Mounted Combat and Space/Reach

[FireLance]

3.5 PHB specifically says no, you only get 1 melee attack if attacking after horse moves - but DOESN'T SAY WHY - it's not described as being a standard action or anything like that, it's presented as a complete exception to the regular D&D combat rules. In fact it looks like you could full attack at the start of your turn, then if your horse 'decided' to gallop off, you'd get its move too!

Ride-By Attack could just be interpreted as 'move after charge and still get charge bonus' feat - it is very very weak but it's a prereq for Spirited Charge which is very very powerful!

Well, rule clunkiness aside, I imagine it's to simulate simultaneous actions. A round is a fixed amount of time, so if your horse "waited" for you to finish your full attack, it would only have enough time to move 5 feet. I might allow a full melee attack when your mount is moving more than if your mount is "pacing" (running alongside) another creature (think two mounted combatants trading blows as their mounts gallop side-by-side).

I've always seen Ride-By Attack as the mounted combatant's Spring Attack, plus you get the mobility of a double move from your mount, and double damage when using a lance. Against slow-moving opponents with poor or no ranged attack capability, it's an excellent tactic. I guess you could do a normal attack while your mount moves, and you wouldn't provoke any AOOs if your reach is greater than that of your opponent, but you wouldn't get the advantage of double lance damage, either.

 

[StalkingBlue]

Ah, you're back FireLance. Cool.

Well, rule clunkiness aside, I imagine it's to simulate simultaneous actions. A round is a fixed amount of time, so if your horse "waited" for you to finish your full attack, it would only have enough time to move 5 feet. I might allow a full melee attack when your mount is moving more than if your mount is "pacing" (running alongside) another creature (think two mounted combatants trading blows as their mounts gallop side-by-side).

Yup, I was thinking that. S'mon and I were actually discussing specifically the fighting while riding side-by-side situation ...
[uh, wait ... runs to check - nope, not in this thread, must have been somewhere else, sorry . ]
Anyway, the result of your dscussion was that while the side-by-side race-plus-fight is very cinematic, PHB rules appear to preclude that because every combatant moves on his/her/its turn, so movement is assumed to be non-simultaneous.

Depending on the game style you could of course always dispense with that and allow an action simply because it's plausible or just too plain stylish and cinematic to be disallowed. (I've done that a bit in the past, currently a bit cramped on that because the Midnight game I'm currently running is so demanding on PC tactics and nerves that I need to stick to the actual rules where I can, to provide a firm and safe-feeling basis for players.)

I've always seen Ride-By Attack as the mounted combatant's Spring Attack, plus you get the mobility of a double move from your mount, and double damage when using a lance. Against slow-moving opponents with poor or no ranged attack capability, it's an excellent tactic.

Yup, that's how I intend to run it, even after rereading the Feat description.

For fighter characters specialising in non-lance weapons it's a slightly less overwhelming tactic of course - and even in my Midnight game, which is developing into a heavily Wilderness-oriented campaign (partly through player choices and through my DMing style, and partly as a result of what the setting is), PCs don't tend to specialise in a mounted-combat only weapon.

I guess you could do a normal attack while your mount moves, and you wouldn't provoke any AOOs if your reach is greater than that of your opponent, but you wouldn't get the advantage of double lance damage, either.

I see, thanks for clarification.

 

[S'mon]

Thanks Firelance, very helpful.