Best rider for Druid Mount combo

[Baad007]

A friend of mine is going to build a moon druid with sentinel while I take Mounted Combatant for the smart horse/knight combo. What do you guys think is the best rider class/build would be?

[Easy_Lee]

Variant Human Wolf Totem Barbarian. Reckless Attack + Rage means all attacks either one of you make have advantage.

[Millface]

Halfling so that you have more options for what the druid can be and still ride it...

Cavalier for the class, from Xanathar's Guide to Everything. I'm sure other classes could work but this seems like a no brainer to me. It's a solid class in it's own right, and I think that's a really neat combo.

[nickl_2000]

A friend of mine is going to build a moon druid with sentinel while I take Mounted Combatant for the smart horse/knight combo. What do you guys think is the best rider class/build would be?

Cavalier is a very good choice with Heavy Armor Mastery and Mounted Combatant since it works well with mounts and you can get some crazy AC.
BearBarian is likely the better choice though. They can take abuse and with mounted combatant they can prevent anyone from attacking the Moon Druid.
Rogue is an interesting choice with the level 5 uncanny dodge to avoid damage and a guaranteed sneak attack since they have an ally in their square.


Oh and I'm also playing this with a Fiend Bladelock, which is decent (giving his temp HPs)

As a side note Dire Wolf makes a wonderful wild shape choice for the Druid

[Easy_Lee]

Hill Dwarf Life Cleric is also pretty good. You can cast Sanctuary on yourself (first level spell) and force attacks to target you. Assuming the enemy passes their saving throw to even make the attack against you, they still have to get through your high AC and Hill Dwarf HP. Combined with Life Cleric healing, it's unlikely this combination will be brought down by conventional attacks.

Be aware that your DM might not appreciate this.

[Jaelommiss]

Hill Dwarf Life Cleric is also pretty good. You can cast Sanctuary on yourself (first level spell) and force attacks to target you. Assuming the enemy passes their saving throw to even make the attack against you, they still have to get through your high AC and Hill Dwarf HP. Combined with Life Cleric healing, it's unlikely this combination will be brought down by conventional attacks.

Be aware that your DM might not appreciate this.

That would work if sanctuary didn't allow the creature to change targets on a failed save.

Orc attacks mount. Rider under effects of Santuary redirects attack to self. Orc fails saving throw. Orc redirects attack to mount. Rider redirects attack to self again. Orc fails saving throw again. Orc redirects attack to mount again. Cycle repeats until orc succeeds on saving throw or rider allows orc to attack the mount.

A heavily armoured rider is still a good idea, though. A life cleric still works with high AC. It just doesn't benefit at all from casting Sanctuary.

[Millface]

Hill Dwarf Life Cleric is also pretty good. You can cast Sanctuary on yourself (first level spell) and force attacks to target you. Assuming the enemy passes their saving throw to even make the attack against you, they still have to get through your high AC and Hill Dwarf HP. Combined with Life Cleric healing, it's unlikely this combination will be brought down by conventional attacks.

Be aware that your DM might not appreciate this.

I would applaud it. I mean, a moon druid on it's own is insanely hard to take down, with wild shape and polymorph their effective HP is enormous. Bear Barbarians are also terrifying on their own. A good DM will adapt and figure something out.

So far I think I actually like the Life Cleric idea best except for touch based healing spells needing the druid to move with you to the target you want to heal or force them to move to you.

[hymer]

If you're going to lug someone around all day, at least make it a paladin. That aura will help your saves, and you'll be a tempting target for any AoE effects the enemy has.

[Easy_Lee]

That would work if sanctuary didn't allow the creature to change targets on a failed save.

Orc attacks mount. Rider under effects of Santuary redirects attack to self. Orc fails saving throw. Orc redirects attack to mount. Rider redirects attack to self again. Orc fails saving throw again. Orc redirects attack to mount again. Cycle repeats until orc succeeds on saving throw or rider allows orc to attack the mount.

A heavily armoured rider is still a good idea, though. A life cleric still works with high AC. It just doesn't benefit at all from casting Sanctuary.

Well now I want to do it just to see that play out.

[MaxWilson]

A friend of mine is going to build a moon druid with sentinel while I take Mounted Combatant for the smart horse/knight combo. What do you guys think is the best rider class/build would be?

