Divine Weapon or Mount?

[Harley Cracker]

I was making a two-handed Warrior of the Holy Light build with Seelah as a tank, but I'm not sure if my main character should get the weapon bond or horse at level 5. Seelah would obviously get the mount for tanking, but would it be better to get my paladin the horse too or just go for the weapon upgrades? I am using the talking sword right now and she has Radiance.

[Triple G]

If it´s about what is stronger the weapon bond can´t stand a chance against the horse. If it´s about visual bugs, and convenience with casting single target buffs - it´s the weapon bond.

If there was something like QoL in the game, and not these animation bugs - they could delete the weapon bond from the game - it´s like that in comparison. And perhaps You find it odd to ride through a tavern, or cave - on a horse.

The horse gives You extra attacks, carry weight, no worries about it dying, or having ability or level drain, extra AC, and seelah can´t get attacked before the horse goes down. All 24/7, while the weapon bond has like 5 uses in endgame and adds like 4d6 damage in that time. These are the choices in game: Do You want the OP stuff - or do You rather want the mediocre stuff, which isn´t worth it and hurts Your build in comparison to the other option? The important thing is probably that You have many options, as this is the selling point of the game. Also it´s a roleplay game, which means one role is much stronger than the other...

I for myself don´t like mounts or pets very much as they mean i need to click more buttons for buffing them all. That´s the only counter point to pets. From a stat perspective...

[Yannir]

If we're min-maxing, the mount almost always better. Also, you might want to consider multiclassing into Cavalier Gendarme on level 12. You'd end up with WotHL 11/Gendarme 9. Have you picked weapon yet? Longspear is pretty good for charging builds.

[Swordman_Red]

Also, it's really visually annoying when it's only one character who is mounted and the rest of the party is not. It's like: "do you mind, mate? we are all on foot and you are the only one too good to get your boots dirty."

[Azure]

I really dislike horses now so unless some levels in Beast Rider is going then i'd take the Weapon bond

[pete3great]

People swear by weapon bond, but for me, horsey all the way. I usually only run two animal companions in my group to reduce competition for equipment, and to reduce the competition further, I tend to stick with dex based leopard bully and strength based horse bulwark.

[Drake]

2 Enlarged horses with enlarged riders, both with reach weapons is a very devastating frontline.

[Harley Cracker]

Originally posted by Triple G:

If it´s about what is stronger the weapon bond can´t stand a chance against the horse. If it´s about visual bugs, and convenience with casting single target buffs - it´s the weapon bond.

If there was something like QoL in the game, and not these animation bugs - they could delete the weapon bond from the game - it´s like that in comparison. And perhaps You find it odd to ride through a tavern, or cave - on a horse.

The horse gives You extra attacks, carry weight, no worries about it dying, or having ability or level drain, extra AC, and seelah can´t get attacked before the horse goes down. All 24/7, while the weapon bond has like 5 uses in endgame and adds like 4d6 damage in that time. These are the choices in game: Do You want the OP stuff - or do You rather want the mediocre stuff, which isn´t worth it and hurts Your build in comparison to the other option? The important thing is probably that You have many options, as this is the selling point of the game. Also it´s a roleplay game, which means one role is much stronger than the other...

I for myself don´t like mounts or pets very much as they mean i need to click more buttons for buffing them all. That´s the only counter point to pets. From a stat perspective...

I was thinking of mounts because it just seemed better since I can use it the whole time as opposed to the weapon bond. I just didn't know if I should get one with Seelah getting one too as I was trying to gear my paladin more towards damage than tank like she is geared towards.

Originally posted by Yannir:

If we're min-maxing, the mount almost always better. Also, you might want to consider multiclassing into Cavalier Gendarme on level 12. You'd end up with WotHL 11/Gendarme 9. Have you picked weapon yet? Longspear is pretty good for charging builds.

I'm more roleplaying for fun than min-maxing, but I am still looking for the stronger option as both could be used for roleplaying reasons. I haven't thought about multi-classes as I don't have much experience with that. I did want my character to use a two-handed sword, although I didn't know that I could get a mount with my character. Which kind of horse would you use for that build?

Originally posted by Drake:

2 Enlarged horses with enlarged riders, both with reach weapons is a very devastating frontline.

By reach weapons you mean pole-arm weapons, like spears and the like?

[Drake]

Yeah reach weapons are polearms and spears (the two handed ones).

There is only one kind of horse in the game, the black horse is just a skin.
That said, the paladin's horse is a celestial mount, not a normal one, so it gets additional resistances with levels.

[Yannir]

Originally posted by Drake:

Yeah reach weapons are polearms and spears (the two handed ones).

There is only one kind of horse in the game, the black horse is just a skin.
That said, the paladin's horse is a celestial mount, not a normal one, so it gets additional resistances with levels.

He probably meant pet class.
Also, out of the spear variants only Longspear is a reach-weapon by default. The regular Spear is two-handed but not reach by default.
In addition, any weapon can be made into a reach-weapon by picking a feat called Lunge.

Originally posted by Harley Cracker:

I'm more roleplaying for fun than min-maxing, but I am still looking for the stronger option as both could be used for roleplaying reasons. I haven't thought about multi-classes as I don't have much experience with that. I did want my character to use a two-handed sword, although I didn't know that I could get a mount with my character. Which kind of horse would you use for that build?

You can use any kind of weapon combination when mounted. You're just effectively limited by feats since you also want mounted feats, in addition to weapon feats, when using a mount.

