WOTC Get Your Horse On!

moritheil · Jun 12, 2008

So, how's mounted combat in 4E? Have there been any builds to rival the 3.5 charging lance wielders who can deal enough damage to vaporize a planet?

TimeOut · Jun 12, 2008

Nice thread title.

Basically as far as I understand (not read much about it, no real interest) you take a feat and can access special abilities of your mount. Special abilities are listed in the MM, other stuff on page 46 in the DMG.

You and the mount are in the same space, attackers can attack one or the other, mount benefits only with feats, if movement provokes OA chooses one target, if you provoke you are targeted, forced movement can't seperate you from your mount unless you wish to. Knocking the mount prone dismounts, knocking you prone allows you to save.

Mounts have the same initiative as you and uses the same actions as you, a mount attack uses your standard action.

moritheil · Jun 13, 2008

Thank you. But there are no hefty multipliers and no ways that mounted combat in any way allows you to string together chains of multipliers, as it did in 3.5?

delericho · Jun 13, 2008

No. Nor does the equipment list include a 'lance'.

I was underwhelmed by the mounted combat rules. But, after reading the DMG I was at least mollified that they did exist.

Two major oddities spring to mind:

The 'stealth rhino', where the Mounted Combat feat allows a rider to substitute his own Stealth score for that of his mount when sneaking.

and...

The material on positioning of the rider within the mount's space seems very wooly. If the rider gets to choose which square he occupies at any given time, when he is hit by an attack can he not declare that he is on the opposite side of the mount, and therefore out of reach?

Klaus · Jun 13, 2008

moritheil said:
Thank you. But there are no hefty multipliers and no ways that mounted combat in any way allows you to string together chains of multipliers, as it did in 3.5?

No. If the rider in at least 3rd level, he gets a +5 damage on a charge from a warhorse.

One of the biggest changes is that the rider and mount share the same "standard + move + minor" action suite. So if you attack, your mount can't, and vice versa.