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View Full Version : "Whoa!" [3.5, Feats, Mildly Silly, PEACH]



Amechra
2013-01-28, 03:45 AM
Alright, I have decided to make a few feats based off of the idea of Mounted Combat.

New Feat Type: [Mount].

For every [Mount] feat that you have, your mount gains 2 racial Hit Dice and its natural armor bonus improves by 1.
Upon your death, any Bonded Mount that you have retains the bonuses from your feats; however, if you would die in a permanent manner (such as from old age, or by having your soul utterly destroyed), your Bonded Mount dies at exactly that same moment, its soul being torn out of its body to join yours in perdition.

True-Rider's Bond [Fighter][Mount]
You have chosen this mount. This is your mount, damn it, not anyone else's!
Prerequisites: Mounted Combat, Ride 6 ranks
Benefits: You may designate any one willing creature that you have ridden for at least three consecutive days of the animal type as your Bonded Mount.
As long as your Bonded Mount can see or hear you, it gains whatever passive benefits they would gain from being ridden by you; it would allow a class feature that increased the speed of your mount to affect it, but it wouldn't allow you to use your Mounted Combat feat on your horse, or any other use of the Ride skill, from a range.
You may only have one Bonded Mount at a time, and you cannot choose to remove the Bonded Mount status from a creature by any means short of it dying. If this occurs, you may begin "training" a new Bonded Mount after one day.
Special: Every creature that you select as your Bonded Mount gains a single cosmetic trait that is consistent over the many "incarnations" that your Bonded Mount has. Whether this is a shock of white hair in its mane, or it being a bit larger than creatures of it's type, or it happening to have an unusual coloration, this physical trait appears gradually over the course of time required to "train" a new Bonded Mount.

Coconut Rider [Fighter]
Alright, so what if you don't actually have a horse? You have a man with a two halves of a coconut, and he's banging them together! That's far superior to a stinking horse!
Prerequisites: BAB +3, True-Rider's Bond
Benefit: By interacting with a willing humanoid who only has levels in NPC classes for 3 consecutive days, you may designate them as your Bonded Mount. In addition, as long as they are traveling with you, you automatically succeed on all constitution checks made to "Hustle" on an overland journey.
Normal: Your mate doesn't get better due to some demented plan involving fake galloping and coconuts.
Special: Coconuts are not actually included with this feat. You have to purchase them yourselves.

Stone-Hard Mount [Fighter][Mount]
Your passion and great force of will have allowed your mount to withstand far more than it actually should.
Prerequisites: True-Rider's Bond, BAB +3
Benefits: You may treat your Bonded Mount as if it were an attended magical item for the purposes of saves; in addition, your Bonded Mount is immune to all effects that require a Fortitude save that don't affect objects. In addition, your mount may use your Constitution modifier in the place of its own for all purposes if yours would be higher.
Special: Your Bonded Mount only gains these benefits when you are mounted on it.

Mounted Evasion [Fighter][Mount]
You are good at dodging things. That involves being fast. You are riding a horse. Horses are fast. Therefor, they are good at dodging too. You cannot refute this basic logic!
Prerequisites: True-Rider's Bond, Evasion, Uncanny Dodge
Benefits: As long as you are mounted on your Bonded Mount, it has the Evasion and Uncanny Dodge special qualities.
Special: If you later gain the Improved Evasion or Improved Uncanny Dodge class features, your Bonded Mount gains those abilities in addition to Evasion and Uncanny Dodge when you are mounted on it.

Incessantly Swift Mount [Fighter][Mount]
Come on. Gotta get there. Once we get there, then we can rest. Come on, horse, you just gotta put one hoof in front of the other!
Prerequisites: BAB +6, Mounted Combat, True-Rider's Bond
Benefits: You may substitute Ride checks for any Constitution checks that your mount makes for any reason. In addition, your mount no longer takes nonlethal damage whenever you use the Spur a Mount function of the Ride Skill.
Finally, your mount does not automatically fail Constitution checks for taking a Forced March, and takes nonlethal damage instead of lethal damage from both Hustling and if they fail a Constitution check for a Forced March.
Normal: Your horse is a bloody pansy, you know that?