I'm assuming you meant the horses class. Any color variations are just cosmetic. I use Bulwark but everyone seems to have their own opinion about this. Racer and Bully are other popular choices.

[Harley Cracker]

Originally posted by Yannir:

Originally posted by Drake:

Yeah reach weapons are polearms and spears (the two handed ones).

There is only one kind of horse in the game, the black horse is just a skin.
That said, the paladin's horse is a celestial mount, not a normal one, so it gets additional resistances with levels.

He probably meant pet class.
Also, out of the spear variants only Longspear is a reach-weapon by default. The regular Spear is two-handed but not reach by default.
In addition, any weapon can be made into a reach-weapon by picking a feat called Lunge.

Originally posted by Harley Cracker:

I'm more roleplaying for fun than min-maxing, but I am still looking for the stronger option as both could be used for roleplaying reasons. I haven't thought about multi-classes as I don't have much experience with that. I did want my character to use a two-handed sword, although I didn't know that I could get a mount with my character. Which kind of horse would you use for that build?

You can use any kind of weapon combination when mounted. You're just effectively limited by feats since you also want mounted feats, in addition to weapon feats, when using a mount.

I'm assuming you meant the horses class. Any color variations are just cosmetic. I use Bulwark but everyone seems to have their own opinion about this. Racer and Bully are other popular choices.

I was indeed talking about classes. Seelah was of course going to be a Bolwark, but I wasn't sure what my character should have. I was thinking of bully, but aggressor looked nice too for my paladin. Good to know that lunge could make my two handed sword a reach weapon for bonuses.

[Triple G]

Daredevil can´t be flanked. It was actually the one i tried. (only tested one horse, and that convinced me, while bulwark loses the uncanny dodge, or reflex thingy. What didn´t convince me were the occasional visual bugs with seelah, that´s why i didn´t try more horses)

[Yannir]

Originally posted by Harley Cracker:

Originally posted by Yannir:

He probably meant pet class.
Also, out of the spear variants only Longspear is a reach-weapon by default. The regular Spear is two-handed but not reach by default.
In addition, any weapon can be made into a reach-weapon by picking a feat called Lunge.


You can use any kind of weapon combination when mounted. You're just effectively limited by feats since you also want mounted feats, in addition to weapon feats, when using a mount.

I'm assuming you meant the horses class. Any color variations are just cosmetic. I use Bulwark but everyone seems to have their own opinion about this. Racer and Bully are other popular choices.

I was indeed talking about classes. Seelah was of course going to be a Bolwark, but I wasn't sure what my character should have. I was thinking of bully, but aggressor looked nice too for my paladin. Good to know that lunge could make my two handed sword a reach weapon for bonuses.

Well, IMO the point of the mount is to get the character on top of it to perform the best they can. Pets make good tanks and trippers but they don't make good damagers. Their natural weapons don't get good enough damage scaling or crit values to cut it.

Which is why I always build the mount for survival regardless of what the character on it is doing. My Gendarme was doing 400+ damage, with Mythical Charge and Fabled Hero's Lance, on charges without even critting. With a critical hitting charge he could get 1k+ damage. The horses job was to get him there without being downed themself. Whatever damage they could do, great, but the moneymaker was pulling off those charges even midfight. So I made him a Bulwark.

Bully is usually better on pets that have an automatic trip attack on Bite or Gore, which the horse doesn't have. If your pet doesn't have a primary attack that does a trip action along with their damage, you have to use the Trip action from your hotbar which means you can't then also do damage the same turn. So you always have to choose between damage and tripping.

[Harley Cracker]

Originally posted by Yannir:

Originally posted by Harley Cracker:

I was indeed talking about classes. Seelah was of course going to be a Bolwark, but I wasn't sure what my character should have. I was thinking of bully, but aggressor looked nice too for my paladin. Good to know that lunge could make my two handed sword a reach weapon for bonuses.

Well, IMO the point of the mount is to get the character on top of it to perform the best they can. Pets make good tanks and trippers but they don't make good damagers. Their natural weapons don't get good enough damage scaling or crit values to cut it.

Which is why I always build the mount for survival regardless of what the character on it is doing. My Gendarme was doing 400+ damage, with Mythical Charge and Fabled Hero's Lance, on charges without even critting. With a critical hitting charge he could get 1k+ damage. The horses job was to get him there without being downed themself. Whatever damage they could do, great, but the moneymaker was pulling off those charges even midfight. So I made him a Bulwark.

Bully is usually better on pets that have an automatic trip attack on Bite or Gore, which the horse doesn't have. If your pet doesn't have a primary attack that does a trip action along with their damage, you have to use the Trip action from your hotbar which means you can't then also do damage the same turn. So you always have to choose between damage and tripping.

Thanks for the advice. Sounds like the horse is better regardless of the class for it. I will probably make two bulwarks.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by Swordman_Red:

Also, it's really visually annoying when it's only one character who is mounted and the rest of the party is not. It's like: "do you mind, mate? we are all on foot and you are the only one too good to get your boots dirty."

you don't have to ride the horse if that part annoys you. With no rider they get 3 - 4 attacks per round pretty early on and a high speed, making excellent archer/wizard snipers. Ive been tapping mine (well, seelah's) with that mythic power that adds damage to every attack for one target (it also is a ranged attack but its better to buff most of the time) and/or the warpriest 'good' (+ d6 to every attack for a long time) one. This stuff probably doesn't matter after act 3 but its pretty amazing for your early game efforts.