I can't mud while at work, but I can at least waste my time (and yours) by daydreaming up a new class, inspired by, but not ripping off, champions and goblins.

So, we got these fighters, they are horse riders, "cavaliers" in one sense, and they get some fun quirks other classes don't have.

Their horses are more like familiars than pets, and if mounted, can travel magically with you or whatever. Otherwise same benefits as goblin mounts, fast, bash/trip protection, etc., but a little more tied to the class's fighting style, and some disadvantages compared to goblins (can't go inside, aren't as versatile on terrain, horses don't fight as well, no fallback, etc.).

And for fun, because throughout history and literature there are different types of cavalry/riders, your horse and skills will be tied to your hometown/culture. But you can't change hometowns - these aren't thieves here.

Only humans, elf-kind, and, I guess, felar, can be cavaliers.

Cavaliers from big cities that might reasonably have a stable or horse training would be of the jousting/charging/medieval varieties. Shields and lances, shields and flails/swords, etc. Maybe slight variations in horseys (Seantryn are big black badasses, Darsylon fancy silver fast mares that sneak when you flee, etc).

Cavaliers from some other places might be more like Dothraki or trick riders or cowboys, etc. Dual wielding ####, whips and wrangling, faster, etc.

Also, we want horses to be fun, but not required for class to survive, and we seriously don't need calvary galloping around in caves and dungeons, so I made skills that a cavalier or cowboy might use on their feet too, if to a lesser extent, for a certain charge-and-finish or wrangle-and-tackle style.

So here we go.

ABOUT THE HORSES

call horse: your horse runs to you from wherever it was hiding outside. This isn't ululate, this is like lone rider or whatever. You get your permanent horse friend at rank 25 or whatever.

release horse: horsies don't do well inside. You go indoors you have to dismount, or maybe you can just send your horse off to go get some snacks or something until you call him back.

inventory: more refined folk like to keep bags o' #### on their horses. This stuff will stay there even when you quit. Not a lot, but can be nice. Thieves can still steal from. Maybe other hometown horses you ride bareback and they got no bags on them.

hometown variations: Horses from the wilder places are maybe "wilder", less likely to be used with brutalizing skills by riders.


FUN SKILLS

momentum: weapon hits have more damage (comes from swinging fewer times but with bigger swings); even if not on horse, just your fighting style. Maybe only for cavalier folks, who maybe get fewer attacks but adept and throwing out damage from behind their big shield. No dual wield for these guys.

trample: Your horsey does this. Probably voralia jousters wouldn't do this.

brunt: a toggle - horse will take brunt of damage on first attack toward you. Mean Seantryn would train their horses to do this. Maybe wild plains riders would have nice horses that would do this for them.

downward strike: with non-dagger, can swing down to knock opponent off balance/lag. Or maybe just big damager. Or some kind of maledict. Must be mounted. Classic cavalry move as you're clopping around your opponent.

Runthrough: Like parting-blow/retreat, but you flee, doing some big damage on way out, with low lag. Seems like an elf move.

Charge: Bonus when mounted. Bonus when dashing. Better success with polearm or spear. For fun, we'll let non-dual wield traditional jousters from Voralia be able to wear a shield... <i>with a polearm</i>

Dash: Can combine with charge.

Plunge: can dismount when not wielding polearm or large sword and land on top of opponent for big ass strike. Cannot be used to start combat. You got them beat, not get down there with your knife and finish 'em off.

Shieldcleave

Drive

Clearout: When fighting multiple opponents, can manuever and sweep weapon wide, and if mounted then kicking horsey heels out, hitting all and potentially knocking some out of room.

Flank: When in a group, can prevent opponent from fleeing. Receives damage. Better success when mounted.

Rap weapon: Used to start combat, can disarm on first strike.

Rescue: For nice knights.

Dance: Bandit/cowboy types can dodge. Including while on a horsey.

Wrangle: With a whip can start combat and wrap up an opponent and yank them to the ground. Success based on intuitive size/strength/dex comparisons. When they try to flee will trip and fail on first attempt. Must be done to start combat. Opponent can often break from the wrangle after first failed flee, depending on size/dex. Nimble fingers works against it.

jar inventory: Can jar a random item out of the opponent's inventory onto the ground with a poking strike. Good for rogueish or evilish hometowns (Hamsah with them bandit riders? Seantryn with those asshole patrolmen?)

So, anyway imms, get to it.

This was not meant to be a practical request, just a fun idea dreamup. I would never expect anything new on such a scale. Stay tuned for my troll race concept.

Regarding mounts - I think they are such a huge advantage for travel, and goblins don’t have many unique advantages, so I wouldn’t want every class to have an opportunity at that same advantage.

That being said - with so few players it really does suck at lowbie hiking and napping all over Thera hunting for that one other person in your range. Maybe that’s why so many power up to hero?

So, maybe mounts you can buy but can’t fight on unless a goblin. Or cavalier!

Honestly, my opinion doesn't mean a ton since I don't code, but at least
it is *A* response.

I generally don't much care for this for the following reasons -

1) Coding. You're talking a lot of this. Which pretty much means
you're at the whim of a coder finding this an appealing project.

2) This is a REALLY restrictive class. You're talking maybe 3 races?
Also maybe not truly restricted, but at least highly impeded when
fighting in a LOT of the world. (In water, on water, in caves, indoors.
Cities? Have to imagine trying to fight on horseback in Galadon would
be tough).

2a) What sort of skills do they have when not fighting on horseback?
Are you just a crappy warrior?

3) On top of restrictions, you're bringing up a lot of unique (read:
more code) ideas for specific subsets (read: more restrictive, both
mechanically and RP) of this already small class.

4) I believe there's some form of a hard limit to the number of classes
we can have. To me, this just isn't that interesting to burn a slot on.
It's possible I'm incorrect about this, however.


That said, I think part of the goblin mounts was experimenting with the
idea of mounts. Some of the structure might exist now. But, even with
that possibly in place, I personally think things would be more
interesting if it were designed as sort of an add-on to existing
classes. Maybe race/class-only mounts can be tamed and/or created.
Paladin goes out and buys/trains a horse? Cool. Orc riding a dire
wolf. Please? Ranger tames & rides an animal? Totally. APs totally
need nightmares. Beyond that, though, I'm not sure how many mage,
or priest classes I can really envision doing much than using a mount as
simply a traveling aid.

With those cases, I also think it'd be much easier to add individually
appropriate class skills whenever you want, vs. a whole class.

However, ALL of this comes back to the major issue of - coding time.
While I certainly agree there's possibility, both you and I's ideas
would be reliant on a coder's initiative, which...I don't bother them
if I can avoid it, heh.

Also, random final thought...

> So, anyway imms, get to it.

I'm assuming that's meant in jest, but text can REALLY mangle the tone
of a comment. That definitely *could* be taken poorly.

Maybe consider just adding in the mount ability to all classes and put in various stables where they can be procured. Grinning skulls could have the warg den (maybe Pine forest has a dire wolf tamer for you), some unholy place allows the nightmare to be summoned, etc..
The thing with the mount would be to make them restrictive in some manner such that not every PC is using them. But there would be a niche perk to them regarding mobility.

And make the mounts mostly frail (maybe they are like mercs, where they cap out at like level 30) and ineffective melee group mates (in most cases at least) and make it so fighting is fairly limited while mounted.

Make dismounting quick/easy, put some lag on mounting so it has a risk to doing it as an escape mechanism.

.