Fantastic Mounts and Where to Find Them

[LarwisTheElf]

I'm currently building a world that I hope to eventually run a game in. I want gnolls to be nomadic wanderers, similar to the mongols in terms of culture and style. My idea is that they are nomads who wander the world looking for the resources they need, but with an emphasis on what they ride as a major cultural point. Only the poorest/weakest ride horses, while the great chiefs ride fantastic and powerful mounts. Their relationship with their mount is also important, as they are supposed to earn their mount's trust instead of forcing it into submission (though particularly evil gnolls have been known to do this). In any case, I'm looking for monsters that the gnolls could use as mounts. Doesn't really matter what, since I'm just looking for ideas at this point.

Crunch: I'm looking for awesome/uncommon mounts that could be used by a nomadic group of gnolls. I don't really want they using horses because the image of a gnoll on a horse just seems....wrong to me. Any and all help would be appreciated.

Hi ho Silver Playground! Away!

[hamishspence]

Dire jackals from Sandstorm?

[DrMotives]

Dire hyena, lions, or Sandstorm's protoceratops.

[Telonius]

A few possibilities from the SRD:

Spider Eater
Megaraptor
Destrachan
Dire Wolverine
Polar Bear
Gray Render
Griffin
Hippogriff
Rhinoceros
Wyvern

[DrMotives]

Warhammer has these things I liked called demigriffs, which are just wingless griffons. Still, it's a big carnivorous animals for use as mounts.

[The Viscount]

Winter wolves are pretty neat mounts, as are Howlers (you can use the quills as javelins as in Savage Species), and one of my absolute favorites, the Kuldurath from FF.

[the_david]

Dire hyena, lions, or Sandstorm's protoceratops.I'm not sure if there's such a thing as a Dire Hyena, but after a quick google search I could only find homebrew versions.

You could advance a Hyena to 4 or 5 hit dice to make it large. That seems to fit best, unless your Gnolls are based on different species of dogs. (I know, Hyenas are more closely related to cats. It's just that I saw someone do this anyway and it kinda fits, except for the genetics part.)

[LoyalPaladin]

I'm not sure if there's such a thing as a Dire Hyena, but after a quick google search I could only find homebrew versions.

You could advance a Hyena to 4 or 5 hit dice to make it large. That seems to fit best, unless your Gnolls are based on different species of dogs. (I know, Hyenas are more closely related to cats. It's just that I saw someone do this anyway and it kinda fits, except for the genetics part.)
I hope there are. Those sound awesome...

[LarwisTheElf]

Thanks for all the input everyone. It's a good start and I already have some good ideas, like hippo riding cavalry supported by wyvern air support, and other such stuff.

But this is the Playground, where good isn't good enough, so lets see how far down the rabbit hole we can go.

What are some of the craziest mounts that you can think of. Feel free to template stack if you want. Nothing is too crazy. Let's see what kind of madness the playground can come up with.

Let madness rein!

[Efrate]

Magebred Horrid Warbeast Polar bears, advanced to gargantuan is a favorite of mine. Bonus if you can make it dire, though I think that crosses into homebrew territory, nothing 1st party to make an animal dire as far as I know. Give it improved unarmed strike and snap kick and you have your very own acid dripping bad ass kung fu bear of ownage. claw claw bite a bunch of punches and a kick, give it snatch, snatch and throw, and rend. Its a very nice bruiser mount and it comes in by RAW at pretty low CR all things considered. Give it a necklace of natural attack with throwing and returning for a heck of a horrific bruiser mount.

Otherwise, take your favorite dinosaur and template stack it to oblivion.

[barakaka]

Ashworms and Dust Twisters can both be ridden and found in Sandstorm. Not really sure if that matches your gnolls' styles, but they sure are fantastic! A gnoll Ashworm Dragoon riding his magebred-horrid-warbeast could be pretty fearsome, and the PrC is all about bonding with your worm. If you have a caster gnoll in the tribe, then he could bring forth lightning and fire from up high in a swirling Dust Twister.

[Andezzar]

Land Sharks (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/bulette.htm) might work, especially, if you homebrew an item that lets them extend their burrowing ability to their rider.