Mounted Combat feats [Archive] - Wizards Community

Mounted Combat feats [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Johnny_Angel
12-04-07, 05:27 PM I was involved in a discussion about the mounted combat rules of D&D a few days ago, and it lead me to consider some new feats or options for Mounted Combat. The benefits of a mount can be easily seen, but one of the major downfalls is the fact that an enemy can target your mount. At low levels this isn't much of a problem, but at high levels it can be because your mount normally has much weaker defenses than your character does (animal companions and special mounts are an exception.) The Mounted Combat feat helps, but it can only be used once per round. Other problematic things which may kill your mount but not you are Area of Effect spells. You may have evasion or a similar ability, but many mounts do not. These concerns have lead me to considering the creation of the following feats. These are rough drafts of an idea, and I'd appreciate some feedback concerning whether or not they are balanced; suggested changes are welcome.

Mounted Combat Reflexes*
You can respond quickly and repeatedly to protect your mount from harm.
Prerequisites: Mounted Combat, Combat Reflexes, Ride 5 ranks
Benefit: When your mount is hit in combat, you may attempt a Ride check (as a reaction) to negate the hit. The hit is negated if your ride check result is greater than the opponent's attack roll. (Essentially, the Ride check result becomes the mount's Armor Class if it's higher than the mount's regular AC.) You may attempt to do this a number of times per round equal to your Dexterity in addition to the one attempt that the Mounted Combat feat would grant you. For example, a fighter with a Dexterity of 15 could attempt a ride check to negate up to 3 hits on his mount per round (2 from his Dexterity bonus, and the one that any character with the Mounted Combat feat is entitled to.)
Normal: A character with only the Mounted Combat feat can only attempt one Ride check per round to negate a hit on their mount; a character wither neither the Mounted Combat feat nor the Mounted Combat Reflexes feat can make no attempt to negate hits on their mount.
Special: A fighter may select Mounted Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat.

*I had originally considered called the feat Improved Mounted Combat, but I believe there's already a feat with that name.

Shared Evasion
Your skill at riding often makes you feel as though you and your mount move and react as one; this extraordinary connection allows you and your mount to share abilities which allow you to avoid danger.
Prerequesites: Mounted Combat, Ride 5 ranks, and the Evasion class ability or a mount with the evasion ability
Benefit: A character and her mount can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility and skill. When subject to an attack which normally deals half damage on a successful save (such as a dragon's beath weapon or a fireball spell) she may attempt a Reflex save or a Ride check -but, not both (normally using whichever one would be more beneficial.) If the result of the Reflex saving throw or the Ride check is high enough to make the save against the effect, both the mount and the rider only take half damage.
Special: A fighter may select Shared Evasion as a bonus feat.
Special: A monk may select Shared Evasion as a bonus feat at any level at which they could choose a bonus feat.
Special:** A character with the Improved Evasion class skill or a mount with Improved Evasion can use this feat to share their Improved Invasion ability.
Special: The mount must be considered a suitable mount as defined by the Dungeon Master's Guide and the rules for mounts in the Player's Handbook.

**I had considered creating a Improved Shared Evasion feat which would do this and eliminating this benefit from Shared Evasion, but not very many classes (or mounts for that matter) have Imrpoved Evasion as an ability.

One concern I had was that this feat may be slightly overpowered, but after further thought I don't think it would be. You can only plass an amount of ranks into a skill equal to 3 + class level. At second level (the earliest you could qualify) the highest modifier your could have due to ranks in the ride skill would be +5 which is only 2 higher than the best Reflex save available at that level. The Skill Focus feat would allow a character to boost the modifier to a +8, but that's only 3 higher than someone with a good Reflex save who chose Lightning Reflexes as a feat (+8 vs +5.) I still have concerns, but without some playtesting I can't be sure.
Tony Vargas
12-05-07, 01:56 PM Mounted Combat Reflexes*Seems fine, though between the name and the preq, you chould make it clear whether it uses up the rider's AoOs...

*I had originally considered called the feat Improved Mounted Combat, but I believe there's already a feat with that name.That'd fit the usual pattern for naming feats. What does the existing Improved feat do, anyway?

