Monster Rider

[Judging__Eagle]

Monster Rider


Fuuwwuuuuuuuuuuuuhnhn!

See? Even Mishra knows that we can trample the Slaadi hordes today; isn't that right my pretty girl?

Fwweeehnuuhn!

That's a good girl. Now then you goblin cowards! Ready her armour and put those Tusk-Blades!

For Tonight, we dine on Frog!

-Kurzen Fiendson, Orcish Monster Rider

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Sargant Snips! Let's kill those pink-skinned interlopers!

Chiiitiiitiitiiitir! (D:<)

[Scuttles-Claws-Grapples-Crushes]

Good work, you truly are an great Giant Crab, let me scratch your eye-stalks.

Chiii...iiii...iiii! (^_^)

-Mhhmk'hal Barnaclebreaker, Sahaugin Monster Rider

Some warriors fight with axes, some use bows, others fight with cunning or astride a trusty steed.

A monster rider fights with their chosen fighting companion.

Prerequisites:
Base Attack Bonus: +2
Skills:Ride 8 Ranks
Feats:Mounted Combat, or Command or Leadership or [Any Necromantic Creation feat]

Hit Die: d12
Class Skills: The Monster Rider's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are

Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Heal (Wis), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (Nature; The Planes, Religion, Arcana) (Int), Listen (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), Tumble (Dex), and Use Rope (Dex).


Skills/Level: 6 + Intelligence Bonus
BAB: Good (1/1) Saves: Fort: Good, Reflex: Poor; Will: Good

Level, Abilities:

1 Trusted Mount, Monster Rider Ability, Carrot and Stick, Mounted Attacks, Befriend Creatures, Monsterous Empathy
2 Monster Rider Dice +2d6 , Speak with Monsters
3 Monster Rider Ability, Scarred hide
4 Monster Rider Dice +4d6, Genius Monster
5 Monster Rider Ability, Monster of Legend

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The Monster Rider gains proficiency with the whip, composite shortbow, shortbow, lance, trident and all simple and martial polearms, simple thrown weapons and appropriate simple and martial weapons that have reach.

Trusted Mount: As a full round action a Monster Rider may declare one helpful creature their Mount. This creature can gain any benefits that the Monster Rider class grants to their Mount.

All of a Monster Rider's abilities that affect a mount last indefinately if the creature is the Monster Rider's cohort, or fade after one day if the creature is not the Monster Rider's chosen cohort, and such a creature's base CR cannot be increased; although they may be modified to gain new abilities.

A Monster rider may only have one creature affected with the Trusted Mount ability.

Carrot and Stick: There is no limit to how many tricks a Monster Rider can teach a creature, and their Handle Animal checks are not penalized for attempting to get a creature to perform a trick it does not know. In addition, a Monster Rider may teach tricks to any creature, even those without intelligence scores.

Monster Rider Dice: Whenever a Monster Rider and their mount are sharing the same space, all BaB-derived attacks that either makes gain 1d6 more damage; this damage increases by 1d6 ever odd level.

Befriend Creatures: A Monster Rider may make any creature up to Helpful with an animal empathy check by tending to any wounds that it may have suffered or offering it food. This check may be attempted once per day. Restraining a creature does not affect the Monster Rider's Animal Empathy check in any way, shape or form, and the Monster Rider may make as many attempts as they want with a creature, provided that they can heal the creature of wounds or offer it food.

Mounted Attacks: A monster Rider counts any square of their mount as their own for purposes of reach for their weapon attacks (normally a rider would require a reach weapon to attack from the back of a creature much larger than itself).

Monster Rider Ability: Choose an ability from the Monster Rider abilities list.

Speak with Monsters: Monster Riders can communicate with creatures as if they had a shared language. Creatures always seems to be able to catch the thrust of anything they say.

Monsterous Empathy (Ex): As the Animal Empathy class ability of Druids and Rangers; class levels of the Monster Rider add to this check. This ability can be used on any creature that is non-humanoid in appearance, not just Animals or Magical Beasts.

Scarred Hide: Your mount gains a bonus to its natural armour equal to 1/2 your character levels +2 and damage reduction equal to 1/2 your character levels +2 which is penetrated by nothing (a.k.a. DR X/-).

