mounted prestige classes and hafling outrider

[awa]

Im making a mount specialized character so far ive got ranger/ wild planes outrider who rides a dire bat and is a ranged specialist.

I was thinking about going for hafling outrider and while I do not own the complete warrior the dm does but im not meeting him till the day of the game and I would rather have my race picked out before hand. So my question is, is the hafling outrider a good class for a mounted character are their any other good classes for mounted characters?

[AtwasAwamps]

Halfling Outrider is quite good. What will the basis of your mounted combat be, though? Do you intend on utilizing archery/ranged combat, or are you going to be using enormous charge attacks/hit and run methodology?

[awa]

ranged the mount is a dire bat so i plan on sitting out of enemy reach an attacking either a bow or javelins depending on if i'm a hafling or not

[Keld Denar]

Might cause you some troubles with low dungeon ceilings, just a thought.

Most mounted PrCs are intended for charger type characters. That said, you don't even need a PrC. A Ranger (or ranger based blend splashing Fighter and/or other classes like maybe Scout) gets an AC, and with Natural Bond, can be relatively decent even fore a Ranger.

One thing you will want to make sure of, though, is that you have a source of bonus damage, or your arrows will by piddley. Knowledge Devotion is a common go-to for most high-skill classes. Rangers, especially if you use the Planar Ranger sub levels, get most of the knowledges needed for KD, and KD itself gives you one more to cover anything you are missing.

[Fouredged Sword]

There is a PRC in the same WoTC web addition the has wild cohort that lets you push your mount as a free action. It looked nice at first glance.

[awa]

I looked at the online prestige class and it seemed really weak it just seems unnecessary for some one with an animal companion