Optimizing: 1st level mounted characters?

[Citadel97501]

Hello all, I was just wondering if there are any characters that can be optimized to begin using a mount as early as level 1? All I can see is that a Variable Human is required to get the 1st point of optimization IE the Mounted Combat feat.

[LudicSavant]

Own a lance, maybe?

War Clerics are nice at level 1, I suppose, and could get an extra attack with said lance. So then you'd have your mounted combatant making 2x 1d12+Str attacks with Advantage, while having a shield's AC.

Alternatively you could go the ranged route and try to play keepaway.

[da newt]

Mounted Kobold Rogue= pack tactics & SA

Barbarian w/ lance and shield

Long term, nothing compares to the paladin due to find steed and find greater steed.

[Segev]

Mounted Kobold = pack tactics

It probably doesn't require this, but I'll raise the question: does having the mount be one you're controlling (so it doesn't use its own actions, but moves as part of yours) negate pack tactics? Do you count as one creature or two in this case?

[da newt]

Segev - are you asking if riding a controlled mount makes you a Centaur (a single creature, half humanoid / half horse)?

No, having a mount does not make two creatures morph into one. Your mount is still a separate creature and your ally, so a mounted kobold would benefit from pack tactics.

[Foxhound438]

There's a good argument to be made for taking high int on a fighter... Plan to be an eldritch knight, that way you can eventually enlarge/reduce your mount to get more consistent work out of the advantage portion of the mounted combatant feat. Especially if you can get your hands on an elephant to ride. Bard is also a potentially good choice if you expect to eventually get to high level, as you can get both the enlarge trick the EK can use, plus Find Greater Steed off of the paladin list once you hit 10th level. But aside from taking the feat, there's not a lot more you can do to be optimized at level 1. Most anything else you would be doing would be setting yourself up for success by planning to be more optimaler later. Maybe that means picking a different race for unique features and putting off the feat for later, but I can't think of anything I would specifically look for on a mounted combatant.

[Zetakya]

Long term, nothing compares to the paladin due to find steed and find greater steed.

Bard can just decide to have those, and cast them earlier than the Paladin can.

[LudicSavant]

Long term, nothing compares to the paladin due to find steed and find greater steed.

I mostly agree, though I'd throw in a mention of the Bard too.

That said, not only is the Paladin's mount great, but they also have excellent synergy with it. To the point that your pegasus can shrug off multiple meteor swarms (yes, really, I break down how in the second build of this thread (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?583957-An-Eclectic-Collection-of-Fun-and-Effective-Builds))

[No brains]

If you take the Guild merchant variant of the Guild Artisan background, your starting equipment can include a mule. If you're a small character, you can get a mount and maybe even some barding at level 1.

[MrCharlie]

A whole lot of melee mounted combat depends on how your DM interprets the mounted combat section. At level 1 you can kinduve ignore this, but the war cleric suggestion in particular is shafted.

RAW, if you control your mount, it can only dash, disengage, and dodge (the three D's). It moves to your initiative, but that's less helpful than you would think because it still has a discrete turn. This often gets ignored because it completely breaks hit and run mounted combat at higher levels. RAW, you can't have your mount move, you attack, then your mount disengage and run off. You have to have your mount move, end turn, and then you can attack. Basically, you're stuck in melee. You can ready an attack for when your mount moves and let it go first, but that gives only one attack. War cleric can't ready his bonus action and once you have extra attack this breaks.

The other thing you could do is have your mount move into lance range, then ready it's action to move after you attack, which in conjunction with a lances reach would let you hit and run properly...But your mount can't use the ready action when controlled; it's not on the list. That would be too easy. Ready is it's own separate action-you don't ready other actions, you take the ready action to move. Only independent mounts can take the ready action.

So that leaves someone who can make a single beafy hit at level 1 as the optimal mounted melee combatant, which is of course the Barbarian. Luckily rage works with readied attacks (otherwise Barbarian would drop out of rage off-turn). After a few levels the Paladin is superior because their Mount isn't brain-dead and can actually ready it's own action, although it won't be making its own attacks (of course that hardly matters after a while, and once you have find greater steed your Mounts main benefit is its obscene fly speed). There is a zone where you are better off using a Paladin mount for it's attacks versus messing with hit and run tactics. The Paladin can smite on a readied action BTW, nothing prevent it.

But really, the second best mounted character at level 1 is a rogue. Ranged combat has fewer kinks over melee combat, and few first level characters will have mounted combatant. If you do have mounted combatant feat from Variant human, Barbarians are best because they can use lances and this actually makes their damage equivalent to rogues, except it can be used to hit and run. Alternatively it's still the War Cleric and you just use a bow (or crossbow, the loading property does not interfere with war clerics bonus action) instead of a melee weapon.

Edit: Also, lightfoot halflings can hide behind their own mounts for potential advantage on attacks-if your DM asks how, there are techniques for hanging off the side of a horse for cover, though it's debatable if the rider is actaully using the horse as a shield or just minimizing their profile/showboating.

Oh, and the best mounted character? Well, if you can pull a fast one on your DM and get him to hand you a 4th level spell scroll, a 1st level Paladin can cast find greater speed off of the scroll.

(YMMV regarding paladins have a spell-list before level 2, consult your DM before gleefully breaking his game)

So the real answer is that the best mounted character at level 1 is the Gryphon, who is effectively starring in an escort mission with you sorry humans.