Obsidian Steed...

[RolandOfGilead]

Ok, my relatively low level cleric just got ahold of an obsidian steed... the crib notes read: HVY WARHORSE 1day/week. horse can plane shift at will, etherealness, and fly.

Problem: Ride is not on the cleric class skill list..
so I'm considering taking hospitaller... but even then, it seems like a waste for this magic item. I'll use it once a week, between uses I'd have to get another horse - Another thing that annoys me is the hvy warhorse's AC is low.. any suggestions on a magic item or something I can use to get the horse some armor in a jam? I'm a low level cleric.. so this magic item freaking rocks for the one day I can use it. Planar travel? booyah. I'm just scared to use it. hehe.

 

[RolandOfGilead]

Hmm...

Just a thought, if you travel to the astral plane using plane shift with the horse.. would the effective duration of the horse then become indefinite? i.e. subjectively infinite?

 

[rijeagle]

keep an extra pair of Bracers of Armor handy, and when the horse is called forth, put those on the forlegs of the horse. Instant AC increase, simple and easy to do. Depending on how the DM wants to rule it, you may be able to keep them on the horse, even when it returns to its statuette form. (Some creatures such as these go to another plane of existence and are called forth by the use of the statuette. Again, unless it is explicitly stated by the magic item, it is up to the DM)

As for the use of the horse: Awesome combat possibilites - imagine you're in the middle of combat, and you need to get to the rear of the enemy group to stop the wizard casting those nasty spells on your party, use the ethereal power of the horse, gallop by (through) the front rank fighters and charge the wizard upon returning to the prime material.

The horse can get you from one point to another quickly by the same method. A character is severly hurt and you need to get to the high level cleric in town now, but he is a day away, boom up on the horse, ethereal or astral, and back into the town in almost no time at all.

The uses are endless if you think about it, but it is not a general purpose horse. Some how I don't think this fine thoroughbred would care too much to be used as a common riding horse. It is a horse with special gifts and it knows it, and should be used as such.

Although the astral plane is time ignorant, the magic of the horse is constant, so it would end in the middle of the astral plane, dumping you on your rear with no way back home for a week.

A magnificient item to have! Good Luck with it.

 

[maybeso]

SRD//
The steed allows itself to be ridden, but if the rider is of good alignment, the steed is 10% likely per use to carry the rider to the Lower Planes and then return to its statuette form.
//SRD

I hope that isn't an issue for you...
A week in hell could be, well, interesting...

 

[rijeagle]

oops, I forgot about that alignment thingy...my bad! er, yea...that could happen too.

 

[RolandOfGilead]

Alignment...

Actually, I'm a lawful neutral follower of pholtus...
so I'm pretty safe in that regard