Mitsu
2019-03-03, 08:52 PM
I. What this is about:
6/14 Sorcadins have option of having Steed but not Greater Steed. Find Steed animals have very low HP and are often viewed as "useless" on 7+ level adventures. It's not true, but you need to look at your "features" as Sorcadin and use those and become a Knight you always wanted to be!
One of my friends during our adventures was perfectly fine using his Warhorse effectively on levels 15+ with couple of tricks.
Works best with Sword and Shield Sorcadins as you want to equip Lance + Shield on your steed for that nice 1d12 + Reach attacks and feel like true knight :). You are mostly better with Longsword because melee Cantrips- but don't tell me you never wanted to have excuse to finally use that Lance instead sometimes? :D
This short Guide is aimed for new Sorcadins who wonder "How the hell I can use that squishy Steed effectively? Can I be a knight?". So...
You need two things: first of all- you need to be Divine Soul Sorcerer and Second, you need Extended meta-magic. I also strongly recommend to be Vengeance Paladin for it but Ancients are also great, though those need 7/13 split instead of 6/14.
II. How does it work:
First of all- buy your Steed (let's assume Warhorse just for the sake of thread as it depends on your DM) a plate barring. Him having 18 AC will be great. If you swim in gold (which happens a lot in DnD) - even magic one. Anyway 18 AC is what you need, period. Exploit every way to increase it's AC.
You should take Mounted Combatant at some point if you can- later about that. It's NOT super necessary but it super strong. Alternatively you can take Inspiring Leader first to combine additional THP from it with your Extended Aid to buff your party and Steed HP even more for your adventuring day.
Second, have prepared Aid (Paladin) and take Sanctuary (DS), Spirit Guardians (DS), Haste and Death Ward (DS). Now what you do is before every long rest you use Extended Aid and Death Ward on everyone (including your Steed) to give them (let's assume level 16 so 6/10 Sorcadin) from level 7 slot max 35 bonus HP to 3 members. For those 3 chose yourself, a melee squishy member and your Steed. Now your steed has 19 + 35 = 54 HP which is respectable. Nothing super great but not bad. Now cast Death Ward on everyone. Now your Steed also won't be droped to 0 HP and is immune to death spells. Also nice. Both Aid and Death Ward lasts 8 hours, extended make is 16 hours. Depends on your DM pacing (if casting healing spells and buffs can be light activities or not) you and your steed (and other party members) will have extra 30-35 HP and Death Ward for next 8-10 hours.
Side Note: you can also cast extended Darkvision spell (though it's very medicore spell to waste spell space on, but just saying).
Thanks to @Rara1212 there is one more thing to mention- Aid is a spell that increases Maximum Hit Points for the duration. It’s not Temporary Hit Points. Which is huge.
Reason no 1: you can heal them back with Quicken Heal for example, healing your HP and bringing your Steed back to full HP too.
Reason no. 2: you can combine Aid with Temporary HP spells and feats like: Inspiring leader or Armor of Agathys. Giving your Steed another HP boost (and yourself). At level 16 Inspiring Leader will add another +21 THP to your 54 HP Steed, for total of 75 HP and Armor of Agathys from level 7 or 6 slot can give 30-35 THP for 1 hour + retaliation damage to enemies.
III. Your Badass Steed on level 16
So you have your Warhorse Steed on level 16, 54 HP (or 75 with Inspiring Leader), can't be dropped to 0 HP instantly, 18 AC and immune to Death Spells and +5 to all saves from your Aura. Also thanks to another trick - enemies must make WIS save throw to be even able to directly attack your mount. Later about it. And it shares with you all buffs/defensive spells. Not bad. I say it's pretty good! Sounds like badass Mount! It only gets better if your DM allows better beasts to be summoned (like Dire Wolf would be perfect!). It also get's better with levels as on level 20 - Aid from 9th slot will be + 45 HP which will give us 64 HP HP on Steed.
IV. To the Battle!:
Now if you go into battle, it's great to have Mounted Combatant feat which allow you to redirect every attack that targets your mount to target you instead. Won't work vs fireball explosion or other AOE but against any sort of Disintegration, range attacks, melee attacks etc. you can just eat it all instead of your mount. So the only thing that will threat your mount now are AOE effects. It's pretty neat.
If you don't have yet this feat or don't plan to take it- simple cast Sanctuary on your mount. This also won't help vs AOE but will require every enemy to make WIS save throw vs your 20 CHA DC to be able to attack your mount. Works great on levels before you have space to take mounted combatant (mostly level 14 or 18). Best is: Sanctuary is non-concentration spell, enemy loses attack or spell if he won't target diffeerent target and mount won't break sanctuary as long as you use it as just mount (which you will do).
