Cavalier build help

[sflame56]

So I really want to play a character that uses mounted combat all the time and is good at it. I was thinking this would mean taking at least 3 lvls into cavalier fighter and some into paladin for find steed or ranger beast master to keep getting mounts. Essentially I want it so when I get on a mount everyone shall fear my character and his mount. Wishing I could get the spell find greater steed also. Only way i know how to get that early is lore bard but I have no ideas what my lvls should look like at the end.

[Chugger]

Get Animal Friendship somehow (magic init - dip) and just buy an elephant out of the PHB. Train it to work w/ u a bit using AF and rock the house.

[sflame56]

Get Animal Friendship somehow (magic init - dip) and just buy an elephant out of the PHB. Train it to work w/ u a bit using AF and rock the house.

But Elephant aren't going to fit in a lot of caves and will only be used a lot less then say a griffon that has a flying speed and smaller size.

[QuintonBeck]

I've been intrigued by the idea of a good mounted combatant for a while. I have yet to play one though because there seem to be so many ways to build them and none have quite struck a chord with me, mainly for taking a while to really get started despite not offering a ton. I'll list the ones I understand.

Paladin: Find Steed comes online at Level 5 straight classing. It's a good spell and I think can be fairly argued to be the best option for a mount if for no other reason than the spell sharing and that dying is just a recast away from being undone.

The Paladin can Find Greater Steed at 13th level, the best mount acquisition you can get barring DM intervention on your behalf.

Bard: Find steed comes online at Level 6 for a Lore Bard, only one level behind the Paladin.

Find Greater Steed however comes online earlier than the paladin for any archetype of Bard, being available with Bard 10's Magical Secrets. If you want a cool easy to deal with mount as soon as possible, Bard is the way to go, nabbing the Paladin's steed spells with Magical Secrets.

Cavalier Mounted Combatant is a great feat for any of these builds, almost a necessity for heavy mount-focus, and Fighters get more ASIs/Feats means this path lets you pick it up along with more bulk for your stats and/or other feats. The Cavalier archetype means you don't need Sentinel as you otherwise might want for the Paladin or Bard build. To get a lot of those in-built feat avoidance abilities you should go at least 10 in Cavalier and with one more level for Extra Attack X2 you might as well assume 11 Levels in any Cavalier build.

That's a lot of levels in a mundane class so you better hope for a nice DM if you want a mount you can rely on/remember the name of. Otherwise you may as well open a glue business on the side.

Beastmaster Ranger Firstly, pray that the UA Revised Ranger is allowed. If so pick a small race and a medium animal companion then just be a Beastmaster ranger. Probably more of an archer on horseback or skirmisher than mounted knight as opposed to the earlier mounted combatants.

So the earliest/easiest way to mount up is to go Beastmaster but that doesn't really lend itself to the knight in shining armor on horse/pegasus back. To achieve the full knight upon a noble steed looks means at least 5-6 levels in either Paladin or Bard and really 10-13 in Bard/Paladin to get the really fun steeds.

[sflame56]

I've been intrigued by the idea of a good mounted combatant for a while. I have yet to play one though because there seem to be so many ways to build them and none have quite struck a chord with me, mainly for taking a while to really get started despite not offering a ton. I'll list the ones I understand.

Paladin: Find Steed comes online at Level 5 straight classing. It's a good spell and I think can be fairly argued to be the best option for a mount if for no other reason than the spell sharing and that dying is just a recast away from being undone.

The Paladin can Find Greater Steed at 13th level, the best mount acquisition you can get barring DM intervention on your behalf.

Bard: Find steed comes online at Level 6 for a Lore Bard, only one level behind the Paladin.

Find Greater Steed however comes online earlier than the paladin for any archetype of Bard, being available with Bard 10's Magical Secrets. If you want a cool easy to deal with mount as soon as possible, Bard is the way to go, nabbing the Paladin's steed spells with Magical Secrets.

