Originally Posted by
Osuniev
Well, if your Horse is Dashing, you can do 36 m - sorry, 120 feet - a turn. Meaning you can be out of range of any melee attack (and out of short range of many thrown weapons !).
With a Reach weapon, you can be 65 feet away, then come to the enemy, hit, then go back 65 feet away. If the enemy comes to you, it makes it even easier.
If you haven't got a reach weapon, you can still do this most turns by having your mount Disengage instead of Dash, provided you start slightly closer (then every time the enemy moves towards you, they only make it easier to kite them next turn)
Using the STRICT ruling of "non-simultaneous turns", Mounts still provide most of this advantage, but you need to forego extra attack to do so (since you hit during your mount's turn). It makes thematic sense to me that it's harder to do three attacks WHILE RUSHING PAST an enemy.
You can still of course use your own turn to attack. The mount is by now means useless : for a sum that's quite affordable by most lvl 5 characters, you now have a 60 feet speed and ignore all Attacks of Opportunity, with the option of Dashing AND attacking on the same run.
Sure, mounts are easy to kill (slightly harder if you pay for barding), which makes for an useful money sink.
(For the record, I see how the rule could be read two different ways, I was just defending how the strict reading doesn't make mounts useless at all, and in fact provide a MAJOR tactical advantage).