You can also grab Inspiring Leader feat and rely on Sanctuary instead of Mounted Combatant. Or grab both if you have room and need. This way you can (at level 16) add another +21 HP to your Steed for total 75 HP, making it even better.
And one last thing, even when enemy manages to make WIS save, and they pass your Steed AC, you can always cast Shield or Absorb Elements and make it miss or reduce Steed Damage by half if it was elemental spell/attack. Since your Steed shares all spells you cast on yourself- when you are cought in for example fireball and you cast Absorb Elements- he will also take half damage. Pretty good.
V. Combat Spells for you and your Steed:
Now Haste will get shared with your mount so if you go let's say against a Boss on your Steed, just cast Haste to make your Steed 20 AC, double speed, extra action for disengage + give yourself additional attack with lance. With hit and run tactic you should be able to protect yourself and steed for most of the battle as most monsters in MM don't have very long range attacks (With Haste your Steed has 180 ft per turn, which is in 9/10 enough to engage, attack, disengage and run away from target). Even an Acient Dragon Breath won't insta kill it because Death Ward.
Even when Steed drops to 0, you can do Aid/Heal/Lay Down Hands + Quicken Death Ward combo and get your Steed Back up to fight and have him being immune to Death again!
If you want to Quicken Cantrips (usually vs Boss)- switch to Longsword as Lance is 10ft reach and Cantrips need 5ft and Lance has disadvantage on 5ft attacks.
Also Haste allow you for 60ft movement, 60ft dash and Dodge. So you can move vs most enemies with 5ft reach- 60ft in, 60ft out and use haste bonus action for Dodge for additional AC for your Steed (vs range attacks for example). And you can combine Dodge with Shield if needed for riddiculous AC even vs enemies with +10 to hit if you know big hit is coming.
Another good option is to cast Spirit Guardians and charge into group of enemies. Best is: even if enemies are mounted too and try to catch you- Spirit Guardians will half their speed when they get 15 ft from you- they will take damage and not catch you (including flying enemies). Works best vs hordes or when charging their backline.
And you can have both Haste or Spirit Guardians paired with Sanctuary.
VI. It's pretty much free for every Divine Sorcadin:
Apart from Mounted Combatant- this doesn't really required any special takes. Extended Aid and Death Ward is quite standard "every day" super strong mechanic to give your allies a day-long free buffs, haste is taken almost always and Sanctuary is optional but very strong spell to save your allies. Spirit Guardians is a must for every Divine Soul. Inspiring Leader is optional but it's one of most popular feat on Paladins so I always recommend it.
Anyway, doing this you are able to ride with your steed into battle even on higher levels no problem. It's not as good as Pegasus would be of course but it's still dam strong additional speed, mobility and allow you to equip Lance to feel like true Knight :)!
VII. Tips and Tweaks:
I mentioned that it's good to be Vengeance Paladin. Why? Free Misty Step that is shared with your Steed. That is additional 30ft movement + escape from for example Force Cage. So Hasted- 180 ft + optional 30. It can really make a difference. You can teleport through melee formation and attack backline.
Ancients Paladin- resistance to one thing that Steed will have problems with - AOE spells is huge for your animal-friend.
Honorable Mention: Conquest Paladin – works better with more Paladin levels because Aura of Courage helps to use your Fear spell while on mount. But main thing for me here is Armor of Agathys- giving both your and your Steed a big THP boost and cold retaliation damage (and quite big one too).
Best Steeds: It would be best to talk with your DM to allow you to summon Dire Wolf. It's only CR 1 but it has 37 HP. With 7th slot Aid it would be 72 HP, which is darn good. Tiger is as good as Dire Wolf. The other one would be Giant Eagle. 80ft flying speed is 240 ft per turn Hasted.
If your DM won't allow CR 1, you can try ask for Giant Owl (1/4 CR but same HP as Warhorse and 60ft flying speed instead of walking).
It's best be SnB Sorcadin as this allow you to use Lance + Shield + Dueling probably (or Defense) so you won't "waste" other fighting styles and give you 10ft reach, 1d12 damage and shield. But you are still better with Longsword when it comes to damage since you can use bonus action to quicken cantrips if you want while riding your steed.
Remember- your Steed is expendable. Even if it dies- you lose nothing, you already got it's worth in combat. You will just resummon it later perfectly healthy. Just collect it's armor ;).
You can heal Aid bonus HP as long as duration is on- you can heal HPs that Aid added. This means that you can short rest/eat druid goodberries/Quicken Heal during Combat etc. it will last for 8-10 hours. Plenty of time.