Shared Evasion
One concern I had was that this feat may be slightly overpowered, but after further thought I don't think it would be. You can only plass an amount of ranks into a skill equal to 3 + class level. The Skill Focus feat would allow a character to boost the modifier to a +8, but that's only 3 higher than someone with a good Reflex save who chose Lightning Reflexes as a feat (+8 vs +5.) I still have concerns, but without some playtesting I can't be sure.

Skills are very easy to boost. Ride is DEX-based, so, right there, you're getting the same DEX bonus to both Ride and REF. So your ranks in ride are substituting for your base REF save. Base saves are 2+1/2levels or 0+1/3levles, Ride can advance at 3+level, or 1.5+1/2level. So, even cross-class ride is about as good as a good save. Lightning reflexes boost your REF by 2. Skill focus boosts your ride by 3, and Animal Affinity by another 2. Ride is also subject to a synergy bonus from Handle Animal fo another +2. On top of that, items to boost ride checks are quite cheap (bonus-squared x 100) compared to items to boost saves (bonus-squared x 1000).

A better idea might be to still use REF saves, but combine them in some way. Either make a single save for both, using whichever modifier is hgiher, or let each save and if either succeeds, both Evade the effect.
Slimgauge
12-05-07, 02:27 PM A better idea might be to still use REF saves, but combine them in some way. Either make a single save for both, using whichever modifier is hgiher, or let each save and if either succeeds, both Evade the effect.

A Paladin and his mount share saves as follows:

Share Saving Throws
For each of its saving throws, the mount uses its own base save bonus or the paladin’s, whichever is higher. The mount applies its own ability modifiers to saves, and it doesn’t share any other bonuses on saves that the master might have.

If you want your feat to be an improvement over this, have it be reciprocal. In most cases, a mount's saves are inferior to a character's saves. I'd say have the rider or the mount (wichever is better) attempt the save. With a successful ride check, the other may take the same result, but doesn't have to. If either has evasion or improved evasion, the other may be treated as having it as well. With a failed ride check, the other would have to make an individual save as normal, but still shares evasion or improved evasion.
Scion of Coldshard
12-05-07, 05:29 PM The Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a)feat on the wizards site is actually kindof better than both of those put together and has lesser prereqs as well.. and I dont think it is all that powerful to begin with ;)

I did have some mounted stuff along with some feats I put up recently where the rider and mount got extra and shared abilities.. but no one seemed too interested in them.. ahh well..lol.. giving the mount basically a monks AC bonus sounds fun to me!
Slimgauge
12-06-07, 02:40 PM The thing the feat (well, the version of it that I proposed) would still do is that the RIDER would get to share the Wild Cohort's improved evasion.
Johnny_Angel
12-06-07, 10:35 PM The Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a)feat on the wizards site is actually kindof better than both of those put together and has lesser prereqs as well.. and I dont think it is all that powerful to begin with ;)

I did have some mounted stuff along with some feats I put up recently where the rider and mount got extra and shared abilities.. but no one seemed too interested in them.. ahh well..lol.. giving the mount basically a monks AC bonus sounds fun to me!

The Wild Cohort feat is good, but it doesn't do what I was trying to do with my feat ideas. From what I understand, what Wild Cohort does is grant you an animal companion which gets stronger as you level up. That is a very good benefit, but you're still restricted to the animals on the list, and the feat still doesn't do -as far as I can tell- what I was trying to do.

The point behind my feat ideas was that they would work with virtually any mount (from horse to dragon) as long as either the rider or the mount had evasion (or improved evasion for that matter). The idea was that your mount and you would share the evasion ability with the Shared Evasion feat; the idea behind the Mounted Combat Reflexes feat was to allow a rider to better protect their mount -keep in mind, my proposed feats worked with any mount as long as it was considered a suitable mount.

One thing to point out as an example is that a fighter could choose Share Evasion; the fighter need not have Evasion, but the feat would only provide the benefit of shared evasion if the fighter's mount did have evasion. Maybe I should have made that idea more clear. You can still choose the feat if you don't have evasion; it's just that you only get the benefit if your mount has evasion. On the other side of the spectrum, if you were a rogue or a monk who had evasion, you could share that ability with a mount you were riding that didn't have evasion.

