D&D General What ever happened to the Cavalier?

[Bedrockgames]

That dude was a Noble Warrior at best. He wouldn't know which end of a lance to point at a charging enemy, let alone how to ride a horse.

He was the Chandler of D&D

 

[Vaalingrade]

Whenever I bring up the castle design, I get told "flying enemies aren't that common, lol". I often wonder what game some people are playing.

I would just tell you castles look cool and magic ballista are even cooler.

 

[James Gasik]

I would just tell you castles look cool and magic ballista are even cooler.

What about all the burrowing enemies that could totally destroy a castle? Bulettes and Delvers and Ankhegs and Earth Elementals being just the more well known examples.

 

[Vaalingrade]

What about all the burrowing enemies that could totally destroy a castle? Bulettes and Delvers and Ankhegs and Earth Elementals being just the more well known examples.

That's why you have a single man with a set of adamantine knuckles and the ability to strike the earth in a massive shockwave on retainer.

You can have anything in the setting if you allow everyone to be awesome and gleefully laugh in simulationism's face whenever it tries to verisimilitude all over everyone.

 

[billd91]

Whenever I bring up the castle design, I get told "flying enemies aren't that common, lol". I often wonder what game some people are playing.

One where the frequency of flying enemies is very much informed by the specifics of the campaign setting.

 

[R_J_K75]

When they only give him a shield Eric the Cavalier was bound to die, only a matter of time

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

Now if Feat slots were like Spell slots in that you could have more Feats in your knowledge-bank than your number of available Feats slots at your level, and could swap out Feats on a daily basis (so you could figure out what you probably would be doing for the day and could plug in the feats that would be the most useful to you)... at that point, sure, select and have Mounted Combat as an option in your back pocket. That way if/when you ever find yourself in a situation where you are going to need it... you can "unprepare" your Actor feat for the day (for example) and "prepare" Mounted Combat instead (using admittedly completely wrong terminology for what the system is asking of us to do, LOL).

Possibly another way to implement that idea would be to simply turn Mounted Combat into a FIghting Style and players with the Fighting Style option swap out their Fighting Style(s) daily depending on what they are preparing for that day. It wouldn't break anything and it would give fighting types a bit more versatility.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'd like to point out that at various times during D&D:HAT, the characters were riding horses to and fro. And so many fantasy movies have had scenes with mounted combat (Willow, LotR, etc.) that it really ought to be a staple of D&D.

I'll just note that few fantasy movies have as consistent a tendency to run into, well, area effects, and you relatively rarely see someone deliberately try to take a horse out from someone or kill the horses while unattended. The first is absolutely not true in D&D, and players are generally unwilling to assume the second won't happen.

 

[Celebrim]

For the same reason that D&D worlds have open-topped castles...[/SIZE]

The open topped castle is an anachronism even in the real world and has to do with the fact that in warmer climates in Europe, hoardings were generally made of wood and often constructed only in wartime and neglected otherwise. Thus, the Edwardian castles people are familiar with in ruins are open topped today because the wooden hoardings long ago disintegrated or were purposely dismantled (Edward's castles generally served their purpose of pacifying Wales and integrating it into the culture and economy of England), but which would not have been open topped if the castle was expecting conflict. However, castles in Northern and Eastern Europe tended to have permanent stone and tile hoardings covering the fighting positions atop the walls and towers. And historical castles not only had arrow loops but in their final stages also cannon loops for destroying whatever siege equipment was brought against them, so the whole "ballista" thing isn't entirely without merit either.

Generally speaking, if fantasy air forces are a thing, then fantasy castles are also air bases where fantasy air forces are stored safely. But it's not a given that in a particular setting you have fantasy air forces more common than Bellerophon on his steed.

More often, what you actually see in D&D is fairy tale castles along the lines of Neuschwanstein which represent not castles as they actually were but romantic images of castles as we wished they were or how they appear in our fancy. Certainly, for example, Castle Ravenloft is such a castle.

 

[Stormonu]

I'll just note that few fantasy movies have as consistent a tendency to run into, well, area effects, and you relatively rarely see someone deliberately try to take a horse out from someone or kill the horses while unattended. The first is absolutely not true in D&D, and players are generally unwilling to assume the second won't happen.

If D&D can handwave attacking specific body parts, I can live with not being able to target the mount without a special attack (and essentially give mounts an improved form of Evasion).