I will have my horse! (5e Optimized Character Build)

Hey! You there! Yes, you!

Why are you so sad? Your DM doesn't let you get a decent mount? You have to release your horse many times because you have to enter caverns, go underwater or other problems? And even if you come back for the horse, it was killed by beasts or robbed by someone?

Worry not, i have what you need here!

The following build is about 2 characters, so grab a friend (or anyone really) and come see the magic.

1st character resume: so you want to make a cavalier or other form of mounted combatant? this one is for you!

2nd character resume: so he made you help with the build? Don't worry, this is gonna be fun for you too!

1st CHARACTER

RACE

Anything goes, but i recommend going human variant for the extra feat. This way your combo goes online earlier. get the Polearm master feat as soon as possible. You want to max CON and STR for this build, so prioritize races that give you this.

CLASS

Take your first Level in Figther. Go for Dueling Fighting Style and get Longsword and Shield as starting equipment.

Now you will ask: why getting polearm master if i won't use it? Because you can use it if you buy a quaterstaff since its one handed and cheap and treated as a polearm. Second because your combo will go online on level 4 this way. If you don't have polearm master yet (another race) get polearm master lvl 4 and the next feat on lvl 6. Details ahead.

Now, for your 3rd Level, you get your Fighter archetype. whyle any one works, Cavalier archetype do wonders for this build.

CAVALIER (fighter 3):

1 - you can (dis)mount for 5 feet of movement, land on your feet if fall from the saddle, and advantage on checks to stay on the saddle.

2 - you can cause creatures you hit in melee to have disadvantage against targets other than you for 1 round while they are adjacent to you, and you can make a bonus action attack on your next turn if they damage someone else (SRT/day)

By this level, you can already mount your druid friend and punish anyone that tries to go for the druid, while you have an pseudo extra attack earlier than most builds in the game. If they go for you, you have High AC and CON and a second wind per fight.

In this level you can sell your longsword and quarterstaff to buy a Lance (Marttial Melee Weapon, 1d12, Range 10 feet, Reach, Special). while you are mounted, you wield your Lance with one hand, so you get the benefit of Dueling Fighting Style and the best dmg dice you can get. If you can afford, buy a full plate also and your AC is now 20!

Fighter 4: this is when thing start to be really fun. take Mounted Combatant feat: 1 - You can redirect an attack against your mount to yourself, you gain advantage vs unmounted foes that are smaller than your mount, and your mount gains Evasion (free feat for your druid friend, so he's happier than you by this level)

Fighter 5: now you have extra Attack

Fighter 6: get Svage Attacker, this lets you reroll melee weapon damage 1/turn. you use either of the results, so allways do this and take the higher result once per turn.

Fighter 7: You can grant resistance and 1d8 AC when you or an adjacent creature (your druid friend below you) is hit. This one takes away your reaction, so use it only when really necessary for now, because your polearm master triggers a lot of Opprtunity Attacks that use your reaction.

Figther 8: Feats wise your damage is now maxed, so it's time to take your STR to 20.

Figther 9: Reroll a failed save 1/day.

Fighter 10: Creatures within melee range always provoke while moving, and until your turn you reduce the speed of opportunity attack targets you hit to zero. Now no one can escape your grasp when you get there, enjoy making a hell of its life!

Figther 11: now you attack 3 times per Attack action. great or perfect?

Figther 12: Congratulations! Now you have 20 STR and maxed out your damage input per level. It's time to be a tankier son of a mother that enjoys poking his spear on his enemies (family friendly joke? if not will take this off kk)

Figther 13: Now you reroll 2 failed saves per day.

Figther 14: You can take Resilience for +1 WIS (making it 14 and granting +1 WIS mod) and proficience in WIS saves. I recomend a lot so the enemies can't controll you. If you don't want this, take +2 to CON and be a thoughier nut to crack

Figther 15: It says you can charge it while mounted, so let your druid take down your target, and it will need to succeed against YOUR DC! (with 20 STR, you get DC18)

Fighter 16: +2 CON, no takebacks

Figther 17: 2 uses of Action Surge plus a third use of indomitable.

Fighter 18: Now you are going to give me a hug and a kiss. Did you miss that time when you take opportunity actions infinite times? Now you can do it again! Remember you had to spend your reaction to grant resistance to you or your mount? Use it now, and on each othe creature turn you get a special reaction turn to use a opportunity attack. So now you can hit as many enemies as you can reach. Did i mention you have a reaching weapon and a mobile mount? Gotta catch'em all!

Fighter 19: Now you are the tankiest you can be, with 20 CON

Fighter 20: You finally reached here. You and your friend are real warmachines, ready to take on the deadliest treats to the world. To spicy it up even more, you now attack 4 times each action, for a total of 16 attacks in 2 rounds (with Action Surge). Wait, you can take one bonus attack each action, so its 18. Wait, you can taka as many opportunity attacks you want and you trigger them by any enemy that enters your range or moves inside it, so feel free to ride against hordes of monsters, they will take more damage than they can do to you.

2nd CHARACTER

you have to play this build with your friend that wants a horse, but let me tell you a secret: he is your support actually. He's there to give you all you needed on you druid build but couldn't get before!

He's giving you Evasion, he's triggering your Sentinel feat every turn, he's tanking all the hits against your low AC, he even gives you resistance to damage and attacks against you have disadvantage. So now all you need is a few things to have you fun carrying a meat shield on your back:

RACE

Bugbear: The only thing better than a tall bugbear hiding and getting 2d6 extra dmg, is a BIGGER BEAR doing the same thing!

