Dwarven Paladin Steed

[hoverfrog]

Fifth level comes by and our dwarven paladin gets a special mount. He's too bulky for a war pony or a riding dog, his legs are too short for a war horse, there's no way he's going near water and having a shark. What sort of animal will our hero take?

Suggestions would be great.

http://i.imgur.com/xNpm6.jpg

[Gerrtt]

Dire Armadillo.

We would also accept a bear, a rhino, or a dire boar.

[Silentone98]

Dire Boar? might be too many HD, negociate for a later level earned tho and its workable.
a dwarf is still a medium creature so dire badger is out... hmmm

Dire goat... after that I give up, lol

[Kelb_Panthera]

Unless his complaint about the short legs for the horse is a matter of not wanting to look stumpy, there's no real issue with it. There are breeds of horses that would be about the right size to be proportionate with a dwarf.

Barring that, a mage-bred pony might work. Mage-bred is a template in ECS that makes the base animal a little better, which can include a 2 point strength boost amongst other things.

I really don't see a problem with an ordinary light warhorse though.

[Darrin]

Warbeast Cave Triceratops. Large size, 9HD, bonus feat.

[Zeikstraal]

We had a Dwarf Paladin with a Unicorn...

I vote Dire Boar. I have always imagined that the Dwarfs mount should be a big boar. If he's to strong or too many HD. Just say the Paladin can summon him, but not at full strenght. So just nerf him down a bit.

[Gwendol]

Mouflon sheep or lizard depending on the dwarf. Something reliably climbing up a mountainside. A dire mouflon could be quite cool (check out the horns).

[GungHo]

Ram

Not the truck. I mean a male caprid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goat_antelope). Depending on the dwarf's culture, anything from a sheep, a goat, to a muskox could work. In one of my Southwest Asian-style campaigns, the Dwarves were Turkic and rode around on dire ibex (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibex).

[hoverfrog]

I am warming to the idea of some kind of hardy mountain goat.

[Gwendol]

The Mouflon is part of the same species. I think they are very suitable (give them climb speed and mountain adaptation, and some +10 racial bonus to balance).

[Edenbeast]

I remember there's an nice image of an artic dwarf bear rider, in races of faerun, that's pretty cool I believe for a mounted dwarf.

[Morbis Meh]

Well... how about his deity blesses him with rapid beard growth and his beard becomes his mount?

[Urpriest]

Most options are too high level at 5th, though of course a horse or pony are perfectly ok ruleswise. I've mentioned this in two other threads recently so it's getting a little silly, but Sandstorm does allow you to ride a Diprotodon at 5th. It was probably intended to be a Protoceratops, which makes more sense given the HD. Either is quite thematic for a dwarf. Note that it can't be a warbeast, since warbeast doesn't work that way.

[Averis Vol]

Celestial Ox? bullett? but barring dire boar those seems like the most realistic options.

Or maybe an advanced hit die, large sized squirrel.......

[nedz]

A Bear of some kind, just for the puns.

He's too low level at the moment, but something mechanical would be good.
A Clockwork Pony or Stallion for example.

Ultimately though he wants a Slaughterstone Eviscerator.