Disclaimer: It's not some super optimized OP stuff to pull off that will suddenly take your Sorcadin to different dimension, but I always loved the image of knight on warhorse cutting through enemies and this is to help Sorcadins. You can use everything here for Pegasus and pure Paladins or Paladins 13/X too, but Hasted Pegasus is it's own broken thing :)
6/14 Sorcadins have option of having Steed but not Greater Steed. Find Steed animals have very low HP and are often viewed as "useless" on 7+ level adventures. It's not true, but you need to look at your "features" as Sorcadin and use those and become a Knight you always wanted to be!
One of my friends during our adventures was perfectly fine using his Warhorse effectively on levels 15+ with couple of tricks.
Works best with Sword and Shield Sorcadins as you want to equip Lance + Shield on your steed for that nice 1d12 + Reach attacks and feel like true knight :). You are mostly better with Longsword because melee Cantrips- but don't tell me you never wanted to have excuse to finally use that Lance instead sometimes? :D
This short Guide is aimed for new Sorcadins who wonder "How the hell I can use that squishy Steed effectively? Can I be a knight?". So...
You need two things: first of all- you need to be Divine Soul Sorcerer and Second, you need Extended meta-magic. I also strongly recommend to be Vengeance Paladin for it but Ancients are also great, though those need 7/13 split instead of 6/14.
II. How does it work:
First of all- buy your Steed (let's assume Warhorse just for the sake of thread as it depends on your DM) a plate barring. Him having 18 AC will be great. If you swim in gold (which happens a lot in DnD) - even magic one. Anyway 18 AC is what you need, period. Exploit every way to increase it's AC.
You should take Mounted Combatant at some point if you can- later about that. It's NOT super necessary but it super strong. Alternatively you can take Inspiring Leader first to combine additional THP from it with your Extended Aid to buff your party and Steed HP even more for your adventuring day.
Second, have prepared Aid (Paladin) and take Sanctuary (DS), Spirit Guardians (DS), Haste and Death Ward (DS). Now what you do is before every long rest you use Extended Aid and Death Ward on everyone (including your Steed) to give them (let's assume level 16 so 6/10 Sorcadin) from level 7 slot max 35 bonus HP to 3 members. For those 3 chose yourself, a melee squishy member and your Steed. Now your steed has 19 + 35 = 54 HP which is respectable. Nothing super great but not bad. Now cast Death Ward on everyone. Now your Steed also won't be droped to 0 HP and is immune to death spells. Also nice. Both Aid and Death Ward lasts 8 hours, extended make is 16 hours. Depends on your DM pacing (if casting healing spells and buffs can be light activities or not) you and your steed (and other party members) will have extra 30-35 HP and Death Ward for next 8-10 hours.
Side Note: you can also cast extended Darkvision spell (though it's very medicore spell to waste spell space on, but just saying).
Thanks to @Rara1212 there is one more thing to mention- Aid is a spell that increases Maximum Hit Points for the duration. It’s not Temporary Hit Points. Which is huge.
Reason no 1: you can heal them back with Quicken Heal for example, healing your HP and bringing your Steed back to full HP too.
Reason no. 2: you can combine Aid with Temporary HP spells and feats like: Inspiring leader or Armor of Agathys. Giving your Steed another HP boost (and yourself). At level 16 Inspiring Leader will add another +21 THP to your 54 HP Steed, for total of 75 HP and Armor of Agathys from level 7 or 6 slot can give 30-35 THP for 1 hour + retaliation damage to enemies.
III. Your Badass Steed on level 16
So you have your Warhorse Steed on level 16, 54 HP (or 75 with Inspiring Leader), can't be dropped to 0 HP instantly, 18 AC and immune to Death Spells and +5 to all saves from your Aura. Also thanks to another trick - enemies must make WIS save throw to be even able to directly attack your mount. Later about it. And it shares with you all buffs/defensive spells. Not bad. I say it's pretty good! Sounds like badass Mount! It only gets better if your DM allows better beasts to be summoned (like Dire Wolf would be perfect!). It also get's better with levels as on level 20 - Aid from 9th slot will be + 45 HP which will give us 64 HP HP on Steed.
IV. To the Battle!:
Now if you go into battle, it's great to have Mounted Combatant feat which allow you to redirect every attack that targets your mount to target you instead. Won't work vs fireball explosion or other AOE but against any sort of Disintegration, range attacks, melee attacks etc. you can just eat it all instead of your mount. So the only thing that will threat your mount now are AOE effects. It's pretty neat.
If you don't have yet this feat or don't plan to take it- simple cast Sanctuary on your mount. This also won't help vs AOE but will require every enemy to make WIS save throw vs your 20 CHA DC to be able to attack your mount. Works great on levels before you have space to take mounted combatant (mostly level 14 or 18). Best is: Sanctuary is non-concentration spell, enemy loses attack or spell if he won't target diffeerent target and mount won't break sanctuary as long as you use it as just mount (which you will do).
You can also grab Inspiring Leader feat and rely on Sanctuary instead of Mounted Combatant. Or grab both if you have room and need. This way you can (at level 16) add another +21 HP to your Steed for total 75 HP, making it even better.