I was involved in a discussion about the mounted combat rules of D&D a few days ago, and it lead me to consider some new feats or options for Mounted Combat. The benefits of a mount can be easily seen, but one of the major downfalls is the fact that an enemy can target your mount. At low levels this isn't much of a problem, but at high levels it can be because your mount normally has much weaker defenses than your character does (animal companions and special mounts are an exception.) The Mounted Combat feat helps, but it can only be used once per round. Other problematic things which may kill your mount but not you are Area of Effect spells. You may have evasion or a similar ability, but many mounts do not. These concerns have lead me to considering the creation of the following feats. These are rough drafts of an idea, and I'd appreciate some feedback concerning whether or not they are balanced; suggested changes are welcome.

Mounted Combat Reflexes*
You can respond quickly and repeatedly to protect your mount from harm.
Prerequisites: Mounted Combat, Combat Reflexes, Ride 5 ranks
Benefit: When your mount is hit in combat, you may attempt a Ride check (as a reaction) to negate the hit. The hit is negated if your ride check result is greater than the opponent's attack roll. (Essentially, the Ride check result becomes the mount's Armor Class if it's higher than the mount's regular AC.) You may attempt to do this a number of times per round equal to your Dexterity in addition to the one attempt that the Mounted Combat feat would grant you. For example, a fighter with a Dexterity of 15 could attempt a ride check to negate up to 3 hits on his mount per round (2 from his Dexterity bonus, and the one that any character with the Mounted Combat feat is entitled to.)
Normal: A character with only the Mounted Combat feat can only attempt one Ride check per round to negate a hit on their mount; a character wither neither the Mounted Combat feat nor the Mounted Combat Reflexes feat can make no attempt to negate hits on their mount.
Special: A fighter may select Mounted Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat.

*I had originally considered called the feat Improved Mounted Combat, but I believe there's already a feat with that name.

Shared Evasion
Your skill at riding often makes you feel as though you and your mount move and react as one; this extraordinary connection allows you and your mount to share abilities which allow you to avoid danger.
Prerequesites: Mounted Combat, Ride 5 ranks, and the Evasion class ability or a mount with the evasion ability
Benefit: A character and her mount can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility and skill. When subject to an attack which normally deals half damage on a successful save (such as a dragon's beath weapon or a fireball spell) she may attempt a Reflex save or a Ride check -but, not both (normally using whichever one would be more beneficial.) If the result of the Reflex saving throw or the Ride check is high enough to make the save against the effect, both the mount and the rider only take half damage.
Special: A fighter may select Shared Evasion as a bonus feat.
Special: A monk may select Shared Evasion as a bonus feat at any level at which they could choose a bonus feat.
Special:** A character with the Improved Evasion class skill or a mount with Improved Evasion can use this feat to share their Improved Invasion ability.
Special: The mount must be considered a suitable mount as defined by the Dungeon Master's Guide and the rules for mounts in the Player's Handbook.

**I had considered creating a Improved Shared Evasion feat which would do this and eliminating this benefit from Shared Evasion, but not very many classes (or mounts for that matter) have Imrpoved Evasion as an ability.

One concern I had was that this feat may be slightly overpowered, but after further thought I don't think it would be. You can only plass an amount of ranks into a skill equal to 3 + class level. At second level (the earliest you could qualify) the highest modifier your could have due to ranks in the ride skill would be +5 which is only 2 higher than the best Reflex save available at that level. The Skill Focus feat would allow a character to boost the modifier to a +8, but that's only 3 higher than someone with a good Reflex save who chose Lightning Reflexes as a feat (+8 vs +5.) I still have concerns, but without some playtesting I can't be sure.

That's what I originally posted, but I'm going to change them a little bit. Thanks for the good feedback.

by Slimgauge:

A Paladin and his mount share saves as follows:

Quote:
Originally Posted by OnLine SRD
Share Saving Throws
For each of its saving throws, the mount uses its own base save bonus or the paladin’s, whichever is higher. The mount applies its own ability modifiers to saves, and it doesn’t share any other bonuses on saves that the master might have.

If you want your feat to be an improvement over this, have it be reciprocal. In most cases, a mount's saves are inferior to a character's saves. I'd say have the rider or the mount (wichever is better) attempt the save. With a successful ride check, the other may take the same result, but doesn't have to. If either has evasion or improved evasion, the other may be treated as having it as well. With a failed ride check, the other would have to make an individual save as normal, but still shares evasion or improved evasion.

