I need to brush up on my Mounted Combat rules

[dcollins]

Guy A: Hey, I've got Mounted Combat, Ride-By-Attack, and Spirited Charge. On my mighty steed, I'm a force to feared.

Guy B: I've got Mounted Archery. Try and catch me. Oh, and it's rather pointy weather we're having, isn't it?

 

[MerakSpielman]

Guy A: Hey, I've got Mounted Combat, Ride-By-Attack, and Spirited Charge. On my mighty steed, I'm a force to feared.

Guy B: I've got Mounted Archery. Try and catch me. Oh, and it's rather pointy weather we're having, isn't it?

Mr. Archer is bound to miss a lot, even with his penalties halved. And he's got to run out of arrows sometime... though probably after Mr. Knight-Errant is long since pincushioned.

At any rate, there's a reason the mongols were feared. Mounted archers are a pain.

 

[argo]

Mounted Archery sucks. It just reduces the penalties. But you only get a penalty if your mount makes a double move. So you have your horse move 60 ft (although a light warhorse will likely have a 50 ft. move bearing a rider) and you have no penalty. It's not worth a feat IMO.

It depends somewhat on the campagin but don't underestimate the power of mounted archery. Another player in a game I'm in is a mounted archery twink an boy he can lay down the pain sometimes. For example: one time the party is ambushed in hilly terrain with poor visibility (mist). We let ourselves get seperated at the start of the encounter so in front are the foward scouts and in back is a lone heavily armored fighter. The enemy has archers in the hills and is also sending in waves of foot troops to attack us. This player starts riding in great circles around the battlefield turning anyone he sees that isn't a friendly into a pincushion. Meanwhile my monk with a 100' move is running back and forth between the two groups of defenders trying to act as reinforcements for both. Needless to say if we had not had those two high mobility characters the battle would have been much worse. The difference between the two? My monk could only get in single attacks so I relied mostly on stunning/grapples to attempt to even out the odds for the defenders. Meanwhile the horseman was taking out 2 or 3 enemy archers a round which was saving us all from taking a lot of damage. By the end he alone had as many kills as the rest of the party put together. There were several other scenarios where he kicked much *** and took many names, but I think you get the idea.

Oh and all his archery feats are still useful even when he is (reluctantly) forced to dismount. If mounted combat is at all a factor in your game it means you are fighting under the wide open skies, and the mobility offered by mounted archery is something most characters simply cant match without a good bit of magical help. Don't underestimate the horse archers!



BTW: this happened to be an OA game and Mr. "I love my horse a just a bit too much" was, of course, Unicorn clan. Fear the Mongol archers indeed!

 

[jodyjohnson]

Some more info from Movement Article 2

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20040618a

Control a Frightened Mount: You use this action when you're in battle on a mount that is not trained for war. You make a Ride check to control the mount. The check is a move action for you, but it does not necessarily involve movement. If your mount does not move, then your action to control doesn't count as movement for you. Since you must devote your attention to the mount, this action provokes attacks of opportunity.

If you're successful with your Ride check, you can direct your mount to move, stand still, or do anything else it normally could do while carrying a rider. If you direct the mount to move, your check to control it and the mount's movement are part of the same action, and you still can perform a standard action during the round. If your check fails, the mount does what it will (probably fleeing from danger as fast as it can); you cannot take another actions and the failed check ends your turn (but see Part 3).

The AoO for frightened mount was new to me. Not much difference for adventurers who can afford war-trained mounts.

Mount or Dismount a Steed: Use this action to climb aboard a mount or get off. The act of mounting of dismounting doesn't count as movement for you; however, you must enter your mount's space to mount or exit the mount's space to dismount. You can enter or exit the mount's space as a 5-foot step (if the situation allows a 5-foot step) or as part of your normal movement. For example if your speed is 30 and your mount is 30 feet away or less, you use one move action to reach the mount's space and a second move action to mount (see Part 3 for more on the Ride skill).

This takes care of some wierdness because you need to take either a 5' step to mount/dismount or use a movement action (although you could dismount then go prone for sharing the mount's space).

The procedure for charging is slightly different when you're using the Ride-By Attack feat (see Part 6).

At least he's aware of the issue. Interesting to see how Overrun from the Trample feat gets resolved as well. (Wow 6 parts on movement).

 

[jodyjohnson]

More from Movement article 3

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20040622a

Ride

Though your steed actually does the moving, much of what you do with the Ride skill counts as move action or as movement (or both) for you.

Since your mount takes you along with it when it moves, a move for your mount also counts as a move for you (you're not propelling yourself, but you still spend time moving). So, for example, if you and your mount move, neither you nor your mount can take a 5-foot step during the same turn.

So it counts as movement but doesn't use up a move action. This really limits what you can do during a turn where you need to mount or dismount since it must be done in the mount's space: move into or out of mount's space is move action (not 5' step) and mount/dismount is move action (except Fast mount).

In many cases, you can do something else while your mount does the moving, such as make ranged attacks, reload a crossbow, cast a spell, or any number of other things that normally would be actions for you. You can use the full attack action to make ranged attacks when your mount takes a move action, and there's no penalty for doing so if your mount does not make a double move. If your mount runs or makes a double move, you suffer a penalty on your ranged attacks, as noted on page 157 in the Player's Handbook (the Mounted Archery feat can reduce those penalties). If your mount moves as a full-round action (as it might if it uses the rule for minimum movement), your ranged attacks are penalized as though the mount took a double move. There's no penalty on your melee attacks for your mount's movement, but if you mount moves before you attack in a turn, you cannot us the full attack action (see page 157 in the Player's Handbook).

That last part sounds squirrelly, breaking the one melee attack stipulation shouldn't depend on whether movement more than a 5' step is after the full attack.

Here's an overview of tasks you perform with the Ride skill:

Guide with Knees:Although the skill description doesn't specifically say so, this is not an action at all. You make the check at the beginning of your turn. If you succeed, you don't have to use your hands to control your mount until the beginning of your next turn, when you have to repeat the check to continue guiding your mount with your knees.

Stay in Saddle:This usage does not take an action.

Fight with Warhorse: This usage is a free action.

Cover:This usage does not take an action.

Soft Fall: This usage does not take an action.

Leap: This usage does not take an action, but it is part of the mount's movement.

Spur Mount:This is a move action for you, which you take while your mount moves and carries you along.

Control Mount in Battle: This also is a move action for you, which you take while your mount moves and carries you along. If you fail to control a mount that is not trained for war during a battle, the rules say your turn is over. There is, however, no reason why you can't simply fall off your mount to keep it from galloping away with you. Deliberately falling off your mount is a free action for you. If you decide to fall off, you can make a Ride check to soften the fall (which doesn't take an action).

Fast Mount or Dismount:This is a free action for you and it does not count as movement for you.