Impossibly Quick Horse [Fighter][Mount]
OMG WHAT WAS THAT?! WAS THAT A HORSE?! IT WAS MOVING TOO FAST?!
Prerequisites: True-Rider's Bond, Dexterity 15+
Benefits: When you spur your Bonded Mount, its speed increases by your Base Land Speed instead of by 10ft. In addition, your Bonded Mount may use your Dexterity modifier in place of its own for all purposes if yours would be higher.
Special: Your Bonded Mount only gains these benefits when you are mounted on it.

Brutally Strong Mount [Fighter][Mount]
That horse didn't just... OK, it did just haul that boulder by itself. That's kinda hardcore.
Prerequisites: True-Rider's Bond, Strength 15+
Benefit: Your Bonded Mount takes no penalty to its speed due to being overburdened; in addition, the maximum weight that it can carry is doubled, and it may drag up to 10 time the normal maximum weight for a creature of its strength score. In addition, your Bonded Mount may use your Strength modifier in the place of its own for all purposes if yours would be higher.
Special: Your Bonded Mount only gains these benefits when you are mounted on it.

A Horse's Fervent Belief [Fighter][Mount]
A mount believes in its master pretty damn fervently, to the point where it is practically a priest to its master.
Prerequisites: True-Rider's Bond, Wisdom 13+
Benefits: You may, at your option, exchange your Bonded Mount's racial hit dice from the True-Rider's Bond feat to instead have it gain levels in the Adept NPC class, at a rate of 1 level per 2 HD.
It uses either your Wisdom score or its own, whichever is higher, when determining whether it gets bonus spells for a high ability score and when determining the save DCs of its spells.
Finally, as long as you are mounted on your Bonded Mount, it cannot cast its own spells; instead, you may cast them using your own actions, and may elect to have any spell of Personal range affect either you or your mount.
Normal: Horses can't cast spells; they also aren't priests to you, you entitled git.

Two Bodies, One Soul [Incarnum][Mount][Fighter]
By binding the souls of horses and their riders to yourself, you have gained an uncanny ability to... ride animals.
Prerequisites: True-Rider's Bond, Con 15, ability to bind soulmelds to your Feet chakra.
Benefit: You may bind a Soulmeld that can be bound to your Feet chakra to your Bonded Mount; this grants your mount the benefits of that particular Soulmeld when bound to the Feet chakra, and gives you a bonus to Ride checks equal to the amount of essentia invested in that Soulmeld. This takes up your Feet chakra, preventing you from binding a Soulmeld to them.
Normal: You can't bind freaky items made of souls to your horse! That be crazy talk.

Kung-Fu Mount Extravaganza [Fighter][Mount]
Your mount can do the flying leaps and the monk-punching thing. Well, more like kicking, but whatever.
Prerequisites: True-Rider's Bond, Improved Unarmed Strike, Martial Study, Martial Stance
Benefit: As long as you are mounted on your Bonded Mount, natural attacks deal damage as if they were the Unarmed Strike of a monk of a level equal to your Mount's HD and of your Bonded Mount's size.
In addition, by engaging in a ten-minute training session, you may retrain your mount's feats and grant them an initiator level equal to the lower of your own initiator level and its own HD. Your mount uses your ability scores when calculating whether it qualifies for a given feat.
Normal: Horses don't do the kung-fu thing, though their hooves are fast as lightning.

Go-Anywhere Rider [Fighter][Mount]
What's this? Your horse can't swim across the ocean, and then leap into the heavens to kick evil in the face? Then what use is your horse?
Prerequisites: True-Rider's Bond, Incessantly Swift Mount, Ride 12 ranks
Benefit: While you are riding on your Bonded Mount, as long as it hasn't failed a Constitution check to hold its breath, you do not need to make Constitution checks to hold your own breath. In addition, you mount no longer takes nonlethal damage from Hustling or undertaking a Forced March.
In addition, your Bonded Mount's base land speed increases to equal that of a Phantom Steed (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/phantomSteed.htm) conjured by a spellcaster with a Caster Level equal to your ranks in Ride, with no cap on its maximum base land speed, and it gains the special abilities of a Phantom Steed of that Caster Level.
Normal: Your mount can't run up the side of a mountain, on clouds, or on top of a lake of lava. That is all kinds of lame, man.

