Horse, Awakened

[Rakoa]

Horse

Table: Horse				HD: d10
Level 1 2	Base Attack Bonus +1 +2	Fort Save +2 +3	Ref Save +2 +3	Will Save +0 +0	Special Horse Body, Mobile Mount, Stat Boosts, Bonus Feat +1 Str, +1 Con Loyalty, Bred for War, Growth, +1 Str, +1 Con

Skill Points: (2 + Int. Mod.) x4 at 1st level. Class Skills: Jump, Listen, Spot, Survival, Swim

Proficiencies: A Horse has no proficiencies.

Class Features:

Horse Body: At 1st level, the horse loses all other racial bonus and gets magical beast traits (Darkvision 60ft). The horse is a medium sized creature with a base speed of 40 feet and three natural attacks: two natural hoof attacks (1d4+str mod damage) and a secondary bite attack (1d3 + 1/2 str mod damage). Additionally, it gains a bonus to natural armour equal to it's con bonus, and the Scent special quality.

Mobile Mount: A horse can use Jump checks as Tumble checks for the purpose of avoiding Attack of Opportunities for moving through threatened squares. Additionally, a horse can make a Jump check as an immediate action at any point during his movement. This movement does not count against the horse's usual movement for that round. Finally, a horse gains a bonus on Jump checks equal to it's HD.

Stat Boosts: A horse gains a bonus of +1 to Str and Con at each level, for a total of +2 str and +2 con at second level.

Bonus Feats: At first level, the Horse gains a bonus feat of it's choice, either Endurance or Run.

Loyalty: At second level, the horse may pick a Chosen Rider. Doing so requires to constantly accompany his Chosen Rider to be for 24 hours for the process to complete. A horse is considered immune to negative mind-affecting effects while his Chosen Rider rides him. A Chosen Rider can only be changed if the previous one dies.

Bred For War: At second level, the horse gains proficiency with light, medium, and heavy armour, and grants his Chosen Rider a bonus to Ride checks equal to either it's own HD or his, whichever is higher. It's movement speed increases by 20 feet.

Growth: At second level, the horse grows to size Large (long).

(click to show/hide)

I got bored. It seemed easy enough.

[GuesssWho]

Do we have an awakened animal list yet? I'd love an awakened dinosaur class . . .

[Anomander]

Cool addition.
Wondering, though, how is the free jump check in Mobile Mount supposed to work?
You already do jumps as part of movement and the distance moved with a jump goes against your base speed, so I'm not sure what is actually new there. Is the movement of that free jump supposed to not count against your move speed?

[Threadnaught]

Do we have an awakened animal list yet? I'd love an awakened dinosaur class . . .

All Animals as Classes are Awakened. That is, they have an Intelligence of 3 or higher, rather than the standard Intelligence of 2 which Animals usually have.

That said, a horse with a crazed look in it's eyes, while wielding a sword in it's teeth is terrifying. That from Tangled? I haven't seen it yet.

[Rakoa]

You already do jumps as part of movement and the distance moved with a jump goes against your base speed, so I'm not sure what is actually new there. Is the movement of that free jump supposed to not count against your move speed?

That was the intention. I'll add in another sentence to clarify.

That said, a horse with a crazed look in it's eyes, while wielding a sword in it's teeth is terrifying. That from Tangled? I haven't seen it yet.

From Tangled indeed! Though, sadly, this class does not get the ability to mouth-fence.

[FireInTheSky]

Do we have an awakened animal list yet? I'd love an awakened dinosaur class . . .

Tyrannosaurus Rex, also, incidentally, by Rakoa..

[Rakoa]

Do we have an awakened animal list yet? I'd love an awakened dinosaur class . . .

Tyrannosaurus Rex, also, incidentally, by Rakoa..

Oh geez, I almost forgot about that one. That was my first monster class for this project. Thanks for linking it!

[oslecamo]

Why does it have such high Stat bonus? A heavy warhorse just has 18 Str and 17 Con, both well within even normal human reach.