Halfling Paladin 6/War Wizard 10+ with Defense style, wizard spells that include [Booming Blade, Absorb Elements, Shield], Heavy Armor Master, Mounted Combatant, and War caster, so you can cast Shield of Faith + Dodge (AC 25 + disadvantage to attackers, +2 when you deflect or +5 AC if you Shield), give saving throw bonuses to yourself and your mount, and still threaten huge attacks of opportunity against anyone who tries to ignore you because you're Dodging. (Plus, your mount will then freeze them in their tracks with Sentinel.)

Even a Fire Giant (+11 to hit) will have about an 82% chance of missing you with BOTH attacks every turn, and only a 1% chance of hitting you when you choose to Shield. A lesser creature like a Glabrezu will be hopelessly stymied. And the whole time your Moon Druid buddy is ripping the enemy to shreds.

As a bonus, by strict RAW you can climb on the back of any Medium-sized creature (or larger) that you've got a saddle for to render them nigh-invulnerable to attacks. Need to smuggle out a hostage Princess through a crowd of orcs? No problem, just put the halfling paladin on her shoulders and let him Dodge away.

[Easy_Lee]

Halfling Paladin 6/War Wizard 10+ with...

Who doesn't start campaigns at level 16, amirite?

[MaxWilson]

Who doesn't start campaigns at level 16, amirite?

I _think_ you are asking in what order to pursue advancement, yes? Personally I'd go for Paladin 1 (for heavy armor), Wizard 1-4 (to get Shield and Arcane Deflection online, plus Mounted Combatant), Paladin 2 (for Wrathful Smite, Shield of Faith, and potential Divine Smite when needed), Wizard 5-7 (fun stuff like Fire Shield, Polymorph), Paladin 3-6 (saving throw bonuses), Wizard 8-10 (bonus +2 to AC when concentrating). Mounted Combatant comes online at level 5 instead of 4, but there's no way around that without going Human (and besides, the Moon Druid hardly needs your help at levels 1-4), and all of your important stuff comes online early enough to be worthwhile.

Just because you know where you're headed doesn't mean you're useless until you get there. Think it through, Easy_Lee, before mocking.

[Easy_Lee]

I _think_ you are asking in what order to pursue advancement, yes? Personally I'd go for Paladin 1 (for heavy armor), Wizard 1-4 (to get Shield and Arcane Deflection online, plus Mounted Combatant), Paladin 2 (for Wrathful Smite, Shield of Faith, and potential Divine Smite when needed), Wizard 5-7 (fun stuff like Fire Shield, Polymorph), Paladin 3-6 (saving throw bonuses), Wizard 8-10 (bonus +2 to AC when concentrating). Mounted Combatant comes online at level 5 instead of 4, but there's no way around that without going Human (and besides, the Moon Druid hardly needs your help at levels 1-4), and all of your important stuff comes online early enough to be worthwhile.

Just because you know where you're headed doesn't mean you're useless until you get there. Think it through, Easy_Lee, before mocking.

My core criticism here is this: the build doesn't do as much damage as it should and is unnecessarily MAD, needing a 13 in Intelligence, Charisma, and Strength just to multiclass. Possible? Yes, but you'll probably sacrifice your constitution in the process - not something you want to do.

A wolf-totem barbarian has resistance to attacks and does a ton of damage while also giving advantage to the druid's attacks. A Life Cleric casting sanctuary on himself forces attacking creatures to roll twice, once for the Wisdom save and once for the actual attack, to attack at all - though your DM may create an infinite loop of the creature deciding to attack the druid, then the cleric, then the druid...etc. I think both of these are more functional and practical than a Paladin / Wizard multiclass.

One way to get the concept of your build would be Eldritch Knight. You gain access to Shield, the best armor, the second highest HP, extra feats, and have ranged attack options. You can also have a familiar who rides on your shoulder while you ride the druid - inception riding.

[MaxWilson]

My core criticism here is this: the build doesn't do as much damage as it should and is unnecessarily MAD, needing a 13 in Intelligence, Charisma, and Strength just to multiclass. Possible? Yes, but you'll probably sacrifice your constitution in the process - not something you want to do.

