D&D 5E In combat riding and movement

[KahlessNestor]

In my experience, minions and the like get their own turn. Lets put it this way: say you are caught in a flowing river, every "turn" that river takes moves you 30 feet. Does the fact that the river has carried you, mean that you have lost your ability to swim to the shore? Perhaps instead, you a riding on a train, every turn that train carries you 100 feet, does this mean that you cannot walk along the train? Clearly people walk inside moving vehicles all the time, so moving on something else while it is moving does nothing to negate their own movement.

I have no problem letting creatures take their full turn on their turn, even if the "ground" they were on happened to move. You might say they get half their movement from needing to "dismount" but an animal jumping out of your arms/off your shoulder is quite quicker than a human dismounting a horse.

Yes, exactly what I was saying. I suspect if you bumped this up to Crawford he would say the wxact same thing. The mount/dismount rules weren't written for familiars.

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[77IM]

In case any of you still doubt that gnomic supergenius Prf. Higgins-Boatswain, Ph.D., can accelerate magic items to near the speed of light, I present the Commoner Extended Relay Network (CERN), a device of my own devising:

In a six-second combat round, light travels 5,902,080,000 feet. Since a human commoner can double-move 60 feet in a round, we only need 98,368,000 commoners standing in a line, each 60 feet from the last. This line circles the earth a mere 44.8 times.

At the start of the round ("Initiative!") the commoner at the very end moves 60 feet, then hands off the magic item to the next commoner, who does the same. By the end of the round, the magic item will have accelerated to near the speed of light, at which point the final commoner can hurl it into a wall of force (which is impervious to all effects except the disintegrate spell). This collision should produce an explosion of particles that can be studied to better understand the fundamental forces of the multiverse.

I am seeking grant funding for my project. Please write to your congressperson or feudal lord in support!

 

[77IM]

(Apply the same logic to familiars launching off of wizards, and admit that it is absurd.)

 

[KahlessNestor]

(Apply the same logic to familiars launching off of wizards, and admit that it is absurd.)

Only if you concede that 6 seconds is the literal truth of a round and not an abstract, like hp and AC and nearly every other part of the game.

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[77IM]

Only if you concede that 6 seconds is the literal truth of a round and not an abstract, like hp and AC and nearly every other part of the game.

The math I did above is absurd precisely because a combat round is NOT a sequence of 6-second turns magically compacted into a single 6-second round. I don't see how this is any different when you have two actors (a wizard and a familiar) versus having 98,368,000 actors; it's just less visible.

Let's say a sprite is riding on an owl which is riding on a wizard which is riding on a horse. So in a single round can the horse travel 120 ft. (Dash), the wizard dismount and move a total of 45 ft. (dismount + Dash), the owl fly 120 ft. (Dash), and the sprite go 60 ft. (dismount + Dash)? If so, the sprite has now been propelled a whopping 365 ft. in a single round!

This is, of course, ridiculous. But it might also be relevant: Suppose the sprite is holding the MacGuffin that the party is trying to keep out of the clutches of the evil minions. Is building a "sprite railgun" a valid tactical option? clever play that should be rewarded? or should we draw the line somewhere with overlapping movement modes?

 

[KahlessNestor]

And yet all of that is perfectly legal. That doesn't bother me.

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[Olrox17]

Quick homebrewed solution, if you consider the possibility of a sprite railgun to be a problem: change dismount so it uses all of the rider's movement for the round.

 

[The Old Crow]

In my experience, minions and the like get their own turn. Lets put it this way: say you are caught in a flowing river, every "turn" that river takes moves you 30 feet. Does the fact that the river has carried you, mean that you have lost your ability to swim to the shore?

You are taking your movement to move in the river as the river is moving.

Perhaps instead, you a riding on a train, every turn that train carries you 100 feet, does this mean that you cannot walk along the train?

You are taking your movement to move on the train as the train is moving.

Clearly people walk inside moving vehicles all the time, so moving on something else while it is moving does nothing to negate their own movement.

Right. As long as they are taking their movement while on the moving vehicle, it makes sense. So as long as the owl stays on the running wizard, she can use her movement to crawl all over the running wizard as he runs, to make it just like the river and train analogies.

 

[jasper]

Ok, I totally confused now. So.
1. The wizard moves his full movement (regardless of type full, dash, splash, rail gun). Then the owl moves it full movement.
2. The wizard moves. Owl dismounts and loses 1/2 his movement.
3. They move separately on their init.

 

[orderofthings]

I tend to overemphasize the existence of turns and rounds.
I use turns for more than just combat, I use them for the Explor/Roleplay portions too. If the characters walk into a town I go around the table and let each player pick one thing that their character is going to do in town. They declare the intention, and I ask the remaining players if anyone would like to go with them. Let's say the Cleric went first, and said she wanted to go to the shrine. The Paladin and the Fighter want to go with her. Next up around the table is the Bard. When I ask him what he wants to do I say "What would you like to do while the three of them are at the Temple. Obviously, it's easier to do this out of combat, but in combat I have already had to say things like "at this point in your turn, I don't think he had made it that far yet. If your action depends on his (concurrent) turn having finished, then you have to ready that action instead. Don't worry, it will trigger when this round is over."
To put this in railgun terms; When railgun sprite #3 takes it's turn, I'd say that the object being passed is still making it's way from railgun sprite #1 to railgun sprite #2. the sprite could ready it's action, but you are going to see that object behave exactly as it would in the real world. In the first round, sprite #1 passes the object, sprites 2-200 ready an action. next round, sprite #2 passes the object, sprites 3-200 ready an action...
When the rules (yes, even as written) allow for stuff like this, anyone who really thinks a DM should allow it is playing this game for different reasons than I. Anyone who doesn't feel like they have the right to correct it in their game? You don't; you have the responsibility to correct it. It is asinine to argue against a DM who wants his world to make sense at the expense of your "trick".

As it relates to the thread; The player moves on his turn, while the owl readies an action (fly as soon as his movement is up). The owl effectively loses it's action this round, but as soon as the round is over the Owl's action is triggered and it takes it's movement before the first (initiative) turn of the next round takes place. The question is, would the owl get to take a turn in round 2? I'd say yes, seeing as how the player already compromised, but that could be another thread altogether...

The rules are like the strands of the weave, they must be coaxed and manipulated in order to achieve the desired result. If you want a world with railguns and twin-immovable-rod-wielding bag-of-holding-exploding nonsense, you can use the rules to make that happen. If you want a world where things... fall when you drop them... there are interpretations of the rules for that, too.

dang, I might make that last paragraph my signature quote...