Help with a Pegasus Mount Build

[Tarlek Flamehai]

Greetings.

I have 7 levels to play with and I need to build a martial character with a Pegasus mount. He is a Lawful Good Human (ethnic Durpari from the Golden Water region of Faerun) and a captain in the Durpari Lancers. I am not familiar with mounts or cohorts so I need all the help I can get. Assume that he starts level 1 with the Elite Array. I am looking to maximize his Pegasus mount (he will have one by gold pieces if no other way). As he is an NPC feel free to handwave the Chaotic Good requirement for Pegasus cohort/mount. This is a conversion from a 1st edition module, but he is not fully developed in the module. His men are "fanatically loyal" so a high charisma? He is listed with a strength modifier of +1/+2; which in those days meant he had an 18 strength. His equipment is a +1 scimitar and a sash of defense AC 6. I really have no idea how to do this, so without the Playgrounds help he will become a Paladin 7 with a Pegasus special mount.

Thanks in Advance!

[Fax Celestis]

First step would be to see if your DM will adapt the Algarondan Griffonrider PrC from Unapproachable East. It'd be fairly easy to file the serial numbers off and change "Griffon" to "Pegasus". Wild Plains Outrider is out, Cavalier might fit in the future. Paladin 5 is probably the quickest way to get one without spending money, but if you're going into Algarondan Griffonrider, you shouldn't do that, since the class gives you one. Since you're practically giving up your spellcasting anyway, you might be better served by doing something like Cleric 1/[some full-BAB class 4]/Prestige Paladin 2.

Or you could take the easy way out, play whatever class you want, and take Leadership as your 6th level feat, selecting a Pegasus as your cohort. They've got a cohort adjustment of +2, so you'd need a Leadership score of at least 9, which you can get by being 7th level and having a CHA mod of +2. Your Pegasus will dynamically level with you and you can take whatever classes you want.

[Urpriest]

Since he's an NPC he wouldn't really need the gold or special mount to get a Pegasus, he could just get one as an ally. Leadership is really a PC-only thing and shouldn't be used here.

That said, since Pegasi are a bit fragile for level 7, it could use the buff of being a special mount. Just going with Paladin 7 is fine, though you might want to take the Planar Paladin substitution level to make it Celestial. You could take a level in Wild Plains Outrider, but it's probably not worth it unless you want to be stealthy, and you don't have enough levels to both have a Pegasus mount and wedge in Beastmaster for supermount shenanigans.

You've got enough feats to have Mounted Combat, Ride-by-Attack, Spirited Charge, and Power Attack, which should set you up decently damage-wise. Not really a lot of optimization to be done here, but it's a reasonably solid setup at this level so there's not much lost.

[Fax Celestis]

Oh hell, I missed the NPC part. Yeah, ignore that and do what Ur said.