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View Full Version : Mounted Combat cheese-- Is this a new idea?



Chronos
2007-10-15, 12:39 AM
I just got a cheesy idea, and I want to know if anyone else has thought of it before. I haven't fleshed it out completely, but the basic idea is this:

1: You custom-make a special saddle which fits over your shoulders, or something.

2: You arrange for your familiar to have a really high score in the Ride skill, and the Mounted Combat feat.

3: Your familiar rides you. Once per round, when you would be hit, you can use your familiar's Ride for your AC instead of your regular AC.

Skill checks can easily get much higher than regular AC: +23 from ranks, + some more from Dex, +30 from a magic item, +1d20 from the die roll. So it seems like you could get an AC of 60 or so, vs. one attack per round (and you can pick the attack after the attack roll and you know whether it hit, so it's never wasted).

Has anyone else ever thought of this?

Zincorium
2007-10-15, 12:46 AM
Familiars cannot take the mounted combat feat:

A familiar is a normal animal that gains new powers and becomes a magical beast when summoned to service by a sorcerer or wizard. It retains the appearance, Hit Dice, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, skills, and feats of the normal animal it once was, but it is treated as a magical beast instead of an animal for the purpose of any effect that depends on its type. Only a normal, unmodified animal may become a familiar. An animal companion cannot also function as a familiar.

Emphasis mine. They don't start with it, and as they never actually increase in hit dice, only hit points, they'll never gain another feat that way.


So: Other people have thought about it, yeah, it just isn't doable. At least not with familiars.

Nebo_
2007-10-15, 12:53 AM
I saw this once before, but it used a psycrystal, which does get feats, instead of a familiar.

Weasel2007
2007-10-15, 01:28 AM
I was in a fairly silly campaign where the halfling rogue tried this trick of the fighter

Nowhere Girl
2007-10-15, 01:52 AM
You could take Leadership and have a cohort small enough to do it ... but only with DM cooperation.

Of course, we're assuming DM cooperation for a stunt like this anyway, aren't we? So yes, theoretically possible. :smalltongue:

Yeril
2007-10-15, 02:11 AM
The only problem with that is when you get to the point of-

"Hey... That cat on that guys head is making him dodge! GET HIM!"
*cat gets pinned to wall by crossbow bolt* :smalleek:

Ashtar
2007-10-15, 02:39 AM
Have a awakened rat direct you by pulling on your hair. And give him skillpoints in Gourmet Cooking, too, for flavor ^^.

OneWinged4ngel
2007-10-15, 02:42 AM
Has anyone else ever thought of this?

Yes. This, and many variants of it, have been thought of before. Actually, I think this idea came out shortly after the PHB.

Reel On, Love
2007-10-15, 03:21 AM
You can use the spell Heroics (Spell Compendium) to grant your familiar the Mounted Combat feat.

KIDS
2007-10-15, 04:08 AM
It sounds like the good ol' fun "The big guy's with me" concept. Very nice and lovable and give the little one some ranks in cooking indeeed. As others said, getting a (Celstial) Rat with appropriate feats via leadership or wild cohort might be better. I wouldn't call it cheese, just good strategy albeit a somewhat silly one.

Also, Arcane Hierophant (Races of the Wild) might work - the skills, feats and such things of your companion familiar are yours to decide if I'm not wrong, and you could have a rat... so....

Blanks
2007-10-15, 08:12 AM
just good strategy

Funny?
Yes

Good strategy?
Only in a comedy campaign :smalleek:

When im DMing i always ask myself 2 questions when the players want to try wild ideas

1)
Would it work in real life?

2)
Have any culture EVER fought that way?

If its 2 no's then i won't allow it (unless they say "its magic, thats why it works" ) :)



Yes, I do realise this is just a bit of good humor and im not trying to be a killjoy, but sometimes the response from the DM shouldn't be "but on page xxx there is another rule which say you can't do that" but rather "haha thats funny, now make a real character"

This is ofcourse all IMHO

Chronos
2007-10-15, 11:10 AM
Oh, I never intended to actually use an absurdity like this... It's just a fun mental exercise. But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that I'm not the first one to think of it: Probably every bit of core-only cheese has already been picked completely dry.

Macrovore
2007-10-15, 12:14 PM
I always liked the idea of the pegasus paladin who, instead of a special mount, gets a special rider, with mounted combat.

Indon
2007-10-15, 12:17 PM
I always liked the idea of the pegasus paladin who, instead of a special mount, gets a special rider, with mounted combat.

Is this in a WotC book?

And if it is, and the rider dies, can the Pegasus just summon another after 24 hours?

Macrovore
2007-10-15, 12:19 PM
no. just something me and my friends made up.

and I have no idea about the second one. presumably, though.

Tormsskull
2007-10-15, 12:22 PM
...but rather "haha thats funny, now make a real character"


I say that to greater than 50% of the characters that I see on the forums.

Person_Man
2007-10-15, 12:48 PM
You could always be a small race and convince a Medium PC to let you Ride them. Leadership would be another way.

http://img.indigom.net/img/master_blaster1.jpg

Nowhere Girl
2007-10-15, 01:50 PM
Funny?
Yes

Good strategy?
Only in a comedy campaign :smalleek:

When im DMing i always ask myself 2 questions when the players want to try wild ideas

1)
Would it work in real life?

2)
Have any culture EVER fought that way?

If its 2 no's then i won't allow it (unless they say "its magic, thats why it works" ) :)



Yes, I do realise this is just a bit of good humor and im not trying to be a killjoy, but sometimes the response from the DM shouldn't be "but on page xxx there is another rule which say you can't do that" but rather "haha thats funny, now make a real character"

This is ofcourse all IMHO

QFT.

I'm mildly horrified to learn that there's already one person in this thread who seriously does think it's okay (outside of a comedy campaign, of course), though.

Armads
2007-10-15, 07:00 PM
I think the RotD kobolds could ride each other via slight build. Then they throw on Mounted Combat, Spirited Charge, TWF lances, and flap around (via Dragon Wings, Improved Dragon Wings) to X-Wing around.