Cavalry move?

[Shin Okada]

Is there any guidance or article regarding this? A horse is a long creature (1" by 2"). Also, the rider is supposed to be on "rear" square, so there is kind a facing for it! So I am wondering how to handle their movement. Especially, 5 ft. step and turning.

 

[Artoomis]

I'm not sure what you mean. exactly, so's here's a few notes on mounted movement:

1. You are assumed to be on the back of two squares by default. The PHB says you do that "for simplicity."

2. This means the horse has a sort of "facing" - no way around that. Of course, any creature with a rectangular shape has some facing to it.

3. 5' step - what's the problem? Move 5' in any direction. Seems simple enough to me.

4. Turning - okay this is a bit of a problem. You can go any direction, including turing around, any time you want, but this could be odd in certain circumstances, I suppose. Consider that the horse can bend his body to run around, and it doesn't seem quite so weird.

If you have a specific situation that is bugging you let us know so we can help you.

 

[Darklone]

4. Turning - okay this is a bit of a problem. You can go any direction, including turing around, any time you want, but this could be odd in certain circumstances, I suppose. Consider that the horse can bend his body to run around, and it doesn't seem quite so weird.

If you have a specific situation that is bugging you let us know so we can help you.

Let the horse rear up and you can turn on the spot. IF you can ride.

 

[Shin Okada]

H=Head of the Horse, R=Rider

Case.1

------
--HR--
------

to

-H----
-R----
------

Is this a 5 ft. Step? Horse Head is just moving 5 ft. But the rider is moving 10 ft.

Case.2

------
--HR--
------

to

------
---RH-
------

Usually, this move is just a 5 ft. step, as there is no rule of facing. But in this case, it seems that the horse head is moving 10 ft.

Case.3

--------
HR------
--------

to

--------
------RH
--------

How many squares did the horse move? Usually, as there is no rule of facing, this is 6 square (30 ft.) move. But the horse head is moving 7 squares.

Also, I am having trouble of interpreting horse attacks. By the rule, a horse can attack any adjacent square. But in the last session, we actually used mounted models (from WHFB) and found that our Paladin's horse is biting something directly behind his ass! It looked very weird.

 

[Darklone]

Ah well

Ok, I see...

I rule it this way: If a horse makes a 5ft step, the rear is where the head was. And the head moves 5ft. Actually, I do this for every movement a long creature makes. Makes turning around really nice

 

[dcollins]

It's a good question. There are no explicit rules anywhere in the core materials. Therefore this is up to the DM to judge.