The Goblin Paladin

[Tae_Kwon_Dan]

It got nerfed slighlty in 3.5, but Goblins still have a +4 bonus to Ride checks right off the bat. They are also small creatures which means their wolf, warg, or riding dog fit easily into a dungeon and still allowed them to use all of their mounted combat feats. Couple this with smiting and the new power attack (you can two hand a lance while mounted) and a 7th level Goblin Paladin can whip out like 60 odd points of damage without breaking a sweat. All while still in the dungeon.

In 3.0, they had a +6 bonus to Ride and the Mounted Combat feat for free as long as they were on a wolf, warg, or riding dog. This meant they could get Spirited Charge at first level and start running around with that right off the bat.

[Username17]

Don't forget Blink Dogs. Goblins also get their bonus on Blink Dogs.

-Username17

[Tae_Kwon_Dan]

Damn, I knew I forgot something.

Yeah, that also makes Goblin Paladins rather nice. And to be honest, beyond the mechanical advantages, the concept of a Goblin Paladin is pretty neat too.

[Thoth_Amon]

Since Blink dogs cannot take their riders when they blink, (Unless you are really liberal with shared spells) they are really just there to be bad ass all by themselves.

Right?

TA

[Username17]

According to a Skip Answer on Shared Spells, Blink Dogs can take their rider if they are a bonded mount (or familiar, for that matter).

Even with them just as a regular mount, remember that a ghost touch saddle is nearly free.

-Username17

[Galahad_Knight]

Arms and Equipment Guide even has a type of dog which can clumb (Called, believe it or not, the Climbdog) so there's literally nowhere a small mounted combattant cannot go that a medium sized person can

[fbmf]

What makes Goblins such good riders, and does it still work in 3.5?

Game On,
fbmf

[MrWaeseL]

1072121284[/unixtime]]According to a Skip Answer on Shared Spells, Blink Dogs can take their rider if they are a bonded mount (or familiar, for that matter).

Even with them just as a regular mount, remember that a ghost touch saddle is nearly free.

-Username17

But then they still won't get their own equipment (barding etc.)? Or did Skip change that as well?

[User3]

The important change is that the ghost touch property no longer lets you hit ethereal creatures.

[Crissa]

What does Ghost Touch do, then?

[Fwib]

Hits incorporeal.

A ghost touch weapon deals damage normally against incorporeal creatures, regardless of its bonus. (An incorporeal creature’s 50% chance to avoid damage does not apply to attacks with ghost touch weapons.) The weapon can be picked up and moved by an incorporeal creature at any time. A manifesting ghost can wield the weapon against corporeal foes. Essentially, a ghost touch weapon counts as either corporeal or incorporeal at any given time, whichever is more beneficial to the wielder.

[Desdan_Mervolam]

So wait. That part about a Ghost Touch weapon being " either corporeal or incorporeal at any given time, whichever is more beneficial to the wielder." Doesn't that mean that a ghost Touch weapon is incoporial for the purpouses of disarm and sunder attempts, since it's always more benifical to the weilder for the weapon to be incoproeal (Thus untargetable) in those situations?

-Desdan

[Kirin_Corrigan]

Excellent question. Nothing in the rules seems to prevent someone to interpret the text that way, so I'd say that the 3.5 Ghost Touch grants "immunity from corporeal attacks" to the weapon.

[Fwib]

In order to work like that, the weapon has to count as both corporeal and incorporeal at the same time.

Corporeal so you can hold it..
and
Incorporeal so it can't be hit/can hit incorporeal things...

In which case, why not stab the guard/monster/whatever through the wall/door? Corp. in your hand, Incorp. through the door, Corp in their guts...

Or smash up the delicate insides of a machine by ignoring the case or flip the switch on the other side of the wall... there have to be many interesting uses for that... maybe some of them even hideously exploitative....