Outride the Pathetic Wind [Fighter][Mount]
Your mount can outrun the gale; in fact, it makes the gale feel decided small in the pants.
Prerequisites: Impossibly Quick Horse, Go-Anywhere Rider
Benefits: Your Bonded Mount gains the Run feat as a bonus feat. In addition, whenever you Spur your Bonded Mount, you add its base land speed to its base land speed, rather than your own.
Finally, if your Bonded Mount spends 3 rounds running at its maximum speed, it can duplicate the effects of a Plane Shift spell as an extraordinary ability.
Normal: Your horse can't outrun the space-time continuum. It just can't, man.

Unlimited Horse Works [Fighter][Mount]
I am the soul of my horse
Hope is my reins and fury is my spurs
I have ridden over a thousand miles
Unknown to Earth, Yet known to Wind
Have withstood pain to outride the gale
But, those feet will never touch the ground
So as I pray, UNLIMITED HORSE WORKS!
Prerequisites: True-Rider's Bond, Stone-Hard Mount, Impossibly Quick Horse, Brutally Strong Mount
Benefits: You gain Mount (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/mount.htm) as a spell-like ability, with a caster level equal to your ranks in the Ride skill. The horse summoned through this spell is automatically your Bonded Mount.

In addition, you may use Ride checks in place of any Jump, Swim, Climb, and Tumble checks that your Bonded Mount makes while you are riding it.
Normal: You are not the FREAKIN' GOD OF HORSES!

Gloriously Mighty-and-Worthy Steed [Fighter][Mount]
Your mighty and loyal steed is grand enough that it is, quite literally, a prince or princess among its own kind!
Prerequisites: True-Rider's Bond, Ride 9 ranks.
Benefit: Your Bonded Mount gains the ability to use the Command spell as an at-will spell-like ability, but it may only use it on creatures of its own type, altering its ability scores to match.
Finally, if you were to breed your Bonded Mount, it has triple the normal chance to conceive offspring, and its offspring are always born healthy.
Special: Your mount is not a long-lived scion of its race. Unlucky you.

Scion of Great Horses [Fighter][Mount]
Your princely steed is able to pass its virility and strength to its offspring; it has become the scion of a line of true steeds that will live on in perpetuity!
Prerequisites: Gloriously Mighty-and-Worthy Steed, at least two other Mount feats, Ride 12 ranks.
Benefit: Your Bonded Mount's offspring gain 2 bonus hit dice, a +2 bonus to their natural armor, and the Endurance and Run feats as bonus feats. In addition, its offspring's base land speed is improved by 20ft. Finally, your Bonded Mount's offspring all bear the same cosmetic feature as your own Bonded Mount.

However, this potent breeding only lasts so long; any direct offspring that your Bonded Mount have what is called a breeding rating; any time that a creature with a breeding rating higher than 0 breeds with another creature, take half of each creature's breeding ratings, rounded down, and add them together, giving you the offspring's breeding rating. A normal creature of your Bonded Mount's type has a breeding rating of 0.

The benefits for being a direct descendent of your Bonded Mount only apply to creatures with a breeding rating of 4 or greater; a creature with a non-zero breeding rating below 4 only gains a single bonus HD, a +1 bonus to their natural armor, a +10ft improvement on their base land speed, and one of the above listed bonus feats. It still has the same cosmetic trait as your Bonded Mount, however.

If a creature has a breeding rating of 0, it gains no benefits from being descended from your Bonded Mount, and doesn't have the same cosmetic marking.

Your Bonded Mount has an effective breeding rating of 16, though it gains no benefits from this feat, which are superseded by the far superior benefits of being your mount.
Normal: Animals don't get too much of a special benefit from being descended from your Bonded Mount. Or, at least, not benefits as rad as the ones from this feat.

