Mounted Combat Commander

[Morithias]

From what I've understood, the main advantage of mounted combat comes from buffing your mount to insane levels and having it do most of the work. I also understand from my 3.5 experience that of course, non-spellcasting is weak, but that's not the point.

I'm looking for some class or build that would make a good mounted combat fighter. I've found the battle maiden in oriental adventures, but I'm not sure how good it actually is.

Basically there are a few requirements for this character.

1. Must ride some form of mount, cannot use cohorts as mounts (since she herself is a cohort).
2. Is geslalt, so go nutty with the power gaming.
3. Is non-spellcaster. She is meant to represent the Calvery units of our empire, we already have people who represent our spellcasters.
4. Is medium sized.
5. Is female (fluff reasons).
6. Is lawful evil.

I'm seriously debating some kind of Battle maiden/something on the other side, but I'm not sure how good that is.

Note: This campaign does NOT use the mass combat rules, it's more that our PCs are generals who are doing samurai 1 vs 1 combat and represent our units on the fields.

Thanks for the help people!

Edit: All book are allowed so long as they are WOTC published. 3rd party stuff may be allowed if I pass my diplomacy skill on my DM.

[Waker]

Well, since you want a mount, medium sized and specifically don't want to be a caster I would suggest you simply go Ranger or Paladin. If Dragon is allowed, the Ranger Knight PrC from issue 317 is quite fun. Gives you a mount, explicitly stats with the mount class feature if you already have it, reduces penalties from archery while riding, gives you sort of Two-Weapon Pounce and some other stuff. Class works well with either of those base classes.

[Morithias]

Well, since you want a mount, medium sized and specifically don't want to be a caster I would suggest you simply go Ranger or Paladin. If Dragon is allowed, the Ranger Knight PrC from issue 317 is quite fun. Gives you a mount, explicitly stats with the mount class feature if you already have it, reduces penalties from archery while riding, gives you sort of Two-Weapon Pounce and some other stuff. Class works well with either of those base classes.

Sounds interesting. Dragon magazine is always full of good stuff. Thanks for the hot tip.

Edit: Ah crap, sorry can't use that. Character has to be evil. Let me add some more stuff to the main post.

[Waker]

A shame, the Ranger Knight is a great class. Well, you might also consider Beastmaster (CAdv) to progress the Ranger's Animal Companion feature, Beast Heart Adept (Dungeonscape) which can grant you some nice creatures that could be used as a mount, or if you wanna go old-school you could take a look at Windrider from Masters of the Wild.

[Urpriest]

Isn't there some crazy evil mount-class from FR? Skylord or something? The one that gets arbitrary mounts based on Cha?

[Waker]

Isn't there some crazy evil mount-class from FR? Skylord or something? The one that gets arbitrary mounts based on Cha?

I think you mean the Zhentarim Skymage from Lords of Darkness. You can have a mount as long as it's HD are less than your Skymage class level + Charisma Mod + 1.

[Worlok]

"Fighter 2 / Paladin of Tyranny X (Unearthed Arcana) / probably Cavalier 10 (Complete Warrior) / Rest of PoT// Marshal (Miniatures Handbook)" can make decent ones, especially with the "commander" aspect in mind. Good reason for high Cha, fair share of feats, god-tier charger. It is a common houserule to replace the Marshal's Skill Focus at first level with a Weapon Focus (that should here probably be Weapon Focus (lance)), which helps qualifying for Cavalier. Try to find feats that boost your effective paladin level for mount purposes, if there is such a thing.

Keep a look-out for alternate class features, too: Mounted combatants love themselves some Dex and lighter armor in 3.5, so look into that, and find a way to trade in proficiency with medium armor, heavy armor, shields and towershields for something you will actually use, if your DM lets you. Also, the SRD advises to let the character count as occupying the squares his mount occupies for simplicity's sake, so even riding on a bog-standard horse already bumps the range of your Marshal auras a tad, provided of course, your DM's cool with it. Which he should, there's a reason old-timey military commanders where typically on horseback (To be a more notable and inspiring sight). I was actually thinking about maybe putting together a short list of "fun things for mounted combat and military command in 3.5", if possibly quite homebrew-y, one of these days. But it might yet take a while, if I even get around to it.