A wolf-totem barbarian has resistance to attacks and does a ton of damage while also giving advantage to the druid's attacks. A Life Cleric casting sanctuary on himself forces attacking creatures to roll twice, once for the Wisdom save and once for the actual attack, to attack at all - though your DM may create an infinite loop of the creature deciding to attack the druid, then the cleric, then the druid...etc. I think both of these are more functional and practical than a Paladin / Wizard multiclass.

One way to get the concept of your build would be Eldritch Knight. You gain access to Shield, the best armor, the second highest HP, extra feats, and have ranged attack options. You can also have a familiar who rides on your shoulder while you ride the druid - inception riding.

Eldritch Knight isn't bad but isn't as durable as the paladin/war wizard option, and has worse spells and no save bonus for the Moon Druid. The Barbarian is very fragile, especially since he's taking two PCs' worth of attacks and giving all of his enemies advantage due to Reckless Attack and has a lower AC to begin with. Doing more damage in exchange for taking something like five times as much damage in return seems like a bad tradeoff to me.

MADness is a potential issue, but not I think a serious one. You'll wind up settling for middling Int (14ish-16ish) for a wizard, but eh, so what? You're a bit worse at Counterspelling than a specialist wizard, and you're a bit worse at crowd control spells, but you're truly excellent at the thing you intended to be: an optimal rider for your Moon Druid buddy (and any other Medium-sized PC). You're the best possible bodyguard as well as being a pretty decent wizard.

Note that Paladins of Devotion have access to the Sanctuary spell, and it's normally quite good for them in a pinch due to action economy and no concentration requirement--but of course it's not good in conjunction with Mounted Combatant because you can't use them both together. (This is in fact a key reason why one of my favorite paladins never wound up taking the Mounted Combatant feat after all, despite originally intending to.)

[Easy_Lee]

Eldritch Knight isn't bad but isn't as durable as the paladin/war wizard option, and has worse spells and no save bonus for the Moon Druid. The Barbarian is very fragile, especially since he's taking two PCs' worth of attacks and giving all of his enemies advantage due to Reckless Attack and has a lower AC to begin with. Doing more damage in exchange for taking something like five times as much damage in return seems like a bad tradeoff to me.

MADness is a potential issue, but not I think a serious one. You'll wind up settling for middling Int (14ish-16ish) for a wizard, but eh, so what? You're a bit worse at Counterspelling than a specialist wizard, and you're a bit worse at crowd control spells, but you're truly excellent at the thing you intended to be: an optimal rider for your Moon Druid buddy (and any other Medium-sized PC). You're the best possible bodyguard as well as being a pretty decent wizard.

Note that Paladins of Devotion have access to the Sanctuary spell, and it's normally quite good for them in a pinch due to action economy and no concentration requirement--but of course it's not good in conjunction with Mounted Combatant because you can't use them both together. (This is in fact a key reason why one of my favorite paladins never wound up taking the Mounted Combatant feat after all, despite originally intending to.)

Sanctuary + Mounted Combatant is a DM call since, by the rules as written, it creates an infinite loop. It would be pretty funny if allowed but would lead to long and generally predictable fights.

The Wolf Totem Barbarian is not taking as much damage as you might think. The reason why is simple: with both a Barbarian and a Moon Druid attacking targets with advantage, including on Sentinel reactions, there won't be as many creatures left to threaten the two. This is especially true if the barbarian takes GWM. This combination does far more than double the damage of a Moon Druid / Cleric combination, for example, as only the Moon Druid can attack in that case.

An Eldritch Knight is a good mix between damage and tankiness with options that, while more limited than a wizards, are good options in almost any circumstance. Being able to enlarge/reduce the druid, should he take the spell, is also useful. Remember that as long as the Mounted Combatant's mount is larger than his opponent, his melee attacks have advantage. Not all options are equal and, as far as things go, the EK's options are both good and versatile.

This just in: one more option is Rogue/Druid for one simple reason: Mobile. In this case, the Druid takes Mobile instead of Sentinel and chooses shapes that have a high movement speed. He maintains the bonus movement speed of mobile and uses it to move in, attack, and move out. The rogue readies his action to make one melee attack (all he needs) against whichever target the druid attacks. This predictable but consistent setup should be good in most circumstances. It also gets around initiative problems from which the others will suffer, as it's not possible to delay turns in 5e. The combination of druid + rogue is also just as good out of combat as in combat.