Growth at 2nd level would be fine for a long creature without arms however, there's been some other monsters like that if I remember correctly. You could remove the 2nd level bonus feat to make room for it (the regular horse spends).

Otherwise looks nice, would just suggest making the "free" jump an immediate action.

[Rakoa]

Yeah, +4 to both at second level does seem a bit much. Set it to a much more regular level. Jump as an immediate action makes more sense, also incorporated, as was Growth.

[phaedrusxy]

You already do jumps as part of movement and the distance moved with a jump goes against your base speed, so I'm not sure what is actually new there. Is the movement of that free jump supposed to not count against your move speed?

That was the intention. I'll add in another sentence to clarify.

That said, a horse with a crazed look in it's eyes, while wielding a sword in it's teeth is terrifying. That from Tangled? I haven't seen it yet.

From Tangled indeed! Though, sadly, this class does not get the ability to mouth-fence.

One of the most memorable and terrifying things I remember reading was a description of a battle in which a "knight's" warhorse was picking up enemy soldiers in its teeth and shaking them like rag dolls... It made me realize that horses were probably a lot more than just transportation during medieval warfare...

[Shifty]

The Loyalty ability strikes me as a little bit abusable. There's no restrictions on who or what can count as a Chosen Rider, so it would be entirely possible to dip druid, get a monkey animal companion, slap it on your back and then just run around all day with immunity to mind-affecting effects at 3rd level. I get that the intention is that it would be one of your allies or maybe a cohort, but as written it's basically, "You can be immune to mind-affecting effects if you really want to be." That's extremely powerful, and the class isn't paying for it the way that constructs or undead do.

[phaedrusxy]

The Loyalty ability strikes me as a little bit abusable. There's no restrictions on who or what can count as a Chosen Rider, so it would be entirely possible to dip druid, get a monkey animal companion, slap it on your back and then just run around all day with immunity to mind-affecting effects at 3rd level. I get that the intention is that it would be one of your allies or maybe a cohort, but as written it's basically, "You can be immune to mind-affecting effects if you really want to be." That's extremely powerful, and the class isn't paying for it the way that constructs or undead do.

Yeah but that's almost literally the only thing this class grants. I don't think it's an unfair ability for a two level dip that doesn't progress casting or anything else, and removes your ability to have opposable thumbs...

[Chemus]

Can the horse use any item requiring hands? What about other slots? Is there a conventional usage I missed somewhere? How many legs does a horse have? Am I missing an automatic/understood reference to the horse in the MM/SRD?

If I'm not wrong, then perhaps a clause like "A horse has no arms, hands, hips or shoulders. Also, a horse has hooves on its four legs rather than feet. Thus a horse cannot use handheld weapons, armor, boots, gloves, bracelets, bracers, shirts, robes, girdles or belts. A horse may, however use barding, bridles, saddles and horseshoes. Any skill requiring hands, such as craft, use rope, etc. are at a -X (say -10 or 15) penalty." (perhaps I was overzealous; I don't recall whether belts and bracers are disallowed.)

If I missed a turn somewhere, please let me know...

[Nanshork]

Nightmare doesn't have any of that information either for what it's worth.

Edit: I can do one better.  Magic Item Compendium page 219 has all the information on slots that you will need.

Also it's a horse, horses have four legs.

[oslecamo]

Humanoid monsters don't have detailed descritions of their anatomies. Neither do stuff like manticores, gibbering orbs, spiders, treants and whatnot. I'm not gonna insist the horse class has to explain how many legs a horse has, just like the human entry in the PH doesn't specify humans have two legs and two arms and two eyes and two of a lot of other things.

Anyway I don't see any more problems here, added to the index, good work!

And since there's already a sizeable amount of animal classes done, made a new spoiler to group them together.

[Threadnaught]

And since there's already a sizeable amount of animal classes done, made a new spoiler to group them together.

Tortoise isn't in that group. Don't mind too much, it feels like it's in need of a fix.