The feats weren't meant as an improvement over this; they were actually meant to work similar to the paladin abilities. My goal was to give classes without a special mount or animal companion a way to better protect their mount.
Tony Vargas
12-07-07, 02:42 PM In the 'keeping your mount alive' vien, how about this:

Mounted Evasion
You can protect your mount from attacks that affect an area, a well as from those that target it directly.
Prerequesites: Mounted Combat, Ride 7* ranks.
Benefit: When your mount is subject to an attack which normally deals half damage on a successful save (such as a dragon's beath weapon or a fireball spell) you may attempt a Reflex save against the effect (even if it is not affecting you). If the result of the Reflex saving throw is high enough to make the save against the effect, your mount takes no damage, and, if you are also effected, you take half damage (or none if you have evasion, yourself). If your save fails, the mount still gets it's normal saving throw.
Special: A fighter may select Mounted Evasion as a bonus feat.
Special: The mount must be considered a suitable mount as defined by the Dungeon Master's Guide and the rules for mounts in the Player's Handbook.
Special: If your mount already has Evasion or Improved Evasion it still gains the benefit of that ability, if your attempt to protect it via Mounted Evasion fails.

*why 7 ranks? This makes the feat available at 4th level, at the earliest (via a fighter bonus feat, for instance). That's about the time a horse starts seeming kinda delicate. It's also a level /after/ a Druid's Animal companion gains evasion. (The Paladin's mount /starts/ with IMPROVED evasion when it's gained, at 5th level). If you go with 5 ranks, a fighter could pick the feat up at 2nd, when a warhorse is still pretty tough, relatively speaking, and the Druid's animal companion doesn't have evasion yet.
Slimgauge
12-07-07, 05:13 PM Be sure to add the caveat about this working only when you're actually riding (or perhaps within five feet of) the mount, otherwise as written it could be quite some distance away (or even on another plane).
Johnny_Angel
12-08-07, 03:35 PM Be sure to add the caveat about this working only when you're actually riding (or perhaps within five feet of) the mount, otherwise as written it could be quite some distance away (or even on another plane).

That's a good point, and that was my intention as well (that it would work when the rider was on the mount.)

