Mounted pathfinder

[CIDE]

Alright playground!

I'm just poking around for a few ideas and maybe some build help. I'm jumping into a pathfinder only game where the entire campaign is around a group of mounted warriors with only a small collection of available classes and archetypes. Mostly just pulling from the SRD for content but there's a lot of stuff to sift through.

Basically, I'm looking for one of three things and I'm hoping to see what someone might already know. My first choice would be an arcane caster (since ToB and Psionics aren't around) but the one archetype I already know of to allow for a mounted caster is taken (sylvan bloodline for Sorc). Also, Summoners with quadraped eidolons are not allowed.

Second and third choice would be Pally or Druid. Anything Pally is allowed but it's one class I've never touched in Pathfinder. Druid on the other hand is restricted to plains domain or Wild Rider archetype.

As I've come to understand PF Pally is better than 3.5 Pally (dear lord I hope so) but as I've seen I've never played or one had one played with me in the same group. Likewise, there's already a healbot pally in the group and I'd want to avoid that; any other decent options on builds for them?

[torrasque666]

What's the starting level?

I know Cavalier/Samurai isn't the best class but it is viable in my opinion. Then again I don't play a lot of High-Op games. It has buffs that can be provided from its Banner ability as well as a mount at level 1. The only other things that I know of to get a free mount at level 1 is a druid who purposefully takes a mount for their animal companion. In fact, you can take the Beast Rider Archetype and get a wider variety of mounts at 4th level. Like dinosaurs. And Medium sized Beast Riders get a better 7th level bonus than Small ones. Small ones only get
At 7th level, he can also choose a dinosaur (deinonychus (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/druid/animal-companions#deinonychus-velociraptor) or velociraptor (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/druid/animal-companions#deinonychus-velociraptor))

while Mediums get
In addition, a 7th-level or higher Medium beast rider can select any creature whose natural size is Large or Huge, provided that creature is normally available as a Medium-sized animal companion (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/druid/animal-companions) at 7th level (like a bear).

[avr]

Anyone with the Nature Soul, Animal Ally and ideally the Boon Companion feats can have an animal companion. Until 5th level just use an ordinary bought mount I guess. Add a trait to get Ride as a class skill if necessary.

A paladin with a mount via divine bond can move around fast and kill evil things easily, yes. Consider a companion archetype for it. Otherwise the build will be pretty straightforward; get mounted feats and power attack.

[CIDE]

Level 1 and everyone gets the mount for free. People in other classes that just fit the niche via feats is not allowed. The classes and archetypes are specific to a mounted campaign. I believe there's already a cavalier too. It's a no to the exotic mounts via beast rider archetypes (someone already asked).

[Ravens_cry]

Paladin would be awesome. Not only do they get smite, which multiplies oh so nicely, they also get Saddle Surge, which can add almost your level in your damage, as well as your mount's, and of course, it also multiplies. Oh, and there's also Litany of Righteousness, which adds another multiplier to your damage. On a less drool worthy note, though it adds up, they do get Divine Favour as well. It's not as much, but, hey, it multiplies.

[Killer Angel]

in PF, mounted combat is well covered by the cavalier. Pick a small race (gnome?), so your mount will me medium (good to move in subterranean, buildings, and so on), and the penalty to str won't bother you, given that your massive damage output will come from multipliers.

[grarrrg]

Level 1 and everyone gets the mount for free. People in other classes that just fit the niche via feats is not allowed. The classes and archetypes are specific to a mounted campaign. I believe there's already a cavalier too. It's a no to the exotic mounts via beast rider archetypes (someone already asked).

Sounds great already...."Here's this tiny list of classes, don't double up, everyone WILL be mounted my way or they don't play".

Yeah...and going by one of the allowed Druid archetypes, there's also random 3rd party in play.

Anywho...is there an Oracle yet? Go Uber-Mount
Go Half-Elf, Nature Oracle gets a Mount.
Use your 'elfy-ness' to use the Elf Favored Bonus of +1/2 level towards Revelation.
Level 2? Your mount is level 3.
Level 4? Your mount is level 6.
Level 10? Your mount is level 15.

