Mounted Combat Fighter (Non Find Steed/ Ranger build)

[Hatless Jester]

Hi, I want a build for a mounted combat character that scales into late game and doesn’t need
to go deep into paladin or bard for find steed. I also want to stay away from 'convince the DM to let you have a better mount' whilst I don’t want to have to buy a mount every week. I think I have cracked it by shoring up the mounts weakness to AoE but have a few questions due to my inexperience in 5e late game and would like feedback on whether this works within the rules. I also apologise if the order of things are jarring, I worked for a while to get a natural/ logical flow but ultimately failed.

The Character:
Race: Human - Var
Multi-Class: Fighter (Battle Master) levels 1-5/9-10, Cleric (Life Domain) 6-8. Soldier Background.
AC: 17 (12 from Armor(Hide), +2 from Dex, +2 from shield, +1 from fighting style)
STR 16/DEX 14/CON 14/INT 10/WIS 12/CHA 8.
Equip: Lance, hand axe, shield, hide armor (moving up to half plate when I can afford it and have cleric proficiency)

Skills: Animal Handling /Perception /Survival /Intimidation /Athletics
Feats: Mounted combatant (Racial)/ Military Rank (Background) / Shield Master(lvl 4 feat over stat inc)

Fighter Abilities:

Fighting Style - Defence for the AC increase, protection felt redundant for the build
Second wind
Combat superiority (Martial Archetype Battle Master) choosing:

a. Commanding Strike - utility and I hope to use it in mounted combat, see question below.
b. Manoeuvring attack - utility off the horse but should also allow me to 'disengage' while mounted.
c. Precision attack - utility
d. pushing attack - (at fighter Lvl 7) for crowd control and disengaging.
e. trip attack - (at fighter lvl 7) crowd control (and for trample set up?)


Cleric Spells:
Domain (Bless, Cure Wounds, Lesser Restoration, Spiritual Weapon) +2 to healing.
Cantrips (Resistance, Spare the Dying, Mending)
Channel Divinity - Preserve Life
Prepared Spells: Healing word, Shield of Faith, Guiding Bolt, Warding Bond

Speculation & Theory

Shield Master will allow me 3 key abilities:

a. 'Shield Bash' to shove a creature 5ft after attack and help me to disengage without
taking opportunity attacks
b. (when not incapacitated) add my AC bonus to Dex saves against Spells and harmful effects
c. Take half damage on failed dex saves and none on succeeded.

This is all vital in reducing damage to me as I will be taking a large amount of the horse damage.
Here is where the cleric spells also come in particularly Warding Bond to allow me to absorb any
damage it takes from AOE at half rate (hopefully while dodging the damage with my shield feat).
Shield of Faith and Lay on Hands will probably also put in a lot of work.

Between this and mounted combatant this should make the mount survivable on hit and run and shore up its 'dies to fireball' weakness. It should also give me a flexible role from damage dealer and occasional
healer to party meat shield and crowd control if I have to fight unmounted with shield and hand axefor 'leave your horse at the door' areas.

Questions:
Is this a viable build and will it scale how I want it to into late game? (I have not played passed level 3/4)
Anything you would add?...Levels in barb for rage and damage reduction?
How deep do I go into cleric, 3 level splash and concentrate on fighter or more?

Commander's Strike Question - I hope to use this to be able to donate an attack to my mount on
the charge. I believe that I read you can spend downtime to teach skills to animals through
animal handling checks. If I were to teach a regular mount to 'attack' I believe I could do this.
I believe when I can afford a warhorse it knows the attack command and with commander’s strike, this
also allows me to have a warhorse use trample where it normally would not be able to, it being a
friendly character it is a legal target. I know this is often argued at DM discretion but the rules
seem to support it in this circumstance?

Manoeuvring strike Question - Can I use the manoeuvring strike to move the horse out of melee and 'disengage'?
I believe in this case the answer is no because we move as the same unit?

Thanks in advance for your help and guidance.

[Rerem115]

Have you considered going Cavalier from Xanathar's? It's literally Mounted Fighter: The Subclass. If you take the feat Mounted Combatant from 1st level, your steed is basically guaranteed to be safe from attacks, and starting at 3rd level, you can expend a Superiority Die (Cavaliers get Superiority Dice and Maneuvers like the Battlemaster, but they get different Maneuvers) to buff its AC and give it resistance to damage, too.

As a Fighter, you'll start with chainmail and a shield, so your AC won't be half bad either. You won't have to worry too much about your mount with the safety provided by your class features and Mounted Combatant, so you're also free to just stay Fighter. I'm not saying you can't multiclass, but don't feel obligated to multiclass just to protect your horse.