On that subject, that's also why I put in the part about the mount needing to be a suitable mount as defined by the DM Guide. That way people can't do things like having the rogue ride the fighter.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Johnny_Angel 12-04-07, 05:27 PM	I was involved in a discussion about the mounted combat rules of D&D a few days ago, and it lead me to consider some new feats or options for Mounted Combat. The benefits of a mount can be easily seen, but one of the major downfalls is the fact that an enemy can target your mount. At low levels this isn't much of a problem, but at high levels it can be because your mount normally has much weaker defenses than your character does (animal companions and special mounts are an exception.) The Mounted Combat feat helps, but it can only be used once per round. Other problematic things which may kill your mount but not you are Area of Effect spells. You may have evasion or a similar ability, but many mounts do not. These concerns have lead me to considering the creation of the following feats. These are rough drafts of an idea, and I'd appreciate some feedback concerning whether or not they are balanced; suggested changes are welcome. Mounted Combat Reflexes* You can respond quickly and repeatedly to protect your mount from harm. Prerequisites: Mounted Combat, Combat Reflexes, Ride 5 ranks Benefit: When your mount is hit in combat, you may attempt a Ride check (as a reaction) to negate the hit. The hit is negated if your ride check result is greater than the opponent's attack roll. (Essentially, the Ride check result becomes the mount's Armor Class if it's higher than the mount's regular AC.) You may attempt to do this a number of times per round equal to your Dexterity in addition to the one attempt that the Mounted Combat feat would grant you. For example, a fighter with a Dexterity of 15 could attempt a ride check to negate up to 3 hits on his mount per round (2 from his Dexterity bonus, and the one that any character with the Mounted Combat feat is entitled to.) Normal: A character with only the Mounted Combat feat can only attempt one Ride check per round to negate a hit on their mount; a character wither neither the Mounted Combat feat nor the Mounted Combat Reflexes feat can make no attempt to negate hits on their mount. Special: A fighter may select Mounted Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat. I had originally considered called the feat Improved Mounted Combat, but I believe there's already a feat with that name. Shared Evasion Your skill at riding often makes you feel as though you and your mount move and react as one; this extraordinary connection allows you and your mount to share abilities which allow you to avoid danger. Prerequesites: Mounted Combat, Ride 5 ranks, and the Evasion class ability or a mount with the evasion ability Benefit: A character and her mount can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility and skill. When subject to an attack which normally deals half damage on a successful save (such as a dragon's beath weapon or a fireball spell) she may attempt a Reflex save or a Ride check -but, not both (normally using whichever one would be more beneficial.) If the result of the Reflex saving throw or the Ride check is high enough to make the save against the effect, both the mount and the rider only take half damage. Special: A fighter may select Shared Evasion as a bonus feat. Special: A monk may select Shared Evasion as a bonus feat at any level at which they could choose a bonus feat. Special:* A character with the Improved Evasion class skill or a mount with Improved Evasion can use this feat to share their Improved Invasion ability. Special: The mount must be considered a suitable mount as defined by the Dungeon Master's Guide and the rules for mounts in the Player's Handbook. **I had considered creating a Improved Shared Evasion feat which would do this and eliminating this benefit from Shared Evasion, but not very many classes (or mounts for that matter) have Imrpoved Evasion as an ability. One concern I had was that this feat may be slightly overpowered, but after further thought I don't think it would be. You can only plass an amount of ranks into a skill equal to 3 + class level. At second level (the earliest you could qualify) the highest modifier your could have due to ranks in the ride skill would be +5 which is only 2 higher than the best Reflex save available at that level. The Skill Focus feat would allow a character to boost the modifier to a +8, but that's only 3 higher than someone with a good Reflex save who chose Lightning Reflexes as a feat (+8 vs +5.) I still have concerns, but without some playtesting I can't be sure.
Tony Vargas 12-05-07, 01:56 PM	Mounted Combat ReflexesSeems fine, though between the name and the preq, you chould make it clear whether it uses up the rider's AoOs... I had originally considered called the feat Improved Mounted Combat, but I believe there's already a feat with that name.That'd fit the usual pattern for naming feats. What does the existing Improved feat do, anyway? Shared Evasion One concern I had was that this feat may be slightly overpowered, but after further thought I don't think it would be. You can only plass an amount of ranks into a skill equal to 3 + class level. The Skill Focus feat would allow a character to boost the modifier to a +8, but that's only 3 higher than someone with a good Reflex save who chose Lightning Reflexes as a feat (+8 vs +5.) I still have concerns, but without some playtesting I can't be sure. Skills are very easy to boost. Ride is DEX-based, so, right there, you're getting the same DEX bonus to both Ride and REF. So your ranks in ride are substituting for your base REF save. Base saves are 2+1/2levels or 0+1/3levles, Ride can advance at 3+level, or 1.5+1/2level. So, even cross-class ride is about as good as a good save. Lightning reflexes boost your REF by 2. Skill focus boosts your ride by 3, and Animal Affinity by another 2. Ride is also subject to a synergy bonus from Handle Animal fo another +2. On top of that, items to boost ride checks are quite cheap (bonus-squared x 100) compared to items to boost saves (bonus-squared x 1000). A better idea might be to still use REF saves, but combine them in some way. Either make a single save for both, using whichever modifier is hgiher, or let each save and if either succeeds, both Evade the effect.