Soul-Marked Horse [Fighter][Mount]
Your mount's marking is truly a sign of ULTIMATE POWAH! Which can be passed down through its line, of course.
Prerequisites: Scion of Great Horses.
Benefit: Upon taking this feat, the effective breeding rating of your Bonded Mount increases by 4. In addition, upon taking this feat, you replace the bonus to natural armor gained due to [Mount] feats with a number of options from the following list equal to the bonus your mount would normally get from [Mount] feats:


+5 hit points
Energy resistance 5 (acid, cold, electricity, fire, or sonic)
+1 insight bonus on saving throws
Damage reduction 1/—
+1 insight bonus to Armor Class
+1 insight bonus on attack rolls
+1 insight bonus on damage rolls
+2 insight bonus on initiative checks


Upon gaining additional [Mount] feats, your Bonded Mount gains one of the above bonuses instead of increasing their natural armor bonus.

These bonuses stack with each-other, up to a maximum of 5 times.
Finally, when adjudicating what benefits the offspring of your Bonded Mount get, offspring with a breeding rating of 4 or higher gain two of the options in the above list (chosen amongst the benefits that their parents have), while offspring with a non-zero breeding rating below 4 get one of the above options, chosen among those that their parents have.

In both cases, this completely replaces the bonus to natural armor class that they would gain from being the offspring of your Bonded Mount.
Normal: Your mount is just as flammable as everyone else. And so are their offspring.

Horse Breeder [Regional]
You come from a long line of horse breeders; you have coaxed wondrous bloodlines back from the very edge of extinction!
Prerequisites: Must be a member of a horse-breeding culture (as appropriate to the setting.)
Benefits: You gain a +2 bonus on all Ride and Handle Animal checks; in addition, any horse-breeding that you personally preside over treats both animals that are breeding with each-other as if they had a minimum breeding rating of 2 for the purposes of determining the breeding rating of their offspring; if neither of the animals would have a breeding rating of higher than 0 normally, their offspring's breeding rating is 0.

Morph Bark
2013-01-28, 05:23 AM
10/10 would use in a silly campaign.

Amechra
2013-01-28, 05:35 AM
Well, most of them can change the italicized stuff and you'll get something for a serious campaign...

Thanks, by the way.

absolmorph
2013-01-29, 01:36 AM
I'm mildly disappointed that you didn't include a "Normal" entry for A Horse's Fervent Belief.
That said, quite interesting feats. I would use them.
Though... What's "Passionate Rider"?

Kane0
2013-01-29, 04:16 AM
Though... What's "Passionate Rider"?

I believe that was someone pushing the insinuation button...

Nice feats though, i would definitely consider them.

Amechra
2013-01-29, 09:33 PM
Fixed a typo or two (Passionate Rider was one, though I kinda want to make that into a very NSFW feat that expands on Coconut Rider...) and I added a Normal line for A Horse's Fervent Belief, and then...

I added Two Bodies One Soul and UNLIMITED HORSE WORKS!

Enjoy and PEACH!

Arcanist
2013-01-30, 01:52 AM
Ah! there is no feat that allows your mount to perform Karate and learn how to Fly... I am disappointed! :smalltongue:

Amechra
2013-01-30, 02:10 AM
Is that a challenge, my friend?

Mithril Leaf
2013-01-30, 03:13 AM
10/10 would ride again.

Arcanist
2013-01-30, 05:02 AM
Is that a challenge, my friend?

It most certainly is!

Amechra
2013-01-30, 12:19 PM
Alright, I added Kung-Fu Mount Extravaganza, Go-Anywhere Rider, and Outride the Pathetic Wind.

For anyone curious, with the Outride the Pathetic Wind feat, your mount gains a base land speed of 40ft*your ranks in Ride in any round in which you Spur it. At 20th level, assuming full ranks in Ride and a +72 Ride modifier, you have a Horse that can move at a speed of 920ft per round when spurred, and can run at a speed of 4600ft per round, almost a mile every 6 seconds.

Considering that that Ride modifier allows you to make your mount run for Con mod+63 rounds, which, assuming that you took Stone-Hard Mount and have a Constitution of 24 is 70 rounds, means that your freakin' horse can run for 7 minutes at around 523 miles per hour.

Kind of thinking that that's too slow...

Also, in the above set-up, your horse can hold its breath for 70 rounds when out of combat. Hell, 7 minutes is pretty high.

Your horse can also do kung-fu now. I hope this is satisfactory.

