How summoning a mount (all possibilities)

[Jacco]

Hi all, i'd like to try Mounted Combatant feat so i'm thinking all the ways to summon a mount.
First of all we have find steed and find greater steed but I don't want to be tied to the paladin. Others possibilities?


Second question: how can I make the most of Mounted Combatant feat ? In terms of pure damage.

[Foxhound438]

I'm pretty sure your other options are going to be conjure animals or phantom steed. Phantom steed is often criticized for the fact that it goes away in a minute if it takes damage, but that's plenty of time to resolve a fight. Conjure animals is a bit dubious, as it doesn't really last long enough to reliably pre-cast it, meaning you aren't going to have time to equip barding or your saddle most of the time, but if you're willing to bare-back ride, it's probably fine. Also gives you some damage output. The big downside with conjure animals is that you need to concentrate on it, so you taking damage can instantly dismiss your mount.

Note also that you can get find steed as a bard, though on non-lore bards you're waiting until level 10 (and likely getting find greater steed if so).

As for optimizing mounted combatant, I would probably look to take advantage of the advantage it grants against creatures smaller than your mount. If you can get Enlarge/Reduce, you can more consistently get this bonus. If you're into great weapon master, you don't need to rely as heavily on things like precision attack or greater invisibility, etc, but all the weapons you can use GWM with are two handed... I don't think there's a rule that specifically says you need to use a hand to control your mount, and there probably shouldn't be considering lance+shield is a pretty common archetype, but be aware that your DM may have different opinions on that.

[follacchioso]

Well the other option is the Drakewarden ranger from Fizban. You will need to wait until lv7, though, before you can use it as a mount.

Beastmaster rangers may also get a mount, especially if you are Small size, but it is less reliable and less flexible.

Bards, especially lore college, can get Find Steed via Magical Secrets.

[Amnestic]

A number of magic items (typically the Figurines of Power) will also serve to grant you a mount, albeit temporarily.

[Waterdeep Merch]

Everyone else has covered actually summoning a magical steed, so here's some other thoughts-

A bit of a longshot and entirely DM dependent, but consider getting Animal Handling proficiency. Sometimes you'll run into a cool beast that would make a perfect mount, and if a DM's going to be permissive about it, they're liable to require an AH check from you. Couldn't hurt to have it.

Large constructs (or medium if you're okay being small-sized) can make great mounts. They have a unique advantage over living mounts in that you can toss them into something like a Portable Hole and pull them out when you need them, sort of like an adhoc summoning. Access to any of this is entirely at the mercy of the DM, so don't count on it. But keep an eye out.

Finally, while I'd guess that most DM's absolutely won't let you at all, a handful might be willing to let you become a dragon rider late game. You may be able to influence this by having roughly draconic features or flavor. I wouldn't bend over backwards to do this (again, that'll be a hard pass from a lot of DM's), but if you were already thinking of going that direction thematically, there's a chance it could set you up for the ultimate mount later.

[Dork_Forge]

I'm pretty sure your other options are going to be conjure animals or phantom steed. Phantom steed is often criticized for the fact that it goes away in a minute if it takes damage, but that's plenty of time to resolve a fight. Conjure animals is a bit dubious, as it doesn't really last long enough to reliably pre-cast it, meaning you aren't going to have time to equip barding or your saddle most of the time, but if you're willing to bare-back ride, it's probably fine. Also gives you some damage output. The big downside with conjure animals is that you need to concentrate on it, so you taking damage can instantly dismiss your mount.

Note also that you can get find steed as a bard, though on non-lore bards you're waiting until level 10 (and likely getting find greater steed if so).

As for optimizing mounted combatant, I would probably look to take advantage of the advantage it grants against creatures smaller than your mount. If you can get Enlarge/Reduce, you can more consistently get this bonus. If you're into great weapon master, you don't need to rely as heavily on things like precision attack or greater invisibility, etc, but all the weapons you can use GWM with are two handed... I don't think there's a rule that specifically says you need to use a hand to control your mount, and there probably shouldn't be considering lance+shield is a pretty common archetype, but be aware that your DM may have different opinions on that.

You don't get to keep riding the steed after it takes damage. The steed only has a speed and can be ridden whilst the spell is in effect, once the steed takes damage the spell is over, it just gives you time to dismount like Levitate lets you fall gently to the ground.

If it actually let you keep riding it during that time it'd effectively be an invulnerable combat steed, which is not the purpose of the spell, or the scope of a 3rd level ritual.