[Ravens_cry]

in PF, mounted combat is well covered by the cavalier. Pick a small race (gnome?), so your mount will me medium (good to move in subterranean, buildings, and so on), and the penalty to str won't bother you, given that your massive damage output will come from multipliers.
Even better, pick a variant Aasimar (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/other-races/featured-races/arg-aasimar)that is descended from a Halfling. Also, I'd say Paladin is better than Cavalier, as they have spells to pump up the damage even more.

[torrasque666]

One problem with that, it specifically says that Aasimar are humans, not humanoid.

[Kudaku]

One problem with that, it specifically says that Aasimar are humans, not humanoid.

Check the sidebar. Small-sized aasimar are entirely rules-legal.


Non-human aasimars have the same statistics as human aasimars with the exception of size. Thus a halfling aasimar is Small but otherwise possesses the same statistics and abilities as a human aasimar—the difference is purely cosmetic.

Blood of Angels has a lot of wonky stuff in it.

[torrasque666]

Ah, fair enough.

[Ssalarn]

Good options for PF only mounted combatants-

Magus- Now, this is a little bit of a weird one, but stick with me. Spellstrike can only be used with a one-handed weapon. According to Paizo, how you wield a weapon determines how it is affected by abilities (http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9quw). So while you're mounted, you can Spellstrike with a lance dealing a metric assload of damage. You can get the mount spell right out of the gate so you can always conjure up a replacement if Sparky gets shot out from under you, and you probably want to consider using the Spell Blending Arcana to pick up phantom steed as soon as you get the chance.

Sohei- This monk archetype can turn anything he sits on into a kung-fu mustang, allowing it to constantly benefit from many of his monk abilities, including Still Mind and Improved Evasion. Dipping a few levels of either the Dragoon (for polearm-based mounted combatants) or Weapon Master (for ranged) Fighter archetypes (no more than probably 4 or 5 levels tops so you don't lose out on Flurry) can round out the build and give you the extra feats for Animal Ally. Sohei gets to select mounted feats for his bonus feats, so this can let you pick up Mounted Skirmisher at 1st or 2nd level and melee full attack from the back of your mount. At 6th level the Sohei gets Weapion Training like a Fighter and can Flurry with any weapon he has Weapon Training in, allowing him to flurry with a polearm or longbow.

Paladin- Don't be fooled by the Divine Hunter archetype. This is actually a pretty mediocre archetype that trades away a lot of good stuff for pretty mediocre abilities. It's actually much better for Paladins who want to be switch-hitters fighting with thrown weapons. Instead, use the standard core paladin and focus all of your feats into archery. Since PF Smite lasts until the enemy dies, your arrows are going to hit hard when you smite and you'll probably get a couple enhanced full attacks out of it. Firing with a bow from ranged allows you to position yourself so that your auras provide your allies with the greatest benefit, and there are a surprisingly large number of really good paladin spells for enhancing your ranged attacks, especially in the later core books.

Luring Cavalier- Now here's the thing. Samurai have extra feats and abilities to make them good archers, but they don't get to add their Challenge to their damage with ranged attacks, which really sucks. Instead, play a Cavalier and take the Luring Cavalier archetype that lets you apply your challenge to ranged attacks. There's a Cavalier Order in Knights of the Inner Sea, I believe it's the Order of the Wild, that gives you a bonus on ranged attack rolls against the target of your challenge. This is probably one of the better mounted archer builds available since you don't need to go very far afield to pick up all the pieces to make it work.

Ranger- This one is fairly obvious, but you really can't go wrong with the classic mounted Ranger with a composite longbow. cast Gravity Bow on that bad boy to pop it up to 2d6 damage, and maybe snag Hunter's Howl and, when it's available, Instant Enemy so can use your Favored Enemy bonuses against any target. Also remember that in Pathfinder the Ranger's Animal Companion automatically gains his Favoered Enemy and Favored Terrain bonuses, so it may be worth looking into choosing a mount whose got some bite. Look at picking up the Boon Companion feat to get your mount up to full druid progression.