Mounts and armour?

[khane]

My idea is that mounts would have the ability to wear armour.

Certain mounts (like riding dogs) would not be able to wear certain types of armour. (Like fine steel full plate armour,which would crush the dog) Instead, each mount would have a limit for how heavy of an eq it can wear and what kind of eq it can wear depending on strength,size, and the type of mount. The armour would protect your mount more, making it better in combat than a non-equiped mount, and ensuring that your mount will not die as fast.

Although this would be an superb ability for all mounts, there would be downsides (sorry). Down sides would be that mounts would not be able to carry as much, and would loose much more endurance points when moving or carrying things. They would also be slightly slower slower in combat, and much slower with heavy armour (heavy armour compared to the mount's size.)

The third downside, which would NEED to be put in, is that mounts would need to buy armour like you buy feats. You would buy a certain armour from the (person) and the (person) would attach it to your mount. This would NEED to happen so players do not cheat by moving there mount to a desired area, than attaching eq(which would save your mount endurance). Instead, you would need to have a (person) attach it. (which would be in a town most likely) You would not be able to remove the armour your self, seeing how you are not trained to do that. (Reason: these eq would be very tighly put on a mount so it would not fall off while riding, and so mounts to do not try to remove it themselves .)

The (person) would be able to remove armour, but it would be costly (more money than you put it on for.)(Reason:this "person" is the only one who can remove it because he/she has special tools, and knows how to remove it from the mount without it going bereserk.)

You would also (yes, another downside) need to train feats that would allow it wear heavy,medium, or light armour without trouble.

So:the positive side is that mounts become protected and are better in combat.
The down side is that it heavy for them, and it is costly in many ways.

Although there are more downsides than positive sides (by a lot) these would all need to be put in so these mounts do not become all powerful. Otherwise, this is a nice idea (a long one also.)

[xariah]

Wow. Very detailed. You really thought this out.
Applaud.

I think if you wanted to save ep, you should be able to decide when to 'armour up'. That way if you need ep and not protection you could wear the armour when you need it, with the added ep drain of course.

As a beholder I can't ride.
Maybe a reinc would be in order.

[minny]

Not being able to take the armour off sucks. It would be a pain when the mount becomes tired because it would need more time to regen its ep. I say just make the feat expensive and make the skill to attach/remove the armour from the mount trainable but expensive. If your skill is low, then there is a chance that you can hurt your mount by accident and make it agro towards you.

[dunn]

Mount armour is not really needed.. Most decent mounts run out of ep first without being even more than slightly injured.

It's a cool idea though, but I don't think it warrants more ep loss, well, not any more than adding a saddlebag and saddle.

Even a knight's horse would not wear fine steel full plate armour.. But a chainmail barding. Which is not very cumbersome for a saddled horse.

When you ride outdoors you want to ride 'light', I don't see how turning your mount into an overprotected 'something' that can't move is an advantage. You'll be knocked off/hurt just as fast. Much more than your mount.

Mounts cannot go into most areas.

[khane]

Dunn's point is a good one. Since mounts can not go to certain areas, areas which you would need these mounts, makes wearing eq uneeded thing for most battles. Also, I did not know that many mounts run out of ep faster than there hp.

One way to solve your concerns would be to...

Allow players to remove and attach armours on mounts, making ep costs while moving reduced(I think Minny also addressed this problem) You would still need to buy the armour/order the armour though.

One problem I can't fix is that mounts can not go into certain areas where the battles take place... One option is that you could use these mounts in the outworld if you like fighting in the wild (rangers do!)

Maybe the ability to put eq on mounts could be a skill that rangers get in the first levels of rangers, or it could be a ranger subguild . I suppose having a mount with eq could help a bit when fighting outside

Well, with these ideas put in this means that:
If you travel you will loose no extra amout of ep on your mount

You would be able to fight better/use the equip mounts ability with a the ranger guild/a ranger subguild.( this is an idea so more people would find it useful)

The idea of a ranger subguild/rangers being able to train mounts is an idea that could work I suppose... I am not a ranger so i would not know if this would help a lot I would prefer if rangers answer this question:

Would a subguild that allows you to train special mount skills (like equiping eq, allowing your mount to sleep, being able to make a potion or salve to heal a mounts ep, being able to have a number of mounts follow you while riding, let a mount have an advantage while fighting in foliage...there are many possibilities, *the only one which i have explained is equipping eq, all of the others are small ideas to give examples of this subguild/skills*) or rangers being able to train these skills in the first guild help? or would it be useless?

*sorry for the long reply for a short reply, the long parentheses,
and sorry for having a small avatar that is hard to read.(It says "I'm so lost I almost read the helpfile")*

[felgand]

Though this is off to a tangent, it would be nice for smaller mounts and their subsequent smaller players to be able to fit into some areas that larger mounts are unable to. This would allow for some extra utility for the smaller mounts instead of having everyone default to saving up for that land wyvern, great eagle, or griffon.

[misad]

One problem I can't fix is that mounts can not go into certain areas where the battles take place... One option is that you could use these mounts in the outworld if you like fighting in the wild (rangers do!)

Rangers do not get any of their extra attacks or benefits while riding (rural combat & animal knowledge). Also kick and melee massacre are the only available combat maneuvers while riding. (I don't see strike very usable with our small weapons altough you could use it). In another words, rangers only get their normal melee attacks plus kick. Therefore for rangers OW is as good as any other place for fighting with mounts. Any guild which can use mounts would benefit as much as rangers for these boosts. Whether you fight in OW or not.

Any way using mounts, like wyverns, is double-edged sword for rangers; while it helps a lot in the short run, it on the other hand severely slows down development of your ranger masteries. After buying a wyvern only my non-combat masteries have raised noticeably.

What comes to wyvern's hps, my wyvern has only been low on hps when I've partied with an air priest. In solo it rarely if ever runs out of hps. Maybe that will change in the future when my abilities raise and I move into harder solo kills, but so far it has not been any issue (I doubt that it ever will). Wyvern running out of eps has been much bigger problem than hps.

[minny]

I only ride my bear around in OW to find good mobs to kill or drag my cart around. I rarely ride it to battle. (well i haven't gotten this one the warfare feat yet) but with my last bears, I only go into battle with them if the mobs are too tough for me to kill. (like a bavolorus or whatever)

My outworld skills are useless on a mount and I can't use whirling blades on my bear either. I suppose it's a good thing I can't use whirling blades since I would most likely whirl the head off my bear instead.

So if this feature was introduced, I doubt I'll get any armour for my Chocolate.

[xerene]

I think mounts are quite tough for what they con as, My giant spider went through a delayed tornado of ice and a regular one but came out as only slightly hurt, so I think they are strong enough