[Hatless Jester]

Have you considered going Cavalier from Xanathar's? It's literally Mounted Fighter: The Subclass. If you take the feat Mounted Combatant from 1st level, your steed is basically guaranteed to be safe from attacks, and starting at 3rd level, you can expend a Superiority Die (Cavaliers get Superiority Dice and Maneuvers like the Battlemaster, but they get different Maneuvers) to buff its AC and give it resistance to damage, too.

As a Fighter, you'll start with chainmail and a shield, so your AC won't be half bad either. You won't have to worry too much about your mount with the safety provided by your class features and Mounted Combatant, so you're also free to just stay Fighter. I'm not saying you can't multiclass, but don't feel obligated to multiclass just to protect your horse.

I have seen the cavalier class and wasn't blown away with it. The other options from battle master and a shield seemed more flexible to situations where I wasn't mounted with similar benefits. The big thing I was trying to do with multi-classing into cleric was to give the added protection and damage reduction from Warding bond for magic AoE attacks you can't redirect and the ability to top up the HP of you and your mount.

[Rerem115]

I know that this is going to sound really dumb, but RAW, I don't think you can cast Warding Bond on a horse. The spell has the material component "two platinum rings worth 50 gp which you and the target must wear for the duration", and I don't think horses can wear rings.

On a somewhat less silly note, have you considered asking your DM to allow your mount to make death saves and benefit from short rest healing? That's a pretty simple band-aid for mount survivability, especially at higher levels.

Another thing to consider is perhaps the infamous PAM/Sentinel combo; you've got a lance, so you can effectively keep a 5' buffer between you and your horse and the enemy. You won't have to rely so heavily on Shield Master/Maneuvering Attack. Granted, nothing's stopping you from taking all of those feats, since you've got the ASIs to afford them.

I'd avoid using Commander's Strike on the horse; it's only got a +6 to hit and deals all of 2d6+4 damage, neither of which will ever get higher. Save that for a friendly Rogue or Paladin if you absolutely have to take that Maneuver.

Also, with just Fighter starting gear, you'll have an AC of 18, so there's no need to mess around with Hide unless you're taking it for more of a role-play reason.

[Hatless Jester]

I know that this is going to sound really dumb, but RAW, I don't think you can cast Warding Bond on a horse. The spell has the material component "two platinum rings worth 50 gp which you and the target must wear for the duration", and I don't think horses can wear rings.

Im not sure why RAW prevents this? A ring is a circle of metal there is no reason this couldnt be placed around the horses neck or leg if it really must be on a limb.

And while the horse attack is a +6 you get an additional d8 from superiority die. 2d6 +4 is a (6-16) damage range over the d12+3 (4-15) of my lance (sure I get advantage mounted) or the barbs d12+4 from their 2H greatsword. At later levels I can see it tailing off but I have read a number of posts on ways you cannot do it within RAW and was looking for a way you could. I also want to do it for thematic and flavour reasons .

[JNAProductions]

If you have a Rogue, it'll be better than the horse by level 3, assuming Sneak Attack.

At level 3, Rogues (at range) dish out 3d6+3, averaging to 13.5, which is better than the horse's 11.

[Hatless Jester]

If you have a Rogue, it'll be better than the horse by level 3, assuming Sneak Attack.

At level 3, Rogues (at range) dish out 3d6+3, averaging to 13.5, which is better than the horse's 11.

Don't rogues only get sneak once per round? So assuming they would have used that in their round their 'extra attack' is only 1d6+3 at best?

Maybe I'm doing it wrong?

[Lunali]

Don't rogues only get sneak once per round? So assuming they would have used that in their round their 'extra attack' is only 1d6+3 at best?

Maybe I'm doing it wrong?

Rogues get one sneak attack per turn. If they get an attack on someone else's turn, they can use sneak attack on that as well.

[rbstr]

Have you considered going Cavalier from Xanathar's? It's literally Mounted Fighter: The Subclass. If you take the feat Mounted Combatant from 1st level, your steed is basically guaranteed to be safe from attacks, and starting at 3rd level, you can expend a Superiority Die (Cavaliers get Superiority Dice and Maneuvers like the Battlemaster, but they get different Maneuvers) to buff its AC and give it resistance to damage, too.

You must be reading a different Xanathar's than everyone else. The Cavalier has no superiority die at all. And they don't really have any way of protecting the mount from AOE.

[Rerem115]

Oops. I was checking a wiki, and I guess it had the UA Cavalier instead of Xanathar's. I'll have hit the books again.

[Unoriginal]

The Cavalier is pretty neat still, though.

[rbstr]

Yeah it's very cool. Just not so much a rider class.