[MaxWilson]

Sanctuary + Mounted Combatant is a DM call since, by the rules as written, it creates an infinite loop. It would be pretty funny if allowed but would lead to long and generally predictable fights.

In order to be an infinite loop it needs to be impossible to make the saving throw even on a natural 20. E.g. -2 to Wisdom saves against a DC of 19. It would certainly be reasonable for a DM to rule that in that special case, no attack happens.

In practice that doesn't happen, and it's a finite loop which always terminates in getting hit, so Sanctuary has no effect. There's just no synergy there.

[Tetrasodium]

A friend of mine is going to build a moon druid with sentinel while I take Mounted Combatant for the smart horse/knight combo. What do you guys think is the best rider class/build would be?

Others are correct that a size small rider will expand the number of usable mounts wildshape forms, but there are very few worthwhile size medium wildshape forms for a moon druid. If the druid is a kobold, that gives the druid advantage just for carrying you. If you have mounted combatant, you effectively give the druid evasion & gain advantage when you attack things smaller than the mount (making bigger almost always better). The druid should absolutely be a kobold because having advantage when you can't use +x weapons is insanely useful.

One unusual option for a rider is fighter 1 followed by 6 levels of grave cleric (or 6 then 6 depending on how many levels you expect to be going). This is not so much about dishing it out or being able to heal (which you can). Rather it's about being able to say "no.. no it's not a crit" because those are what will most likely send things spinning sideways. after that, you can go back to continuing either. That says nothing about the earlier grave cleric abilities like being able to spare the dying as a bonus action at 30 feet & heal your stabilized ally with a maximized cure wounds/healing word in the next round.

Yes the druid gets a big damage bump out of the sentinel+mounted combatant combo, but you want the druid to still get hit sometimes so they can use their combat wildshape ability to burn spell slots to self heal as a bonus action & frankly because shedding a wildshape form & burning an extra charge to shape again is a much easier resource to recover than nearly anything that can heal a rider. The ancestral guardian is phenomenal for the reasons mentioned by others though, at 3 you can give disadvantage to somethingthing not attacking you & resistance to the target if the disadvantaged attack hits... then at 6+ you can start subtracting 2d6/3d6/4d6 as a reaction to those & other attacks made against your mount. The difference between halfplate+shield & plate+shield is a fairly minimal 1ac given +3 dex. Switch things up & reduce damage or shift it to you & give your ally a free attack or just split the damage better if you two get, mobbed.

The cavalier offers very little to the duo IMO, it;s disappointing that it fails to hard at bringing value to the table on such an obvious duo.

a fighter 1(heavy armor/shield/martial weapons)+celestial warlock whatever is another unusual combo that can bring a lot to the table. Between thirsting blade & lifedrinker, you only ever need 15 strength & if you look at phb144 you do not technically even need that since a -10 foot penalty to the movement speed that you don't use is irrelevant so go all in on (cha+con). as a celestial warlck, you have cure wounds (cast from nice highlevel spell slots) on a short rest refresh so can top off yourself & maybe an injured party member just before the same short rest your druid friend needs to refresh their wildshape charges. The other celestial warlock the warlock cantrip/spell options themselves will add a great deal of flexibility to what you as a rider can bring to the table as well.

I considered suggesting hexblade, but they don't quite bring anything to the table that makes them a great part of a moon druid mount+rider duo. Certainly they would be effective, on a functional level, but so would nearly anything else.

[Blood of Gaea]

Rogues are actually pretty gnarly mounted combatants, their sneak attacks work very well with readied actions. My personal Rogue preference will always be Thief, but Assassin or Trickster is probably best for this combo.

[Zene]

My suggestions:

1) Your druid friend should be a kobold for advantage.
2) I'd recommend eldritch knight for you. But other great options include bladesinger, cavalier, or oath of conquest paladin.

[Blood of Gaea]

My suggestions:

1) Your druid friend should be a kobold for advantage.
2) I'd recommend eldritch knight for you. But other great options include bladesinger, cavalier, or oath of conquest paladin.
As a nice bonus to Bladesinger, bladesong works well with a lance.

