l have l character idea, and one of the things l had for them was useing a mount* and l was wondering if takeing the mounted combatant feat would be worth it**.
*from the "find steed" spell, but the question also aplys to a normal animal, or Battle Smith Artificers Steel Defender)
**by "it" l mean tradeing a ASI or another feat (or would the spell only be usefull lf l used a real animal)
The feat gives quite a bit of power for offense and defensive capabilities. It can be very effective. How effective it will be depends a bit on your game setting and the environments you’re likely to fight in. Large or bigger mounts will be subjected to squeezing rules when going through confined spaces or barred entirely from being able to follow you into combat in certain areas. Feats are cool, but your DM may take the adventure to these confined areas which basically takes your entire feat away.
•You have advantage on melee attack rolls against any unmounted creature that is smaller than your mount. •You can force an attack targeted at your mount to target you instead. •If your mount is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.
first bullet can drastically increase your offensive capabilities depending on creature sizes.
Second bullet gives you control on every single attack roll targeting your mount. No action required. No attack range limitation. No size limitations. You can freely change the target to yourself. This can keep your mount alive for much longer during basic combat on the ground. Potentially lifesaving when making use of a flying mount, since a dead mount no longer keeps you in the air.
third bullet further increases your mounts survivability by basically giving it evasion. This can be incredibly effective as your enemies may attempt to kill your mount using different methods once you display that all of their attacks can be intercepted by you. This has synergy with the paladin as your aura will bolster your mounts saves.
It's also excellent if you plan on crit fishing, or want to be a melee sneak attack build that isn't tied to a party member's hip. Advantage on all your attacks against Medium or smaller opponents (or even Large or smaller, if you can find a Huge mount) is pretty huge. Having advantage on attacks can also really be used to shore up a complicated build that lags 1 or 2 behind what it's to-hit modifier should be, so if you wanted to do something like be a 15 strength paladin or something like that, Mounted Combatant will help.
Just keep in mind, if you're riding a Large Warhorse or something, you may well end up in fights where your DM doesn't let you bring the horse. Small PCs riding a Mastiff are far less likely to be caught two-footed, but also won't be fighting as many enemies smaller than their mounts.
That’s a very interesting point with the rogue. I have been toying with the idea of a mounted rogue with tashas coming out. The Steady Aim feature restricts the rogues movement, but not the movement of a mount. The idea of a mounted rogue making use of the Steady Aim feature really reminded me of a skirmishing ranged fighter on horseback, like maybe the Mongolian hoard. The mounted combatant feat could cover more bases. I would imagine a rogue would easily be able to afford mounts if making use of their skills.
Not just to be a contrarian, but I’m not much of a fan. It’s great when you’re mounted, yes. But (and this can be campaign dependent) are you really mounted very often? Pretty much anytime you’re inside or on a dungeon crawl, you leave the horse behind. Ever need to climb a ladder or a rope, the horse is left behind. Fights in open plains, or outside, mounts are great, otherwise mostly useless. (And I say that as someone who plays a pally with a mount. But my character is a halfling, so the mount is medium and can operate inside. And I have misty step to get past those ropes and ladders, and I still didn’t take it.)
And even when mounts are useful, they’re fragile. Low hp, low ac, they can maybe take a hit or two, but get caught in an aoe (even with the evasion they get from the feat, they have to make the save and they have crappy saves) or an aura, they’re dead.
So, when you only get 3-4 feats in a whole campaign, spending one on something very situational is not a good choice (imo), compared to something like an asi bump that you’ll use in most every encounter, or other feats that can come up in every fight. This goes double for a pally — if the mount dies, you get more spell slots the next day — but you only get those 3-4 feats ever.
With your mount unable to be targeted by attacks without your consent, and benefiting from Evasion, even a store bought Warhorse can be pretty durable. Also, the original post specified they’re using Find Steed, so mount mortality is even less of a concern than it might ordinarily be.
That’s a very interesting point with the rogue. I have been toying with the idea of a mounted rogue with tashas coming out. The Steady Aim feature restricts the rogues movement, but not the movement of a mount. The idea of a mounted rogue making use of the Steady Aim feature really reminded me of a skirmishing ranged fighter on horseback, like maybe the Mongolian hoard. The mounted combatant feat could cover more bases. I would imagine a rogue would easily be able to afford mounts if making use of their skills.
