Having gone over the major players in fighter feat-selection, let’s see what happens when a knight-in-shining-armor type ends up stuck in a dungeon after starting down a Mounted Combat path.
the Dudley Do-Right
This is your typical Knight-In-Shining Armor type. He is strong and fit, not necessarily nimble (who could tell under all that armor, anyway). He rides a white heavy warhorse, has an impressive lance, a metal kite shield, and a longsword with a girl’s name.
Dudley is a Cavalier. He rides a horse. He likes shouting “I say thee nay, villain!” and so forth. All the ladies swoon when he rides into town, and his party members appreciate him drawing all the bad-guys’ attention all the time.
His spent his first couple of levels looking to be a master horseman, but couldn’t help putting some emphasis on his longsword. He always wanted a nice shiny longsword.
- Mounted Combat, Weapon Focus (Longsword), Power Attack
- Weapon Focus (Heavy Lance)
- Ride-By Attack
- Sunder
- –
- Cleave, Weapon Specialization (Longsword)
- –
- Blind-Fight
- Spirited Charge
After three successful levels of galloping about on his faithful steed, Dudley is all set to invest a feat into Spirited Charge and become the baddest 4th level thing on four hooves.
Then his party starts dungeoncrawling. With a heavy sigh of resignation, Dudley puts his Mounted Combat progression on hold and focuses on the Power Attack path (which will still come in handy if he gets back in the saddle later on).
Dudley is comfortable with the dungeoncrawling, dealing death with his longsword. But the party has moved along quite a bit now and they keep running into invisible foes and bad guys that like throwing Darkness spells around like they’re going out of fashion. He pauses again and takes Blind-Fighting at 8th level.
If opportunity allows, Dudley may end up back under the open sky with a trusty steed battling bandits and evildoers again, and will pick up the Spirited Charge feat, already armed with a deadly Power Attack and Weapon Specialization.
At 9th Level Dudley can transfer 9 points from his to-hit rolls directly into damage, gains a +1 to strike with either this Longsword or Lance, gains an additional +2 damage with the Longsword, can drop two opponents with a single blow (courtesy of Cleave), and is adept at breaking the shields and weapons on his foes. Put him in the saddle and he only becomes more formidible, capable of dealing triple damage with his heavy lance on a charge ((1d10 + Strength Bonus + Power Attack Bonus)* 3), and able to combat invisible or concealed opponents competantly.