[3.5] Large-sized paladin mount

[TallerSpine]

I am running an evil campaign. The party has reached 10th level, and is building a reputation for their vile, despicable acts. Recently, they have been hearing rumors of their good deeds in the nation. Basically, for each of them, there is a nearly opposite (but far lamer) version of themself who are absolute do-gooders. So, the chaotic evil half-ogre barbarian/frenzied berserker has a lawful good half-ogre paladin to "match" with. I want the paladin to have a paladin mount, but the goal is that the good versions of the characters will be lame versions of the originals. So, I don't want the mount to be anything too exciting. In fact, the lamer the better. But, I still want it to be functional, so at least size category Huge. And the only creature I could find that has a low-enough CR seems to be a Giant Crocodile (which is too badass for the character's lameness). Should I just homebrew a horse that is size category Huge?

[Elkad]

Just steal Undersized Mount from PF (and make him waste a feat on it).

Put him on a normal warhorse with his feet dragging on the ground. Or worse, a camel, with him hilariously perched on the hump.

[OgresAreCute]

I am running an evil campaign. The party has reached 10th level, and is building a reputation for their vile, despicable acts. Recently, they have been hearing rumors of their good deeds in the nation. Basically, for each of them, there is a nearly opposite (but far lamer) version of themself who are absolute do-gooders. So, the chaotic evil half-ogre barbarian/frenzied berserker has a lawful good half-ogre paladin to "match" with. I want the paladin to have a paladin mount, but the goal is that the good versions of the characters will be lame versions of the originals. So, I don't want the mount to be anything too exciting. In fact, the lamer the better. But, I still want it to be functional, so at least size category Huge. And the only creature I could find that has a low-enough CR seems to be a Giant Crocodile (which is too badass for the character's lameness). Should I just homebrew a lame horse that is size category Huge?

So... Paladin Level -3 = CR of special mount. If he has +2 LA (and you're building him as a player character) he can have CR 4.

Could use a 5-headed Hydra, but that's probably too monstrous. If he has bought off one LA, he can use up to CR 5 and could then use a monstrous crab advanced to huge size (CR 3 +1 for 4 HD +1 for size increase) though that isn't much more heroic...

Yeah, no idea. Seems like there isn't much out there. A size increase is worth +1 CR according to the advancing monsters table, so I guess you could just take a normal horse or w/e and slap on huge size and the stat changes for +1 CR, though that doesn't have basis in rules-legal content.

Edit: 8 - 3 = 5, not 4. Don't know why I can never seem to do basic arithmetic on this site. That does probably open some more possibilities. A Huge animated object is CR 5, and the image of an ogre riding on the roof of a driver-less carriage is somewhat humorous.

[TallerSpine]

Just steal Undersized Mount from PF (and make him waste a feat on it).

Put him on a normal warhorse with his feet dragging on the ground. Or worse, a camel, with him hilariously perched on the hump.

A normal warhorse has a carrying capacity of 200 lbs for a light load. A half-ogre is close to 400 lbs, which would make the heavy horse difficult to use. I like the imagery, but I still want the mount to be functional as a mount.


So... Paladin Level -3 = CR of special mount. If he has +2 LA (and you're building him as a player character) he can have CR 4.

Could use a 5-headed Hydra, but that's probably too monstrous. If he has bought off one LA, he can use up to CR 5 and could then use a monstrous crab advanced to huge size (CR 3 +1 for 4 HD +1 for size increase) though that isn't much more heroic...

Yeah, no idea. Seems like there isn't much out there. A size increase is worth +1 CR according to the advancing monsters table, so I guess you could just take a normal horse or w/e and slap on huge size and the stat changes for +1 CR, though that doesn't have basis in rules-legal content.

Yeah, I think my best bet is to homebrew something :(. Oh well.

[AnimeTheCat]

Homebrew a dire monstrous hamster with the creature of legend template on it. It's a hamster so it cant do anything but if the paladin goes down it could stuff him in its cheek pouches and run away.

