Warhorses attacking

[Gnimish88]

Wow. Some of you completely misunderstood my post there. Let me break it down:

Rider attack (default situation) -- A rider can simply use the war horse as legs. Use the mount's movement in the combat, and make attacks as normal. Requires no skill checks.

Mount attack -- A rider can direct his mount to attack with a move action Handle Animal check DC 10. The mount will continue attack, round to round (full attack after the first round), until commanded to stop.

Both attack -- A rider can direct his mount to attack with a move action Handle Animal check DC 10. And the rider can also attack by making a free action Ride check DC 10. Again, the mount continues attacking, round to round (full attack after the first), until commanded to stop. The rider can make a full attack each round (after that first in which he commanded his mount) so long as he keeps making his free action Ride check DC 10.

Now that I've read more closely, and compared the Ride and Handle Animal descriptions, I beleive the above is how the rules work.

Quasqueton

Though I don't see anything in the text that directly contradict that interpretation, it strikes me as wrong to have to use 2 skills to effectively make full use of a warhorse. They really are not tough enough to justify that many requirements. Not only that, but the only thing the ride skill is really used for in the DC table is for combat related issues. There are non-combat uses for some of them, but by and large, it is clear that the intent of the ride skill is combat riding proficiency. Using your warhorse in combat would clearly be a combat riding issue, however much some of the handle animal skill may overlap.

 

[0-hr]

So could the Bad Guy tell the fighter's warhorse to attack the wizard? Looks like a simple Handle Animal (10) check if you're allowing the "attack" command to be given at range.

 

[FireLance]

So could the Bad Guy tell the fighter's warhorse to attack the wizard? Looks like a simple Handle Animal (10) check if you're allowing the "attack" command to be given at range.

By the rules, there's nothing to prevent a bad guy from doing just that. Whether or not he would choose to spend a move action to do that is another matter.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

Rider attack (default situation) -- A rider can simply use the war horse as legs. Use the mount's movement in the combat, and make attacks as normal. Requires no skill checks.

Yes, but you will probably want to use Ride into order to Guide With Knees (DC 5) and have both hands available for fighting.

Mount attack -- A rider can direct his mount to attack with a move action Handle Animal check DC 10. The mount will continue attack, round to round (full attack after the first round), until commanded to stop.

Yes, this also would be the correct procedure for commanding the warhorse that you are not riding to attack.

Both attack -- A rider can direct his mount to attack with a move action Handle Animal check DC 10. And the rider can also attack by making a free action Ride check DC 10. Again, the mount continues attacking, round to round (full attack after the first), until commanded to stop. The rider can make a full attack each round (after that first in which he commanded his mount) so long as he keeps making his free action Ride check DC 10.

I disagree. I believe all that is required is the Ride skill, and he can use it on round one as a free action.

Handle Animal is generally intended to be used on friendly trained animals that you may or may not have continous physical contact with (or for training animals). You may choose to use Handle Animal instead of Ride, a Druid might well do this, but it is not necessary.