custom-made saddles and cover

[panaikhan]

Would it be possible to construct a custom saddle for a large mount, that gave it's small rider cover?
I had a wierd vision of my gnome gunslinger in a rotating turret strapped on top of a large cat. metagaming aside, would it be possible to make a saddle to provide cover, that you could launch splash weapons and/or fire longarms from?

[sonofzeal]

Is it RAW? Not that I know of.

Is it a potentially cool houserule / custom item? Heck yes!

[panaikhan]

I'm using real-world / fantasy analogies, such as the little 'huts' sometimes strapped to elephants. The 'turret' thing was just a brain fart kinda thing.

Would it cost a lot? And what kind of cover would be reasonable?

[Person_Man]

You can already do it without a special saddle, using the Ride Skill.

From the SRD:


You can react instantly to drop down and hang alongside your mount, using it as cover. You can’t attack or cast spells while using your mount as cover. If you fail your Ride check, you don’t get the cover benefit. This usage does not take an action.

You can attempt to mount or dismount from a mount of up to one size category larger than yourself as a free action, provided that you still have a move action available that round. If you fail the Ride check, mounting or dismounting is a move action. You can’t use fast mount or dismount on a mount more than one size category larger than yourself.

So you can make your full attack or Charge or whatever, drop behind your mount for cover, not attack again until the start of your next turn (giving up any AoO, but gaining more protection), remount as a free action at the start of your turn, and then take your normal actions again.

As a DM I would have no trouble with re-fluffing it as a giant turret like saddle if it fit your character concept better - the end result would be the same.

[panaikhan]

Just to clarify, the rider is Small, the mount is Large.
The mount is incidentally another PC, who will be doing their own thing while the gnome is blasting stuff.

So you can 'hide' behind your mount as a free action with Ride - what does it take to get back up? (and does this work with two steps in size difference?)

[Cwymbran-San]

I believe this thread was about the saddle, not the riding skill :smallamused:

From historic reference (and of course the small fortresses on the backs of Mumakil in LotR) i'd say: why not?

If you intend to ride another character in a custom-made saddle (hello Brandon Stark of Winterfell...), i would apply partial cover as DM and make every attack your cover works against hit your buddy (same to-hit roll, but against his AC).
No idea how to handle area-effect-saves, you need to be strapped into this thing to operate any ranged weapons, you won't be dodging much:smalltongue:

[panaikhan]

The 'hitting my buddy' idea isn't so bad, as he has a much better AC than I do.
And area effects? I either get my own saving throw, or use his I guess. He has Evasion...

[Acanous]

There's a crablike magic item in the DMG that provides the only precident to riding around in a turret that I can think of.

strap one of those to your buddy's back?