Anemic Horses

[HarbingerX]

Then you need to look again.
While the carrying capacity apparently is realistic, the effect of going over this limit is not. A horse does not slow down to 10 ft. per 6 seconds when it carries 300 lb.

I don't see how a horse carrying 300 lbs. being limited to 68 mph tactical speed is somehow unrealistic. A check of wikipedia shows that the fastest recorded sprint speed of a horse over a short distance is 55 mph. And you can bet it wasn't carrying 300 lbs. of gear.

If anything, all existing tactical speeds are too high.

 

[HarbingerX]

Please blast my math if something is wrong here, but 1 'Horsepower' - the power output of one draft horse - is 33,000 lbs * feet / minute. This would mean that a horse can pull 330 lbs 100 feet / minute, or...

330 lbs * 10 feet / 6 seconds....

10 ft per 6 seconds.

 

[Kordeth]

I don't see how a horse carrying 300 lbs. being limited to 68 mph tactical speed is somehow unrealistic. A check of wikipedia shows that the fastest recorded sprint speed of a horse over a short distance is 55 mph. And you can bet it wasn't carrying 300 lbs. of gear.

If anything, all existing tactical speeds are too high.

Umm--how do you get 68 mph out of 10 ft. per round? That's 100 ft. per minute, 6,000 feet per hour, or barely more than 1 mph. Even if you assume a double-move pace (which is harder to sustain), a Speed of 2 is right around 2 mph.

Even unencumbered, a riding horse's speed of 10 (50 ft. per round) is about 5.6 mph, or 11.2 if it double-moves.

 

[HarbingerX]

Umm--how do you get 68 mph out of 10 ft. per round? That's 100 ft. per minute, 6,000 feet per hour, or barely more than 1 mph. Even if you assume a double-move pace (which is harder to sustain), a Speed of 2 is right around 2 mph.

Even unencumbered, a riding horse's speed of 10 (50 ft. per round) is about 5.6 mph, or 11.2 if it double-moves.

Doh! I used 100 feet per second, not per minute.

Move along! Move along! Nothing to see here!

So 5.6 mph with a top speed of 11.2 mph is about right. See my next post - a speed of 2 when carrying 330 lbs is about right.

 

[jodyjohnson]

In 4E the dragonborn is better of when he is carried by a dwarf then when he mounts a horse.

When I reread the dwarf ability it only reinforces my opinion that in the mad rush to get the books out a paragraph got snipped regarding slower but not Slowed movement when encumbered.

The best beasts of burden in 4e really are the dwarves.

 

[Old Gumphrey]

The best beasts of burden in 4e really are the dwarves.

I hate this game so much.

 

[cheshire_grin]

Please blast my math if something is wrong here, but 1 'Horsepower' - the power output of one draft horse - is 33,000 lbs * feet / minute. This would mean that a horse can pull 330 lbs 100 feet / minute, or...

330 lbs * 10 feet / 6 seconds....

10 ft per 6 seconds.

And that's pulling, not even carrying.

 

[Old Gumphrey]

First of all, what kind of horse is this based on? Probably not a heavy warhorse. 330 lbs. really isn't much for a creature that weighs nearly 2 tons. Also, I don't think horses typically go for a sprint while they're hooked up to a heavy weight on a sled with freaking ropes.

Me, personally, can pull 360 lbs. 10 feet in 10 seconds, if it's on a sled. And I'm not exactly as strong as a horse. I think a horse can pull 330 lbs. like, forever. I can do this for like...20 seconds. My point is that if you put the 330 on its back and tell it to run, it can, because it's not attached to ropes dragging a sled.

How is this conversation still going on? Why do people refuse to believe that horses are strong?

 

[Marshall]

You are right. If the weight of characters was actually in any way related to their strength, the average fighter would weigh 220#. But in reality D&D it does not. In reality (in my experience) most players give their characters weights that are 200# or lower.

Especially when the PHB lists the weight range for humans as 135 to 220 pounds, putting weights over 200# at the very high end of the range.</p>

AHA! So your solution to the artificially low carrying capacity of horses is to use the artificially low weight range for Humans! I see!

The problem is that we have real world examples of human beings. My suspension of disbelief is wrecked when the guy playing the 6'6" STR20 Fighter tells me he weighs 165.
We have prime examples of those people, we see them every Sunday in the fall....That guy is 250-265 and Fast...

 

[Starbuck_II]

I hate this game so much.

Makes sense. They should use Dwarves as horses. Feed them Barley which makes alcohol.