204 gives a Large Monstrous Spider as appropriate for a 6th level Paladin to ride. The alternate Paladins didn't exist at the time, so this rule was made with the LG Paladin in mind. Therefore, you could rebuke a spider, then declare it your Paladin mount when you hit the appropriate level.

[Safety Sword]

Dammit, I got excited when I thought this thread was going to be about a Cleric with a Paladin for a mount.

That would be the best use of Dominate ever.

[Flickerdart]

Dammit, I got excited when I thought this thread was going to be about a Cleric with a Paladin for a mount.

That would be the best use of Dominate ever.
Play an intelligent item Cleric/Prestige Paladin, take a Paladin as a mount, have him wield you, grant him bonuses, profit.

[navar100]

Ask your DM for a House Rule to trade away one Domain for Bonded Mount class feature for your cleric.

Not every idea needs to have an official rule printed in a book.

[mootoall]

Not every idea needs to have an official rule printed in a book.

Problem: We don't know his DM.

Solution: Find the closest thing in the official rules to support whatever requests he might have.

Problem Solved.

[Flickerdart]

Ask your DM for a House Rule to trade away one Domain for Bonded Mount class feature for your cleric.

Not every idea needs to have an official rule printed in a book.
That's...a ridiculous deal. A domain is worth about as much as a feat (see: the flaw that loses one, Domain Devotions), while a Special Mount is considerably better than a Wild Cohort, the feat equivalent. And think about where that would put Paladins - now the Cleric has their Special Mount too, in addition to twice the spells and better turning.

[Lord.Sorasen]

That's...a ridiculous deal. A domain is worth about as much as a feat (see: the flaw that loses one, Domain Devotions), while a Special Mount is considerably better than a Wild Cohort, the feat equivalent. And think about where that would put Paladins - now the Cleric has their Special Mount too, in addition to twice the spells and better turning.

Maybe losing both domains? Or perhaps losing turning even?

On a note, why have you chosen to use cleric? Is there specific crunch that interests you? Because otherwise you might consider a paladin of tyranny, which is SRD. It's essentially a lawful evil Paladin, and would have a special mount as an LG paladin.

[Elric VIII]

Starting at level 4. I suppose I could wait until level 6, but the backstory kinda calls for a mount...

I just feel I should point this out: At level 4 you won't have a mount on your Paladin side either, they don't get one until level 5.

That being said, how is this characetr being run? Gestalt or 2 different characters that inhabit the same body (i.e. - Does the BAB, saves, spellcasting, etc all change when the personality does)?

Because is you're going for Gestalt, a Paladin/Cleric 4 can qualify for Bone Knight at 4 (requires +4 BAB) and you get a skeletal version of the Paladin special mount that even stacks with Paladin levels.

[Babale]

Stats change with personality. And I want to go Cleric for 2 reasons:
1) Building 2 Paladins is boring
2) I rolled badly for the Evil side, and I figure Battlecleric will let me catch up.

[Coidzor]

Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) combined with this alternate animalvermin companion list. (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040705a)

Can get you a Medium-sized Monstrous Spider at 1st level.

So if you're using a small-sized character, you're golden.

Also, dragon magazine material, but ranger knight of furyondy gives you a paladin mount of a 6th level paladin or so, and then going into Bone Knight progresses that nicely... or if you're getting dragon magazine material on the table, the holy mount feat ties it to your levels in divine spellcasting classes anyway.

[navar100]

Problem: We don't know his DM.

Solution: Find the closest thing in the official rules to support whatever requests he might have.

Problem Solved.

We don't know if he can use every book ever published either. The DM is already allowing for a non-RAW character. There's no harm in asking for a house rule to support a character variant.


That's...a ridiculous deal. A domain is worth about as much as a feat (see: the flaw that loses one, Domain Devotions), while a Special Mount is considerably better than a Wild Cohort, the feat equivalent. And think about where that would put Paladins - now the Cleric has their Special Mount too, in addition to twice the spells and better turning.

It's not a requirement to be the Most Optimal Powerful Character Ever. It's a unique character for the campaign. It's a House Rule idea. It's something to be discussed with the DM. If a Domain trade-off doesn't work, it's at least a springboard for further discussion. Maybe instead you trade away Rebuke Undead since it would make little sense to have your undead minions then come sunrise when you're a paladin, what do you do with them. Maybe you keep the Domain spells but trade away the Domain ability.

The idea is to make the character work right for the campaign without having to need some sort of approval from a reference that might exist in a published book. If a published reference in a book can help, such as Wild Cohort, that's fine too. I'm not ruling out that option. I'm just saying you don't absolutely need published affirmation.

[Flickerdart]

We don't know if he can use every book ever published either. The DM is already allowing for a non-RAW character. There's no harm in asking for a house rule to support a character variant.



It's not a requirement to be the Most Optimal Powerful Character Ever. It's a unique character for the campaign. It's a House Rule idea. It's something to be discussed with the DM. If a Domain trade-off doesn't work, it's at least a springboard for further discussion. Maybe instead you trade away Rebuke Undead since it would make little sense to have your undead minions then come sunrise when you're a paladin, what do you do with them. Maybe you keep the Domain spells but trade away the Domain ability.

The idea is to make the character work right for the campaign without having to need some sort of approval from a reference that might exist in a published book. If a published reference in a book can help, such as Wild Cohort, that's fine too. I'm not ruling out that option. I'm just saying you don't absolutely need published affirmation.
That's some pretty spurious logic. How many DMs are willing to ban content from the DMG and then allow absurd houserules that make a T1 class even better? Why do you need a homebrew solution when printed material works better?

[Gwendol]

Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a) combined with this alternate animalvermin companion list. (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20040705a)

Can get you a Medium-sized Monstrous Spider at 1st level.

So if you're using a small-sized character, you're golden.

Also, dragon magazine material, but ranger knight of furyondy gives you a paladin mount of a 6th level paladin or so, and then going into Bone Knight progresses that nicely... or if you're getting dragon magazine material on the table, the holy mount feat ties it to your levels in divine spellcasting classes anyway.

So, looking at that list it would be possible to convince an unsuspecting DM to get That Damn Crab at level 4...? That would be one annoying vermin companion/mount...

[Sith_Happens]

Dammit, I got excited when I thought this thread was going to be about a Cleric with a Paladin for a mount.

That would be the best use of Dominate ever.

Don't forget Enlarge Person.