Genius Monster: Your mount is affected as if an appropriate Maximized Awaken spell has been cast upon it. Creatures that are already intelligent, but were never affected by an Awaken effect in their current state gain the benefits of this effect as well. Use either the most effective or most appropriate Awaken Spell for the target; Awaken Undead for Undead mounts (with no maximum on intelligence) and Awaken Construct for Construct mouts; all other creatures should be affected as if Awaken (animals) had been cast on them.

Monster of Legend: Your mount may choose to gain one of the following abilities, this ability cannot increase a Creature's CR about what it already is, and hit dice or the like may be removed in order to apply any of the following:

Hero of Monsters: Your mount may choose to remove its Racial Hit Dice and then increase its CR back to an appropriate value with class levels of an appropriate class.

Planar Monster: Your mount may gain any inherited templates, they affect it's CR normally, they do not affect anything else.

Uneal Monster//Real Monster: Your mount may change it's type from one to an other that it could theoretically be (Examples: Magical beast/animal/Vermin to -> Construct, Outsider, Undead. Dragon; Undead/Construct -> Magical Beast, Animal, Vermin), Recalculate CR and HD for this new type.

[Any other Suggestions for how to dramatically change your mount?]


Monster Rider Abilities List:

Greater ride(Ex): If you perform no other actions in your round may use a ride check in place of your mount's AC any time that they are attacked, and may use a Ride check in place of any Reflex saves that they would have to make. This ability places you outside the affected zone, and any movement made as a result of this effect is deducted from their movement in their next turn. If caught by an effect whose radius is larger than your mount could move in one round, then it simply is affected as if it had made the reflex save normally.

Guided mount strikes (Ex): Any special class abilities that affect your attacks can be applied to any attacks that your mount makes with the same restrictions that your own class ability or abilities would have. Your character cannot make use of these class abilities in the same round that your mount makes use of them, nor can your mount use them if you have already used them.

Monsterous Rage: Your Mount can enter a Rage as the Races of War Barbarian can (upon being struck by an attack or upon hitting with a melee attack). Your mount gains Rage Dice, Damage Reduction and Extra Movement as if they were a Barbarian whose level equals to the Mount's Hit Dice. If your mount chooses to Rage, your mount will attack targets in the following order of priority:
-Any targets that it has observed attacking you
-Any targets that have attacked it and have dealt it the most damage in this encounter
-Any targets that have attacked it and damaged it
-Any targets that have attacked it
-The nearest target

This cannot be ended by your mount at-will, and can only be ended by a full round action on your part or if it falls unconsious.

The Monster Rider may choose to direct where their mount moves and who they attack instead of allowing their mount to rage wildly, this is a standard action.

Hulking Mount: Your Mount permanently increases by one size category, with all the appropriate changes. This ability may be taken more than once. It's effects stack.

Follow Rider Anywhere: With a ritual taking one full day and supplies worth 100 gp per HD of your mount, your mount is able to decrease it's size by one category at will. In this smaller size it has the normal modifiers applied [Usually: -4 strength, +2 dex, +4 to hide, -4 on grapple checks, +1 to Hit and AC, -5' to Reach, reduced size of damage dice for natural attacks].

This ritual can be performed more than once, the modifiers will stack. Mounts that have had their size reduced more than once may reduce their size as much or as little they want. If your Mount chooses to increase or decrease their size by one category at a time, this change takes a swift action each time. A Mount that wishes to change their size by more than one size category takes a standard action to do so.

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[Judging__Eagle]

Ok, I've updated this now.

[Judging__Eagle]

That bad?

Any suggestions?

[Maxus]

It looks pretty fun.

Is the monster your cohort, though?

[Judging__Eagle]

If you want it to be your CR -2, yes.

If not, it's whatever the base listed creature that you encountered.

I should specify that in Monster of Legend.

The other abilities don't actually increase the base CR of a mount, so you could very well have a horse the whole time.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Could a Monster Rider declare a Swarm with a hive mind to be their mount? I'm envisioning a mummy that is carried through the air by thousands of scarab beetles.

[Judging__Eagle]

If it's able to carry the rider I don't see why not.

If they just share squares, then there would be some lost abilities, such as Mounted Attacks, which only works when the Monster Rider is riding their mount.

