Some questions about paladin mounts

[Sutremaine]

Some of these questions are pretty dumb, but I'm finding the whole thing quite confusing.

1. Does the mount gain an effective level when the paladin does?
2. Does a new mount get +4 to its natural armour regardless of what kind of creature it is? I can't figure out whether the DMG and the PHB contradict each other on the issue.
3. Are mounts automatically considered trained for war? If so, what kinds of armour are they proficient with?
4. PHB, p.45: "Use the base statistics of the base creature..." Are they referring to the entire block? Does a mount get bonus d8 hit dice and 3/4 BAB regardless of what kind of creature it is? Can you change any of the skills or feats of the base creature?
6. Is there a single resource available for building mounts? It's a pain flipping through three different books, and there's bound to be something else I've missed.

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

Some of these questions are pretty dumb, but I'm finding the whole thing quite confusing.

1. Does the mount gain an effective level when the paladin does?

The Mount's special powers are determined based on Paladin level. If the Paladin gains a level the mount might improve according to the table in the PHB.


2. Does a new mount get +4 to its natural armour regardless of what kind of creature it is? I can't figure out whether the DMG and the PHB contradict each other on the issue.Yes.


3. Are mounts automatically considered trained for war? If so, what kinds of armour are they proficient with?
Yes.
All.


4. PHB, p.45: "Use the base statistics of the base creature..." Are they referring to the entire block? Does a mount get bonus d8 hit dice and 3/4 BAB regardless of what kind of creature it is? Can you change any of the skills or feats of the base creature?
Yes.
The d8 refers to the animal since that is the base mount. If the creature is of a different type use that type instead for saves, BAB and HD
You keep the feats and skills it has.


6. Is there a single resource available for building mounts? It's a pain flipping through three different books, and there's bound to be something else I've missed.Maybe.

[Sutremaine]

The Mount's special powers are determined based on Paladin level. If the Paladin gains a level the mount might improve according to the table in the PHB.
I get the special powers part, but not the regular advancement. Does it gain a hit die with each paladin level and get the bonus dice on top, or does it just get base creature HD + bonus HD?

Thanks for the other answers.

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

Ahh I see. I was a bit uncertain about what you wanted to know.

No, you only get base creature HD and bonus HD.

[Eighth_Seraph]

And I believe the mount also gains feats every third hit die as well. Not sure about that one, though.

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

It certainly does.


The mount gains additional skill points or feats for bonus HD as normal for advancing a monster’s Hit Dice.

It does not acquire ability increases every 4 HD, however.

[Sutremaine]

12HD + Con bonus HP at high levels doesn't sound like much. Is the natural armour bonus really that useful, or should I be using Ride checks by that stage?

Can a mount get size increases from its bonus HD?

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

12HD + Con bonus HP at high levels doesn't sound like much. Is the natural armour bonus really that useful, or should I be using Ride checks by that stage?

It is not, so ride checks and magic barding are recommended.


Can a mount get size increases from its bonus HD?No.

[Olethros]

The Paladin's mount, while something I allways found fundamentally cool, is not something i ever found to be fundamentally powerfull. The aquisition of a flying mount being the best example of using the mount to trully increase the paladins power.

On a related note, does anybody know rules for using the mount "indoors?" Obviously there is the simple issue of "is there space for the creature, but what about footing, charging, etc?

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

As long as there is room and no difficult terrain (or other obstacles etc.) charging should not be a problem.

[Sutremaine]

The flying is definitely useful. In later levels it's completely outclassed by a third-level spell, which is rather annoying, but hopefully there are some rapid flight feats out there. I assume that the quadruple cost for Large-size armour extends to special materials?

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

I assume that the quadruple cost for Large-size armour extends to special materials?

Not generally. Special materials that have a +X gp per item does not increase its cost if the size increase, but Darkwood has a cost per lb. and would cost more.
It is not logical or realistic, but armor for larger creatures made from mithral or adamantine would become de facto unavailable.