Attributes:
The Cavalier is a bit MAD. You need strength for hit and damage but you’re not as reliant on it as other frontline fighters. Completely dumping Dex is hard if you’re staying mounted. You can’t really dump Con because you’re melee. Wisdom hurts to dump as it’s a weak save. Int is possibly a dump stat but not so bad you lose skills. Charisma is important for a lot of your skill options and
Strength this is Blue for it determines hit bonus and damage.
Charisma is your 2nd stat as just about every build of consequence, if you don’t want to invest in Charisma play a fighter
Constitution this is your 2nd or 3rd stat for all but the most caster/ranged driven
builds. You Fort save and HP cannot suffer by dumping this.
Dexterity can be an important stat or near a dump stat but remember you will more than likely need your ride skill.
Wisdom If we had a strong will save I’d dump this in a heartbeat. Wis tends to
be my 5th stat for a cavalier you will miss making perception rolls.
Intelligence 13 is an important breakpoint for a variety of builds that utilize combat expertise, it is otherwise a 5th or 6th stat.
I’ll save point buys for the build section.
Races:
Dwarves aren’t terrible but they are not exactly a strong choice either. Con bonus is nice and their survivability is high but in the end they suffer for being both medium and having a poor stat array for the cavalier. Saving grace is the very decent bonus to damage against challenge targets
Elves aren’t better except they can be excellent multiclass options into Eldritch Knight or Magus.
Gnomes are small which is a tremendously good thing, they trade a small ding to primary stat but bonuses to 2nd and 3rd options, sla options, or using master tinker and the craft skill potentially any exotic weapon prof.
Half-Elves +2 to str, Skill feat for easier access to Eldritch Heritage feat chain (or not), bonus to perception, cheat to get a free casting class spell list for wands without SLA making it easier to dump CHA.
Halflings size matters especially for the mount builds. Workable stat array, affinity
to slings, good skill bonuses, Luck to shore up saves, but mostly size
is a bonus. They also have their own order which is a decent option.
Humans Flexible bonus, free feat, and extra skill points, humans are still a very good choice. The ability to keep advancing the animal companion and going full bore into another class for the low cost of a feat is near broken.
Half-Orcs They are really good for Order of cockatrice/daring champion builds in particular. But the Beast Rider Racial feat will net you much much better mount options. Ferocity
Asasimar/Tiefling you can cherry pick attributes without penalties and SLAs like glitterdust. Assamars also have an option to give ACs celestial template making them the overall best choice.
Catfolk might make an ok daring champion or luring cavalier but suboptimal in general.
Dhampire might fit in an evil neg energy channeling party, the blood drinker featline isn’t terrible but you have better options.
Drow ignoring drow noble because that’s just WRONG. SLA s are decent, strictly better than regular elf but not by much.
Fetchling this is a poor choice, I can’t help disliking that con penalty.
Goblin they are small which is a good start, +4 to dex can be an excellent choice if you are willing to pay the feat tax to get melee back online, and the stealth options are beyond good and then there’s the variety fairly good racial feats.
Hobgoblin Dex and Con bonus for no dump and a +4 to stealth, yes please. Then there’s the fellrider archetype which is amazing and a no brainer choice.
Ifrit stat mods suck, slas aren’t particularly useful but in a fire heavy campaign they could be cool.
Kobold stat mods, nuff said.
Orc stat mods almost entirely account for the rating but the alternate favored class bonus can smeller alternate race trait are also quite useful.
Oread stat mods are useful, alternate race traits can be quite good especially crystalline form and a sla ranged option.
Ratfolk Size saves this from red and little else.
Sylph bad array, only useful ability is feather fall sla.
Tengu Stat array isn’t great but prof with ALL SWORDS, nat attack with extra options, and a feat option for flight? Yeah!
Undine bad stat array but a surprising number of decent abilities, better for aquatic campaigns.
Changeling stat mods suck, there's a few useful abilities but nothing awesomesauce.
Duergar The abilities to enlarge and go invisible are quite good. If you’re GM lets you play a Duergar tyrant that’s broken.
Gillman let’s play an entirely aquatic campaign, said no GM I’ve ever played with.
