I know what I want my character to be and don't know how to make it work mechanically

[rondragon123]

Background: A halfling made a crime against the royal family of the city he lived in, and kicked their cat for trying to scratch him in the leg. The royalty made it so his legs would get chopped off. Now he rides his friend mastiff as a way of moving from place to place instead of his legs. He now seeks revenge over the family.

The problem is that I don't know what background would fit the most and what class would work best as a halfling that rides a mastiff but isn't necessarily is a fighter.

for me at the moments its either rogue, ranger, or fighter, but in all of those cases I don't know how to connect the class to the background story.

Thats why I need your advice.

[LtPowers]

Background: A halfling made a crime against the royal family of the city he lived in, and kicked their cat for trying to scratch him in the leg. The royalty made it so his legs would get chopped off. Now he rides his friend mastiff as a way of moving from place to place instead of his legs. He now seeks revenge over the family.

The problem is that I don't know what background would fit the most

That's a backstory, but it's not a background. What did your Halfling do before he was maimed? What is he good at? How did he earn coin? That's your background.


Powers &8^]

[Aett_Thorn]

Agree with Powers above, but this is as good a time as any for a Beastmaster Ranger, with the Mastiff as your pet.

Still, having no legs is going to be problematic for any adventurer, as there will be times when you might not be able to have your pet around. It seems like quite the handicap to give yourself.

[Kyutaru]

I would go with a Fighter and be a Cavalier. They even have an ability called Born to the Saddle. Clearly you devoted your life to mastering your mount and perfecting your weapon mastery in preparation to John Wick this family.

You get bonuses for staying on your mount and have basically more mastery of being mounted than any other class. You never dismount and just fight constantly on that dog. Maybe in the future you can even have someone turn you into a chimera and attach yourself to the mastiff. Up to your DM.

If you're going to play a mounted character you can't go wrong with a Cavalier. Fighters happen to be some of the best revenge seekers since they know how to beat you to death with an arsenal of sharp things while wearing the best armor.

[Tawmis]

Background: A halfling made a crime against the royal family of the city he lived in, and kicked their cat for trying to scratch him in the leg. The royalty made it so his legs would get chopped off. Now he rides his friend mastiff as a way of moving from place to place instead of his legs. He now seeks revenge over the family.
The problem is that I don't know what background would fit the most and what class would work best as a halfling that rides a mastiff but isn't necessarily is a fighter.
for me at the moments its either rogue, ranger, or fighter, but in all of those cases I don't know how to connect the class to the background story.
Thats why I need your advice.

First, let me say I commend you playing a character with an actual physical handicap.
As others stated, it's going to be difficult...
Because while you ride a Mastiff, unless you work with your DM, you can level up - and gain more HP and better AC, but your Mastiff won't.
So if someone wants to put a stop to you, they take out your Mastiff.
So if your DM is willing to work with you, where you share your AC with the Mastiff, and maybe even share your HP (so if you go up 8 HP, you get 6, the Mastiff gets 2) kind of arrangement. Or even your Mastiff just gets 1/2 of the HP you get (so if you get 8 HP, your Mastiff gets 4).

If you could - as suggested - probably Ranger Beastmaster would be pretty cool to go for.

[Blood of Gaea]

Play a Centaur from the UA.

[Sparky McDibben]

Alternatively, see if your DM will let you have find steed and go with that?

[Dork_Forge]

Maybe said halfling was an urchin and used to defending himself against cats, that ties up nicely and gives you stealth and thieves tools for that halfling roguish feel. Class wise a paladin of 5th + would work well. With find stteed you could summon your mastiff, have a telepathic link with it and share spell effects. Oath wise vengeance or conquest seem the most fitting

[8wGremlin]

Play a Centaur from the UA.

I like this, you're a halfling with no legs that rides a mastiff (that's the fluff)
the Mechanics are your a medium sized creature that uses the Centaur stats.

- really clever. like it.

background can be what ever you need, Urchin would work, and class can be anything you want.
could be rogue, or anything.

Damn I wish I thought of this.

[Blood of Gaea]

I like this, you're a halfling with no legs that rides a mastiff (that's the fluff)
the Mechanics are your a medium sized creature that uses the Centaur stats.

- really clever. like it.

background can be what ever you need, Urchin would work, and class can be anything you want.
could be rogue, or anything.

Damn I wish I thought of this.
Aye, and if for some reason you're not on your mastiff, just act as if you were prone at all times. Should make the mechanical side of things pretty clean.

[Contrast]

Yeah the real problem here is that any time the party gets hit by any sort of AoE attack your mastiff is gonna die.

Paladins (Find Steed) and the revised rangers can resummon but thats costing you spells slots/time respectively. If you can reach an agreement with the DM for how getting the mount back works then anything will work really though.