[DarkKnightJin]

Sorta related.. I now want to make a Paladin inspired by Link.. and fluff the Found Steed as a Bear. Because reasons.

..Are there any spells that can be fluffed as myself and/or the bear being aflame?

Who's the Calamity now? (https://goo.gl/images/9xGpKF) (Tvtropes link)

[Easy_Lee]

In order to be an infinite loop it needs to be impossible to make the saving throw even on a natural 20. E.g. -2 to Wisdom saves against a DC of 19. It would certainly be reasonable for a DM to rule that in that special case, no attack happens.

In practice that doesn't happen, and it's a finite loop which always terminates in getting hit, so Sanctuary has no effect. There's just no synergy there.

From the spell sanctuary, "On a failed save, the creature must choose a new target or lose the attack or spell." If the creature can't choose a new target because doing so would result in targeting the Cleric again, I'd argue that he loses the attack. A DM can rule how he wants but the text is more clear than people are making it out to be. It's not necessarily "no synergy" like you say.

[MaxWilson]

From the spell sanctuary, "On a failed save, the creature must choose a new target or lose the attack or spell." If the creature can't choose a new target because doing so would result in targeting the Cleric again, I'd argue that he loses the attack. A DM can rule how he wants but the text is more clear than people are making it out to be. It's not necessarily "no synergy" like you say.

That's not a crazy argument, but you're only quoting half the relevant rules text. From Mounted Combatant: "You can force an attack targeted at your mount to target you instead." Nothing there says that an attacker cannot choose to target the mount--only that you can choose to change the target, intercepting the attack. Thus, the creature chooses a new target and does not lose the attack. But then Sanctuary forces a save, and if they fail they have to choose another target (e.g. your Mount), which you can then choose to redirect back onto yourself ad nauseum until they finally make their save. But in practice, why bother? It's a lot of player-and-DM-side activity without any doubt as to the final outcome: they'll make a save and attack you.

Anyway, it's a DM call, and ultimately the DM is probably going to rule based on what he thinks Mounted Combatant is actually doing when it substitutes the rider for the mount.

[Easy_Lee]

That's not a crazy argument, but you're only quoting half the relevant rules text. From Mounted Combatant: "You can force an attack targeted at your mount to target you instead." Nothing there says that an attacker cannot choose to target the mount--only that you can choose to change the target, intercepting the attack. Thus, the creature chooses a new target and does not lose the attack. But then Sanctuary forces a save, and if they fail they have to choose another target (e.g. your Mount), which you can then choose to redirect back onto yourself ad nauseum until they finally make their save. But in practice, why bother? It's a lot of player-and-DM-side activity without any doubt as to the final outcome: they'll make a save and attack you.

Anyway, it's a DM call, and ultimately the DM is probably going to rule based on what he thinks Mounted Combatant is actually doing when it substitutes the rider for the mount.

Right, the question is whether the target can choose your mount again after being redirected to you once. It's also unclear whether, after being redirected away from the Cleric once, the target could choose to redirect to the Cleric again later.

The question to ask the DM is this: if two people with sanctuary are standing next to each other and the target fails his save against one, then fails his save against the other, can the target go back to the first again until he hits one of them? I suspect most DMs would say no because that probably isn't the intent of Sanctuary.

Edit: that latter case could create an infinite loop if the sanctuary DC is too high for the target to hit (say DC 19 vs a creature with - 2 on wisdom saves). Infinite until the creature gives up, anyway.

[Tetrasodium]

Rogues are actually pretty gnarly mounted combatants, their sneak attacks work very well with readied actions. My personal Rogue preference will always be Thief, but Assassin or Trickster is probably best for this combo.