[User3]

I'm pretty sure that is has to be comepletely something. So while you can hold it (corporeal) and smack a manifested ghost (incorporeal), you can't stab through walls.

That said, if you get Ghost Touch gauntlets to hold your Ghost Touch sword with...

[Kirin_Corrigan]

In order to work like that, the weapon has to count as both corporeal and incorporeal at the same time.

Corporeal so you can hold it..
and
Incorporeal so it can't be hit/can hit incorporeal things...

That's what I was thinking, and that's how the ability seems to work. OTOH,admittedly, there's another, slightly different interpretation: the weapon is either corporeal (so that someone corporeal can wield it) and lets you hit incorporeal anyways for some unexplained reason while still being corporeal, or incorporeal (so that someone incorporeal can wield it) and lets you hit corporeal anyways for some unexplained reason while still being incorporeal... Then we'll call that unexplained reason "magic" and the last line of the Ghost Touch entry "misleading flavor text" and be done with it.

Still, unless one scratches that last line, there's the chance to interpret the Ghost Touch property as making the weapon impossible to be disarmed or sundered by the rules.

[Fwib]

1128397039[/unixtime]]I'm pretty sure that is has to be comepletely something. So while you can hold it (corporeal) and smack a manifested ghost (incorporeal), you can't stab through walls.

That said, if you get Ghost Touch gauntlets to hold your Ghost Touch sword with...

The thing is: if you say 'either one thing or the other' when you swing the sword to hit the ghost, the sword goes incorporeal (to hit the ghost) and slides through your fingers....

[User3]

1128458500[/unixtime]]

1128397039[/unixtime]]I'm pretty sure that is has to be comepletely something. So while you can hold it (corporeal) and smack a manifested ghost (incorporeal), you can't stab through walls.

That said, if you get Ghost Touch gauntlets to hold your Ghost Touch sword with...

The thing is: if you say 'either one thing or the other' when you swing the sword to hit the ghost, the sword goes incorporeal (to hit the ghost) and slides through your fingers....

Maybe you didn't understand me: When a Ghost Touch sword is used to attack a ghost, it is corporeal. All of it. It is also incorporeal. All of it.
When you don't want the ghost to disarm you, it isn't incorporeal. When the ghost readies an action to disarm you when you attack, and takes the sword away, the sword is both corporeal and incorporeal. When you try to disarm the ghost, the sword is completely incorporeal.

Make sense?

So, if the ghost can have the sword not be corporeal, you should be able to as well. Normally, this would mean that it fell from your grasp, but not if you're wearing Ghost Touch gauntlets which are both corporeal and incorporeal.

[Fwib]

Catharz, are you saying that a corporeal wielder should be able to stick a ghost touch sword through a wall or not?

If so, should he only be able to strike incorporeal opponents? (this sounds sensible to me)

Or are you saying that the state of the sword, corporeal or incorporeal, relative to other entities than the user should be whatever the user would like? (So, incorporeal to the wall, corporeal to the orc standing behind the wall)

[User3]

Consider the state of the entire sword as a function of time, where -1 = incorporeal, 0 = corporeal & incorporeal, and 1 = corporeal.

Being a function, of time, the sword can't be both -1 & 1, or 1 & 0.

[erik]

1128711248[/unixtime]]Consider the state of the entire sword as a function of time, where -1 = incorporeal, 0 = corporeal & incorporeal, and 1 = corporeal.

Being a function, of time, the sword can't be both -1 & 1, or 1 & 0.

Uhhh, if it can't be -1 and 1, then it can't be 0, since they're definitionally the same as you wrote it.

Though I concur with what I think your point was meant to be. I have no problem with saying that it can be "0", but must be entirely of both states, so no armor-door-piercing-fu.

So long as it must be entirely one or both states, then you only get to use the anti-disarm sunder trick when you are fighting someone of a different state than you. There's nothing explicitly in the rules about being entirely one state or the other, but it seems the easiest way to house-rule it into sanity's realm.