Slimgauge 12-05-07, 02:27 PM	A better idea might be to still use REF saves, but combine them in some way. Either make a single save for both, using whichever modifier is hgiher, or let each save and if either succeeds, both Evade the effect. A Paladin and his mount share saves as follows: Share Saving Throws For each of its saving throws, the mount uses its own base save bonus or the paladin’s, whichever is higher. The mount applies its own ability modifiers to saves, and it doesn’t share any other bonuses on saves that the master might have. If you want your feat to be an improvement over this, have it be reciprocal. In most cases, a mount's saves are inferior to a character's saves. I'd say have the rider or the mount (wichever is better) attempt the save. With a successful ride check, the other may take the same result, but doesn't have to. If either has evasion or improved evasion, the other may be treated as having it as well. With a failed ride check, the other would have to make an individual save as normal, but still shares evasion or improved evasion.
Scion of Coldshard 12-05-07, 05:29 PM	The Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a)feat on the wizards site is actually kindof better than both of those put together and has lesser prereqs as well.. and I dont think it is all that powerful to begin with ;) I did have some mounted stuff along with some feats I put up recently where the rider and mount got extra and shared abilities.. but no one seemed too interested in them.. ahh well..lol.. giving the mount basically a monks AC bonus sounds fun to me!
Slimgauge 12-06-07, 02:40 PM	The thing the feat (well, the version of it that I proposed) would still do is that the RIDER would get to share the Wild Cohort's improved evasion.
Johnny_Angel 12-06-07, 10:35 PM	The Wild Cohort (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a)feat on the wizards site is actually kindof better than both of those put together and has lesser prereqs as well.. and I dont think it is all that powerful to begin with ;) I did have some mounted stuff along with some feats I put up recently where the rider and mount got extra and shared abilities.. but no one seemed too interested in them.. ahh well..lol.. giving the mount basically a monks AC bonus sounds fun to me! The Wild Cohort feat is good, but it doesn't do what I was trying to do with my feat ideas. From what I understand, what Wild Cohort does is grant you an animal companion which gets stronger as you level up. That is a very good benefit, but you're still restricted to the animals on the list, and the feat still doesn't do -as far as I can tell- what I was trying to do. The point behind my feat ideas was that they would work with virtually any mount (from horse to dragon) as long as either the rider or the mount had evasion (or improved evasion for that matter). The idea was that your mount and you would share the evasion ability with the Shared Evasion feat; the idea behind the Mounted Combat Reflexes feat was to allow a rider to better protect their mount -keep in mind, my proposed feats worked with any mount as long as it was considered a suitable mount. One thing to point out as an example is that a fighter could choose Share Evasion; the fighter need not have Evasion, but the feat would only provide the benefit of shared evasion if the fighter's mount did have evasion. Maybe I should have made that idea more clear. You can still choose the feat if you don't have evasion; it's just that you only get the benefit if your mount has evasion. On the other side of the spectrum, if you were a rogue or a monk who had evasion, you could share that ability with a mount you were riding that didn't have evasion. I was involved in a discussion about the mounted combat rules of D&D a few days ago, and it lead me to consider some new feats or options for Mounted Combat. The benefits of a mount can be easily seen, but one of the major downfalls is the fact that an enemy can target your mount. At low levels this isn't much of a problem, but at high levels it can be because your mount normally has much weaker defenses than your character does (animal companions and special mounts are an exception.) The Mounted Combat feat helps, but it can only be used once per round. Other problematic things which may kill your mount but not you are Area of Effect spells. You may have evasion or a similar ability, but many mounts do not. These concerns have lead me to considering the creation of the following feats. These are rough drafts of an idea, and I'd appreciate some feedback concerning whether or not they are balanced; suggested changes are welcome. Mounted Combat Reflexes* You can respond quickly and repeatedly to protect your mount from harm. Prerequisites: Mounted Combat, Combat Reflexes, Ride 5 ranks Benefit: When your mount is hit in combat, you may attempt a Ride check (as a reaction) to negate the hit. The hit is negated if your ride check result is greater than the opponent's attack roll. (Essentially, the Ride check result becomes the mount's Armor Class if it's higher than the mount's regular AC.) You may attempt to do this a number of times per round equal to your Dexterity in addition to the one attempt that the Mounted Combat feat would grant you. For example, a fighter with a Dexterity of 15 could attempt a ride check to negate up to 3 hits on his mount per round (2 from his Dexterity bonus, and the one that any character with the Mounted Combat feat is entitled to.) Normal: A character with only the Mounted Combat feat can only attempt one Ride check per round to negate a hit on their mount; a character wither neither the Mounted Combat feat nor the Mounted Combat Reflexes feat can make no attempt to