I don't disagree that rogue assassin rider/kobold moon druid mount is an extremely effective combo in a pinch.... but the assassin is better off milking poison from a helpful druid just before a rest (moon druid has some extremely potent poisons compared to the useless trash normally available) & doing their own thing in combat. This thread is about a dedicated combo & the relatively squishy assassin is better off using cunning action with or without some of the druid's poison on the fringes than right in harms way atop a druid


cr1/8 flying snake, 3d4 no save poison
cr1/4 giant poisonous snake dc11 save for half 3d6 poison
cr1/4 wolf spider dc11 save for half 2d6 poison
cr1 giant spider dc11 save for half 2d8
cr1 giant toad no save 1d10 poison
sadly no CR2 poison wildshape form , but it works out
cr3 giant scorpion dc12 save for half 4d10 poison
The moon druid wildshape forms kinda stop after cr3 while missing the steep decline that elemental wildshape forms start going through & somewhat lack the situational flexibility they offer compared to beast forms. Volo's included a couple cr 4/5 dinosaur critters though so it might be something wotc continues improving upon as time goes on.


There are no rules specifically for getting poison from a willing druid/summoned creature, but one that I have used both as player & gm is dc10 poisoner's kit since the druid is helping (honestly almost auto succeed) resulting in 1d4 vials of that poison. a vial can be applied to 3 pieces of ammunition or one piercing weapon & remains potent for 1 minute after being applied. (ie same as basic poison but with a useful poison).

[MaxWilson]

I don't disagree that rogue assassin rider/kobold moon druid mount is an extremely effective combo in a pinch.... but the assassin is better off milking poison from a helpful druid just before a rest (moon druid has some extremely potent poisons compared to the useless trash normally available) & doing their own thing in combat.

Why stop at just milking poison from the Moon Druid? If stuff that comes from the wildshape is left behind when the druid reverts to normal form, you can not only have unlimited poison, you can also have unlimited sweaters (from wildshaping into a sheep for shearing), unlimited milk (from wildshaping into cows for milking), and maybe even unlimited hamburgers (depending on your DM's take on HP-as-meat).

[nickl_2000]

Why stop at just milking poison from the Moon Druid? If stuff that comes from the wildshape is left behind when the druid reverts to normal form, you can not only have unlimited poison, you can also have unlimited sweaters (from wildshaping into a sheep for shearing), unlimited milk (from wildshaping into cows for milking), and maybe even unlimited hamburgers (depending on your DM's take on HP-as-meat).

Can you imagine how much milk you could get from a Giant Elk (size huge), or how many people you could feed with an egg from a Brontosaurus (Gargantuan)?

[Tetrasodium]

Why stop at just milking poison from the Moon Druid? If stuff that comes from the wildshape is left behind when the druid reverts to normal form, you can not only have unlimited poison, you can also have unlimited sweaters (from wildshaping into a sheep for shearing), unlimited milk (from wildshaping into cows for milking), and maybe even unlimited hamburgers (depending on your DM's take on HP-as-meat).

Most of the wildshape forms with poison are not at the top of the effectiveness scale for their CR Compare a giant scorpion to an ankylosaurus (both cr4), or a DEDEINONYCHUS deinoychus/crag cat/giant eagle/giant hyena/giant octopus/lion/tiger/brown bear to a giant spider/giant toad (all cr1). in almost any situation, the poisonous critter is sub par compared to a different creature meaning that the druid is either taking a step down to benefit an ally and/or willingly burning a charge of wildshape to benefit an ally.
I have had the rhetorical question you posed come up though regarding stockpiling a bunch for sale... my answer was pretty much "you can only earn a similar amount as entertaining in a bar/using a tool to ply a trade during downtime. as to the sale price?... I'm being kind of generous right now, do you want me to look harder at balancing it against income possibilities or say something like 'it starts to degrade quickly once it gets more than a few hundred feet from the druid?'" The answer was basically the rest of the group telling the player who brought it up "dude don't be an @#R%#$." followed by "please wise & generous GM ignore his bout of stupidity, or comrade has been drinking too much today"

as to the wool and such?.. Droaam (eberron.wikia.com/wiki/Droaam) actually did stuff like that with monster abilities (troll regeberation & SLAs) to feed its largely carnivorous population back in 3.5.

EDIT:

Food and DrinkAn expatriate from the east can find familiar foods in the inns and taverns of the Calabas. If he ventures into Bloodstone or the other districts of Graywall, he can find more disturbing fare. Most of it is perfectly edible, though many Droaamites like their meat to be squirming. Other dishes are incompatible with the human digestive tract. Trolls like to chew dried carrion crawler tendrils, which can paralyze a typical human. Many dishes are also served with a tiny ooze, which is swallowed to help digestion. However, stories have circulated that tell of poorly prepared oozes eating their way out of diner’s stomach.

