Larian Studios

There are few topics in these style of games that create more division then talking about mounted combat. Few games attempted it. Even fewer got it right. However, knowing that larian has a lot larger budget then many of their competition, it is a valid discussion.


How would it work?

- your allowed to use any mount that is the size same as yours. Unless heavy armour [then it needs to be +1 size]
- your mount size should increase, depending on class, every 2-4 levels.
- you need to add barding, adding a few items for them to wear

- mounts could scale with Wisdom[for mounts that use magic]
Or scale with strength / dexterity

- classes that can dominate animals, should be able to ride them [make a concentration check every round]


Class Selection eg:

Ranger: would get a feat at lvl 5, gets access to dog, wolf, or raven
Barbarian: would get feat at lvl 4: gets access to lizard, or horse


Scaling for mounts

The mount would scale to player -4 for mounts that are controlled by dominate beast. This would allow you to mount a beast, and attack it with party for an easy kill. It also opens a lot of ways for beat some hard encounters.

Regular mounts would scale to the level of the pc. Any players who take said classes as multi class would get the -4 scaling.


Pros for this

Adds a large amount of play styles that would normally not work. It would not be as powerful as summons in dos2 or pathfinder, but provide the option to those who want it. Would also provide larian an excuse to finish familiars that are broken right now.





TLDR: do you agree? If so what should be improved? If not why.

Imo this is an impossibility, or at least so unlikely as to be effectively impossible. It'd be cool, sure, but I am highly skeptical that Larian would be able to implement and add whole new set of mechanics and models for mounts given all the other things they still need to do. They haven't even implemented some of the basic classes and spells yet...

Assuming "mount that is the same size as yours" means that your mount can be the same size as *you,* .....uhhhh no. There is no way a human is riding a wolf or a dog into battle. Mounts should be required to be 1 size larger than you, and possibly even larger (or have a certain minimum Str score) if you're wearing heavy armor.
- Or, are you trying to say that you can use any animal of a certain size - if your dedicated mount is a Large horse, you can use any other Large creature as a mount? But you can't mount a Huge creature? If so, that's fine.

Your mount increasing in size every 2-4 levels means that it'd be gargantuan size very quickly, which would be way too unwieldy and unrealistic. Why do mounts need to increase in size at all? And how?
Also, you run into the problem of when you're mounted on a Huge+ mount, it's unclear what areas you can actually attack or be attacked from. E.g., a human riding an elephant can't reasonably hit anything that's next to the elephant on the ground. At the very least, this size increase shouldn't be mandatory so that melee characters can continue to use their mounts.

These seem contradictory..? Does the mount scale with the player's ability score (Wis/Str/Dex) or does it level up with the player?
The latter seems good: you'd at very least want the mount's HP to increase with your level. Its proficiency bonus could also increase.\

All this said, there are already rules in D&D 5e for mounts and mounted combat, even a feat. I don't think these rules are perfect, but it'd still make sense to start there and make modifications to those rules.

To make it work in Baldur's Gate, it'd have to work in 5e first.

Seems like something i certainly dont need in the game at all. :-/
sory

I'm not a fan of mounts at Baldur's Gate 3. Except as a caravan or pack animal for camp.

Mounts are more suited to MMORPG sandboxes and the world for Baldur's Gate 3 is too small for that. Even in TESO, I often skip the mount because there's a lot of fighting or gathering resources, so it's just not worth getting on the mount unless you really want to cover a longer distance without stopping. In BG 3 you're jumping and running through underground passages, hills, etc. and I would find it annoying getting up and down the mount every time. I don't climb the mount for the fight alone, but prefer to position myself tactically.

Larian apparently noticed this themselves in advance, otherwise there would be Worgriders like in IWD II.

Sure why not sounds great on paper. Aslong as it's done great and we don't have solo horses attacking goblins..after all horse is not a bear. This would be a ton of work though and half made system just doesn't cut it. So if that would be the case just half assed system no thx same thing as with fly.
Flying mounts sound fun on paper but in game it would be a problem if not done right.

Mounted combat hasn't really added anything meaningful to any game I've played.

A mount would also make the theme park maps feel even smaller than they currently do. A Goblin Worg Rider could reach the Druid Grove in seconds rather than minutes. And they "can't find it".

I definitely wouldn't care for mounter player characters. A mounted enemy though? Perhaps a two stage fight where first you kill a horse, and then fight a rider.

Either way, it's not something BG3 really needs.

i have idea owlbear or transformation in to mount for players to hold two players or to summon a mount if like i hope in the future there be mods to add mounts lol...

Yeah it would be cool. But this is not Wotr the map I'd not big enugh to have any use of it.
I wish bg3 would be bigger harder. An I whould like more animal companions and summons.