Dragonborn: Can a bear spit fire? It's a decision for the DM to make, since its a case of treating the breath attack as a anatomic thing or as a magical thing.

Firbolg: A hidden bear or a hovering Cavalier? Also +2 WIS and +1 STR is perfect for the build.

Goblin: Small goblin into Large Bear? Get your fury of the Small to still work against bosses, and get nimble escape to Hide a Bear anywhere? Sign here please!

Goliath: Bigger is Tankier

Half-Orc: Second Life is Best of all traits. An extra dice to crits is a nice plus one!.

For this guide i'm gonna go for a half-orc for the roleplaying of a barbarian tribe member that seeks for a Woman to ride him in battle (you can convince your friend to make this fighter woman if he wants your help in the combo ¬u¬)

on your attributes, go for STR 16, DEX 10, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 14, CHA 10 if you wanna multiclass in Barbarian. if not, go for STR 10, DEX 10, CON 11, INT 14, WIS 15, CHA 14. you're gonna shapeshift all the time, so it doesn't matter your STR, DEX or CON scores, they're gonna be the chosen animal's scores.

CLASS

Let's start with druid till lvl 4.

Druid 2: Choose Moon archetype for the best shapeshifting forms. Many of them have multiattack, so you already do great damage by yourself from lvl 2.

Druid 4: Get Sentinel. Now you are ready to destroy everything.

You have Evasion, from your friend, he redirects the attacks against you to him, triggering your Sentinel to stop the creatures from going anywhere. If they try to disengage, you ignore and give them a good smack to root them.

You can Shapeshift in Swimming creatures, like an octopus and grab everyone!

Druid 4 Barbarian 1:

You get rage to fuel your attacks and gice you resistance to damage that you are not taking for now, but it gets better, BEAR with me here.

Unarmored defence to get your AC higher as the animal form DEX and CON forms, because you retain all the traits that form can use, and this is one of them.

Druid 4 Barbarian 2:

You get advantaage on your attacks and give advantage on the enemies attacks, but again, they are not hitting you at all, so free advantage in all attacks.

Advantage on DEX saves vc thing you can see gives your Evasion a ++ effect. You won't be getting hit by any area of effect.

Druid 4 Barbarian 3:

Now it's a dilemma. You will take Totem warrior as your archetype, but you have 3 great options to take:

Bear totem: you are resistant on all damage types except psychic while you're raging.

This one is against area of effects that you can't evade, cause you'll only be taking half of the half damage of the area of effect (take the half-offs separately, because you can round down them both ex: you get hit for 19, but you take only half for the evasion, now its 9, so you are resistant and tae only half of 9 rounded down, taking only 4 dmg)

Wolf totem: Allies gain advantage on attacks against foes adjacent to you while you are raging.

This one is for when you are fighting something Big as you or Bigger. your cavalier loses his advantage for mounted combat feat and gains it from this trait.

Elk totem: You gain +15ft of speed while raging and not wearing armor.

This one you can take for every other situation, as more mobility means more reach for your pounce combo + the cavaliers charge, and you can enter and exit the battle freely with the extra mobility.

for purposes of the build, i'm gonna choose Wolf.

Druid 4 Barbarian 4:

Get Mobile feat. +10 speed and you don't provoke OAs anymore, and ignore difficult terrain when dashing, so now you are free as you can be to roam the battlefield.

now we are going to get the greater shapeshifting forms, so go full druid here

Druid 6 Barbarian 4:

Your attacks are magical now

Druid 8 Barbarian 4:

Grab that Charger feat so you can now dash in, pounce with +5 dmg and get away for another round.

Now you can shapeshift in anything with CR equals your druid level/3

Druid 9 Barbarian 4:

You get CR3 forms. It's the greater CR you can choose a Large form from. The only time you can explore greater forms is when you cavalier has a Ption of Giant Size, a legendary item only avaiable on Storm King Thunder adventure. If you are not playing this campaign, drop druid here.

Druid 9 Barbarian 5:

animal forms that didn't had multiattack now can attack 2 times.

Greater mobility for all forms

Druid 9 Barbarian 6:

Another totem choice.

Bear totem: now you can carry all your party stuff and some more, in case anything happens.

Eagle totem: it's not a special sense, like darkvision or blindsight, so it should pass on to your animal forms. ask your DM before choosing this one.

Wolf totem: now you both are seasoned hunters, and no prey can escape your nose, nor can it see you aproaching stealthly

Elk totem: if your party travels too many times to far away places, go for this one and waste only half the time needed to go anywhere

Tiger totem: when everything eles fails your needs, go fo 2 extra proficiancies between Acrobatics, Athletics, Stealh or Survival

Druid 9 Barbarian 7:

Advantage even on iniciative, and you enter a rage to act on surprise turns. easy peasy

Druid 9 Barbarian 8:

Grab the Grappler (pun intended) feat and make yourself a bigger controller

Druid 9 Barbarian 9:

More rage damage, more weapon dies on crit.

Druid 9 Barbarian 10:

Comune with nature as a ritual. not that you couldn't cast earlier, but you had to prepare this spell and now you don't need anymore.

Druid 9 Barbarian 11:

Even if someone can get or animal form to 0HP, now you can prevent it by doing a simple CON save. Did i mention it's your animal form CON save? ¬u¬

If you can make an even better mount than this, please have a go at it and tell me what to do too ^^

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