It wouldn't be that hard to just make a variant and call it the Swarm Striker though. Some sort of abilities that have the swarm provide the Swarm Striker concealment or the like might make more sense than some of the Monster Rider abiltities.

[CatharzGodfoot]

I like the flavor. The crab-rider is fucking awesome.

I think, however, that it might be worth allowing more creature type specialization. One tree for guys riding undead swarms, another for standing on the shoulders of giants, and so forth.

And I still don't see how a horse is viable. It doesn't have enough HD to make into a badass sorcerer, and stacking a fuckton of templates is just going to make it a glass cannon.

Mounted Attacks: A monster Rider may attack any creatures that are adjacent to their mount while riding them, without having to move from where they are on their mount's occupied area.

I'm pretty sure that this is how it works already.

[Maxus]

You could make it a 10-level class to give more room for specialization.

[Judging__Eagle]

I like the flavor. The crab-rider is fucking awesome.

I think, however, that it might be worth allowing more creature type specialization. One tree for guys riding undead swarms, another for standing on the shoulders of giants, and so forth.

And I still don't see how a horse is viable. It doesn't have enough HD to make into a badass sorcerer, and stacking a fuckton of templates is just going to make it a glass cannon.

Mounted Attacks: A monster Rider may attack any creatures that are adjacent to their mount while riding them, without having to move from where they are on their mount's occupied area.

I'm pretty sure that this is how it works already.

Not if you're on a creature that is more than one size category larger than yourself, or if you don't have a reach weapon.

So, if you're riding a Bulette, you need a polearm if you're a medium sized creature.

In any case, this clears that up.

As for the horse, you can just keep throwing more and more HD at it. You can add 3 HD per CR increase.

Wait.... you can't advance HD on a horse. Since there's no listed advancement.

That needs to be changed.

[Judging__Eagle]

Changed Mounted Attacks, "you count any square of your mount as your own for purposes of reach for your weapon attacks" makes more sense.

Also... the class only gives 2 Monster Rider abilities.

That's sort of bugged me, but fixing it would mean dumping Monster Rider Dice or switching the 3 times that Monster Rider dice shows up with the Monster Rider ability class features.

[shau]

Changed Mounted Attacks, "you count any square of your mount as your own for purposes of reach for your weapon attacks" makes more sense.

I am pretty sure the default rule is that you supposed to be present in all spaces of the creature you are riding.

Honestly, the most effective thing for most mounted combatants is to have the reach penalty there. You are most likely wielding a lance and want both you and your mount to attack simultaneously if you can't charge.

[SunTzuWarmaster]

Monster of Legend ability suggestions:

Bah...

I can't think of anything better than levels of True Fiend, for the flavor of your Demon Bullette and the ability to shoot fireballs (or make Poison touch attacks with natural weapons).

I like the 'Pokemaster' flavor of Monster in Your pocket.

[Judging__Eagle]

The monster in your pocket is indeed pokemaster-like. However it also allows for things like someone to have a greatly advanced Bullette be usable inside of a human-scaled or even goblin-scaled structure.

[JonSetanta]

OK. This is plain awesome.

Only breakage I predict: the unexpected combination of X race with Y monster and this class. That's a wide one, sorry I can't be more specific.

Stocking up on mount-related feats would be an obvious choice but a summoner type of theme would be cool too and much more portable.

[Judging__Eagle]

Great Sigma.... that's just like.... almost any class, race?

Making a Warforged Barbarian that rides a Clockwork horror would be interesting.

[JonSetanta]

Yeah so I guess it's not much one can predict unless you know, say, all recombinant splats and core material. Good luck.

Warforged Artificer might be superior.

[ZER0]

Was this inspired by the Ooze-riding Summoner you wrote up?

[Judging__Eagle]

No, that was a Master of Snake Mountain that had his pet monster be a maxed HD Summoning Ooze, that could summon something like maintain.... 20 elementals summoned at all times.

This is for a mammoth rider to go around crushing fools with.

A Samurai that rode a War Elephant against dragons is also part of the inspiration, but it was more subconsious inspiration. Yes, the Samurai class can use its class abilities through its mount. I tend to make most PrCs open-ended that way.

The "Giant Mammoth" Magic: The Gathering card also helped with this class, specifically the name of the quoted mammoth.