Making a mounted Ruby knight WINdicator

[hazard]

I'm having a little trouble fleshing out a mounted RKV.  I want to focus on the white raven discipline, and I'm allowed all first party books (though I'm trying to keep it under seven).  Really going for a dragon lord feel.  May devote myself to an elder evil for the feats.

Not going for the strongest thing ever just a little dragon lord that's more awesome than a opossum

Here is what i have so far

Dragonborn  Gnome
Crusader 1/ cleric 4/ ruby knight vindicator 7

Domains:
pride
luck

Alternative class features:
Dragon scale husk
Rebuke dragons
Spontaneous domain
divine restoration

Feats:
Power attack
Law devotion
mounted combat
ride by attack


--Thanks for the help

[linklord231]

Travel Devotion doesn't do much for a mounted build. Instead, I'd recommend taking the Trickery domain, so you can get Hide as a class skill in order to meet RKV prereqs. Otherwise you'd have to burn a feat on Martial Study (any shadow hand maneuver) - though that's still not a terrible option.
Ask your DM about sacrificing Rebuke Dragons to fuel RKV abilities and Devotion feats. As written, it doesn't work.
Dragonscale Husk is terrible and not worth it for anyone ever. Just pay someone to make your Armor look draconic. If you're worried about donning it in a hurry, you can spring for the Called enchantment.
Finally, look in to Prestige Paladin, from the srd or unearthed arcana. You can qualify by spending a few skill ranks, and it would open up the nice paladin spell list. Bonus points if you can convince your DM to let you have a drakkensteed mount (dragon magic) instead of a normal horse.

[Jackinthegreen]

If you're going Dragonborn, you'll probably have fluff issues reconciling devotion to Bahamut versus worshiping an Elder Evil.

I recommend taking cleric first, then crusader.  That way you can get higher level maneuvers.

Mounted combat will pretty much require you to have a class that grants a mount (or other companion) to be worthwhile.  Your own power matters little if your mount is shot out from under you.  Prestige paladin might work towards that, but since it requires Turn Undead (or rebuke I suppose if you're going with an evil variation) then it would need DM permission to use Rebuke Dragons instead.  You'll also need permission to use Rebuke Dragons to use any Devotion feats because they explicitly use Turn/Rebuke Undead and that's it.

[hazard]

Travel Devotion doesn't do much for a mounted build. Instead, I'd recommend taking the Trickery domain, so you can get Hide as a class skill in order to meet RKV prereqs. Otherwise you'd have to burn a feat on Martial Study (any shadow hand maneuver) - though that's still not a terrible option.
Ask your DM about sacrificing Rebuke Dragons to fuel RKV abilities and Devotion feats. As written, it doesn't work.
Dragonscale Husk is terrible and not worth it for anyone ever. Just pay someone to make your Armor look draconic. If you're worried about donning it in a hurry, you can spring for the Called enchantment.
Finally, look in to Prestige Paladin, from the srd or unearthed arcana. You can qualify by spending a few skill ranks, and it would open up the nice paladin spell list. Bonus points if you can convince your DM to let you have a drakkensteed mount (dragon magic) instead of a normal horse.

Good catch on the travel devotion.  The pre-reqs on RKV are easy so no on the trickery domain and shadow hand maneuver.   Now on to rebuke dragons does work for RKV, it's specifically states it works on abilities like it.  The dragonscale husk is for the permanent energy resistance not the joke that is the Ac bonus and the armor class system in general. 

But on mounts I'm just gonna use planar ally and summons for the mount.  Maybe leadership if allowed,  i'll have it take travel devotion. 

@jackin 
Dragonborn is already refluffed to be our half dragon/ dragon disciple, so I'm good there.  And again rebuke dragons does work. 

Now on prestige paladin I personally hate it, so thanks but no thanks.  Editing original post.

[linklord231]

RKV requires 4 ranks in Hide.  Hide is not a class skill for Cleric or Crusader.  If you're cross-classing Hide, then 20 of your skill points are spoken for right from the get-go.  Casting spells while mounted requires a Concentration check, as does casting defensively, so you need to keep that maxed.  In order to have enough skill points for that, you need to take Crusader at level one, and have an Int of at least 12 - as Jack mentioned, you can take 2nd level maneuvers with your first Crusader level if you can delay it til 5.  With Martial Study you could do that, as well as be able to take the higher level Shadow Hand maneuvers right away when you enter RKV. 
Dragonscale Husk is still not worth it, especially since you have Protection From Energy that you can prep every day from Luck domain.  I'm not sure which domain you chose as your Spontaneous one, but if you picked Luck then you don't even have to prep it.  If you picked Pride then there's no reason not to prep it.
Remember that Planar Ally has an XP cost, and summons are usually a full-round action and have durations < 2 minutes.  It's better to get an innate mount, if you can. 

Which domain are you choosing for your Spontaneous one, and which power are you giving up for Divine Restoration?