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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 2348676" data-attributes="member: 20323">In this article, I revise the Ride Skill, especially focusing on:- Alternate DCs for riding manuevers- Rules for mounting a bucking bronco- How to do a Ride-by-Attack w/out the feat- Alternate rules for getting knocked from the saddle- Alternate rules for spurringDo you have any ideas to improve the Ride skill?What can I do with my Ride skill?5           Stay in saddle, Guide with knees10         Spur mount15         Cover, Leap, Soft Fall??          Make a sharp turn (60-75 degrees)20         Abrupt Stop30    Getting horse to fall prone40    Stand on moving mount40    Pick up an item on the ground while riding horse70    Leap from one horse to another70    Mount a horse moving at base speed x2 or less80    Mount a horse moving at base speed x3 or more80    Ride two horses at once, with a leg on each**These DCs are still in the works. The 40+ DCs are mostly from the ELH. Re-thinking Spurring The SRD states that the longest a PC can run for is 1, maybe 2 minutes before needing to catch their breath. Let's look more closely. After 10 rounds of moving 120 feet per round (30 x 4), you will have gone 1200 feet in one minute. That's 72,000 feet in an hour (1200 x 60), which works out to about 13.5 mph...for 2 minutes.Consider this: What if you just kept running for an hour? Then you would end up running a 13.5 miles (a half marathon is 13.1). The current record holder, Paul Tergat, ran a half marathon in 59 minutes and 5 seconds. Assuming you could extend your run for 1 hour, you would beat Tergat's record. The question the SRD leaves intentionally vague is: How long can you run before getting tired?For a human, such a feat requires difficult training, but for a horse it comes easier. Horses are designed to run. In fact, there are numerous documented cases of horses (mostly Iranian and Arabian descendants of the Tarpan) moving at high speeds for long distances. The SRD is vague on this matter. What about spurring? That only adds onto their existing speed. It doesn't provide a way to limit how long a horse can maintain a gallop for. When does the horse get tired? I think the answer is to revise the spurring rules.Extreme Long Distance: In 1935, 28 riders on Akahal-Tekes covered 2,600 miles of the most difficult terrain in 84 days. About 31 miles per day. The pure-breds arrived in significantly better condition than the Anglo-crossbreeds, but they were exhausted and in no condition to do anything except receive veterinary support and graze.The light horse of the SRD covers 32 miles per day in normal terrain, and in hindered terrain (3/4 of movement) only covers 24 miles. The SRD light horse isn't tired according to the rules.The ideal Ride skill, as I see it, would account for a mount growing weaker the more it was pushed. The way the Ride skill is set up now, if you push your horse too hard over a short sprint it can collapse. The ideal Ride skill would be set up so that if you push your horse too hard over a large journey it can collapse in exhaustion (and healing magic doesn't revive it). In addition, the ideal Ride skill would clarify to players just how long their horse can maintain a galloping speed for.Any other ideas?</blockquote>

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