When was the last time mounts/mounted combat saw a use?

[Blue Sky]

I play a halfling paladin in our WLD campaign, so it gets used as much as it can. I do a *lot* of damage when charging, and a *small* amount when not. Of course, it helps to have an insta-replaceable mount, too.

 

[Henry]

See title. How often does this come up?

In our games, mounts and mounted combat comes up, on average, maybe once every three to four games. Some campaigns, it's a major part; others, not so much. Recently, our high-level Eberron game saw Skullcrusher Ogres with lances mounted on Huge Elephants and Mammoths; A party Monk died to a combination Ride-by attack and trample. More recently, the party was riding through Xendrik and attacked by tree-dwelling savage giants, much to the dismay of their horses (they skimped on price and picked non-wartrained mounts).

 

[Drowbane]

Mounted NPCs: Pretty frequent. Goblins on Wargs (much prefer the Tolkein spelling ) or Giant Bats, Frost Giants on Mammoths, mounted knights, Drow on Lizards, etc.

Mounted PCs: pretty rare IME. 4 years ago there was a Paladin Halfling on a Special (Seeing eye?) Dog mount. More recently I had a Halfling Druid with a Clawfoot Animal Companion.

One of my back-up characters in the game I'm currently in is a Faen-Quickspryte who rides an Eagle (standard size, not Giant ).

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Frequently, considering one of the party members is a paladin with a gryphon as a mount.

I also play a paladin with a griffon mount, but sadly I only get a chance to ride him into combat perhaps 1 in 20 session.

I suppose a part of that may be the fact that Spirited Charge + Divine Favor + Divine Might + Smite Evil = almost any single target annihilated.

But for the most part it's a matter of space. A medium rider on a large mount is hard to fit into the dungeon, and I refused to play a peck paladin, despite the obvious size advantage.

 

[kigmatzomat]

My party uses them about one encounter out of four. It would be more often except they can't teleport that much mass. I allow limited additional racial HD for mounts; the rogue's war horse is the longest lived, excluding the awakened riding dog cohort.

The mounts have proven valuabe more than once, for ablating attacks if nothing else.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

It used to be every game when I was running Tapestry (a very rare game system indeed). Once 3E came out, that plummeted. Once I started writing the mounted combat rules that appear now in Tell It To My Axe, it went up for a while. If I run my own game again, I'll find out. I suspect it will be every 2nd or 3rd evening.

 

[Thotas]

Currently, I doubt it's crossed my player's minds, and if it did, the adventure is City of the Spider Queen, so usefullness is limited at best.

I'd love to see some cavalry action, though, and it was my first thought when I started scanning Red Hand of Doom. I look forward to running that adventure for the mounted combat possibilites alone. Such a classic/stock fantasy image needs to be supported better!

Just got PH2 today, I'm really looking forward to closely examining the Knight for that reason.

 

[Pseudonym]

See title. How often does this come up?

Two sessions ago, the paladin in my group summoned his mount to capsize a small raft, but he's never used it in a mounted combat sense.

 

[Wilphe]

1939. the polish used a cavalry charge against the german panzers. they got slaughtered.

OMG! Panzers are BROKEN!

 

[Henry]

OMG! Panzers are UNBROKEN!

In context of the above Poland/Germany reference, I fixed it for you...