The Daughters of Sora Kell provide their laborers with basic sustenance, which is served at dining halls known as “grist mills.” This name is drawn from the primary dish—a form of ground meat called grist, prepared in stew, pie, or sausage form. Grist is tough and has a sour taste that dwarves find especially offensive, but it is filling and the mills have a seemingly endless supply. Few laborers have any idea where grist comes from, and of those who do, few care; however, it might disturb visitors. Grist is ground troll meat. Each mill includes a stable of imprisoned trolls. Some have been bred for this purpose; others are being punished for incompetence; and some have chosen to make this sacrifice for their nation. Flesh is stripped away, slowly enough to ensure that the troll can regenerate from the loss without serious harm (though the pain is agonizing). Troll meat contains a number of minor toxins that normally render it inedible. However, the Daughters of Sora Kell possess the answer to this dilemma. A secret blend of herbs and spices is mixed in with the meat as it is ground up, and this counteracts the nauseating effects . . . though adventurers might still be revolted when they learn what they are eating.

I once had a player ask me why the bleep a troll would do that willingly. The answer is on phb157 & 159. A cow is 10gp, a skilled hireling can expect to earn about 2gp/day... if a troll can zonk out for a painful day with a spike through their brain & earn 5-10gp when they wake up a couple times a month, that's a world class income for a troll

[MaxWilson]

Can you imagine how much milk you could get from a Giant Elk (size huge), or how many people you could feed with an egg from a Brontosaurus (Gargantuan)?

If you hatch the egg and then eat the baby brontosaurus... is that cannibalism?

[Solzak]

Kobold Druid with Sentinel
??? Ancestor Barbarian with Mounted Combatant

When the barb is raging, you get disadv to attack anything but him. Which means, Sentinel will proc more :)

[Jedibenjamin]

A friend of mine is going to build a moon druid with sentinel while I take Mounted Combatant for the smart horse/knight combo. What do you guys think is the best rider class/build would be?

So I was working on my ghostwise halfling moon Druid when I came up on this idea and it got my mind racing with cool possibilities.

I settled on making both of them in different clans of a tribe of halfling druids, each clan watching over a different terrain. My lightfoot halfling paladin was chosen by the sacred tree to be the legendary “sun warrior” of the tribe.

Made him an Oath of Glory paladin with a folk hero background.

Planning on them working toward getting their respective great weapons, the Sun Blade and the Moon Sickle.

Just a little flavor tweaking the palys armor was the biggest issue. What do you guys think?

[da newt]

Kobold Druid and Kobold Paladin rider (lances are not heavy, so littles can use them) - this may not be the most effective, but funny to me ...

[Quoz]

I was just logging in to post about my new shoulder goblin character build when I found this thread, so I'll add my bits here.

With Tasha's custom origin we can get a small creature with a feat at level 1, so the build can be playable from any level.

We will want to be tanky while avoiding heavy armor, since the best mounts are squishy characters that want to be on the front lines (insert your jokes about mounting the bard here). We also want to focus on ranged combat, since we won't be moving during our turn. Artificer would be a great choice, but my table allows UA so I went with stone sorcerer so I could just focus on Con and Cha.

So at first level, we have AC 13 + con + shield (+ shield spell) with mounted combat, with the cantrips of your choice for offense. The rest of the build is open ended for story and party needs. Stay sorcerer or go with sorlock or sorcadin as you like, bard would also play well. Anything charisma based really.

In my group we have a few newer players that need some help, a Barbarian who loves to charge ahead and get surrounded and a warlock with severe AC problems. Coming in at 8th level I started at stone sorcerer 1 / genie (earth) warlock 7. I went warlock for shadow of moil and took repelling agonizing blast for battlefield control. With pact of the tome I have 9 cantrips including 3 with no class restrictions and took the invocation for ritual casting. I play as a PC familiar, living on a shoulder and providing magical protection and support while letting our newer players take the spotlight. Only one session with him so far but I'm really enjoying the results.

[truemane]

Metamagic Mod: Thread Necromancy is a forbidden art.