And one last thing, even when enemy manages to make WIS save, and they pass your Steed AC, you can always cast Shield or Absorb Elements and make it miss or reduce Steed Damage by half if it was elemental spell/attack. Since your Steed shares all spells you cast on yourself- when you are cought in for example fireball and you cast Absorb Elements- he will also take half damage. Pretty good.
V. Combat Spells for you and your Steed:
Now Haste will get shared with your mount so if you go let's say against a Boss on your Steed, just cast Haste to make your Steed 20 AC, double speed, extra action for disengage + give yourself additional attack with lance. With hit and run tactic you should be able to protect yourself and steed for most of the battle as most monsters in MM don't have very long range attacks (With Haste your Steed has 180 ft per turn, which is in 9/10 enough to engage, attack, disengage and run away from target). Even an Acient Dragon Breath won't insta kill it because Death Ward.
Even when Steed drops to 0, you can do Aid/Heal/Lay Down Hands + Quicken Death Ward combo and get your Steed Back up to fight and have him being immune to Death again!
If you want to Quicken Cantrips (usually vs Boss)- switch to Longsword as Lance is 10ft reach and Cantrips need 5ft and Lance has disadvantage on 5ft attacks.
Also Haste allow you for 60ft movement, 60ft dash and Dodge. So you can move vs most enemies with 5ft reach- 60ft in, 60ft out and use haste bonus action for Dodge for additional AC for your Steed (vs range attacks for example). And you can combine Dodge with Shield if needed for riddiculous AC even vs enemies with +10 to hit if you know big hit is coming.
Another good option is to cast Spirit Guardians and charge into group of enemies. Best is: even if enemies are mounted too and try to catch you- Spirit Guardians will half their speed when they get 15 ft from you- they will take damage and not catch you (including flying enemies). Works best vs hordes or when charging their backline.
And you can have both Haste or Spirit Guardians paired with Sanctuary.
VI. It's pretty much free for every Divine Sorcadin:
Apart from Mounted Combatant- this doesn't really required any special takes. Extended Aid and Death Ward is quite standard "every day" super strong mechanic to give your allies a day-long free buffs, haste is taken almost always and Sanctuary is optional but very strong spell to save your allies. Spirit Guardians is a must for every Divine Soul. Inspiring Leader is optional but it's one of most popular feat on Paladins so I always recommend it.
Anyway, doing this you are able to ride with your steed into battle even on higher levels no problem. It's not as good as Pegasus would be of course but it's still dam strong additional speed, mobility and allow you to equip Lance to feel like true Knight :)!
VII. Tips and Tweaks:
I mentioned that it's good to be Vengeance Paladin. Why? Free Misty Step that is shared with your Steed. That is additional 30ft movement + escape from for example Force Cage. So Hasted- 180 ft + optional 30. It can really make a difference. You can teleport through melee formation and attack backline.
Ancients Paladin- resistance to one thing that Steed will have problems with - AOE spells is huge for your animal-friend.
Honorable Mention: Conquest Paladin – works better with more Paladin levels because Aura of Courage helps to use your Fear spell while on mount. But main thing for me here is Armor of Agathys- giving both your and your Steed a big THP boost and cold retaliation damage (and quite big one too).
Best Steeds: It would be best to talk with your DM to allow you to summon Dire Wolf. It's only CR 1 but it has 37 HP. With 7th slot Aid it would be 72 HP, which is darn good. Tiger is as good as Dire Wolf. The other one would be Giant Eagle. 80ft flying speed is 240 ft per turn Hasted.
If your DM won't allow CR 1, you can try ask for Giant Owl (1/4 CR but same HP as Warhorse and 60ft flying speed instead of walking).
It's best be SnB Sorcadin as this allow you to use Lance + Shield + Dueling probably (or Defense) so you won't "waste" other fighting styles and give you 10ft reach, 1d12 damage and shield. But you are still better with Longsword when it comes to damage since you can use bonus action to quicken cantrips if you want while riding your steed.
Remember- your Steed is expendable. Even if it dies- you lose nothing, you already got it's worth in combat. You will just resummon it later perfectly healthy. Just collect it's armor ;).
You can heal Aid bonus HP as long as duration is on- you can heal HPs that Aid added. This means that you can short rest/eat druid goodberries/Quicken Heal during Combat etc. it will last for 8-10 hours. Plenty of time.
Disclaimer: It's not some super optimized OP stuff to pull off that will suddenly take your Sorcadin to different dimension, but I always loved the image of knight on warhorse cutting through enemies and this is to help Sorcadins. You can use everything here for Pegasus and pure Paladins or Paladins 13/X too, but Hasted Pegasus is it's own broken thing :)