u/Mister_Grins

So, the rules of mounted combat are pretty small and don't seem to leave a lot of wiggle room.

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The Initiative of a controlled mount changes to match yours when you mount it. It moves on your turn as you direct it, and it has only three action options during that turn: Dash, Disengage, Dodge. A controlled mount can move and act even on the turn that you mount it.

Then, when I look at the Find Steed spell for Paladins, I can't help but notice the special Bonus Actions it gets in its stat block. But then I notice that, again, in the spell description itself, it states, "it functions as a controlled mount while you ride it (as defined in the rules on mounted combat)".

So, my question is this:
By RAW, does this means I can't use the once a day Fey Step, Fell Glare, or Healing Touch using the Otherwoldly Steed's own Bonus Action while I've mounted it, and, therefore, can only do so if I'm not mounted on it and treating it as an independent creature?
Or, is this a case where I can use the mount's own Bonus Action, since the rules only claim jurisdiction over their Actions, which mean any Bonus Action abilities are on the table to have them use, leaving my Paladin's Bonus Action free for my own use even while I'm treating the Otherworldly Steed as a controlled mount?

What if the Tiers of Play were codified?

This is something that's been percolating in my mind for some time. While it's true that these tiers are officially named, they don't grant any meaningful mechanical difference.

To put it to a fine, demonstrative point, A Level 1 PC can, technically, beat an Adult Red Dragon (CR 17). Caveats of the dragon never using their breath attack and staying in melee range noted and placed aside, a Level 1 PC can swing a non-magical short sword and pick away at the Adult Red Dragon's HP until it reaches zero and the Dragon can technically miss every single attack they make in turn.

Extremely unlikely to being nearly pure fantasy, of course, but, if you manage to get a whole village of NPC farmers aligned to your cause (something one might reasonably do with the right Bard subclass), due to the rules of Bounded Accuracy, suddenly the CR 17 Dragon's chances start going down dramatically. A hail of arrows from a peasant army pose a genuine threat, even though a Commoner is a CR 0 creature.

Now, of course, the strength of 5/5.5E is its simplicity, and I wouldn't want to change that, but, something that can even the playing field, as it were, to make reaching these different tiers of play. Now, this initial inspiration came from reading Murim comics (magic kung-fu in a nominally China-ish setting), and, as one reaches, what we'll call for simplicity's sake, a higher state of being, beings in a lower state, definitionally have a harder time being a threat at all.

So, defining the standard Tiers of Play as:

Tier 1 (Levels 1 - 4)

Tier 2 (Levels 5 - 10)

Tier 3 (Levels 11 - 16)

Tier 4 (Levels 17+)

As of my current ponderings, I would suggest the following:

For opponents ONE tier above the PC
-the PC will do half-damage to them
-Opponents gain a +2 to any PC Saving Throws

For opponents TWO tiers above the PC
-the PC will do half-damage and have disadvantage on all their attacks on said opponent
-all PCs have disadvantage on any Saving Throw the opponent makes them roll
-Opponents gain Advantage on all PC Saving Throws and gain +5 to the rolls

Special Note: Opponents that are two tiers above the PC that would normally have Advantage on a Saving Throw already, like having Magic Resistance, instead, automatically succeed the Saving Throws they make (against the thing they would already have advantage on).

For opponents THREE tiers above the PC
-the PC cannot do damage to the opponent at all
-the PC automatically fails all Saving Throws the Opponent makes them roll
-Opponents always land their attacks and are criticals
-Opponents always succeed against PC Saving Throws (unless they will otherwise)

~~~

That's what I've got so far, at least. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything, just contemplating an add-on to any particular game-setting. Is this too complicated (certainly the verbiage is clunky but that can be ironed out), not enough? Should it also be codified you need to take part in a ritual to reach the next tier of play for rules like this? Or, is this, largely something only good enough for a thought experiment?