Mounted combat - taking cover behind your mount

[Jhulae]

Urban druids can take a warhorse as an animal companion.

 

[Inigo Carmine]

You can react instantly to drop down and hang alongside your mount, using it as cover. You can’t attack or cast spells while using your mount as cover. If you fail your Ride check, you don’t get the cover benefit. This usage does not take an action. DC 15.

I've always taken this to mean that you declare this at the beginning of your turn, and for that turn, you have cover. But, during that turn, you cannot make any attacks or cast any spells.

It's basically a form of total defense on horseback, but apparently doesn't cause you to lose your standard action (so you could actually use both).

I wouldn't call it overpowered, as its really only useful for retrating from or getting into a battle. If you actually want to do some killing, you're going to have to not use it.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Unfortunately thats not the way its worded. Saying that you can react immediately and not use an action, this means when attacked you can drop to cover. Since they never state what it takes back to sit back up in the saddle, per RAW you can do this for every attack during the round and still get your normal allocation of actions.
Basically a free +4 and negate AoO while mounted once you hit the right Ride skill.. My last mounted archer could achieve this without rolling..

Then you can still do total-defense to add on top of this...

Sometime an Errata should be made to explain what it takes to recover from this non-action.. but since horse-borne combat is not used in the majority of the game, it will be a long time coming.

RW, Calling a new Animal Companion is only a 24 hour process.. and IIRC it comes knowing its bonus tricks... Halfing on a Dire Bat fighting dragons would be just too cool for me, as a DM, to pass up!

 

[RangerWickett]

Dire bats are large. Humans can ride them, can't they?

Also, I think the GM would require me to find a dire bat before I could make it my companion. No worries, though. It can be my back-up mount, since Beastmaster eventually lets me get a second animal companion. Ho ho.

 

[kjenks]

The Main 3.5e FAQ modifies the rules for Ride/Cover a little bit. Make sure you check out the revised rules and check with your DM to see if he uses them in his campaign.

You may not be able to take a warhorse, but you can train a horse to fight in combat.

There isn't a good definition in the rules of what kind of training it takes to be "trained for war." Personally, I think the Combat Riding general purposes under the Handle Animal skill is sufficient, but that's just my opinion. Check with your DM.

Dire bats are large. Humans can ride them, can't they?

Yes, dire bats can carry humans, but they don't have a really large light load, and winged creatures can only fly while carrying a light load.

Actually, a human can ride a pony, which is a medium creature. The PH imposes a -5 penalty on Ride checks for "ill-suited" mounts. The DMG says that a creature must be at least one size larger than the rider to be a suitable mount. Taking these two rules together, a human riding a pony would take a -5 on his Ride checks, but he'd still be able to ride.

Also, I think the GM would require me to find a dire bat before I could make it my companion. No worries, though. It can be my back-up mount, since Beastmaster eventually lets me get a second animal companion. Ho ho.

The rules do not require you to encounter a dire bat before calling one for your animal companion, so check with your DM.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

[sidetrack]The whole regaining of animal companions is pretty skimpy. IMC I have a HR version that emulates Stephan Brust's example of calling in the Taltos series.

The basics are:
Spend a day calling a creature, you need some 'props' such as food and runes scribed in the ground. These props can help limit what type of animal responds. Once the critter arrives, you need a diplomancy check to convince it to sign up as a companion.
You can also improve your odds of getting the critter you want by researching the proper place in advance, making sure that the desired critter is nearby.
Generally it takes about a week worth of preparation to get exactly what you are looking for.
You can rush the process to call a creature in an hour, but the calling is not limited in any way.... and since the 24 hour version limits to the proper HD... as well as possibly aggravating the critter to be in a less than jovial mood, this can be a dangerous prospect. The critter could very well be much more powerful than you can handle and may want to eat you..forcing a rushed diplomancy check...
You can still only try once per day.
I was working on a set of tables for each terrain type, but my campaign splintered and died before the Druid who lost her Clawfoot got around to looking for a new companion.[/sidetrack]

 

[brehobit]

Urban druids can take a warhorse as an animal companion.

Jhulae,
Where is the urban druid from?

Thanks,
Mark

 

[frankthedm]

The DM previously did not use the 'striking cover' rules, so basically I always had a +4 cover bonus to AC, with no penalty.

Well, there's the problem right there. IMHO saying strikes that miss due to cover, don't strike said cover, is like saying someone does not fall when they step off a cliff.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Well, there's the problem right there. IMHO saying strikes that miss due to cover, don't strike said cover, is like saying someone does not fall when they step off a cliff.

Well, I'd put it as "saying strikes that miss due to cover, don't strike said cover, is using the default rule rather than a variant"

-Hyp.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

magic explains d&d again ... oh wait. ahaha d&d is fun becuse of its Mystery.