[TallerSpine]

Ooh! A Desmodu Guard Bat (advanced to 5 HD) would be size category Huge, and would only be CR 4. If only a bat were a good paladin's mount :-P.

A Hippogriff is really close. It is a CR2 normally, but advanced to 7 HD, it becomes huge and is on the cusp of CR 4-5 (which is one CR too much)...

[Elkad]

A normal warhorse has a carrying capacity of 200 lbs for a light load. A half-ogre is close to 400 lbs, which would make the heavy horse difficult to use. I like the imagery, but I still want the mount to be functional as a mount.

Heavy Warhorse is 300, not 200. And it'll get 2pts of str for him being an 8th level paladin, and another point for hitting 8hd. That raises it to 459.

Undersized half-ogre? Give the horse Elite Array stats? I find the idea of the horse slowing to a stagger if he picks up a 40lb elfchild as a pillion rider mighty entertaining.

Bison would get you there solidly. 22+2+1=798lbs. Then flavor it as a big steer :P

[J-H]

Just advance something to Huge via HD. Maybe a rhinoceros or hippopotamus?

[OgresAreCute]

Just advance something to Huge via HD. Maybe a rhinoceros or hippopotamus?

The trouble is finding something with low enough CR. A huge rhino is CR 6 from the added HD and size increase, so the half-ogre would have to have 9 paladin levels to use it.

[Thurbane]

So... Paladin Level -3 = CR of special mount. If he has +2 LA (and you're building him as a player character) he can have CR 4.

Crocodile, Giant (CR 4) ?

[OgresAreCute]

Crocodile, Giant (CR 4) ?

Too badass, according to the OP.

[Thurbane]

Too badass, according to the OP.

Oops, missed that.

I'd suggest Huge Monstrous Centipede (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/monstrousCentipede.htm) (CR 2), but that's probably too badass as well...

[Segev]

Instead of a half-ogre, make him a centaur. He "disguises" himself as a human with a convincing-if-uncanny-valley-looking chest-piece that fits around his waist and horse-chest that is a pair of fake legs in paladin armor and a fake horse-head in barding. The oversized humanoid torso that is sized to not be humorously small on a horse gets mistaken for a half-ogre.

Perhaps have some people snickering that the half-ogre PC's legs "aren't real" if he's ever seen on horseback in preparation for the reveal.

[DrMotives]

If you use the Tome of Horrors, a giant hamster becomes huge at 9 HD, CR 5. That just barely works with the math. And the cheek pouch can hold up to a medium sized creature, so someone on the PCs' team is getting pouched. Of course, the half-ogre Paladin can insist on calling it a Celestial War Hamster, but you aren't obligated to add the templates to make that true.

[J-H]

Dire Snake, CR5/HD7, Huge
Huge Viper, C3/HD6

That's all I can come up with in the Huge, CR 6 or less, Animal or Magical Beast category that hasn't already been mentioned.

[ShurikVch]

Arms and Equipment Guide have Giant Firefly
Despite being 3 HD Large Vermin, it's CR is just ½

Advanced to 5 HD, it will become Huge (and CR 1)

Required exotic saddle, and Ride checks to fight while mounted on it
Also, because it's Carrying Capacity is just 228 lbs for Light load (459 for Medium, and 690 - Heavy), it wouldn't be able to fly

EDIT:
My bad!
I forgot Carrying Capacity should be doubled for Huge size
So, it may be possible to fly (depending on exact weight)

[TallerSpine]

Lots of great ideas! Thank you, everyone! I'll do some research on which option I want to go with :)

[AnimeTheCat]

If you use the Tome of Horrors, a giant hamster becomes huge at 9 HD, CR 5. That just barely works with the math. And the cheek pouch can hold up to a medium sized creature, so someone on the PCs' team is getting pouched. Of course, the half-ogre Paladin can insist on calling it a Celestial War Hamster, but you aren't obligated to add the templates to make that true.

wait... monstrous hamsters are a thing?! I know what one of my NPCs in my most current game is going to be. #WINNING!

