Does Ride By Attack Protect the Mount?

[Otterscrubber]

Although it doesn't say it in the feat description I was wondering about this. A mount will usually take up more than a 5x5 area and thus is always going to provoke at least one AOO from an opponent during a Ride By Attack. Most Mounts will quickly die in this situation unless you are riding some unusual creature like a purple worm or a Bulette. In my opinion that hampers this feat's usefullness greatly and wanted to know how this is being handled in other campaigns.

 

[Henrix]

As is implied in the mounted combat example in S&F; yes, using Ride-by attack does not provoke AoO's from the target of your attack.

 

[Otterscrubber]

I'm afraid I don't have S&F, do you have a quote or something on this?

Also this leads to some other questions, like does the mount have this feat if the rider does? Can the mount attack the opponent as well and then move afterwards? What if they are not charging past the target but are merely trying to get up to it without provoking an AOO from a reach advantage? The mount should be able to attack, but does it get the advantage of not provoking an AOO simply because it's rider has this feat?

 

[Artoomis]

Benefit: When the character is mounted and uses the charge action, the character may move and attack as with a standard charge and then move again (continuing the straight line of the charge). The character's total movement for the round can’t exceed double the character's mounted speed. The character does not provoke an attack of opportunity from the opponent that the character attacks.

This would be fairly useless if the mount wasn't protected as well. Keep in mind that mounts normally have NO feats at all - it's only the rider that gets feats, and it becomes a little easier to see how this works.

 

[Otterscrubber]

The character does not provoke an attack of opportunity from the opponent that the character attacks.

The key word here is character, not character and his mount, which would have cleared things up nicely. I agree though, this feat would be pretty useless otherwise and I will no doubt allow it to apply to the mount as well in my campaign.

Anyone else want to put in their 2 bits?

 

[Henrix]

I'm afraid I don't have S&F, do you have a quote or something on this?

It's from an example. It's rather long. You'll have to take my word for it.

Also this leads to some other questions, like does the mount have this feat if the rider does?

No.

Can the mount attack the opponent as well and then move afterwards?

No, the mount would not get to attack. Essentially it is doing a double move.
The mount would need Spring Attack (or possibly Fly-by attack), and that'd be a rather unusual mount.

What if they are not charging past the target but are merely trying to get up to it without provoking an AOO from a reach advantage?

It does not hinder AoOs from reach, it merely says that the move & move away does not provoke an AoO.
Charging someone with a longspear is still dumb.

The mount should be able to attack, but does it get the advantage of not provoking an AOO simply because it's rider has this feat?

I don't think the mount should get to attack, even if you don't move past your target, but neither rider nor mount incurs an AoO for moving.
The feat is for when you charge, not when the mount charges, after all.

 

[Conaill]

Keep in mind that the Mounted Combat feat allows you to negate a hit to the mount by making a Ride check.

That definitely makes Ride-By Attack far from useless, even if the mount still provokes an AoO.

 

[Otterscrubber]

It does not hinder AoOs from reach, it merely says that the move & move away does not provoke an AoO.

An AOO from reach is the same thing as an AOO caused by moving within or out of an opponents threatened areas. A creature with reach or a reach weapon simply has more threatened areas than a creature without.

 

[Otterscrubber]

Keep in mind that the Mounted Combat feat allows you to negate a hit to the mount by making a Ride check.

Very true, which is why I was curious to see how others deal with this. This would take care of the problem of the mount getting hit with an AOO during the ride-by-attack. Question is was the the intent of the mounted combat feat?

 

[dr_nukem]

Take a look at the example of mounted combat in S&F (p. 65-66). It explicity shows one rider attacking(ride by attack). In this situation the attack does not draw an AoO against the rider, but it *DOES* draw an AoO against the mount.

The Mounted Combat feat allows you to attempt to evade 1 successful attack per round that is made against your mount.