I'm Batman!

[Fhaolan]

No, not another 'WizzyWin' thread. This is something else.

In another thread there was a suggestion... what might have been a silly suggestion, mind you, but it caught my imagination.

A character that rides a giant bat.

What would *you* do with such a character concept? I'm not talking ultimate optimization, just what would you do to have fun with the idea?

I did a brief search through the rules, and I'm enamoured with the idea of a Dire Bat riding Paladin. A Goth Paladin. In the campaign I run the God of Healing is also the God of Suffering, so the idea of a Goth Paladin is somewhat built-in. :)

I'm a bit stuck because I have the vision in my head of this particular character being an elf, because the picture of an elf in emo/goth/thrash makeup riding a giant bat really appeals. However, I can't think of a way to do it RAW, as while the bat is technically big enough, it just can't carry enough weight to make it viable. Ah well.

[FoE]

Hmm ... a giant bat ... That's really more what I would imagine for a Goblin character.

[Fhaolan]

A friend of mine, who might read this forum but I don't think he posts here... (Hi Rick!) responded to an email I sent him about the idea.

Said he'd hate to see the saddle for such a mount. Especially if the bat decided to perch upside-down as they are wont to do...

Made the engineer in me sit up and take notice, and start talking to both the leatherworker in me, and the horse-rider in me, and now the three of them are off in a corner in my mind doing something unspeakable with far, far too many straps to be healthy...

[Skyserpent]

I'd say a special hinged widget for the saddle, similar to how Boba Fetts cockpit shifts in Slave I

or, one could postulate the Paladin merely STANDS on the Bat while holding reins and maybe some foot-locks.

[shadowdemon_lord]

A dire bat can carry 346 pounds as a medium load. That would impinge on your mobility, but could be workable. As a paladins mount the strength is giong to increase, you could also invest in a "belt" of giant strength for the dire bat. A dire bat with a plus 3 to it's strength could do 266 as a light load (achievable with a +2 strength enhancer and the natural paladin advancement). That should probably be enough assuming your paladin isn't a really big guy (most aren't, as paladins are MAD).

[Skjaldbakka]

Don't flying creatures have to be in a light load to fly?

[The Duskblade]

Yup. Basically travel light. Invest in some Mithril and possibly something to boost your bats strength.

[Ramos]

A dire bat that has been permanently enlarged not only gets a +2 bonus to its strength but also a 2x to its carrying capacity from growing a size category.

[Darrin]

I did a brief search through the rules, and I'm enamoured with the idea of a Dire Bat riding Paladin. A Goth Paladin. In the campaign I run the God of Healing is also the God of Suffering, so the idea of a Goth Paladin is somewhat built-in. :)


The Arms & Equipment Guide has rules for using a dire bat as a mount. It's large size, so that should work fine for a medium-sized paladin. Hmm. I could have sworn Dire Bats had Fly-By Attack, but that doesn't seem to be the case (must have confused them with the Giant Eagle)... pick that up ASAP.

As for carrying capacity... use a lot of mithril and darkwood, invest in a handy haversack/saddlebag, and you should be fine weight-wise.

[mostlyharmful]

There's the 3.0 faerun book where Zhent mages get a PrC called Skymage, where they get a flying mount and the examples a gient bat. Swooping around lobing fireballs and cloudkills.... fun times:smallsmile:

[Fhaolan]

Okay, that's... odd. I just checked the Arms & Equipment Guide, as recommended above...

It has the dire bat's carrying capacity as x3 the normal carrying capacity. Which would indicate that it's a Large Quadraped.

Is that right? Something about that seems twitchy. I would have pegged it as a Large Biped equivalent. I can be convinced otherwise, of course.

[Tor the Fallen]

I had a goblin druid who rode around on a dire bat in a short lived campaign.

[Townopolis]

Well, if hippogryphs and gryphons and pegasi all get carrying capacity as quadrapeds, and this same carrying capacity is used to determine how much they can lift while flying.

It's only fair to give the bat the same.

I mean, really, there's no sense in "well, a pegasus with 14 str has four feet, so it can fly with more weight than a bat with 14 str of the same size."

[Fhaolan]

I mean, really, there's no sense in "well, a pegasus with 14 str has four feet, so it can fly with more weight than a bat with 14 str of the same size."

Huh. Yeah, I can see that argument. And I can see it being needlessly complicated to give something a 'ground carrying capacity' versus a 'flying carrying capacity'. In the same way a Centaur doesn't have two size/strength scores for the upper and lower bodies.

GURPS does this kind of differentiation (or at least it did in the edition I'm used to, they've updated it since and I haven't checked to see if this changed), but D&D is a bit more... abstract in these areas.

[Serenity]

Well, if you can find some way to get your hands on a Desmodu War Bat, your golden.

[RTGoodman]

Said he'd hate to see the saddle for such a mount. Especially if the bat decided to perch upside-down as they are wont to do...

Races of Stone, pg. 160-161. A Flyer's Saddle can be made either as a pack saddle, riding saddle, or military saddle. The latter two are pretty heavy (25 lbs.), but it keep you strapped in so you don't even have to make Ride checks to stay in the saddle.

[Raven T.]

Wanna really be Batman?

Druid. Use SNA to bring more Dire Bats to the party. Summon Swarm brings swarms of regular bats to the party. Combine that with the Dire Bat mount and you ARE Batman...just be sure to invest in Extend Spell so you can be Batman longer.

[Doresain]

watch the first neverending story, the one with that crazy bat riding troll thingy...should give you some ideas...

personally, the goblin idea sounds like your best bet...a goblin paladin even

[Laurellien]

Desmodu War Bats. They're huge and make good mounts.

MM2