I question allowing Steady Aim to work while riding a mount (if it's moving) The point of Steady Aim to complete stillness to allow the rogue the ability to focus on its aim and bouncing around on a mount seems counter to the Feature intention. While there is nothing in the rule to say otherwise so obviously, do what you want or what the DM allows but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Your actual benefits of Mounted Combatant are the first bullet which can give you advantage, and the benefit of your mount's mobility. And as Xalthu has pointed out, sometimes your mount has less mobility than a character. So IMO it's more about wanting to roleplay someone who fights while mounted and getting a token benefit for the cost of a feat.
The other two bullets are simply mitigating the chance that your mount dies, and if you weren't mounted you wouldn't need them. Personally I would be okay with those two bullets being a base rule for a mount with no feat required, but you'd need a bit more wording to prevent abuse.
The gray area about treating another player as a mount is the real window for abuse with Mounted Combatant. Not a lot of abilities provide the hard control of just being able to impose “you cannot attack that creature”, no reaction even required. Putting a small knight in a wizards backpack, or having a Cavalier ride an Ancestral Guardian, can start to do weird things...
... But hell, let ‘em. There’s plenty of ways the DM can challenge that kind of stupid player trick.
With your mount unable to be targeted by attacks without your consent, and benefiting from Evasion, even a store bought Warhorse can be pretty durable. Also, the original post specified they’re using Find Steed, so mount mortality is even less of a concern than it might ordinarily be.
I get your point, but with 19 hp, one failed save (two max if the dice are favoring you), and poof, dead horse.
And as I’d said, using find steed, to my mind, argues against taking the feat. You’ll get new spell slots tomorrow if it dies, but you only get a few feats. Now, if the campaign is largely outside, and outside in places you can use the horse a lot, great. But the more time you spend indoors, the less use you get from the feat.
And I’d agree with scatterbrained about the second bullet points. I think there used to be a way to make an animal handling check to avoid attacks against the mount, something like that could maybe work. Something like replace the mount’s ac with your check result. I could be remembering wrong, though.
The gray area about treating another player as a mount is the real window for abuse with Mounted Combatant. Not a lot of abilities provide the hard control of just being able to impose “you cannot attack that creature”, no reaction even required. Putting a small knight in a wizards backpack, or having a Cavalier ride an Ancestral Guardian, can start to do weird things...
... But he’ll, let ‘em. There’s plenty of ways the DM can challenge that kind of stupid player trick.
From the makers of gnome wizard riding a barbarian: halfling fighter riding a wizard.
With it's mounted combatant feat, protect the squishy wizard from damage from almost any source. NO REACTION NEEDED. Melee attacks? Blocked. DEX save? Evaded. Projectiles? Not today.
Halfling fighter riding a wizard by Munchkin Co. Get yours and start making you DM cry today.
The gray area about treating another player as a mount is the real window for abuse with Mounted Combatant. Not a lot of abilities provide the hard control of just being able to impose “you cannot attack that creature”, no reaction even required. Putting a small knight in a wizards backpack, or having a Cavalier ride an Ancestral Guardian, can start to do weird things...
... But he’ll, let ‘em. There’s plenty of ways the DM can challenge that kind of stupid player trick.
From the makers of gnome wizard riding a barbarian: halfling fighter riding a wizard.
With it's mounted combatant feat, protect the squishy wizard from damage from almost any source. NO REACTION NEEDED. Melee attacks? Blocked. DEX save? Evaded. Projectiles? Not today.
Halfling fighter riding a wizard by Munchkin Co. Get yours and start making you DM cry today.
The gray area about treating another player as a mount is the real window for abuse with Mounted Combatant. Not a lot of abilities provide the hard control of just being able to impose “you cannot attack that creature”, no reaction even required. Putting a small knight in a wizards backpack, or having a Cavalier ride an Ancestral Guardian, can start to do weird things...
... But he’ll, let ‘em. There’s plenty of ways the DM can challenge that kind of stupid player trick.
From the makers of gnome wizard riding a barbarian: halfling fighter riding a wizard.
With it's mounted combatant feat, protect the squishy wizard from damage from almost any source. NO REACTION NEEDED. Melee attacks? Blocked. DEX save? Evaded. Projectiles? Not today.
Halfling fighter riding a wizard by Munchkin Co. Get yours and start making you DM cry today.
*wizard sold separately.
