Arelith

Large characters like half giants and ogres, could/should potentially be allowed to have the spirited charge bonuses from being mounted, apply while on foot, as if they were mounted - the reason there is no mount for them is because of model issues if I recall, but if we give them the spirited charge effects while on foot, they don't actually get mounted combat boosts (meaning no AB/AC boost from being mounted - because they aren't) and still have -1 AB/AC from being large, and have to pay the Mounted Combat feat tax, so it seems like a pretty hefty tradeoff to allow them some build variety and actually have cavalier be a possible class for them.

Thematically, a half giant running into someone and messing them up also just makes sense. You don't need a horse, you're 10-14 feet tall.

<3 ty

As someone playing a cavalier currently, no.

This would be absolutely horrible from a balance perspective. Half-giants would be able to effectively charge in any zone regardless of whether you can mount.

They would be immune to vengeful mount, and there is less visual clarity on whether that giant running at you is now suddenly going to do 150 damage and daze.

I will counter by saying that we should allow vengeful mount to piss off half giants and firbolgs just because that sounds HILARIOUS

but no seriously you get none of the mounted combat benefits which are actually a substantial portion of why cavalier is even good. Sure your opening round is nuts, but the mounted combat rules are what give you any sustainability. Large characters still don't get any of that, despite paying the skillpoint and feat tax for the class.

They still miss out on:

bonus AB
bonus AC
bonus temp HP
bonus speed

from the mount not being a thing; also their normal -1 AB/AC size penalty. You ONLY get the nice opening charge move, still, even with this change. And it takes up a third class - so a half giant that wanted to be a cav meme would have to do something like fighter/wm/cav, or maybe rogue/wm/cav, just for the charge, and miss out on a lot of stuff in either build (either weapon specialization and bonus feats, which might make rogue/wm/cav actually just impossible to even do, or tumble/umd from rogue or bard - also no loremaster.)

It's a very, very big build tradeoff. This isn't OP by any stretch. It is potentially good, it is not op.

Gonna have to nip this in the bud, mounted charge on foot can't happen for balance purposes.

It's also a suggestion, I recommend using the right channels for the right purposes.