Ride-By attack question

[nexos10]

does Ride-By attack allow you to keeping moving through a foe's space, say if we were in the same 5 ft. column?

or would I have to be an adjacent column to be able to charge and then keeping moving?

or would I be forced to stop since I cant do an overrun while charging? would I be shunted to a different space?

[ExLibrisMortis]

I don't think Ride-By Attack gives you any special ability to move through foes. One more oversight in the mounted combat rules, I suppose. A DC 25 Tumble check lets you move through an opponent's square, but it's hard to get a mount to Tumble.

You'd have to charge in an adjacent column, but you also have to charge to the nearest square you can hit from, so you can't approach at an angle like so:


. . . . . . . x . s
. . . . . . o s . .
. . . . . s . . . .
. . . s . . . . . .
. s . . . . . . . .

The s-path would let you attack x from s4, but square o is closer to x than s4, so you're required to charge to that square. This would be fine:


. . . . . . s . . .
. . . . . s x . . .
. . . . s o . . . .
. . . s . . . . . .
. . s . . . . . . .

At least, insofar the charge is concerned: s4 and o are equally close to x. You still can't move from s4 to s5, because x is blocking that movement. This should definitely work:


. . . . s . . . . .
. . . . s x . . . .
. . . . s o . . . .
. . . . s . . . . .
. . . . s . . . . .

Squares s3 and o are equally close to x, so you can charge and ride right through.

[Darrin]

This is a known dysfunction. Ride-By-Attack is written poorly, and doesn't always function as it was intended.

You need to tweak the wording so that it allows the rider to attack from "the closest square that allows the rider to attack and also allows the mount to continue moving forward in a straight line".

However, even that doesn't work as intended, because your mount is charging, and this movement could cause the mount to put itself in a position where it can't attack at the end of a charge. This isn't illegal per se, as you're not required to make an attack at the end of a charge, but it is extremely annoying.

Also, if you're using a lance or another reach weapon against a medium-sized opponent, the "closest square" could put you inside the 5-foot "doughnut" where you can't attack adjacent creatures with a reach weapon. So keep that in mind when you are trying to parse how this feat was intended to work.

As far as I can determine, no one bothered to playtest the mounted combat rules.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Also, if you're using a lance or another reach weapon against a medium-sized opponent, the "closest square" could put you inside the 5-foot "doughnut" where you can't attack adjacent creatures with a reach weapon. So keep that in mind when you are trying to parse how this feat was intended to work.
How does your opponent's size matter here? As far as I know, "closest square" expands to "closest to you at the time you start charging", meaning it's the first square you encounter that you can attack from, and as far away from your opponent as your reach allows. If your mount has less reach than you, then that's a problem, but the size of your opponent has no impact (I think).


As an aside, I think Ride-By Attack-as-written would function better on a hex grid.