Find Greater Steed: Dude, Where’s My Pegasus?
Usable By: Paladin
Spell Level: 4
School: Conjuration
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: 30 feet
Duration: Instantaneous
Components: V, S
You summon a spirit that assumes the form of a loyal, majestic mount. Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, the spirit takes on a form you choose: a griffon, a pegasus, a peryton, a dire wolf, a rhinoceros, or a saber—toothed tiger. The creature has the statistics provided in the Monster Manual for the chosen form, though it is a celestial, a fey, or a fiend (your choice) instead of its normal creature type. Additionally, if it has an Intelligence score of 5 or lower, its Intelligence becomes 6, and it gains the ability to understand one language of your choice that you speak. You control the mount in combat. While the mount is within 1 mile of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. While mounted on it, you can make any spell you cast that targets only you also target the mount. The mount disappears temporarily when it drops to 0 hit points or when you dismiss it as an action. Casting this spell again re—summons the bonded mount, with all its hit points restored and any conditions removed. You can’t have more than one mount bonded by this spell or find steed at the same time. As an action, you can release a mount from its bond, causing it to disappear permanently. Whenever the mount disappears, it leaves behind any objects it was wearing or carrying.
Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
Now THIS. THIS is a paladin spell. Find Greater Steed is an incredibly powerful effect, especially for just a 4th level slot. This is something I can get excited about getting as a high level paladin. Who doesn’t want a resummonable pet GRIFFON?
At its base line, Find Greater Steed is a better version of the ranger’s animal companion feature. It rolls initiative, takes its own turns, and you control it at every moment in time. It being labeled a mount can be ignored beyond this point, should you desire. If you just want a rhinoceros friend to romp around a fight with you, it’ll roll initiative and do as you’d like. That’s pretty sweet seeing as it's there till death, and even then you can just resummon it.
But it gets better! The rules for mounted combat are a bit messy and somewhat underdeveloped, but are a major boon to how you can interact with the spell. For half your movement, you can mount a creature. You then can choose to either control it, or let it do its own thing. If you choose to control it, you can have it act on your initiative count instead, and you then can immediately use it to dash, disengage, or dodge, and move. A neat element of this you’ll have to work out with your DM is if that initiative shift is permanent, and if you can simply stop controlling the mount after you control it once. With how I interpret the mounted combat rules, what you could conceivably do is mount your Greater Steed, control it for a single turn to get it and your initiatives in line, then shift to letting it act independently since you control it in combat anyway. Now, you get the benefits of its speeds, actions, and can coordinate your own options to make a two-pronged attack against whatever you’d like!
The mounted combat rules are a bit messy, so I would go over them with your DM if this is something you’re considering. Even outside of getting to act with your mount, getting to control it on its own initiative can still lead to dynamic duo moments that largely favor you. It’ll be helpful to have a ranged option or two in case it acts after you in initiative, but otherwise will feel very similar to if you were to act on the same initiative count.
Having access to any of these creatures as a semi-permanent companion is nuts, and that is exactly what Find Greater Steed is offering you. If the mount goes down mid fight, no problem! After this fight is done, take a ten minute breather and summon it back with full HP; not even a scratch. I can’t recommend Find Greater Steed enough; this is exactly how strong upper level paladins spells should be. Oh, and for the few bards out there with some magical secrets to spare, yes, this spell is bananas on you. Take it.
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