Ideas for a magic saddle?

[Will Doyle]

For a while now, I've been trying to think of a set of powers for a magic saddle artifact, but I'm really drawing a blank. Honestly, all I've got so far is "mount/dismount as a minor"

Anyone got any ideas?

A little background:

- The character it's for already has a custom steed that can handily gallop off to the feywild whenever it's not needed, and be summoned with a whistle. The mount doesn't suffer the normal penalties for operating in enclosed environments.
- The backstory I've given is that the saddle comes from this ancient civilisation whose people were big on boasting and daring deeds.

Chances are they're going to get it this weekend, as they're just about to fight the dragon whose hoard they know its in...

 

[Locutus Zero]

It could have a bonus to charging, or some kind of encounter or daily power related to charging.

 

[Ryujin]

Mounted shift as move as an encounter power, with distance equal to mount's move. Can you say, "I charge their leader!"?

Jump equal to mount's movement, as an encounter power. Those measly little chasms are no longer an issue.

Overland flight as a daily.

Property: +2, to AC and Reflex, when facing a Solo.

Those should be brag-worthy.

 

[MarkB]

Saddle of the Feywild.

Property: Whenever the rider of a beast saddled with this item, or the beast itself, is subjected to a teleportation effect, voluntary or otherwise, the rider can choose to bring his mount with him (or bring himself with his mount).
Power (Daily): Immediate reaction. Trigger: The rider or mount is subjected to an involuntary teleportation or forced-movement effect. Effect: The rider teleports a distance equal to the number of squares he was just moved, bringing the mount with him.


Less appropriate to your character, but I thought it'd make a good saddle:

Saddle of Animal Handling.

When placed upon any creature of animal intelligence, this saddle calms and charms the subject creature, making it amenable to riding and familiar with a variety of standard riding techniques. A creature wearing this saddle becomes a reliable and biddable combat mount, capable of being directed as readily as any war-horse. It retains all its natural abilities, and can use them under the direction of its rider.

Some such saddles employ a pass-phrase to activate. If a character attempts to mount the subject creature without using the pass-phrase, the saddle revokes its effect, allowing the creature to act according to its own nature.

 

[CM]

• Water walking at-will
• Phasing as a daily power
• Grant the mount a healing-type power (as per various healing potions) once per day
• Ignore difficult terrain
• Saddle bags of holding
• Perhaps it can be shrunk for easier transportation
• For a high-powered item, grant the mount and rider an item bonus to AC like the elven chain shirt.
• Allow it to carry one of the magical battle standards as if the banner were planted in the ground, possibly increasing the radius

 

[Will Doyle]

Great stuff, these have definitely got me thinking!

A charge power seems ideal, perhaps one that ignores opportunity attacks rather than shifting? Using the saddle as a mount for a battle standard is an uncanny suggestion - as this character has a standard already (which the whole group takes its name from: "The Yellow Banner"!). Saddle bags of holding is a neat utility too.

I love the bonus to solos - fits the theme perfectly.

 

[brehobit]

Saddle of the Green Knight
The great Elven knight Erispiel was known for his bravery and loyal companions. Upon his death Erispiel's saddle has appeared again and again just when needed by the defenders of the fey. And along with it, his boon companions, if only for a short time. Then the magic move along to another.

• Erispiel's sacrifice: Once per day while mounted upon this saddle you can cause a successful attack against will that was made against you into an automatic miss (as if a "1" were rolled).
• Ride though the wild: Once per day you and your mount may teleport the mount's speed as a move action. Any attack you make during the same turn as this movement ignores the insubstantial quality of all opponents.
• While mounted and using the saddle you gain a +2 bonus to bluff and diplomacy checks vs. fey.
• You may sacrifice the power of this item (the magic ends permanently). Seven ghostly green knights appear in your service each within 10 squares of you. Each spirit occupies 4 squares. Enemies cannot move through its space, but allies can. When you take a move action, you can also move each of the spirits a number of squares equal to your speed. When you take a standard action, each spirit may attack any creature within 2 squares of it. Each spirit makes an attack with a bonus of your level +3 vs will. Hits do 2d6+half your level psychic damage and cause the target to be slowed and marked by the spirit .
  
  The spirits can be targeted by melee or ranged attacks, although they lack hit points. If a single melee or ranged attack deals damage to the spirit equal to 10 + one-half your level or higher, the spirit disappears. Otherwise, the spirit is unaffected by the attack. All defenses of the spirits are your level + 13 other than AC which is your level +16. The green knights otherwise follow the rules for conjurations and remain for 5 minutes or until destroyed.

 

[was]

hmm...ability to run across water, increasing ac/resistances, ability to speak with the mount, unable to be thrown from saddle, increasing mount speed/size..etc

 

[Will Doyle]

Well, I finally got around to doing up the saddle as a proper write-up, which I've posted over in the fan-creations forum, and on my blog.

I ended up using a bunch of suggestions that came from this thread - so thanks to everyone who posted!

 

[Delgar]

I haven't played much with mounts yet, however that will be changing shortly in my campaign as one of the players just recently recieved an artifact mount:

The Royal Horse of Cyre (similar to the Horse of Xarn, but with more eberron flair)

I predict that the fact that mounts have very limited healing surges this can become a big problem in a game, so having a magic saddle that can either:

Increase the number of healing surges of the mount or possibly even heal the mount (regeneration, etc.) would be a great boon to keeping the mount alive and active throughout the adventuring day.