Cavalier Mounted Combatant is a great feat for any of these builds, almost a necessity for heavy mount-focus, and Fighters get more ASIs/Feats means this path lets you pick it up along with more bulk for your stats and/or other feats. The Cavalier archetype means you don't need Sentinel as you otherwise might want for the Paladin or Bard build. To get a lot of those in-built feat avoidance abilities you should go at least 10 in Cavalier and with one more level for Extra Attack X2 you might as well assume 11 Levels in any Cavalier build.

That's a lot of levels in a mundane class so you better hope for a nice DM if you want a mount you can rely on/remember the name of. Otherwise you may as well open a glue business on the side.

Beastmaster Ranger Firstly, pray that the UA Revised Ranger is allowed. If so pick a small race and a medium animal companion then just be a Beastmaster ranger. Probably more of an archer on horseback or skirmisher than mounted knight as opposed to the earlier mounted combatants.

So the earliest/easiest way to mount up is to go Beastmaster but that doesn't really lend itself to the knight in shining armor on horse/pegasus back. To achieve the full knight upon a noble steed looks means at least 5-6 levels in either Paladin or Bard and really 10-13 in Bard/Paladin to get the really fun steeds.

Sweet man thanks for the help. I think I would most likely go bard since cutting words can save my mount in those times I need to help it and I love the idea of magiknights (mounted spell users in fire emblem). If I go 7 lvls into fighter i can protect my mount even more often. If I go 6 into it fighter I can get even more stuff in bard by going 14 into that. I could even grab awaken and make my mount be able to talk XD

[sflame56]

One thing that poped into head what race should I be then? This will be a dex based class so I will have to focus on that and a good cha.

[Chugger]

One thing that poped into head what race should I be then? This will be a dex based class so I will have to focus on that and a good cha.

Vahuman to get the mounted combat feat right off! You'd get a +1 dx and +1con, meaning 16 dx and con can be had w/ a point buy.

[Malifice]

Or you could just buy a horse.

[cloner4000]

Keep in mind that Mounted Combat feat allow you to redirect attack at your mount so between that and dodge attack for your horse you are really looking at magic. Which is why I think you would pick up the mounted combatant feat as soon as possible as it also give you advantage on melee attack against size medium and small enemies. Also Cavalier can pick up warding strike which give resistance to allied including your horse.

Paladin give you the ability to summon the horse, but depending on your DM you may just be able to buy a horse as well. Do you have any magic user that may be willing to take the greater find steed spell and cast it for you? Its a great boon to the party to have one so they might be willing to do it.

[QuintonBeck]

Sweet man thanks for the help. I think I would most likely go bard since cutting words can save my mount in those times I need to help it and I love the idea of magiknights (mounted spell users in fire emblem). If I go 7 lvls into fighter i can protect my mount even more often. If I go 6 into it fighter I can get even more stuff in bard by going 14 into that. I could even grab awaken and make my mount be able to talk XD


One thing that poped into head what race should I be then? This will be a dex based class so I will have to focus on that and a good cha.

Going Bard first so you can get a summonable mount is probably a good idea and a Bard/Fighter multiclass isn't a bad combo. If you want the mount sooner you can go Lore Bard to 6 and then start in on your Fighter levels, maybe sprinkling in four more Bard levels after you at least get Extra Attack from Fighter to achieve the ability to summon a better steed. This route would make you an interesting sort of support gish who would look a lot like a paladin to people in-game I'd think while performing differently mechanically.

I'm not convinced you need that much Dex, or at least not as your primary attribute. You've got a mount to carry you around and dodge things, you don't need to be super nimble too. A 14 or so in Dex with Medium armor should suit you just fine your whole career. If you pick up just one level of Hexblade you can ignore almost all your other stats except Cha and Con.


Vahuman to get the mounted combat feat right off! You'd get a +1 dx and +1con, meaning 16 dx and con can be had w/ a point buy.

Vhuman is always a good choice. Mounted Combatant as early as possible is good for a mounted build and nothing is sooner than 1st level!