Tome of Horrors, is that 3rd Party?

[Faily]

I mean...

... You could just go with Kokuoh, Raoh's most impressive mount (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6mR6QuoKpM)?

Kokuoh is Ken-Oh's titanic black horse, said to be roughly the size of an elephant. Raoh would use the steed's mighty strength and size to crush those not worthy of dying by his own hand. However, when Kokuoh tried to trample Kenshiro, Kenshiro stood his ground and punched Kokuoh in the mouth to force Raoh into dismounting.
Kokuoh was tamed and stolen by Juza during his battle against Raoh, who refused to move until his trusty steed was returned to him. However, Juza sensed Kokuoh was missing his master, and having stalled long enough, returned him to Raoh. After the battle, Kokuoh mourned Juza's death and signalled for an honourable burial. Raoh fulfilled his wish, acknowledging that Juza was the only other man to have rode him.
After Raoh's death, Kenshiro inherited Kokuoh as his steed. Kokuoh also sported a bandage over his left eye, due to losing it in a bloody battle he and Shoza had with Daruja. Their sacrifice motivated Kenshiro out of retirement. Kenshiro left Kokuoh behind when he journeyed to the island of Shura, but Bat appeared on the horse (alongside Rihaku & the Hokuto Army in the TV series) to help Kenshiro.
Kokuoh returned as Kenshiro's steed but during a fateful thunderstorm (that would rob Kenshiro of his memory), Kokuoh suddenly pulled up and died a peaceful death.

Give a horse a Dire-template or something to increase its size.

[Troacctid]

You could make him half-oni instead and use eneko stats. Then he'd be Medium with powerful build rather than Large, and he could use a Large mount.

For the mount, I'm thinking maybe something like a dire cow, dire sloth, dire banana slug, dire corgi...

[DwarvenWarCorgi]

Take away its Death Ray and a Catoblepas should fit the bill nicely.

[Goaty14]

He's not riding a horse. Instead, he's awkwardly walking around with the horse's saddle strapped to his pants and with the actual horse's feet dangling off of the ground, bluffing everybody that he's riding a horse.

[DrMotives]

wait... monstrous hamsters are a thing?! I know what one of my NPCs in my most current game is going to be. #WINNING!

Tome of Horrors, is that 3rd Party?

Yes 3rd party, but it's from Sword & Sorcery, who published the officially liscensed 3rd party 3.x Ravenloft books. Tome of Horrors isn't campaign specific, it actually has loads of 1E monsters with 3.x stats. It's pretty well-regarded. They also printed a Pathfinder version of the book too, I believe.

Giant Hamsters are a thing because they powered gnomish clockwork spaceships back in the Spelljammer campaign setting.

[Darrin]

wait... monstrous hamsters are a thing?! I know what one of my NPCs in my most current game is going to be. #WINNING!


Giant Space Hamsters are a Spelljammer thing. There's also a miniature version that occasionally pops up. Boo, the animal companion for Minsc in the Baldur's Gate games, is reputed to be a miniature giant space hamster. So giant space hamsters are considered to be Forgotten Realms canon, under some somewhat dubious definitions of "canon".



Tome of Horrors, is that 3rd Party?

Yes, but their Dire Animal template is widely regarded to be mechanically solid and really darned useful.

Looking over the huge mount options... The monstrous centipede is the lowest CR I can find, but it's only 1HD less than the crocodile. Play up the bug as a craven vegetarian noncombatant could be kinda lame?

Otherwise, give the centipede/crocodile a monocle and a silk smoking jacket, and if they ever get attacked, they start incessantly whining about whether or not this would be considered a "stressful work environment" according to their employment contract.