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View Full Version : [3.5] Combat while riding a fleshraker?



Kosjsjach
2010-04-01, 09:17 PM
As you probably surmised from the title, I'm a bit shaky on the mounted combat rules and how they apply to things like the rider's AC, the mount's attacks, and mounted combat in general.

For example, does the rider (in this case, a halfling sling-wielding druid) get an attack after his mount's attack? Before? Not at all?

The Mounted Combat feat allows the rider to replace his mount's AC with his Ride check once per round, but does riding have any bearing on the rider's AC? Does an attacker chose which target to attack?

Would someone mind giving me a rundown of various combat scenarios with a mount with an attack routine?

Eldariel
2010-04-01, 09:44 PM
As you probably surmised from the title, I'm a bit shaky on the mounted combat rules and how they apply to things like the rider's AC, the mount's attacks, and mounted combat in general.

For example, does the rider (in this case, a halfling sling-wielding druid) get an attack after his mount's attack? Before? Not at all?

The Mounted Combat feat allows the rider to replace his mount's AC with his Ride check once per round, but does riding have any bearing on the rider's AC? Does an attacker chose which target to attack?

Would someone mind giving me a rundown of various combat scenarios with a mount with an attack routine?

1) Rider and mount have separate sets of actions. This means that their attacking tends to not impact each other, except for the limitation that the rider may only make one melee attack after the mount has moved (and melee attacks are done at +1 from higher ground vs. normal opponents). It's a DC 5 Ride-check to guide with knees to keep your hands free for attacks. DC 10 to maintain your own ability to attack while guiding your mount to attack too. DC 20 and a Move Action (or DC 50 Ride-check with no action) to control a non-wartrained Mount. And you can ranged full attack while riding at penalties (-4 during mount's double move, -8 during mount's run).

2) Attacker always chooses the target (duh). There's a Ride-check to use Mount as Cover (DC 15) which improves your AC by +4, but gives up your attacks and spellcasting (DC 60 to act normally while using Mount for cover). Otherwise, the only effect is that a mounted target can be hard to reach.

3) Not sure what you're after here. Mount attacks as per normal and rider rolls various Ride-checks to maintain his functionality while riding.

EDIT: And yeah, it may be prudent to train any Animal Companion intended for this for Combat Riding as per Handle Animal, unless your Handle Animal is at least +26 and your Ride is +49, at which point you can just always Push every action out of animals you're dealing with and ride untrained mounts. Hell, +54 Ride and you can do that all bareback.