Heavy cavalry attack help ... [Dragonegg players stay out!]

[LostSoul]

I belive the sudo official rule for damage from things like falling from a horse (or hitting a wall while moving fast) would be 1d6 per 10' of movement planned for the round

That rule is rather stupid. A regular guy jogging along a path turns his head to look at a woman and bam! hits a tree. He stands a really really good chance of dieing from his injuries? I don't think so.

 

[Dougal DeKree]

Caltrops and Horses

Caltrops are excellent against cavalry

Ahemm, unless i am mistaken, caltrops are little metal-thingies, that hurt, if the puncture your footwear. Isn't it strange that those caltrops halve the movement/do damage to the horses, who have hooves?! Aren't Horseshoes actually nailed to those hooves? How are the caltrops to penetrate the horseshoes in the first place?

Other things: Huts in the trees have to have supports - any chance that a charge with a lance or maul could be enough to remove such a structural aid? what will happen to the "complex" if one of the huts crashes down (i suppose they are connected somehow?) Can the riders be shot while under the huts? Could they fell a tree that hits the huts when falling right? Won't the riders retreat at the first impression of being so severely outnumbered?

Just my 2cents...

Dougal DeKree, retired gnomish Illusionist

 

[Conaill]

Re: Caltrops and Horses

Ahemm, unless i am mistaken, caltrops are little metal-thingies, that hurt, if the puncture your footwear. Isn't it strange that those caltrops halve the movement/do damage to the horses, who have hooves?! Aren't Horseshoes actually nailed to those hooves? How are the caltrops to penetrate the horseshoes in the first place?

Horseshoes only protect the outer rim of the horse's hooves. An inch of pointy metal in the middle of the hoof will still cripple the horse. They do get a +2 AC for "shoes or other footwear" and +3 or +4 natural armor AC (the caltrops description is a little unclear on this). Against a +0 caltrop attack, that's still pretty good! Not to mention that the rider can use his Mounted Combat feat to negate the hit. However, he can do that only once per round, and his horse gets a caltrop attack for each 5' it travels!

Huts in the trees have to have supports - any chance that a charge with a lance or maul could be enough to remove such a structural aid?

They're called "branches" . If they've given at least some thought to defensibility, the treehouses should be high enough up in the trees to be safe from any lance attacks.

Can the riders be shot while under the huts? Could they fell a tree that hits the huts when falling right?

The huts will are bound to have plenty of "murderholes": slits that the archers can shoot through while providing close to 100% cover. Underneath the huts is probably the least safe place to be. And chooping down a tree large enough to carry a sizeable treehouse is going to take several minutes (i.e. several tens of combat rounds, while the guys with the axes are being shot at continuously...)

 

[Melriken]

That rule is rather stupid. A regular guy jogging along a path turns his head to look at a woman and bam! hits a tree. He stands a really really good chance of dieing from his injuries? I don't think so.

sorry, like falling the first 10' are ignored...

but like falling damage (I have fallen 20' and not been hurt... yet the rules state that I should have taken enough damage to knock me out. I didn't make the rule, I just borrowed the throwing rule, as it is much the same thing.

 

[Darklone]

Hmm, perhaps I use the rule for falling damage but half the movement still planned for that round...

The houses are mostly stable and high enough against most attacks... though riders with lances might reach some of the lower bridges.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I would keep it something simple like double normal falling damage for falling off a charging or running horse. Yes, I meant 2x(d6), not 2d6. Falling damage is a very random thing.

In the context of D&D, a competent 1st level cavalryman should be in no damage of dying outright from any accident that might befall his horse, although he might be knocked unconscious. That means that ~12 points damage is pretty much the maximum that makes any sense.

Figuring the speed of movement is getting too complicated and too deadly. If a horse attempts to charge 160', does the rider take 16d6 damage when the horse trips? Or 8d6? Even 3d6 or 4d6 look pretty questionable.

 

[LokiDR]

from SRD Telekinesis

If a telekinesed creature is hurled against a solid surface, it takes damage as if it had fallen 10 feet (1d6 points).

This spell can hurl a creature 760 feet in a round. I don't see a good reason to deal more damage to a fallen rider, especially when your mount can die and you get off with no damage.