Level: Bard 4, Sorcerer 4, Wizard 4
Components: V, S
Casting Time: 10 minutes
Range: 0 ft.
Effect: One quasi-real mount, plus one additional mount/2 levels
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No
Your spell draws ether into form, creating a misty mount for you to ride.
You call into being one or more quasi-real mounts. These mounts accept only you and those that you designate as riders. The mounts appear as horses or any other commonly ridden mounts, but they have a foggy, almost translucent nature, and their colors shift across the spectrum over time. It has what seems to be a saddle, bit, and bridle. It does not fight, but animals shun it and refuse to attack it.
The mount has an AC of 18 (–1 size, +4 natural armor, +5 Dex) and 7 hit points +1 hit point per caster level. If it loses all its hit points, an ethereal mount disappears. Each ethereal mount has a speed of 20 feet per caster level, to a maximum of 240 feet. It can bear its rider’s weight plus up to 10 pounds per caster level.
These mounts gain certain powers according to caster level. A mount’s abilities include those of mounts of lower caster levels. Thus, a mount created by a 12th-level caster has the 8th, 10th, and 12th caster level abilities.
8th Level: The mount can ride over sandy, muddy, or even swampy ground without difficulty or decrease in speed.
10th Level: The mount can use water walk at will (as the spell, no action required to activate this ability).
12th Level: The mount can use air walk at will (as the spell, no action required to activate this ability) for up to 1 round at a time, after which it falls to the ground.
14th Level: The mount can fly at its speed (average maneuverability).
An ethereal mount has a speed of 240 feet on the Ethereal Plane. (If the Deep Ethereal is used in your cosmology, then the amount of time to reach destinations is halved while on an ethereal mount.)
Source: Spell Compendium, page 85.