Mounted combat... after two years, I still have no clue.

[dcollins]

Does it actually say somewhere thay you occupy the "back" half of your horse's space? Since there is no facing, this doesn't make sense.

PH p. 138: "A horse takes up a 5-foot-by-10-foot space, and you take up a space 5 feet across. For simplicity, assume that you occupy the back part of the horse."

 

[Dreaddisease]

So on a related question. If you have a lance (no reach) you can't attack until you are passing the enemy as you are on the back half of the horse. So a charge straight for an enemy would be useless. SO ride the horse in back wards.


DD

P.S. I like charging backwards

 

[gpetruc]

The heavy horse lance has a threath range of 10 ft, if I remember well, so you can change and attack the enemy in front of your horse.

With a light lance (that is for small riders) you cannot, but in this case usually you are riding a medium mount and so you and the mount are in the same square.

The only problem with this system is that a pikemen can only get an AoO against the mount; unless, of course, he readies an action against the rider, or uses a longer pike (I think I'll allow also 15ft and maybe even 20ft pikes in order to make an effective barrier against chargin cavalry, like it happens in the film Bravehart)