[3.5] Feats for a mounted wizard?

[Caeldrim]

Hi Y'all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. (hooray!)

Have built myself a Whisper Gnome Wizard (currently level 6), with a weasel familiar, and (here's the interesting part) a dire weasel mount.

I'm doing this for fun, not for min/max/optimisation reasons, but a mount with 13hp is more of a liability than anything else at the moment.

My questions:

Question the First - having already taken Mounted Combat, are there any other feats/spells/magic items that I could take/learn/make/buy to increase my mount's survivability and general effectiveness? I have Craft wondrous item, but no other item creation feats.

I have a Robe of Stability (possibly Steadying Robe?), which allows me to ignore concentration checks from movement of a mount, which helps, and have bought him some decent barding (Mstwk Chain 'shirt'), and some 'paw gloves/booties of speed' which have him moving at 70ft (!).

A 'Ride by Attack' equivalent for spellcasters would be good, but so far have been unable to find anything like that.



Question the Second - Can anyone think of commonly available mount type animals (of medium size) that would work better for my purposes? Flight would be good, but all the flying mounts I can find are either small or large. Ideally I'd like something that fit ok with the 'sneaky' vibe of the character. (whisper gnome, weasels, etc etc)

The character's backstory places him as a stablehand/animal trainer for a large magical organisation/government, and we have a druid in the party to help me out, so finding and training the animal shouldn't be a major issue, but the DM is very unlikely to allow anything too 'far out' as a mount, or at the very least make it very difficult (to the point of not being worthwhile) for me to FIND the animal in the first place.



Question the Third - Is it worth taking improved familiar and combining familiar and mount into one handy package?



Question the Fourth - Ride and Handle Animal are of course, cross class skills for me. I've managed to keep Spellcraft and Concentration maxed out while still spending points here and there in Ride/Handle Animal, but would really prefer to be able to get more out of my spent skill ranks. Is there any way to make a cross class skill into a class skill?

Thanking playgrounders in advance.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Don't bother with Imp Familiar. Instead, take the Natural Bond feat and the ACF to give you an Animal Companion. Or take Wild Cohort.

[Jasdoif]

A 'Ride by Attack' equivalent for spellcasters would be good, but so far have been unable to find anything like that.

You don't actually need a feat for that.

Casting Spells while Mounted

You can cast a spell normally if your mount moves up to a normal move (its speed) either before or after you cast. If you have your mount move both before and after you cast a spell, then you’re casting the spell while the mount is moving, and you have to make a Concentration check due to the vigorous motion (DC 10 + spell level) or lose the spell. If the mount is running (quadruple speed), you can cast a spell when your mount has moved up to twice its speed, but your Concentration check is more difficult due to the violent motion (DC 15 + spell level).

If you already have the ability to ignore Concentration checks caused by your mount's movement, you should be fine here.

[Edwin]

I agree with the above poster, Wild Cohort is one handy feat.

Here's the link, in case you need it:

Spoiler

Show

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a

[JackMage666]

Or this. You'll lose your familiar but.... Familiars are.... Well, a liability.

[Keld Denar]

Question the Second - Can anyone think of commonly available mount type animals (of medium size) that would work better for my purposes? Flight would be good, but all the flying mounts I can find are either small or large. Ideally I'd like something that fit ok with the 'sneaky' vibe of the character. (whisper gnome, weasels, etc etc)

A conjoured mount would work rather nice. Phantom Steed, a wizard3 spells found in the PHB provides a mount for your character. At mid levels, it can waterwalk and air walk, and at high levels it can full out fly. Pretty slick if you ask me.

Otherwise, flying mounts, get something like a Dire Eagle or Dire Bat. Both are large and can bear a medium sized rider.

[Caeldrim]

all questions answered in the link posted by edwin.

thanks to all who contributed.

I'll be taking animal cohort, spending 5 ranks in knowledge nature, and prestige classing into Silverwood Arcanist.

It's JUST what I ALWAYS wanted...

[Caeldrim]

one more bumpity question:

Medium sized flying animals that could be taken as an animal cohort?
There doesn't seem to be much between small and large that flies.

Anyone?

[Draken]

Dire Hawk. Minimum level 7th, in your case.

[wadledo]

Giant crow is pretty damn cool to.

Other player: Cawed the raven-*agonized scream*
Crow: Yum, brains.

[Epinephrine]

As mentioned in Races of Stone, gnomes typically ride dire badgers, and a saddle system is written up in RoS to allow the gnome rider to stay mounted while burrowing. Rather than trying to optimise by having a flying mount, a traditional gnome mount has character, and burrowing is pretty handy too.

Wild Cohort is a good way to go, and the Silverwood Arcanist is a special mounted caster class based on it. Gaining Share Spells with your mount is a very nice ability.

Edit - nevermind, I see someone brought it up already. It's a solid class for you though.

[Caeldrim]

I'm going to stick with the dire weasel, and polymorph my familiar into a flying thing if i really have to.

The dire weasel mount works well, if only because in a couple of levels my non-dire weasel familiar will be able to talk to him, which ought to give fairly mammoth bonuses on handle animal checks.

everything is falling into place.