Keep in mind that Mounted Combat feat allow you to redirect attack at your mount so between that and dodge attack for your horse you are really looking at magic. Which is why I think you would pick up the mounted combatant feat as soon as possible as it also give you advantage on melee attack against size medium and small enemies. Also Cavalier can pick up warding strike which give resistance to allied including your horse.

Paladin give you the ability to summon the horse, but depending on your DM you may just be able to buy a horse as well. Do you have any magic user that may be willing to take the greater find steed spell and cast it for you? Its a great boon to the party to have one so they might be willing to do it.

You may be able to buy a horse but you better budget for multiple horses because I promise they will die at some point when taken into combat.

[sflame56]

Going Bard first so you can get a summonable mount is probably a good idea and a Bard/Fighter multiclass isn't a bad combo. If you want the mount sooner you can go Lore Bard to 6 and then start in on your Fighter levels, maybe sprinkling in four more Bard levels after you at least get Extra Attack from Fighter to achieve the ability to summon a better steed. This route would make you an interesting sort of support gish who would look a lot like a paladin to people in-game I'd think while performing differently mechanically.

I'm not convinced you need that much Dex, or at least not as your primary attribute. You've got a mount to carry you around and dodge things, you don't need to be super nimble too. A 14 or so in Dex with Medium armor should suit you just fine your whole career. If you pick up just one level of Hexblade you can ignore almost all your other stats except Cha and Con.



Vhuman is always a good choice. Mounted Combatant as early as possible is good for a mounted build and nothing is sooner than 1st level!



You may be able to buy a horse but you better budget for multiple horses because I promise they will die at some point when taken into combat.

Thanks for all the tips! Big thing about buying your horses is one its 400 gold each time if you buy warhorses +1,500 gold first time for plate mail for it. This cost can happen again if say a giant or a dragon sits on your warhorse and destroys it. Second your mounts have so low hp that you have to buy quite often in certain fights. Being able to just keep summoning them will save ya in the long run. With find steed you spend 0 gold to get a free mount. This might not mean a lot in some games where gold is candy but in like strauds campaign you won't have that much gold easily to keep buying horses not to mention the issue of finding someone that will sell them. With find steed I get free warhorses and later on I don't ever need to buy any because you can get a freaking griffon or Pegasus which is way better due to even more movement options.

One funny idea that I am thinking could even make this idea more fun is grabbing awaken so I can have a mount that can add into conversations and have even more fun. It also protects from a lot of spells that effect creatures on specific int lvls.

As for spells since I am a spell caster and my mounts gets spells that only target me also which ones should I grab? Looking through two that come to mind are Guardian of nature and haste. What spells do work with your mount?

[Ratter]

So the ideal cavalier is most likely a noble/knight because he can afford a horse so take that, the rest assumes variant human taking the dual wielding feat, if you arent using that then simply stay fighter until level 4 and take the feat before switching, go fighter dual weapons style, this lets you use a lance and a spear/javelin which is going to be important, after you take UA knight at level 3 multiclass to barbarian for rage, stay barbarian until you get multiattack, now go rogue for 3 levels (f you dont like barbs AT ALL or your horse dies instantly then stay to level 4, this lets you get the "mounted combatant," feat, giving up health and damage for horse survivability.) and take swashbuckler, at this point you have expertise in animal handling, strength is the most important thing, cha is second, dex barely matters for anything besides AC, which doesnt matter either, at this point take extra levels in barb if you want more rage stuff or rogue for extra sneak attack and to protect your horse, either way take mounted combatant as your next feat, if you already have it then go fighter for multi attack and damage increase at this point, dont take a feat take an ability score, now you can run through a crowd of enemies, have super high init because of swash, reckless attack gives you instant sneak attack to your javelin/shortspear throw, you also can dash through crowds as long as you attack (dont have to hit) everyone you pass+disengage as not a bonus action, so you basically pass 5 people for free, do sneak attack to one of them and normal damage to 3 of them while disengaging the last one. This lets you act like a calvalry and dart in and out with a massive lance and utilize your speed.