Kane0
2013-01-30, 04:20 PM
10/10 would ride again.

:smallamused: If only there was a like button on this forum.

sengmeng
2013-01-30, 04:46 PM
Kung fu extravaganza doesn't say what level monk they gain the unarmed damage of. Is it equal to the mount's HD?

Amechra
2013-01-30, 05:25 PM
That would be the case, yes...

Fixing that little issue!

Any other feats anyone want to see? At this point, you can pretty much turn a standard horse into something that'll survive in actual high level combat.

Pretty much...

sengmeng
2013-01-30, 06:10 PM
My Horse Is Amazing

Your mighty steed is able to command lesser animals of his species.

Amechra
2013-01-30, 07:11 PM
Alright, I'll put up Gloriously Mighty-and-Worthy Steed. Which will give the horse the ability to command lesser being of its kind, increases its lifespan, and grants it the Fertility Blessed Beast (http://www.giantitp.com/articles/gk7uKJeF296jRcx1NJw.html) feature.

A later feat (name pending) will let you breed better horses. Because your horse is so freakin' amazing.

Amechra
2013-01-30, 09:15 PM
Alright, I made True-Rider's Bond less of a feat-tax (it now just starts the chain, unlike before where you had to keep taking it to give your Bonded Mount bonus HD and a natural armor bonus of higher than +2/+1.)

I also added Gloriously Mighty-and-Worthy Steed, Scion of Great Horses, and Soul-Marked Horse (probably going to change the latter two names.)

Now, Breeding Rating may look kinda complicated, but its a good rule of thumb to assume that, unless there are other awesome horsemen, your Bonded Mount is the source of the only bloodline of any good breeding that there is.

As it is, you could breed a line of horses that survive the horrid desert conditions of their homeland (give them a +1 Insight bonus to saves, and Fire Resistance 5), while simultaneously being faster and tougher than their counterparts.

Sure, this vigor dies out eventually, but while it lasts...

I mean, lets call things with a breeding rating of higher than 4 true-bred, while things with a breeding rating of less than 4 are half-bred.

Your Bonded Mount foals a true-bred horse from a random normal horse; if a true-bred horse continues to be used to foal offspring with a horse with a breeding rating of 0, it will be producing half-bred horses in two generations, and normal horses in 4.

Of course, careful breeding can keep you in the 4+ range, but, once you die of old age, the fantastic benefits of breeding that come from your Bonded Mount don't come around anymore, and accident and disease will eventually do away with your line of super-horses.

Might be kinda neat to make a spell or something that temporarily boosts an animal's breeding rating to give it benefits...

Erik Vale
2013-01-30, 09:50 PM
I would point out that you never drop below 0 with halfing [1, .5, .25.....] so you need to put in a clause that the number always rounds down [also prevents odd numbers producing wierd numbers...]
Also, breeding rating should remain, and by keeping a maximum staking of 5, you end up with less possible maximum ac bonus [see soul marked horse]. This would make for a very interesting character. I would however ask that the feats benifits remain in death if you have taken a certain number of feats, however you could say the original horse disapears somehow. Otherwise, it just becomes a horse with a breeding rating of 16, and would die quickly attempting the same insane stuff it did when with its master.... Or perhaps thats how the original horse disapears?

Anyhow, also a great feat line for a 'race/civ' of horse breeders, perhaps with the first feet you add a clause that says your horse counts as a rating 2 horse for the sole purposes of breeding.

Amechra
2013-01-30, 09:52 PM
Those are pretty good ideas; I thought I had rounding down in there.

Amechra
2013-01-30, 10:01 PM
Alright, Horse Breeder added, and I added rounding down!

T.G. Oskar
2013-01-30, 10:44 PM
A Horse's Fervent Belief [Fighter][Mount]
A mount believes in its master pretty damn fervently, to the point where it is practically a priest to its master.
Prerequisites: True-Rider's Bond, Wisdom 13+
Benefits: You may, at your option, exchange your Bonded Mount's racial hit dice from the True-Rider's Bond feat to instead have it gain levels in the Adept NPC class, at a rate of 1 level per 2 HD.
It uses either your Wisdom score or its own, whichever is higher, when determining whether it gets bonus spells for a high ability score and when determining the save DCs of its spells.
Finally, as long as you are mounted on your Bonded Mount, it cannot cast its own spells; instead, you may cast them using your own actions, and may elect to have any spell of Personal range affect either you or your mount.
Normal: Horses can't cast spells; they also aren't priests to you, you entitled git.


