Mounted Combat - Useful?

[Kabol]

Ok - So I recently got curious bout mounted Combat, So Im lookin though the Feats, Classes, PrC's and what-not. Im doin the usual, "Cool, Cool, Wow - Thats Nice!" Kinda thing and grining to my self as I add up the possabilities.

Then I stop and Think, When is this useful? I been Gameing for ... I dont know, 5-7 years now. By no means a RPG Heavy Weight - But in all that time I have never really had a meaningful mounted combat, Nor been in a campain where It would be possable most of the time.

It seems to me You would need a Mostly Outdoor campaign - Cant really bring horse indoors

You need lots of space - Charge 10' - Hit mob - move 10' past him and turn around for another charge. If you dont have that Alot of your feats/Abilities are put on hold - and Again, Cant bring your horse indoors - BBEG runs into a hut and your combat ability is axe'd

Favors Palidians - I know Noble Knight with Lance - Its a staple of Fantasy, But alot of the PrCs that really powerup Mounted Combat and Charging need you to be Lawful or a Divine caster.
~

So, Thats my Spiel - How do you all feel about Mounted Combat. Is it a Viable combat form for all types of Campaigns, or only for Very specialized ones? Do the Advantages Balance out / Out Weight the Disadvangages?

Or, Am I missing something ?

 

[shilsen]

Four words for you - halfling paladin on wardog. 'Nuff said.

Or, if you want a little more detail, I do think mounted combat works well in 3e (and 3.5). It is powerful with the right feats and magic items, and even more so with the appropriate PrC, but its effectiveness is well-balanced by the fact that you have noted above, that it's not usable all the time. Unless you have a small rider and medium mount, it usually is not a very viable strategy in a dungeon crawl, and is arguably even less effective in certain campaign styles (city-based, nautical, etc).

Overall, I think it's a potentially powerful but balanced combat approach. Though your DM may disagree about the latter if you manage to make that one spirited charge with a smite attack at the right time

 

[Gwarok]

My main issue with Mounted combat wasn't the feats and abilities. A Fighter is obviously required to make the most out of them, but spirited charge with a lance is a nice dmg dealer. Especially if you have ride by attack. And a fast mount is a must. But yea, I agree that in a dungeon crawl they are of little value. But i have noticed that alot of fights take place out of doors, and alot of monsters are fairly large themselves which usually means you will have room to run around in.

The main pain in the butt is that mounts are often alot weaker than the PC riding them and they die alot. I think its one of the reasons fighters get Handle Animal as a class skill, so they can train superior beasts as mounts later on in their careers. But ever since our grp was surprised by a 7th lvl Goblin Druid with some riding feats, mounted on a dire wolf, I gotta say I was impressed with what a mounted guy can do. That lil bastard almost ate a party of 5 5th lvl guys who knew what they were doing.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

See the Wild Cohort feat on the WotC website.

 

[Greylock]

Had a sweet suprise in alsih20's campaign. I dreamed up this char as a mounted guy, but I'd never played a campaign where mounts were feasible. Long story there...

Anyways, I had this char walk into the ongoing tale with a saddlebag across his shoulder instead of a backpack. Just for flavor. My suprise was that the mount I'd figured he'd lost was right close by. He's been going down the Mounted Combat tree ever since.

At first I thought the Mounted Combat feat was going to another of those 'first feat' wastes of time. Good only as a prerequisite for better stuff down the line. Boyo was I wrong. It's been a very useful feat, and I'm using it more often than the Barbarian following the Cleave tree.

 

[dead]

Very true. If you run a *typical* D&D game the mounted warrior is useless. I mean, I had a Cavalier in the olde 1e and I never used him on his horse!!!!!!!

Me 'orse just got used for travelling from one dungeon to the next. Then I dismounted and went in on foot to kill the baddies!

I'm not saying the mounted warrior can't work in D&D but the DM will have to tailor make the campaign to suit. Also, it'd probably help this sort of campaign if ALL the PCs were mounted warriors . . . like knights maybe?

The *true* vision of a knight is that they NEVER GET OFF THEIR HORSE! The knight and the horse are one (. . . well, all most).

 

[Harmon]

Useful Mounted Feats

Last campaign we ended up fighting a Clay Golum. None of the 9th lvl PCs could get through the critters DR (no one had Adam. wpns and no one could do more then its DR w/o a crit- recently changed from 3.0e to 3.5e DR).

So the NPC Pally brought out his mount and after four or so passes there was clay everywhere.

The character is well balanced and has nearly all of the Mounted combat feats.

 

[Zandy]

I played a prestige class in our group's last campaign that went on for 6 years. It was a combination of the S&F cavalier and defender; his job was to protect the citizens of the local kingdom. He was as "knightly" as you could get.

There were many times I thought that I had wasted all the feats on the mounted combat line. But every once in a while I'd get the chance to take my +2 keen heavy lance with specialization and run through some baddie at x4 damage while sporting 24 strength. More than 100pts was possible with a critical roll. Man, would the group be impressed.

It turned out to be worth it for the looks on their faces...

But most importantly, it was what my character was. Those feats helped define him, and I was glad to take them, even if I had to wait until 16th level to get power attack and cleave...

 

[Greylock]

It also helps having a DM who is an imaginative campaign writer. Maissen, the campaign I am playing in, has had options for dungeon crawling. But the party has eschewed those for the most part and kept to overland routes. But we still come into temples and dungeons where we are forced to take the mounts into the black. In those cases it's been very useful having trained War Horses (and War Lizards). They are not phased by the dark underground.

Becoming very sold on the idea of mounted combat, and FWIW my untold long story above was that all my old experience was in 1st ed. Mounts are not much of an option in 1st ed, and are part of the reason why I never wanna go back.

 

[Saeviomagy]

The only thing that a mounted character really has a problem with is that area spells are almost guaranteed to wipe out a 'normal' mount, and a lot of DM's are uneasy about allowing just anything as a mount. The other problem is that it's often difficult to get mounts around in dungeons (especially ones which require climbing).

My primary suggestion is to let the PC pick just about anything of animal intelligence (with an appropriate CR) for a mount. Most of the time the guy on the mount will do a lot more than the mount itself.

The next one is to let the mounted combat feat apply to reflex saves as well - beat the DC and the mount takes no damage. This is purely a balance mechanic: When running a mounted halfling, my riding dog was constantly getting slaughtered by area spells.