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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 6064822" data-attributes="member: 1165">When the Visigoth "barbarians"* defeated the Romans at Adrianople, most of their troops were mounted in contrast to the disciplined heavy Roman infantry. The Visigoths weren't heavily armored, I think they didn't even have chain mail. They kicked the Romans' butts. Their superior mobility let them flank the Romans, who, being on foot and in heavy armor, couldn't react fast enough. Neither side were using a whole lot of archery or ballistae (I'm a bit surprised the Romans didn't, but I think they had to move fast and left the heavy artillery behind).In a battle in Japan, whose name I really wish I could remember, the warrior monks (they were not D&D-style monks, but were more like non-magical paladins, wearing heavy armor and using polearms and spears) were defeated by samurai cavalry who were able to outpace them and tire out the heavily-armored foot guys.Similar things when the Spaniards first faced the natives in South America. (When you're wearing a steel breastplate and helmet, and got an iron mace, while riding a horse, you have an advantage against the guy without armor and possibly weapons, not even a cap to protect his head.) There's loads of advantages in real-life, but in a game whose earliest days (beyond the mass combat, anyway) involved going into dungeons that were too small and cramped for horses, those rules just didn't develop. There's also balance issues. Things like guns and cavalry advantage aren't balanced in real life, but you don't want to create a game where everyone should use guns (probably of a certain type) and should be mounted and should wear the heaviest armor (well, you could, but that's not a balanced game).TSR and WotC have traditionally done a poor job of balancing cavalry. The horses are usually quite weak, and don't advance with the heroes. If they do ([notranslate]Pathfinder[/notranslate] did a pretty good job of this), they don't just increase mobility and damage, but become powerful attackers in their own right. This might be realistic, but it's not balanced. It also adds a lot more dice rolls to the equation, and still messes with tactics. (Instead of trying to charge or use Ride-by Attack, you want to stand still and trade full-round attacks with the enemy... with the horse getting three high-Strength attacks, possibly powered up with magic horseshoes. Getting three extra attacks is kind of a big deal at 1st-level.)I would personally like horses like mounts to act like buffs. While riding this horse, you do extra damage with charge attacks and move faster... and that's about it. Give scaling hit points, match everything else, eg defenses/AC/saves to the rider, so that attacks against the horse or both horse and rider make a difference.*They hadn't been barbaric for centuries at least, and they were rebelling due to a lack of respect being shown to them.</blockquote>

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