Refluffing and tweaking centaur isn't a terrible idea but you'd need to change a number of their features (Equine Build and Fey to start).

[darknite]

Mastiffs have 1hd (5hp avg). One firebolt and it's dead. That get's hard to reconcile past 1st level. Just sayin'.

[rondragon123]

Mastiffs have 1hd (5hp avg). One firebolt and it's dead. That get's hard to reconcile past 1st level. Just sayin'.

Thats part of my question, how do I make the idea work mechanically even though its hard? essentially I need a mount that would never die, or would be super easy to summon if killed. seeing how mechanically there's not a lot of options for exclusively being a rider, and that even the cavalier can have its mount killed, I ask for advice on how to execute the idea without messing with the rules too much.

[darknite]

Thats part of my question, how do I make the idea work mechanically even though its hard? essentially I need a mount that would never die, or would be super easy to summon if killed. seeing how mechanically there's not a lot of options for exclusively being a rider, and that even the cavalier can have its mount killed, I ask for advice on how to execute the idea without messing with the rules too much.

The Mounted Combatant feat might help a bit but it's not a cure-all for a mount.

[Talij]

Make it literally work mechanically: Artificier battlesmith. First 2 levels you have an actual mastiff you ride. By the time you hit level 3 you turn your pup into a mechanized iron defender that gets stronger as you level. Still will have issues of mount dropping, but this is probably as sturdy a mount as you can get.

[Galadhrim]

Oath of vengeance paladin with mounted combatant feat sounds perfect for this character.

[No brains]

Clearly you devoted your life to mastering your mount and perfecting your weapon mastery in preparation to John Wick this family.

Point of order, this character enacted violence on a pet, so they were the one already John Wick'd. :smalltongue:

Your own pet being killable by a kick (be keenly aware of any irony at play) means you will need to invest in replacements. Your character can do this by having a kennel of expendable dog pawns and deepen the pet tragedy over their own cat-kicking ego.

One alternative is you could use magic that allows you to spawn new mounts. Wizard works for many reasons: If you're a small enough halfing (especially one missing the weight of some legs), Reduce and Mage Hand let you fly yourself around for a minute. Unseen Servant could carry you around if you're under 30lbs. You could build a 21-foot reverse chariot for a Tenser's Floating Disk and have it push you that way. Mount is available at 3rd level. All ethical alternatives to dog decimation on your vengeful voyage.

You could go Warlock and have your Chainpact famililar transform into a mastiff. It's not RAW, but it's not too much of a stretch. It can still die, but you can call it back.

[Quietus]

Make it literally work mechanically: Artificier battlesmith. First 2 levels you have an actual mastiff you ride. By the time you hit level 3 you turn your pup into a mechanized iron defender that gets stronger as you level. Still will have issues of mount dropping, but this is probably as sturdy a mount as you can get.

This is exactly what I was thinking, would be a very neat way to play off the character. Although using centaur is also pretty great.

[False God]

Make it literally work mechanically: Artificier battlesmith. First 2 levels you have an actual mastiff you ride. By the time you hit level 3 you turn your pup into a mechanized iron defender that gets stronger as you level. Still will have issues of mount dropping, but this is probably as sturdy a mount as you can get.

Yes, experiment on the dog slowly replacing its weak flesh with glorious machine!

Although this begs the question: if you can build a magic robot dog, why not build yourself a pair of legs?

In fact it sort of begs the question of the value of any of your flesh.




.....Or anyone else's really.

[8wGremlin]

Yes, experiment on the dog slowly replacing its weak flesh with glorious machine!

Although this begs the question: if you can build a magic robot dog, why not build yourself a pair of legs?

In fact it sort of begs the question of the value of any of your flesh.




.....Or anyone else's really.

You should look at the game ‘through the breach’ by wyrd games. Has some great ideas for just this thing.

[Tawmis]

First, let me say I commend you playing a character with an actual physical handicap.
As others stated, it's going to be difficult...
Because while you ride a Mastiff, unless you work with your DM, you can level up - and gain more HP and better AC, but your Mastiff won't.
So if someone wants to put a stop to you, they take out your Mastiff.
So if your DM is willing to work with you, where you share your AC with the Mastiff, and maybe even share your HP (so if you go up 8 HP, you get 6, the Mastiff gets 2) kind of arrangement. Or even your Mastiff just gets 1/2 of the HP you get (so if you get 8 HP, your Mastiff gets 4).
If you could - as suggested - probably Ranger Beastmaster would be pretty cool to go for.

Got to thinking how you could use my idea above... and mix it with the Centaur notion.

Why not ask your DM if you and your Mastiff SHARE your total hit points.

So let's say you have 20 hit points. Your Mastiff also has 20. But it's a shared 20. So if you take 3 damage, technically your Mastiff does too.

That way the Mastiff is an "extension" of your body (in a sense) similar to the Centaur with a bottom horse body.