Hi, I will be rolling my first character soon, and a friend of mine asked if he wanted to kind of duo a character or rp it together. The idea is that he will play a druid focused on wildshape (so moon druid I believe) and I would build my character to excel at mounted combat, with him as the mount. Just trying to get some build ideas, the obvious choice is cavalier, human, and pickup sentinel or mounted combat right off the bat. Mechanically I don't think the cavalier would be super fun to play, so Im trying to see other classes that might also fit mounted combat. Paladin makes a bit of sense, since if theres a reason I cant ride my druid buddy, I could summon my own steed later in the game. Ranger seems to kinda fit roleplay wise, as a friend of the druid circle or something. Any ideas or fun recommendations are appreciated. We will be a total party of 5, and the only other player I know has settled on their character will be playing a blood hunter if thats any use.
Honestly I would go with a fighter of some sort because then you'll have room for all the fun feats like sentinel and mounted combat. If you go Paladin, you'll feel starved for the feats you want vs the ability scores. Since you don't like cavalier, I'd suggest looking at battle master. Also, make sure you read up on mounted combat rules.
Since your mount must be at least a size larger than you, you might want to consider an halfling or gnome or other small character, just so you have more options for when you might ride your friend. There's not a lot of large beasts at the low levels.
And you should check with your DM that its OK. For example, if you take mounted combatant, you are basically giving the druid evasion for free, which is a bit weird. And the mounted combat rules have rules for how the mount and rider act in initiative order, which will be strange to use when you are both PCs. Make sure to work these sorts of things out beforehand, so your DM doesn't have to make on-the-fly rulings about this kind of edge case. If everyone knows before the fight starts who can do what and when, it will be much easier all around.
Finally, you might want to consider an archer (either a fighter or ranger). If you are on the druid, and you go before them in initiative, but you aren't next to any enemies, all you can do is ready an action, so you can attack once when the druid's turn comes and you get up next to the enemy. Won't be too bad at low levels, but once you hit level 5 and have that second attack but can't make it, it's going to really nerf you. Of course, then you'll have problems when you close for melee, so maybe crossbow expert to let you just keep shooting at them even up close.
Not sure if I agree this is a great idea for a first character, but if you're up for it then by all means. As for suggestions, the big one would be to pick a small race. With a moon druid there are certainly a good number of at least large beasts to pick from even early on, but adding medium ones to the list will open up a ton of fun and effective options. Class-wise I wouldn't focus too much on the mounted combat aspect necessarily: lots of classes can do whatever they do while mounted, so I'd look at what I'd want to play first and foremost and adjust a few details here and there to fit in the rider-and-mount concept.
I'll certainly advise running this by the DM though: the number of wildshape uses and their duration is limited so the moon druid character can't stay wildshaped indefinitely, which means they'll likely have to transform at the start of combat - if yourDM feels that riding bareback will come with penalties (especially when going with a flying or climbing mount) that might make things difficult. Just check and make sure everyone's on the same page about how this will go in practice.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Thanks for all the advice so far. Wasnt really considering the size issue, so halfling fighter may be the way to go. We have both run the idea by the Dm and he said he was cool with it. But yeah there more ive looked into it. Cavalier seems to be the best option for this, since it eliminates a fair amount of the disadvantages. Wasn't tracking the evasion part of mounted combat though. I would think it wouldnt be too bad to ignore that part of the feat. I mean I could be wrong but I would think having a druid as your mount would make a pretty tanky combo if a fighter/ paladin was on top.
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Hi, I will be rolling my first character soon, and a friend of mine asked if he wanted to kind of duo a character or rp it together. The idea is that he will play a druid focused on wildshape (so moon druid I believe) and I would build my character to excel at mounted combat, with him as the mount. Just trying to get some build ideas, the obvious choice is cavalier, human, and pickup sentinel or mounted combat right off the bat. Mechanically I don't think the cavalier would be super fun to play, so Im trying to see other classes that might also fit mounted combat. Paladin makes a bit of sense, since if theres a reason I cant ride my druid buddy, I could summon my own steed later in the game. Ranger seems to kinda fit roleplay wise, as a friend of the druid circle or something. Any ideas or fun recommendations are appreciated. We will be a total party of 5, and the only other player I know has settled on their character will be playing a blood hunter if thats any use.
Honestly I would go with a fighter of some sort because then you'll have room for all the fun feats like sentinel and mounted combat. If you go Paladin, you'll feel starved for the feats you want vs the ability scores. Since you don't like cavalier, I'd suggest looking at battle master. Also, make sure you read up on mounted combat rules.
Since your mount must be at least a size larger than you, you might want to consider an halfling or gnome or other small character, just so you have more options for when you might ride your friend. There's not a lot of large beasts at the low levels.
And you should check with your DM that its OK. For example, if you take mounted combatant, you are basically giving the druid evasion for free, which is a bit weird. And the mounted combat rules have rules for how the mount and rider act in initiative order, which will be strange to use when you are both PCs. Make sure to work these sorts of things out beforehand, so your DM doesn't have to make on-the-fly rulings about this kind of edge case. If everyone knows before the fight starts who can do what and when, it will be much easier all around.
Finally, you might want to consider an archer (either a fighter or ranger). If you are on the druid, and you go before them in initiative, but you aren't next to any enemies, all you can do is ready an action, so you can attack once when the druid's turn comes and you get up next to the enemy. Won't be too bad at low levels, but once you hit level 5 and have that second attack but can't make it, it's going to really nerf you. Of course, then you'll have problems when you close for melee, so maybe crossbow expert to let you just keep shooting at them even up close.
Not sure if I agree this is a great idea for a first character, but if you're up for it then by all means. As for suggestions, the big one would be to pick a small race. With a moon druid there are certainly a good number of at least large beasts to pick from even early on, but adding medium ones to the list will open up a ton of fun and effective options. Class-wise I wouldn't focus too much on the mounted combat aspect necessarily: lots of classes can do whatever they do while mounted, so I'd look at what I'd want to play first and foremost and adjust a few details here and there to fit in the rider-and-mount concept.
I'll certainly advise running this by the DM though: the number of wildshape uses and their duration is limited so the moon druid character can't stay wildshaped indefinitely, which means they'll likely have to transform at the start of combat - if yourDM feels that riding bareback will come with penalties (especially when going with a flying or climbing mount) that might make things difficult. Just check and make sure everyone's on the same page about how this will go in practice.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Thanks for all the advice so far. Wasnt really considering the size issue, so halfling fighter may be the way to go. We have both run the idea by the Dm and he said he was cool with it. But yeah there more ive looked into it. Cavalier seems to be the best option for this, since it eliminates a fair amount of the disadvantages. Wasn't tracking the evasion part of mounted combat though. I would think it wouldnt be too bad to ignore that part of the feat. I mean I could be wrong but I would think having a druid as your mount would make a pretty tanky combo if a fighter/ paladin was on top.