Mounted Combat Question

[tigerusthegreat]

Having an internal debate here, so I will turn to the masses to find a better answer.

If you are mounted, can you take a standard action, and then have your mount charge? Specific example I am looking at is a druid with an animal companion mount using a standard action to cast a spell, and then ordering his mount to charge.

[Darrin]

Having an internal debate here, so I will turn to the masses to find a better answer.

If you are mounted, can you take a standard action, and then have your mount charge? Specific example I am looking at is a druid with an animal companion mount using a standard action to cast a spell, and then ordering his mount to charge.

The mounted combat/charging/ride-by attack rules are all bolloxed up and don't really definitively answer this question. The Charging rules don't really allow the rider to "charge" while mounted, since they refer to "you" moving, and if "you" are mounted, you're not really moving (outside of some shenanigans with the fast mount/dismount rules). The Mounted Combat rules gives you the same benefits/penalties if your mount is charging, but it's not clear if this explicitly means that "if my mount is charging, I am also charging".

But the real headscratcher is the Ride-By Attack feat, which seems to assume that the *rider* is using his actions to move/charge rather than directing the mount to use its own actions. And this is on top of the additional stupidity that if you want to continue moving "in a straight line", this almost always means moving through your target's square, which is not allowed by the rules.

The best way to fix this is assume the Ride-By Attack feat needs to be rewritten so it's more functional, something along the lines of:

* Your mount is the one charging. Directing your mount to charge is either a free action or a move action, depending on whether the mount is trained to attack and what you roll on your Ride check.

* You still get your full complement of actions while mounted. While this means you still get a standard + move action or a full-round action, you're still limited to one melee attack: "If your mount moves more than 5 feet, you can only make a single melee attack. Essentially, you have to wait until the mount gets to your enemy before attacking, so you can’t make a full attack." (This whole business of having to wait until your mount gets there is complete monkeysnot, but that's RAW for you.)

* Ride-By Attack allows you to charge to the nearest square where you can attack your opponent and still continue moving in a straight line.

[Gwendol]

Since the rules for mounted combat make so little sense (you can't full attack with a melee weapon, but it's ok to full attack with a bow or go full round casting while having the mount move), I'd say "YES" to your specific question. As pointed out above it isn't clear that you are charging when the mount is, so you should be ok.