Can horses Spider Climb?

[Notmousse]

In any case, they actually included a trick for this in Races of Stone. Special Movement (DC 20), to let an anime use a movement mode it wouldnt normally have.

What is the normal movement mode of anime anyway?

 

[Darklone]

What is the normal movement mode of anime anyway?

Hustling. All the time. Makes the short skirts worthwhile.

 

[D.Shaffer]

What is the normal movement mode of anime anyway?

If ninjas and other martial artists are any indication, short teleporting hops every few seconds.;

Edits to original post made.

 

[D.Shaffer]

Normal animal would neither understand the possibility of, nor have any inclination to climb up walls and ceilings. To them, it's not on their list of Things Horses Do.

Maybe, but animals can be a lot cleverer then people give them credit for.
My dog, by itself, learned how to climb chain link fence. I doubt he'd have had much problem learning that trick.

 

[werk]

Maybe, but animals can be a lot cleverer then people ...

QFT

 

[Whimsical]

In my game, the halfling druid (with the halfling druid substitution levels) is able to channel the spider climb spell into his animal companion mount riding dog. The dog has been trained with the Special Movement trick to use the spell to climb. I also had the PC buy an exotic saddle (listed in the Player's Handbook) that allowed him to stay mounted on the dog even when it is sideways and upside down.

 

[frankthedm]

Maybe, but animals can be a lot cleverer then people give them credit for.

Animals usually have decent wisdom. Natural selection is very good at taking care of the unwise.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Animals usually have decent wisdom. Natural selection is very good at taking care of the unwise.

Tru dat. The dinosaurs went down fast when they started to send $1 to every mammal at the top of the list.

 

[RainOfSteel]

I'd say you'd have to have wild empathy and speak with animals at a minimum before you could even try to get a horse to spider climb. And even then it'd probably kick you in the nuts when it found out what you wanted. And you'd deserve it.

I'm not even sure that would suffice.

One, almost all horses are shod, and this means their hoves aren't free per the spell's requirement for "free hands" (since the consensus seems that hands = hooves, even though I don't believe that for a second).

This is the real killer for me. I would require that any horseshoes be removed prior to using spider climb.

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I have a tough time visualizing how a horse is going to get both its forelegs and hindlegs up on the wall. Just "walking up the wall" isn't going to work.

I can't even begin to imagine how it would work for a ceiling. (I have a vision of the horse snapping it's rear legs off at the fetlocks.)

Next, the mage had better have Eschew Materials, because the horse isn't going to want to eat bitumen and a live spider. No, I can't see that at all.

Next, I don't like the "if a spider can spider climb, so can a horse" argument. Spider are lightweight. Big spiders are magical beasts and it is logical to assume that a part of that magic allows them to climb like a normal spider despite its size. Horses are neither of those things. Even a magical horse wouldn't logically have any of that magic devoted to climbing like a spider.

Next, I don't like the wolf or even bear comparisons. Their legs aren't built the same way at all as a horse's leg is built. Many people have seen dogs, wolves, or bears in person or on video trying to go up a wall or tree. I have seen video of a bear making it quite a ways up a tree. Never for a horse, that is, they aren't trying to get up into the tree. A horse might try to jump a low wall, or even use its forelegs to smash a fence, but that isn't the same thing (a horse smashing a fence has to rear up on its hind legs). I can see a horse up on its hind legs (as noted earlier) in an attempt to reach leaves or fruit, but they aren't going up the tree trunk.

It's only a second level spell. It would seem that it should be restricted to Medium size creatures. Yes, I am fully aware the spell doesn't say that. It should, though.

OTOH, I might allow an unshod horse the spell to receive a climb bonus on steep grades without special tricks or training, provided the spellcaster can get the horse to eat the components (somehow).

 

[D.Shaffer]

I'm not even sure that would suffice.

One, almost all horses are shod, and this means their hoves aren't free per the spell's requirement for "free hands" (since the consensus seems that hands = hooves, even though I don't believe that for a second).

This is the real killer for me. I would require that any horseshoes be removed prior to using spider climb.

Do you require humans to remove gloves and shoes before using spider climb? It's functionally the same thing here.

Next, I don't like the "if a spider can spider climb, so can a horse" argument. Spider are lightweight. Big spiders are magical beasts and it is logical to assume that a part of that magic allows them to climb like a normal spider despite its size. Horses are neither of those things. Even a magical horse wouldn't logically have any of that magic devoted to climbing like a spider.

Huge spiders are vermin. Not magical beasts. They dont have any magic associated with their climb at all. A huge monstrous spider with climb would be able to climb as well as a tiny spider in an anti magic field. Using logic, you cant even get monstrous huge spiders as they're a realistic impossibility.

In a game where you have flying unicorns, I find it a bit wierd how people can have a major hangup about training a horse to climb walls with magic.