Alternative to a Paladin's Mount?

[Hal]

I'm curious what alternative class features exist for the Paladin in exchange for the special mount. I'm aware of the various alternative mounts in different books, and also of the RoS variant for underground Paladins, but is that the extent of it?

[Tsotha-lanti]

PHB2 has the option to replace the mount with a charging smite ability, dealing more damage when you charge and smite. Quite good for smity paladins.

[LibraryOgre]

You might also check out Pathfinder's beta releases; they have an interesting replacement for the Paladin's mount.

Another option is to not have a mount, but something on par with an animal companion. It still gets all the Paladin Mount progression, but is instead a large wolf, or a boar, or something that accompanies your character as a friend and bodyguard. I had a Paladin whose mount was his night guard; he only took 5 levels of paladin before breaking into prestige classes, but 10 hours a night was sufficient for his mount to watch over the camp while they slept (and with Scent, he was a great watchman).

[Renegade Paladin]

Dungeonscape allows replacing the mount with a guardian spirit.

[nargbop]

Head on over to http://www.crystalkeep.com/ or grab up some Dragon Magazine issues. The last ones made have some nice alternative paladin stuff, issues 340 and up.
Example : Power of Self paladin from DR347 has bonus fighter feats instead of several traditional paladin powers. Load that guy up with Book of Exalted Deeds feats for a smiting specialist.
Example 2 : Sword of Celestia paladin from DR349. Basically, Heaven sends you a sword instead of a horse. You summon it from Hammerspace into your hand to whack away at bad guys. You can improve it as if you had Craft Arms and Armor. This class saves you some money on your weapon, which is nice.

Have a chat with your DM for appropriate alternative class features. The special mount isn't very much fun when you first get it, but the steed of a 20th level traditional paladin is NICE with appropriate gear. A paladin without the mount should have something that gets better over time in a similar manner. The Power of Self paladin is a good example.

What would I ask my DM for? ... every level my mount would be better, grant me two level's worth of remove disease, lay on hands, and smite evil.

[Drammel]

I've been using Charging Smite in my current campaign and have been enjoying it thoroughly. Couple it with Rhino's Rush from the Spell Compendium. It's a swift action spell with a very simple description: double the damage of your next charge attack. Power attack scales nicely with it as well.

That being said if you're going to use Charging Smite you really should brush up on the rules for charging and make sure your DM has as well. My DM has been throwing uneven terrain and monsters with reach+improved grapple at me, for example. Thus, if your campaign is set on "The Mountain of the Sumo Frost Giants" you might want to shy away from Charging Smite.

[AslanCross]

The Rebalanced Paladin has a number of ACFs in place of the Special Mount.