Nightmares, Mounted Combat, and Teleport

[MarauderX]

So the other night, the PCs mounted up on their newly befriended Nightmares. They have a move 10/teleport 10, and according to the rules, anything that teleports does so independently of the rider/mount. Some of the PCs have teleportation actions themselves. Could the rider & mount teleport together at the same time and arrive together at the same time at another location without any issues? Acrobatics/Nature/Athletics check to stay mounted? Would this still require 1 move action and 1 standard action?

Also, could the Nightmare, being an intelligent mount, teleport beneath a mountless rider and have the rider become mounted automatically as part of their shared move action? Since it was independent before, it would have a move action of it's own; once the rider mounts up they share actions; would the PC have a move action of his own to spend mounting up at the sudden appearance of the Nightmare or would she need to spend a standard action to do so?

Another thing for mounted combat: the rider gets to choose which square on the mount that she is in. So we used Nightmares with 1 square wide and 2 long. The melee types were up front on their mounts while the ranged sat on the Nightmare rear. Can they shift between squares as part of a move action? Acrobatics/Nature/Atheletics check? Are the Nightmares intellegent enough to let them do this as part of a move action (such as while the Nightmare is sprinting to safety, the character moves 1 square from the front to the back)?

Ok, another thing: a character gets knocked unconscious while riding the mount. Would the intelligent Nightmare drop the corpse-to-be there or save the body to be animated as a zombie later? Or would the unconscious body slump to the ground? How about an actual dead body, as in missed 3 death saves?

 

[spayne]

The PC and nightmare could not teleport together unless they have something like the Saddle of the Nightmare that allows it. Two different creatures cannot spend actions together like you are describing.

The rules compendium says you can teleport to mount or dismount, but nothing about the mount teleporting under you and having you mount automatically. The DM would need to house rule it. Also, When the nightmare is acting independently, it has its own separate turn. A mount and rider only share the same turn while the mount is being ridden and on the turn that the rider dismounts. So, the mount could use a move action to teleport to the rider, and the rider, on his own turn, could use the mount action.

Nightmares are large creatures, so their space is 2x2, not 2x1. The rider occupies all of those squares at the same time. The rider never chooses a specific square that they are in. The only time a specific square is chosen is for the origin square of the rider's powers or effects. The rider's power or effect originates from the chosen square, but the rider's space is still the entire 2x2 area. The Rules Compendium clarifies this on page 253. It says the rider still occupies the mount's space for the purpose of triggering effects, such as opportunity attacks. If you use a ranged power when mounted and an enemy is next to your mount, you provoke an OA even if the power's origin square is not adjacent to that enemy.

When not ridden, a mount basically becomes an NPC controlled by the DM. I guess the DM could have it do the things you are talking about, but the nightmare only has an Int of 5. That is more intelligent than most mounts but still not too intelligent.

The rules do not say what a nightmare would do with an unconscious or dead body, so it would not do anything unless the DM allows it. Being knocked unconscious makes the rider fall prone. The rules for mounted combat say that the rider gets a saving throw when knocked prone. This does not apply to becoming unconscious because the rider is falling prone rather than being knocked prone. Yes, there is a difference between those things.