[3.5] A Class for Horse (of course of course)

[Thurbane]

So...my current party has an Awakened Warbeast Heavy Warhose (Greatheart by name) tagging along with them ATM. He used to be a mount for a Knight, until his master was slain (the party has already avenged his death). He was awakened by a Druid before the party met up with him.

He's been joining in the fights, and I figured, sooner or later he should level up (he only has his 7 RHD at the moment).

Don't have his stats handy, but Str and Con are good, Dex is OK, and mental stats are pretty average.

The question is...what class? I'd like to stick with something melee related (no casting please): my initial though was Fighter for a feat and armor proficiencies, or maybe Barbarian (although the horse has slight lawful leanings, alignment wise).

But then I was thinking how cool it would be for him to have a Martial Adept class! Trouble is, his mediocre mental stats wouldn't take the best advantage of them. Cha is 8, and (from memory) Int is around 10, and Wis maybe 12?

Swordsage seems like the best fit (unarmed swordsage is off the table, sorry). His 7RHD will count towards Initiator Level. Maybe a level of Fighter first to bump up his IL to 5 at first level of Swordsage?

Any thoughts?

Cheers - T

[nintendoh]

Make the horse a wild shape ranger bear warrior. Mental image it and you will see why.

[DrMotives]

I've always loved the idea of a horse rogue.

Clop clop, clop clop

"Is that horse seriously trying to sneak up on us?"
"I think it's trying to duck down behind that rock"
"It can't possibly think that we don't know its there"

But seriously, if you want it to be martial, I'd go for a barbarian / warblade. It just feels like a better fit.

[nintendoh]

Right but he said lawful leanings. So we have to give the horse a few leveks to change to the fun alignment.

[Venger]

So...my current party has an Awakened Warbeast Heavy Warhose (Greatheart by name) tagging along with them ATM. He used to be a mount for a Knight, until his master was slain (the party has already avenged his death). He was awakened by a Druid before the party met up with him.

He's been joining in the fights, and I figured, sooner or later he should level up (he only has his 7 RHD at the moment).

Don't have his stats handy, but Str and Con are good, Dex is OK, and mental stats are pretty average.

The question is...what class? I'd like to stick with something melee related (no casting please): my initial though was Fighter for a feat and armor proficiencies, or maybe Barbarian (although the horse has slight lawful leanings, alignment wise).

But then I was thinking how cool it would be for him to have a Martial Adept class! Trouble is, his mediocre mental stats wouldn't take the best advantage of them. Cha is 8, and (from memory) Int is around 10, and Wis maybe 12?

Swordsage seems like the best fit (unarmed swordsage is off the table, sorry). His 7RHD will count towards Initiator Level. Maybe a level of Fighter first to bump up his IL to 5 at first level of Swordsage?

Any thoughts?

Cheers - T
I'd suggest you do go with an initiator. having middling mental stats isn't necessarily a dealbreaker for using them effectively. he might not be able to get crusader's boost to will saves, warblade's int to ref saves, or swordsage's wis to ac, but he can still use maneuvers. these are all hardly central to the class.

it depends on what sorts of powers you want him to have. since he's a horse, he'd be pretty good at jumping, so dabbling in tiger claw as a swordsage, or focusing in it for a warblade probably provides good synergy. depending on the breakdown of your group, having him be a kind of healbot as a crusader if he mostly just kicks people in the shins would be handy too, especially if he functions as an afterthought in most combats like a familiar or AC to reduce the amount of time it takes his player to take their turns.

[Waker]

Make it a Marshal. He's not just some mook, this horse is a leader of men! Plus it would be funny to say the horse learned to project auras from his late master.

[One Step Two]

How about Dragonfire Adept? Nothing says awesome, like a Horse that breathes fire and grows scales

[gorfnab]

Totemist would be interesting for some more natural attacks and other abilities. A Scout/Ranger Swift Hunter build would be somewhat amusing on a horse. If you're going with Fighter levels, Dungeoncrasher would be absolutely hilarious.

[Thurbane]

Some cool suggestions: I think I'll be heading for 1 level of Fighter, then into Swordsage (so his first level of Swordsage will be IL 5, and he can grab some 3rd level maneuvers right away).

Fighters are home-brewed to get 4 skill points/level from an expanded list in my game.

Need to settle on a feat. Power Attack is probably a decent choice.

[Venger]

Some cool suggestions: I think I'll be heading for 1 level of Fighter, then into Swordsage (so his first level of Swordsage will be IL 5, and he can grab some 3rd level maneuvers right away).

Fighters are home-brewed to get 4 skill points/level from an expanded list in my game.

Need to settle on a feat. Power Attack is probably a decent choice.

what level is the feat at and what do you have already? you could lay groundwork for leap attack later if you're going swordsage with a tiger claw primary/secondary focus.

[Troacctid]

I kind of like paladin, so that your horse has another horse. And then maybe go into Beloved of Valarian to get a unicorn on top of that.

[Inevitability]

I kind of like paladin, so that your horse has another horse. And then maybe go into Beloved of Valarian to get a unicorn on top of that.