Halfling Fighter? Nah. Make it a Halfling Bear Barbarian. Resistance to almost all damage, so you can take even more hits.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
It's also excellent if you plan on crit fishing, or want to be a melee sneak attack build that isn't tied to a party member's hip. Advantage on all your attacks against Medium or smaller opponents (or even Large or smaller, if you can find a Huge mount) is pretty huge. Having advantage on attacks can also really be used to shore up a complicated build that lags 1 or 2 behind what it's to-hit modifier should be, so if you wanted to do something like be a 15 strength paladin or something like that, Mounted Combatant will help.
Just keep in mind, if you're riding a Large Warhorse or something, you may well end up in fights where your DM doesn't let you bring the horse. Small PCs riding a Mastiff are far less likely to be caught two-footed, but also won't be fighting as many enemies smaller than their mounts.
I would also point out that in most situations starting at level 5, the warhorse is probably going to die rather quickly in many encounters.
So uh, does the redirection apply MY AC to the attack, making it potentially miss, or does it essentially give me a lower AC to get hit?
The 2014 version lets you change the target of the attack to yourself. The attack roll is made against your AC.
The 2024 version lets you take damage instead of the mount when the mount gets hit. If your mount has low AC, they're still going to get hit a lot. Some ways to work around that are ordering it to Dodge, using the Interception or Protection fighting styles, the Sap weapon mastery property, and Barkskin (which now gives 1 more AC and no longer requires concentration.)
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l have l character idea, and one of the things l had for them was useing a mount* and l was wondering if takeing the mounted combatant feat would be worth it**.
*from the "find steed" spell, but the question also aplys to a normal animal, or Battle Smith Artificers Steel Defender)
**by "it" l mean tradeing a ASI or another feat (or would the spell only be usefull lf l used a real animal)
Mounted combatant works great with find steed or steel defender or beast companion, it definitely is not limited to only natural mounts.
It is definitely worth the ASI if you plan to be mounted in combat most of the time, especially if your mount is large.
The feat gives quite a bit of power for offense and defensive capabilities. It can be very effective. How effective it will be depends a bit on your game setting and the environments you’re likely to fight in. Large or bigger mounts will be subjected to squeezing rules when going through confined spaces or barred entirely from being able to follow you into combat in certain areas. Feats are cool, but your DM may take the adventure to these confined areas which basically takes your entire feat away.
•You have advantage on melee attack rolls against any unmounted creature that is smaller than your mount.
•You can force an attack targeted at your mount to target you instead.
•If your mount is subjected to an effect that allows it to make a Dexterity saving throw to take only half damage, it instead takes no damage if it succeeds on the saving throw, and only half damage if it fails.
first bullet can drastically increase your offensive capabilities depending on creature sizes.
Second bullet gives you control on every single attack roll targeting your mount. No action required. No attack range limitation. No size limitations. You can freely change the target to yourself. This can keep your mount alive for much longer during basic combat on the ground. Potentially lifesaving when making use of a flying mount, since a dead mount no longer keeps you in the air.
third bullet further increases your mounts survivability by basically giving it evasion. This can be incredibly effective as your enemies may attempt to kill your mount using different methods once you display that all of their attacks can be intercepted by you. This has synergy with the paladin as your aura will bolster your mounts saves.
It's also excellent if you plan on crit fishing, or want to be a melee sneak attack build that isn't tied to a party member's hip. Advantage on all your attacks against Medium or smaller opponents (or even Large or smaller, if you can find a Huge mount) is pretty huge. Having advantage on attacks can also really be used to shore up a complicated build that lags 1 or 2 behind what it's to-hit modifier should be, so if you wanted to do something like be a 15 strength paladin or something like that, Mounted Combatant will help.
Just keep in mind, if you're riding a Large Warhorse or something, you may well end up in fights where your DM doesn't let you bring the horse. Small PCs riding a Mastiff are far less likely to be caught two-footed, but also won't be fighting as many enemies smaller than their mounts.
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
That’s a very interesting point with the rogue. I have been toying with the idea of a mounted rogue with tashas coming out. The Steady Aim feature restricts the rogues movement, but not the movement of a mount. The idea of a mounted rogue making use of the Steady Aim feature really reminded me of a skirmishing ranged fighter on horseback, like maybe the Mongolian hoard. The mounted combatant feat could cover more bases. I would imagine a rogue would easily be able to afford mounts if making use of their skills.
