Find Steed: Dude, Where’s My Horse?

Usable By: Paladin

Spell Level: 2

School: Conjuration

Casting Time: 10 minutes

Range: 30 feet

Duration: Instantaneous

Components: V, S

You summon a spirit that assumes the form of an unusually intelligent, strong, and loyal steed, creating a long-‐‑lasting bond with it. Appearing in an unoccupied space within range, the steed takes on a form that you choose: a warhorse, a pony, a camel, an elk, or a mastiff. (Your GM might allow other animals to be summoned as steeds.) The steed has the statistics of the chosen form, though it is a celestial, fey, or fiend (your choice) instead of its normal type. Additionally, if your steed has an Intelligence of 5 or less, its Intelligence becomes 6, and it gains the ability to understand one language of your choice that you speak.

Your steed serves you as a mount, both in combat and out, and you have an instinctive bond with it that allows you to fight as a seamless unit. While mounted on your steed, you can make any spell you cast that targets only you also target your steed.

When the steed drops to 0 hit points, it disappears, leaving behind no physical form. You can also dismiss your steed at any time as an action, causing it to disappear. In either case, casting this spell again summons the same steed, restored to its hit point maximum.

While your steed is within 1 mile of you, you can communicate with it telepathically.

You can’t have more than one steed bonded by this spell at a time. As an action, you can release the steed from its bond at any time, causing it to disappear.

Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold

The righteous paladin adorned in plate so polished it glints in the sunlight strapped to a noble, majestic silver mare clad in matching armor: a farmhand brandishing a hoe sharpened to a point on the wrong end with a makeshift saddle oversized for the mastiff underneath, droopy goofy face drooling lazily while she prods him gently to spur him to move. Both delightful characters in their own right, and both products of Find Steed.

I adore Find Steed. This is paladin’s Find Familiar. It's a pet you get you can mount and ride, that can die horribly in combat and come back after a long rest. It functions more as a feature than spell, something you cast once in a while when things get particularly nasty and you want your horse back, but is firmly locked to the paladin class thanks to its odd mechanics, save bard’s magical secrets.

Having an obedient pet on its own is valuable, even without needing to mount it and ignoring all the abilities and attributes offered in each stat block. To sweeten the deal further, Find Steed hooks you up with a bunch of neat utility tools that will make your PHB beastmaster ranger feel like a chump. The default creature is the pony; its got low HP, is medium, so only small or smaller characters can mount it, has a +4 to hit 2d4+2 bludgeoning damage attack, and that’s it. Each other creature steps up from that. Camels are slightly faster, 50 speed compared to the pony’s 40, have more HP, but deal less damage with their bite attack. Mastiffs have the least HP, but come with the keen hearing and smell monster trait and the ability to knock creatures prone, making them excellent allies for a halfling or gnome paladin to work with and protect. Warhorses are wicked fast, clocking in at 60 ft., have a +6 to hit 2d6+4 hoof attack, and if they can use it with trampling charge also can knock creatures prone and attack it AGAIN. The elk is my personal favorite; it matches the camel with a 50 ft. speed, has only a +5 to hit with their hooves for 2d4+3, but in exchange for trampling charge gets charge, which adds 2d6 damage and can knock the hit creature prone all in one attack. Usually this will just be worse than a warhorse, but it absolutely matches the aesthetics of a dainty elven prick in gilded armor above the uglier people below.

Using it as a mount in combat can be a bit tricky. I’d recommend reading the brief mounted combat rules, and keep in mind the inherent upsides and downsides that come with how you handle the mount. None of these creatures have a huge pool of hit points, meaning you’re going to want to consider picking up the Mounted Combatant feat to protect them if that’s the style of combat you’re looking to take on, but even without saddling up, having a temporary summonable ally is incredibly useful, and this selection, while similar, each offer some extra utility you’ll consider from time to time. If you’re a paladin, this is a no brainer spell to take.

5e Spells

Find Steed: Dude, Where’s My Horse?