Don't forget Wild Cohort and, if you want to go completely crazy, a level in druid and wizard or sorcerer.

[gorfnab]

Don't forget Wild Cohort and, if you want to go completely crazy, a level in druid and wizard or sorcerer.
And a wand of Regal Procession for backup.:smallbiggrin:

[Bullet06320]

Don't forget Wild Cohort and, if you want to go completely crazy, a level in druid and wizard or sorcerer.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/54699/The-Noble-Wild
this has rules for playing animals, as characters, including an option for acquiring a human as a familiar, lol
leadership and a cohort would work too

[Telonius]

If you're going to be a Swordsage, Shadow Hand (Shadow Hoof?), Tiger Claw, and Setting Sun would be glorious. Just picture a horse picking up an enemy and throwing him into a wall...

If at all possible, see if you can get Proficiency: Frying Pan.

[Venger]

If you're going to be a Swordsage, Shadow Hand (Shadow Hoof?), Tiger Claw, and Setting Sun would be glorious. Just picture a horse picking up an enemy and throwing him into a wall...

If at all possible, see if you can get Proficiency: Frying Pan.

Well, like Maximus, horses can inexplicably track by scent in D&D.

Frying pan sounds like an improvised weapon to me. You know what that means:

Drunken master. Get your horse drunk and have him beat your enemies to death with all the random junk you make him carry in your saddlebags.

[lylsyly]

Straight Fighter, Take advantage of his size and strength with Weapon focus (spiked armor), Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, Knockback, Shock Trooper, Leap Attack.

Crash in, knock foes every where, rest of party can help clean up (big grin)

[Extra Anchovies]

With 7 magical beast (augmented animal) RHD, what prestige classes can they qualify for? One more point of BAB and they could enter Animal Lord (Horselord), for the horsiest horse who ever horsed.


Totemist would be interesting for some more natural attacks and other abilities.

With Girallon Arms totem-bound, their natural attack routine would be bite/hoof/hoof/claw/claw/claw/claw. That's seven natural attacks, one more than a true dragon gets. Also you have a horse with four arms coming out of the front of its torso, which is a pretty great mental image.

[ExLibrisMortis]

I think incarnate would be useful. Flying horse, immune to possession, has an aura of flames etcetera - lots of useful sub-abilities to be had.

[Lord Haart]

Incarnate/Crusader multiclass and fluff it as it becoming a Paladin('s) horse without a paladin master — the horse has been so inspired by its late master's nobleness and valor, even though he was not a paladin himself, that it now feels a higher calling. Higher than carrots, even.

Besides, Greatheart the Paladin is a great name.

[Thurbane]

Incarnate/Crusader multiclass and fluff it as it becoming a Paladin('s) horse without a paladin master — the horse has been so inspired by its late master's nobleness and valor, even though he was not a paladin himself, that it now feels a higher calling. Higher than carrots, even.

Besides, Greatheart the Paladin is a great name.

He's pretty chummy with one of the PCs who is an Aasimar Paladin. :smallwink:

The PC in question was asking me if there's any way he could have Greatheart as his special mount...I might allow him as a cohort instead. Will require a bit of bending RAW/RAI, but might be fun.

Incidentally, does anyone have an idea of the "right" way to award XP to a creature that has no listed LA, and only has RHD? I've kind of been "winging it" treating him as a level 7 character...

[Venger]

He's pretty chummy with one of the PCs who is an Aasimar Paladin. :smallwink:

The PC in question was asking me if there's any way he could have Greatheart as his special mount...I might allow him as a cohort instead. Will require a bit of bending RAW/RAI, but might be fun.

Incidentally, does anyone have an idea of the "right" way to award XP to a creature that has no listed LA, and only has RHD? I've kind of been "winging it" treating him as a level 7 character...

that makes sense. I can't see it being much of a balance issue.

[Zaydos]

Incidentally, does anyone have an idea of the "right" way to award XP to a creature that has no listed LA, and only has RHD? I've kind of been "winging it" treating him as a level 7 character...

The by the books way would be to assign LA to them. With them not getting the elite array I'd say +0 would be 100% appropriate (ok for a horse I'd probably just go +0 anyway but).

[Zaq]

I completely agree that Incarnum (either Incarnate or Totemist, depending on exactly what you want the character to do and exactly how slight those lawful leanings are) is the way to go. Both because Incarnum is really useful (it's basically as passive or as active as you need it to be) and because the idea of a horse with soulmelds is humorous.

Of course, if you want to go full goofy, then the obvious choice is Ninja. But that's pretty much going goofy for the sake of goofy, which may or may not be your aim. Still. Invisi-horse! Invisi-horse with the ability to make standing jumps and with a pseudo-climb speed!

Knight isn't mechanically strong, but it's fun. Though the fact that a horse can't use a shield kind of dampens things.

Scout might be interesting. The errata said that a mounted Scout can't Skirmish, but it said nothing about a Scout who is mounted by someone else Skirmishing!