Not just to be a contrarian, but I’m not much of a fan. It’s great when you’re mounted, yes. But (and this can be campaign dependent) are you really mounted very often? Pretty much anytime you’re inside or on a dungeon crawl, you leave the horse behind. Ever need to climb a ladder or a rope, the horse is left behind. Fights in open plains, or outside, mounts are great, otherwise mostly useless. (And I say that as someone who plays a pally with a mount. But my character is a halfling, so the mount is medium and can operate inside. And I have misty step to get past those ropes and ladders, and I still didn’t take it.)
And even when mounts are useful, they’re fragile. Low hp, low ac, they can maybe take a hit or two, but get caught in an aoe (even with the evasion they get from the feat, they have to make the save and they have crappy saves) or an aura, they’re dead.
So, when you only get 3-4 feats in a whole campaign, spending one on something very situational is not a good choice (imo), compared to something like an asi bump that you’ll use in most every encounter, or other feats that can come up in every fight. This goes double for a pally — if the mount dies, you get more spell slots the next day — but you only get those 3-4 feats ever.
With your mount unable to be targeted by attacks without your consent, and benefiting from Evasion, even a store bought Warhorse can be pretty durable. Also, the original post specified they’re using Find Steed, so mount mortality is even less of a concern than it might ordinarily be.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I question allowing Steady Aim to work while riding a mount (if it's moving) The point of Steady Aim to complete stillness to allow the rogue the ability to focus on its aim and bouncing around on a mount seems counter to the Feature intention. While there is nothing in the rule to say otherwise so obviously, do what you want or what the DM allows but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Yea I suppose it’s always worth mentioning that people may not want mechanics and game features to work together.
Your actual benefits of Mounted Combatant are the first bullet which can give you advantage, and the benefit of your mount's mobility. And as Xalthu has pointed out, sometimes your mount has less mobility than a character. So IMO it's more about wanting to roleplay someone who fights while mounted and getting a token benefit for the cost of a feat.
The other two bullets are simply mitigating the chance that your mount dies, and if you weren't mounted you wouldn't need them. Personally I would be okay with those two bullets being a base rule for a mount with no feat required, but you'd need a bit more wording to prevent abuse.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
The gray area about treating another player as a mount is the real window for abuse with Mounted Combatant. Not a lot of abilities provide the hard control of just being able to impose “you cannot attack that creature”, no reaction even required. Putting a small knight in a wizards backpack, or having a Cavalier ride an Ancestral Guardian, can start to do weird things...
... But hell, let ‘em. There’s plenty of ways the DM can challenge that kind of stupid player trick.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
I get your point, but with 19 hp, one failed save (two max if the dice are favoring you), and poof, dead horse.
And as I’d said, using find steed, to my mind, argues against taking the feat. You’ll get new spell slots tomorrow if it dies, but you only get a few feats. Now, if the campaign is largely outside, and outside in places you can use the horse a lot, great. But the more time you spend indoors, the less use you get from the feat.
And I’d agree with scatterbrained about the second bullet points. I think there used to be a way to make an animal handling check to avoid attacks against the mount, something like that could maybe work. Something like replace the mount’s ac with your check result. I could be remembering wrong, though.
From the makers of gnome wizard riding a barbarian: halfling fighter riding a wizard.
With it's mounted combatant feat, protect the squishy wizard from damage from almost any source. NO REACTION NEEDED. Melee attacks? Blocked. DEX save? Evaded. Projectiles? Not today.
Halfling fighter riding a wizard by Munchkin Co. Get yours and start making you DM cry today.
*wizard sold separately.
SOLD! (LMAO)
Halfling Fighter? Nah. Make it a Halfling Bear Barbarian. Resistance to almost all damage, so you can take even more hits.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
I was going for high AC (plate, shield, defensive fighting), plus fighter gets extra ASIs.
Plus a barbarian needs to be dealing/taking damage in order to stay raging. Kind of hard to do when you can't move on your turn.
So uh, does the redirection apply MY AC to the attack, making it potentially miss, or does it essentially give me a lower AC to get hit?
I would also point out that in most situations starting at level 5, the warhorse is probably going to die rather quickly in many encounters.
The 2014 version lets you change the target of the attack to yourself. The attack roll is made against your AC.
The 2024 version lets you take damage instead of the mount when the mount gets hit. If your mount has low AC, they're still going to get hit a lot. Some ways to work around that are ordering it to Dodge, using the Interception or Protection fighting styles, the Sap weapon mastery property, and Barkskin (which now gives 1 more AC and no longer requires concentration.)
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