War-horses and full round actions?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

A møøse warhørse once bit my sister.

So what are the D&D stats for a warmoose, anyway?

I think he'd make a great mount for my flying squirrel paladin.

Great addition to Eberron, too -- gnome cavalry, riding warmooses (or is that warmoosi? Warmice? Or just warmoose?).

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

However, I'm pretty sure historical war mounts did not have a hoof-hoof-bite routine. That's just silly.

I am sure you are correct.

However, a realistic model of a warhorse would be too annoying for regular use, so the mechanics reduce the horse's effect on the tactical combat to boring damage.

Warhorses were trained to do things like spontaneously spin and kick when enemies closed in. An animal that can break your leg like a twig is very intimidating. If you were lucky he only knocked you on your butt -- roll/crawl away quickly or you will get trampled.

If I wanted to make things more realistic, I would reduce the attack routine to a single attack. Then I would give Reach 10' and Improved Trip. Veteran and intelligent horse would get Combat Reflexes.

That is not a precisely accurate model, but the overall effect would be about right.

 

[ElectricDragon]

You can use ranged weapons while your mount is running (quadruple speed), at a -8 penalty.

Emphasis mine.

The strange thing is that all horses (war-trained or not) have the Run feat that allows moving at quintuple speed when using the run action.

Ciao
Dave

 

[frankthedm]

The strange thing is that all horses (war-trained or not) have the Run feat that allows moving at quintuple speed when using the run action.

Not all creatures that can be trained for combat riding will have the run feat. Int score of 2, a willingness not to eat the rider and a spinal structure the DM feels is strong enough to support a rider are the only real requirements IIRC.

Train an Animal for a Purpose: Rather than teaching an animal individual tricks, you can simply train it for a general purpose. Essentially, an animal’s purpose represents a preselected set of known tricks that fit into a common scheme, such as guarding or heavy labor. The animal must meet all the normal prerequisites for all tricks included in the training package. If the package includes more than three tricks, the animal must have an Intelligence score of 2.

An animal can be trained for only one general purpose, though if the creature is capable of learning additional tricks (above and beyond those included in its general purpose), it may do so. Training an animal for a purpose requires fewer checks than teaching individual tricks does, but no less time.

Riding (DC 15): An animal trained to bear a rider knows the tricks come, heel, and stay. Training an animal for riding takes three weeks.

Combat Riding (DC 20): An animal trained to bear a rider into combat knows the tricks attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel. Training an animal for combat riding takes six weeks. You may also “upgrade” an animal trained for riding to one trained for combat riding by spending three weeks and making a successful DC 20 Handle Animal check. The new general purpose and tricks completely replace the animal’s previous purpose and any tricks it once knew. Warhorses and riding dogs are already trained to bear riders into combat, and they don’t require any additional training for this purpose.

Special: You can use this skill on a creature with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2 that is not an animal, but the DC of any such check increases by 5. Such creatures have the same limit on tricks known as animals do.

 

[Klaus]

Arravis,

The following three excerpts are from Ride in the Skills chapter...

Fight with warhorse (Ride DC 10)

If you direct your war-trained mount to attack in battle, you can still make your own attack or attacks normally. This usage is a free action.

Control Mount in Battle (Ride DC 20)

As a move action, you can attempt to control a light horse, pony, heavy horse, or other mount not trained for combat riding while in battle. If you fail the Ride check, you can do nothing else in that round. You do not need to roll for warhorses or warponies.

Action

Varies, Mounting or dismounting normally is a move action. Other checks are a move action, a free action, or no action at all, as noted above.

Question: When it says, "You do not need to roll for warhorses or warponies," does it mean that it is a "no action" or it is a "move action" with no roll?

pawned

You don't need to control a warmout in battle (i.e., it isn't frightened). But if you direct it to attack, you must succeed on a DC10 Ride check to be able to attack as well (a rider with a Ride modifier of +9 can usually do this automatically).

 

[ValhallaGH]

So what are the D&D stats for a warmoose, anyway?

Use Monster Manual 2. In there you will find the stats for a moose and the War Beast template. Combine the two and you have a warmoose.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

As I noted in my original post, that's for non-war-trained mounts only.

From the SRD: "Heavy warhorses, light warhorses and warponies can serve readily as combat steeds. Light horses, ponies, and heavy horses, however, are frightened by combat. If you don’t dismount, you must make a DC 20 Ride check each round as a move action to control such a horse. If you succeed, you can perform a standard action after the move action. If you fail, the move action becomes a full round action and you can’t do anything else until your next turn."

That's not the section I'm talking about. Another poster above cited the correct one (re: when your mount moves more than 5 feet).

 

[Stormrunner]

The plural of moose is moose, just like the plural of sheep is sheep.