10/10 would use in a silly campaign.

Are you sure? I'd use that in ANY campaign. Particularly if I can bind that to my Special Mount. I mean, you can keep your Paladin spells for the mount, and the mount spells are yours to use on your own. I mean: Invisibility, Mirror Image, Web!? Why not!?

Also: the Paladin, the Special Mount, and the Special Mount's Familiar. That can't be silly...

Amechra
2013-01-30, 10:52 PM
What do you think about the other feats? I mean, they kinda fit together as a really strong tree (I might end up doing this with other combat styles, because having a theme to work with is massive fun.)

As it is, you've got horses that are simply better than other horses. To the degree where they can almost break the sound barrier at a run, while (assuming you've got a strength of 24), it can carry over a ton with ease, and can drag 3 and a half tons without slowing.

To clarify, it's running at over 500 miles per hour while dragging a small elephant behind it.

It can also cast spells and do kung-fu, though that is less important.

bobthe6th
2013-01-30, 11:08 PM
Are you sure? I'd use that in ANY campaign. Particularly if I can bind that to my Special Mount. I mean, you can keep your Paladin spells for the mount, and the mount spells are yours to use on your own. I mean: Invisibility, Mirror Image, Web!? Why not!?

Also: the Paladin, the Special Mount, and the Special Mount's Familiar. That can't be silly...

...T.G. made a short post. One of the first signs of the Apocalypse. Next comes Kellus making a terrible sub system, or people will stop posting monk fixes.
The end is nigh, repent sinners!

Amechra
2013-01-31, 05:14 PM
So, what do people think of the breeding "system"? I'm thinking of fleshing it out more, with costs based off of breeding, and such.

bobthe6th
2013-01-31, 05:24 PM
hmm... it seems like people would focus on it if they have a horse...

I think it could be disruptive of balance if it was a real big thing, as everyone that used a horse would have to use the system or have a bad horse.

Amechra
2013-01-31, 05:41 PM
The thing is, we already have that with magic weapons and magic armor.

So why not have Masterwork Mounts? There would be a note that entering into a bond like that with an Animal Companion would "burn out" any enhancements that would come from breeding.

And it wouldn't be a "you get to make a custom lineage for your horse/dog/cat/sheep! Yay!"; it would be the kind of thing where the DM comes up with 3 or 4 different "breeds", with the fleshing out having at least 6 different breed ideas.

But if you wanted to go deep into the breeding rabbit hole (Horse Breeder being the entry point), you might get... interesting things.

Like being able to piecemeal make a custom bloodline, which you can instil into a number of animals equal to [number].

Because a really bored breeder that figures out how to make his horses into horrid abominations with tentacles (yay bonus aberrant feats) should be able to do that.

bobthe6th
2013-01-31, 05:46 PM
Much like Magic armor/weapons though, this eats up WBL. If it is assumed and becomes part of the semi required equipment for a rider... Melee gets even more cash striped.

As a feat, it stays something specific to some characters. Moving away from that is starts being worse.

Amechra
2013-01-31, 05:57 PM
Well, getting a "masterwork mount" is not going to be as expensive as magical weaponry (note to self; actually finish that planned cost revision for magical weapons and armor.)

In fact, I might do something similar to the breeding system with weaponry, where certain materials give your weapon an inheritance based on its Refinement value; so, for example, volcanic rock represents Fire, so a good smith could use it to make a sword that would deal fire damage (a la flaming).

It would have the same "tiering" thing as the mounts do (if I expand the breeding system, mounts with a BR of 8+ will get some additional benefits), and Weapon/Armor crystals would be adapted to work of the same system.

The thing is, I'd also set it up so that it would be reasonably cheap and not something that could be repeated by a spellcaster using Fabricate (magic is brute-forcing it; crafting is a gentler hand.)

Anywho...