Giving a paladin an animal companion

[Nerdynick]

I'm not the DM, but there's a player in my party that is getting Find Steed. Her god uses bears in its religious symbology and paladins get bears instead of warhorses. How should our DM balance things to get a bear out of Find Steed?

[jaappleton]

Well, look in the MM for a Warhorse. Find some sort of bear (Cave Bear, Brown Bear, Polar Bear, etc) that's comparable.

Done.

[Sception]

I recommend allowing higher level paladins to up-cast find Steed to 3rd, 4th, or 5th as appropriate to summon more powerful steeds. If the steed is combat-relevant beyond just being a mount, you might also want to rule that the paladin does not get the spell slot used to summon the steed back as long as the steed is still around.

[Falcon X]

I would say you make the rule: "You may make your steed use it's attack action by forfeiting your own."

As long as you aren't bringing a new combatant into a fight, there shouldn't be too much trouble.

[hymer]

Well, look in the MM for a Warhorse. Find some sort of bear (Cave Bear, Brown Bear, Polar Bear, etc) that's comparable.

Done.

If you follow this suggestion, I happen to know that a black bear and a warhorse are both CR ½.

[Dalebert]

Problem is a black bear isn't big enough and a brown bear is arguably way better than a warhorse. I don't know that it's broken-better, but it's better. Honestly, after a certain level, it's probably not going to be that big a difference.

One the key benefits of the steed is that it's abnormally intelligent and even understands a language and can act independently. You could even having it fighting by your side because you can send it telepathic commands. It would be weird to take that away in order to make it more balanced. It wouldn't really be a paladin steed at that point.

Unrelated side note: My sorcerer has one of these warhorses thanks to a ring of spell storing. :smallcool:

[Sception]

I'd treat it more like animated/created undead than a ranger's animal companion. IE, the creature has its own actions, but you have to 'upkeep' the spell each morning to keep it around, at least for any creatures that are stronger than the default warhorse.

[tieren]

Problem is a black bear isn't big enough and a brown bear is arguably way better than a warhorse. I don't know that it's broken-better, but it's better. Honestly, after a certain level, it's probably not going to be that big a difference.



You've got your reality in my fantasy game.

You can use the stat block and just tweak the size to whatever you need it to be, voila, now its an amazing racing bear.

[Arkhios]

My Ancients Paladin belongs to a Wolf Tribe whose sacred/totem animal is a wolf. I tried to reason with my DM if he'd let me use Find Steed to bond with a Fey Dire Wolf. I was unsuccesful.

Since then I gave up my ideas of a Mounted Combatant.

I might still try again later, though I'll probably just wait until I take the few bard levels I had planned and take the Animal Friendship, as a back-up. To actually befriend with the first direwolf we meet and maybe then, form a bond by using Find Steed on the dire wolf (I understand that's not RAW, but why not try at least?)