D&D 5E Animal Companions & Mounted Combat confusion

[dbm]

So a character riding a dragon who says 'Hey, let's go attack THAT guy' has now either a) denied the dragon its attack if the dragon does as he suggests, or b) been granted the ability to deny courses of action to the dragon by suggesting them.

Intelligent mounts are explicitly noted as always acting 'uncontrolled'.

The way I would interpret the rules is that you would use the 'controlled' option to get your mount to the point you want on the battlefield. Once you are in location, you switch to 'uncontrolled' and at that point the mount's instincts take over: a war trained mount will fight for you, whilst a regular mount will flee.

Of course, that doesn't help on the ranger question...

 

[Psikerlord#]

I would say the specific pet ruled trump the mounted combat rules. So a ranger riding a wolf can give up an action to definitely make his wolf attack. A fighter on a warhorse doesnt have that certainty, but I would allow a animal handle check (action) for a fighter to try and coax his sgeed to attack.

 

[Andor]

I think this falls under specific beats general.

I also think the mounted combat rules are moderately terrible.

It is absolutely an unclear area of the rules which specific tables will treat differently. The correct answer is talk to your GM. If he's on the fence point to the specific before general rule. What ever he decides is the way it works at your table.

I predict that between Paladins, Rangers, and Rogues, the mounted combat rules and feat will be a common area for houserules.