Grippli the alternate race traits of glide and jumper make this green for me. Being small helps come over the top of a poor stat array. In an upcoming book for Flying pincushion games that I playtested that allows for a Giant dragonfly mount and I’d bump this to Aqua if that is allowed at your table. We enchanted a saddle with the anthault belt enchantments and pretty much used that and various other shenanigans to essentially use her like a helicopter.
Kitsune a Swashbuckler/Cavalier or if you want to go crazy with a Vigilante mixed build can make this absurdly good option. Outside that it is meh.
Merfolk If you can wrap your head around using the strongtail alt race trait and your GM allows a modified saddle to work you’re not hurt by the land speed if you’re mounted. Then you have a race with a +2 to 3 attributes 2 of which are important to you, low light vision, +2 to natural armor, and niche moments of awesome whenever swim checks or water features heavily. There will be times when you’re 15ft move speed is going to be a hassle and maybe not so much for a dessert campaign but you really could do worse.
Nagaji stat mods, nat ac bonus, help on most will saves, and perceptions checks. I initially had this green, then I saw the First Mother's Fang Archetype that males this blue.
Samsurian this really is great for casters and that’s it..
Strix not even for flight
Suli strong stat array and elemental assault is very good.
Svirfneblin poor option.
Vanara good despite stat array, prehensile tail to help action economy, and a climb speed make an attractive package.
Vishkanya poor stat array but free poison use, perception and
stealth bonuses, exotic weapon options, and the AMAZING Sleep Venom
feat that makes your poison a scaling save or suck!
Wayang lots of little niceties like small size + a stealth bonus but I’d far rather be a goblin, halfling, or gnome.
Triton this is just a crappier merfolk
Gathlain neat race, like SLA to entangle + fly over and use a reach weapon at first level! I just don’t see this as particularly suited for the cavalier. If I went this route I’d go with Daring Champion and Order of the Flame. I’d also definitely dip 3 levels of UnRogue or swashbuckler to lessen the feat taxes of dexterity builds.
Android mixed bag. You’re not trying to optimize if you’re playing this. The constructed trait is actually very useful and I’d definitely take the repairing nanite alt race trait Amici is a good trade off, rapid repair and rapid recovery are nice. IDK I’d rather use this with an Avenger path Vigilante or a straight up fighter.
Ghoran there’s an archetype out of the cavalier book from FPG that replaces the mount feature with a symbiotic vine. That with this race will basically make you Groot, and Groot is awesome. I might throw it in builds. Even without that you don’t sleep or eat in a normal manner, good stat array, nat armor bonus, the ability to make a backup of yourself as long as you have a decent cleric to remove the negative level. swap out for that intoxicating aroma alternate class trait.
Kathsatha the 4 armed thing would be amazing for other melee characters just not so much for a cavalier. If you want to play one of these I recommend going with a natural attack oriented melee class like Shifter or do that barbarian that uses the natural attack rage powers.
Lashunta the only reason to do this is you want to play the Outrider archetype which gets combat expertise and a neat ability called maneuver tactics. It’s a solid choice. This would otherwise be meh.
Shabti the stat array helps you MAD issues. all knowledge skills a5re class skills and they are harder to level drain and there’s shenanigans with the option to pick an age category and stay that age category. I’d swap the meh SLA for a racial +2 to the parts of a will save that make it suck.
Syrinx take an archetype that swaps out your AC as you’re flying. Not my favorite flyer option and not particularly great as a cavalier.
Wyrwood small is a good thing for a cavalier. The stat array penalizes Cha which hurts but the construct type gives a boatload of immunities you get 10 extra HP and your Con is treated as a 10 no option to up it. The immunities and the size are very appealing.
Wyvaran Flight + the dragon subtype and darkvision and an okay stat array. My winner for the flying options. Just like Gathlain I’d go Daring Champion and likely dip into a class that speeds along dex unless you get an amazing point buy.
Intro
Attributes and Races
Traits, Skills, and Feats
Orders
Archetypes
Alternate Opinions and a few areas I didn't cover
Builds
Spirited Charging Pouncer
Knight of Shadows
Dragon Knight
Mighty Halfling
Drive-by-skirmisher
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