negate hits on their mount. Special: A fighter may select Mounted Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat. I had originally considered called the feat Improved Mounted Combat, but I believe there's already a feat with that name. Shared Evasion Your skill at riding often makes you feel as though you and your mount move and react as one; this extraordinary connection allows you and your mount to share abilities which allow you to avoid danger. Prerequesites: Mounted Combat, Ride 5 ranks, and the Evasion class ability or a mount with the evasion ability Benefit: A character and her mount can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility and skill. When subject to an attack which normally deals half damage on a successful save (such as a dragon's beath weapon or a fireball spell) she may attempt a Reflex save or a Ride check -but, not both (normally using whichever one would be more beneficial.) If the result of the Reflex saving throw or the Ride check is high enough to make the save against the effect, both the mount and the rider only take half damage. Special: A fighter may select Shared Evasion as a bonus feat. Special: A monk may select Shared Evasion as a bonus feat at any level at which they could choose a bonus feat. Special:* A character with the Improved Evasion class skill or a mount with Improved Evasion can use this feat to share their Improved Invasion ability. Special: The mount must be considered a suitable mount as defined by the Dungeon Master's Guide and the rules for mounts in the Player's Handbook. **I had considered creating a Improved Shared Evasion feat which would do this and eliminating this benefit from Shared Evasion, but not very many classes (or mounts for that matter) have Imrpoved Evasion as an ability. One concern I had was that this feat may be slightly overpowered, but after further thought I don't think it would be. You can only plass an amount of ranks into a skill equal to 3 + class level. At second level (the earliest you could qualify) the highest modifier your could have due to ranks in the ride skill would be +5 which is only 2 higher than the best Reflex save available at that level. The Skill Focus feat would allow a character to boost the modifier to a +8, but that's only 3 higher than someone with a good Reflex save who chose Lightning Reflexes as a feat (+8 vs +5.) I still have concerns, but without some playtesting I can't be sure. That's what I originally posted, but I'm going to change them a little bit. Thanks for the good feedback. by Slimgauge: A Paladin and his mount share saves as follows: Quote: Originally Posted by OnLine SRD Share Saving Throws For each of its saving throws, the mount uses its own base save bonus or the paladin’s, whichever is higher. The mount applies its own ability modifiers to saves, and it doesn’t share any other bonuses on saves that the master might have. If you want your feat to be an improvement over this, have it be reciprocal. In most cases, a mount's saves are inferior to a character's saves. I'd say have the rider or the mount (wichever is better) attempt the save. With a successful ride check, the other may take the same result, but doesn't have to. If either has evasion or improved evasion, the other may be treated as having it as well. With a failed ride check, the other would have to make an individual save as normal, but still shares evasion or improved evasion. The feats weren't meant as an improvement over this; they were actually meant to work similar to the paladin abilities. My goal was to give classes without a special mount or animal companion a way to better protect their mount.
Tony Vargas 12-07-07, 02:42 PM	In the 'keeping your mount alive' vien, how about this: Mounted Evasion You can protect your mount from attacks that affect an area, a well as from those that target it directly. Prerequesites: Mounted Combat, Ride 7* ranks. Benefit: When your mount is subject to an attack which normally deals half damage on a successful save (such as a dragon's beath weapon or a fireball spell) you may attempt a Reflex save against the effect (even if it is not affecting you). If the result of the Reflex saving throw is high enough to make the save against the effect, your mount takes no damage, and, if you are also effected, you take half damage (or none if you have evasion, yourself). If your save fails, the mount still gets it's normal saving throw. Special: A fighter may select Mounted Evasion as a bonus feat. Special: The mount must be considered a suitable mount as defined by the Dungeon Master's Guide and the rules for mounts in the Player's Handbook. Special: If your mount already has Evasion or Improved Evasion it still gains the benefit of that ability, if your attempt to protect it via Mounted Evasion fails. *why 7 ranks? This makes the feat available at 4th level, at the earliest (via a fighter bonus feat, for instance). That's about the time a horse starts seeming kinda delicate. It's also a level /after/ a Druid's Animal companion gains evasion. (The Paladin's mount /starts/ with IMPROVED evasion when it's gained, at 5th level). If you go with 5 ranks, a fighter could pick the feat up at 2nd, when a warhorse is still pretty tough, relatively speaking, and the Druid's animal companion doesn't have evasion yet.
Slimgauge 12-07-07, 05:13 PM	Be sure to add the caveat about this working only when you're actually riding (or perhaps within five feet of) the mount, otherwise as written it could be quite some distance away (or even on another plane).
Johnny_Angel 12-08-07, 03:35 PM	Be sure to add the caveat about this working only when you're actually riding (or perhaps within five feet of) the mount, otherwise as written it could be quite some distance away (or even on another plane). That's a good point, and that was my intention as well (that it would work when the rider was on the mount.) On that subject, that's also why I put in the part about the mount needing to be a suitable mount as defined by the DM Guide. That way people can't do things like having the rogue ride the fighter.