Is Riding Skill Rule Wrong

[Tom McCafferty]

Last session a party member tried to ride a trained flying beast.

They have no ride skill but a dex bonus of +5. Using the rules given in the players combat session it states that you calculate the ride skill as rank + dex bonus + modifiers. However the modifier for not having the appropriate ride skill (-5) is subtracted from the rank, which cannot be less than zero.

Hence, the characters calculated ride skill is 5. This means a character with ride horse skill of 5, but no dex is worse off than a character with no ride skill at all. Surely this is not right. Does anyone know if there is a rules modification for this?

 

[CRGreathouse]

Assuming Dex 10:

8 ranks Ride (horse) gives Ride (flying beast) +3. 1 rank Ride (horse) gives Ride (flying beast) +0. 0 ranks Ride gives Ride (flying beast) +0.

 

[Planetouched]

Ride(horse) and Ride(flying animal, pegasus for example) are 2 very different things, keep that in mind...
I would say let him buy a exotic saddle, that gives extra bonusses and removes the bare-back penalty.

 

[Aaron2]

I don't like the way ride is a seperate skill for each animal while Perform is the same skill but you get one additional thing per rank. Certainly riding a Pesasus is more similar to riding a horse than writing poetry and playing the flute.

I hope they change this in Revised.

Aaron

 

[Taluron]

Go back and reread the Ride skill. Ride is not like Perform. What it says is that any animal you are not familiar with receives a minus to the ride check role. The closer the mount to what you are familiar with already the lesser the minus. What it doesn't say is how to gain familiarity. It doesn't note differing skill subsets (as in Knowledge) additional familiarities per rank (as Perform) or extra familiarities per rank (as Speak Language). Just whether the character is familiar with the mount. Apply the -5 at first. After a couple of months (gametime) the -2. A couple more months no minus as the character is now familiar with the new mount.

 

[Planetouched]

Preform is seperated in different types...at least that's what I thought...check out the harpy in the MM. Look at the different preform skills. A Bard can use his preform for one instrument, at least in my campain they do...or am I wrong in this?

 

[Taluron]

From the SRD:
Perform (CHA)
Possible Perform types include ballad, buffoonery, chant, comedy, dance, drama, drums, epic, flute, harp, juggling, limericks, lute, mandolin, melody, mime, ode, pan pipes, recorder, shalm, storytelling, and trumpet. The character is capable of one form of performance per rank.

Profession (WIS; TRAINED ONLY)
The character is trained in a livelihood or a professional role, such as apothecary, boater, bookkeeper, brewer, cook, driver, farmer, fisher, guide, herbalist, herdsman, innkeeper, lumberjack, miller, miner, porter, rancher, sailor, scribe, siege engineer, stablehand, tanner, teamster, woodcutter, and so forth.
Like Craft, Profession is actually a number of separate skills. The character could have several Profession skills, each with its own ranks, each purchased as a separate skill.

Perform is not listed as a group of separate skills (as Craft, Prof, Know) are. You get an extra perform form per rank.

 

[DreamChaser]

the perform issue was beat to death in this thread, just in case you're curious.

Perform skill thread


DC

 

[Rackhir]

Last session a party member tried to ride a trained flying beast.

They have no ride skill but a dex bonus of +5. Using the rules given in the players combat session it states that you calculate the ride skill as rank + dex bonus + modifiers. However the modifier for not having the appropriate ride skill (-5) is subtracted from the rank, which cannot be less than zero.

Hence, the characters calculated ride skill is 5. This means a character with ride horse skill of 5, but no dex is worse off than a character with no ride skill at all. Surely this is not right. Does anyone know if there is a rules modification for this?

Well if you think about it, you are talking about an extremely dexterous character (Dex 20) vs someone who is normal (Dex 12), but trained. I can see sheer physical skill compensating for the lack of training.

Perhaps the greater oddity, is that if you have 6 or more ranks in riding one type of creature, it is pointless to take any ranks in riding any other type of creature. Since with your Skills you are at least 1 skill rank over what ever you could put points into for riding the type of creature you are using now. Ie. 6 skill ranks -5 (differing steed type) = +1 bonus. Any skill ranks you added after that would benefit both riding skills and be at least one point up over any skill ranks you could put into the new type of creature.

 

[dcollins]

Preform is seperated in different types...at least that's what I thought...check out the harpy in the MM. Look at the different preform skills. A Bard can use his preform for one instrument, at least in my campain they do...or am I wrong in this?

You're mistaken (see linked thread above). If you back-calculate the harpy's skills, she only has a total 7 ranks put into Perform, and therefore gets 7 different instruments -- just like every other MM creature with Perform.