Legendary Mounts (AKA 'I want a Horse +1!

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udan-adan.blogspot.com/2015/08/legendary-mounts-aka-i-want-horse-1.html

I've been reading a bunch of Central

Asian epics and whatnot recently,
and one thing that a lot of them have
in common is that the heroes have
horses which are magical or
otherwise exceptional in their
strength and speed. It makes sense:
these were people who lived on
horseback, fought on horseback, and
knew that when it came to the
crunch, their cavalry were only as
good as the horses they rode. It's Kyrgyz couple in traditional dress. And a horse.
hardly surprising that when they tried
to imagine what the legendary heroes of the past must have been like, the first thing they
thought of was: 'man, I bet those guys had really awesome horses!'

D&D has a long tradition of PCs upgrading their weapons and armour as their careers go
on, so that a character might start off with a regular sword and end up wielding a vorpal
blade or a holy avenger or whatever. Mounts, though, are usually assumed to be pretty
much interchangeable: PCs start off riding a regular horse, and end up riding... another
regular horse. Or maybe the same horse. Did anyone even keep track?

(The fact that mounts didn't scale with their riders also contributes to the lack of
attachment most PCs feel for them. When a party of level 6 PCs find themselves at ground
zero of a 5d6 fireball, they'll probably all live to tell the tale, but their 2-3HD horses are going
to be toast.)

Now, a Horse +1 sounds pretty silly; but, really, any character from a Central Asian-esque
culture should be just as happy to get a better horse as they would be to get a sharper
sword or a more accurate bow. So here are some suggestions for representing that in the
rules.

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Mount Quality: Every mount has a
Quality Level. This level is applied as
a modifier to the following traits:

Hit Dice. Higher-quality

mounts are stronger and
tougher, and thus have more
hit dice.
Armour Class. High-quality
mounts are more agile, and
better able to avoid attacks.
To-Hit and Damage: High-
quality mounts are stronger
and fiercer, and thus do extra
damage on their attacks
(including trample damage).
Saves: High-quality mounts are
tougher and more agile, and
thus pass saves more often.
Survive Unconscious: High-
quality mounts are stubborn Turkmen women on horseback.
and tenacious of life, and do
not die until reduced to a
number of negative hit points equal to twice their Quality rating. (This also helps to
reduce the chance that PCs who invest a lot in a special mount then have that
investment wiped out by a single lucky hit.)
The melee To-Hit and Damage rolls of their riders when charging: Any melee attack
made from the back of a charging horse already gets +2 damage (double damage if
using a lance, spear, or similar weapon). High-quality mounts are able to deliver even
more devastating charges, adding a further bonus to the to-hit and damage rolls of
their riders.
Riding Checks: As I've discussed elsewhere, ATWC characters are all assumed to be
such expert riders that they only need to make ability checks (usually Dexterity or
Charisma) when attempting really crazy stunts. When they do, apply the quality level
of the mount as a modifier to the roll.

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 Speed: Each level of quality adds 5% to the top speed of the mount. This is unlikely to
matter much in combat, but over a long-distance journey or chase it means that a
higher-quality mount will always outdistance a lower-quality one unless hampered by
a less skilled rider or a heavier load.

Normal mounts range in quality from -1 (broken-down nag) to 3 (exceptional quality),

although only quality -1 to 1 mounts will normally be for sale; quality 2 or 3 steeds are rare
and precious treasures, and must be won, bred, or purchased specially. All ATWC
characters are assumed to be such good judges of horseflesh that they can tell the quality
of a mount at a glance, and riding a high-quality horse is a good way to win respect - and to
attract the attention of horse-thieves, but that's an occupational hazard. Rich or high-status
characters will be expected to ride high-quality horses as a matter of course.

Quality 4 and 5 steeds exist, but they are invariably supernatural in some way - the result of
magical breeding programmes, the creations of wizards or spirits, and so on - and many of
them have additional magical abilities. To discover which talent a given magical horse has,
pick or roll 1d6 on the list below:
1. Horse can talk and understand several human languages.
2. When running at full speed, horse can cross water as easily as land. Sinks if it slows
down.
3. Horse can run all day and all night without tiring.
4. Horse has skin of iron and hooves of steel: +3 AC in addition to bonuses from quality
and barding, attacks and trampling deal 1d10 base damage instead of 1d6.
5. Horse can breathe fire: up to once every three rounds, one opponent in melee range
must pass a REF save or take 1d10 damage. May also make a normal attack in the
same round.
6. Horse can jump incredible distances - 50' or more, or 20' straight up - with a decent
run-up.

In the unlikely event of their owners being willing to sell them, such steeds are worth
absolutely enormous sums.

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Handy Mount Quality Table

Mongolian man riding a reindeer. Looks pretty high-quality to me...

Quality Description Hit To- Damage Rider's AC (Natural / Dies Saves

Dice Hit (Kick or Charge Barding / Heavy At
Trample) Bonus Barding)
(To-Hit /
Damage)

-1 Poor 1d8 0 1d6-1 -1/+1 12/14/17 0 14

HP

0 Average 2d8 +1 1d6 0/+2 13/15/18 0 13

HP

1 Good 3d8 +2 1d6+1 +1/+3 14/16/19 -2 12

HP

2 Excellent 4d8 +3 1d6+2 +2/+4 15/17/20 -4 11

HP

3 Exceptional 5d8 +4 1d6+3 +3/+5 16/18/21 -6 10

HP

4/5
 4 Magical 6d8 +5 1d6+4 +4/+6 17/19/22 -8 9
HP

5 Exceptional
AND Magical 7d8 +6 1d6+5 +5/+7 18/20/23 -10 8
HP

Note that these quality rules can also be applied to mounts other than horses: camels,
reindeer, bears, giant wolves, brass snout rats, etc, etc. This can make the choice between
mundane and exotic mounts a bit more meaningful: given the choice between riding a
horse and riding a giant wolf, almost every PC is going to pick the wolf, but the choice
between a quality 1 wolf and a quality 4 horse that can breathe fire might be a rather harder
one to make!

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