[ketaro]

Can the horse use any item requiring hands? What about other slots? Is there a conventional usage I missed somewhere? How many legs does a horse have? Am I missing an automatic/understood reference to the horse in the MM/SRD?

If I'm not wrong, then perhaps a clause like "A horse has no arms, hands, hips or shoulders. Also, a horse has hooves on its four legs rather than feet. Thus a horse cannot use handheld weapons, armor, boots, gloves, bracelets, bracers, shirts, robes, girdles or belts. A horse may, however use barding, bridles, saddles and horseshoes. Any skill requiring hands, such as craft, use rope, etc. are at a -X (say -10 or 15) penalty." (perhaps I was overzealous; I don't recall whether belts and bracers are disallowed.)

If I missed a turn somewhere, please let me know...

Horses can wear armor. The PH has rules for armor for nonhumanoid creatures.
Horses don't need boots but horseshoes are effectively the same thing and most boots can just be reflavored as horseshoes....Though there are actually these hoof-coverings things which are kinda like booties that cover the top of the hooves but don't cover the bottom so they don't dig their hooves into themselves when they're lying down. Suddenly I just argued for horses being able to wear magical horseshoes and boots at the same time!
Gloves...okay horses don't have hands, yes.
Bracelets, horses can wear bracelets. It'd be more like an anklet but still. Same idea with bracers. Just wrap that around the legs, it's virtually the same thing.
Shirts & Robes, *shrugs* they can wear armor already, even dogs have shirts and costumes and stuff, it's not too hard to imagine. But this could probably just be fine without.
Girdles & Belts, horses can wear belts. How else does the saddle stay on? A belt!

And yes, horses DO have hips and a waist. Come on maaaaan, come on 
Shoulders too so they could technically wear cloaks in the shoulder slot.

Sooo......

Head: Hats/Helms
Face: Masks/Eyewear or w/e (Horse Blinders!)/Earings even!
Necklaces
Shoulder/Mantles
Torso: Armor/Robes
"Arms"[Legs]: Bracers/Bracelets
Waist: Belts
Feet: Boots
Horseshoes (Effectively this can replace most stuff that goes in the Hands slot like Gloves)

There are 8 standard magic item slots right? Whoa did I just list a full load out for horses? Hah, awesome! 

Yanno, I just noticed, this Horse's movement speed is slower than any other Horse in the MM.
Also, because it grants armor proficiencies, couldn't "Perfect Mount" be called like "War Horse" or something?
Ooooooh, "Bred for War" even.

You ever see the Warbeast template? MM2 or 3. Folding that into this could maybe work? Maybe even net another level into this class? Because what else really are you gonna be getting levels in as an awakened horse?  (The answer is definitely barbarian! *cough* )

[Rakoa]

You ever see the Warbeast template? MM2 or 3. Folding that into this could maybe work? Maybe even net another level into this class? Because what else really are you gonna be getting levels in as an awakened horse?  (The answer is definitely barbarian! *cough* )

I was thinking Factotum, personally, but you know. 

I like the name, I'll make that change. Doesn't the movement speed change to 60 feet at some point? I might have forgot to add that in. Will do it now if Oslecamo has no objections.

As for the Warbeast template, I've never seen it. I'll look into it within a week or so (midterms and all that) and probably write up the template rather than just adding a level to the class.

[ketaro]

Really, the Warbeast template is pretty much what a standard War Horse is. Well, applied to horses anyways. And, yanno, cause we levelin' up...Something something something words I can't even remember where I meant to go with the Warbeast mention. I've been up aaaaaall night and I just don't know :v

But wooo! Bred for War is a thing now! (You messed up the formatting on the ability tho haha )
And gotta change it on the chart too.

Not sure what to do about the speed cause there are light horses and heavy horses and the first moves at a 60 whilst the latter is a 50. 60ft is probably a good place to have for this. My opinion anyways.

[Rakoa]

Don't even ask me how I messed up the formatting that bad. Should be fixed now.