The Goblins Fan Forum

spiderwrangler wrote: ↑Mon Jan 07, 2019 2:43 pm

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Once during your move, you can mount a creature that is within 5 feet of you or dismount. Doing so costs an amount of movement equal to half your speed. For example, if your speed is 30 feet, you must spend 15 feet of movement to mount a horse. Therefore, you can't mount it if you don't have 15 feet of movement left or if your speed is 0.

So you can potentially move half distance to your mount, then use the other half to mount. Also, if you're prone next to your mount, you can stand up for half, and mount for the other half. If you're grappled (speed = 0), you're not able to mount. The "once during your move" would seem to imply you'd not be able to both mount and dismount in one turn, though it's a bit grey. Limiting it to either or on a turn keeps people from cheesing mount and character dashing.

If an effect moves your mount against its will while you're on it, you must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall off the mount, landing prone in a space within 5 feet of it. If you're knocked prone while mounted, you must make the same saving throw.
If your mount is knocked prone, you can use your reaction to dismount it as it falls and land on your feet. Otherwise, you are dismounted and fall prone in a space within 5 feet it.

Various spells, shove attacks, etc can result in these rolls being made.

While you're mounted, you have two options. You can either control the mount or allow it to act independently. Intelligent creatures, such as dragons, act independently.

Makes sense, rider's choice but if the creature is intelligent, they'd be more likely to go on their own turn rather than being an extension of the rider's.

You can control a mount only if it has been trained to accept a rider. Domesticated horses, donkeys, and similar creatures are assumed to have such training. The initiative of a controlled mount changes to match yours when you mount it. It moves as you direct it, and it has only three action options: Dash, Disengage, and Dodge. A controlled mount can move and act even on the turn that you mount it.

So can only control trained creatures, and limited actions, but since you can have the mount move and act the turn mounted, you could run half your movement, mount for the other half, then have the mount move and dash. So in one turn with a 30ft character and 60 ft mount, end up 135 ft away from where you started if you run 15 ft to your horse, mount and move/dash, all while still having your action you can use anywhere in there. If you move/dash, you could potentially run 45 ft to your horse, then still have it move 120 ft with a move/dash.

An independent mount retains its place in the initiative order. Bearing a rider puts no restrictions on the actions the mount can take, and it moves and acts as it wishes. It might flee from combat, rush to attack and devour a badly injured foe, or otherwise act against your wishes.

With mundane mounts, there's limited times you'd want this to be your choice, if you can't trust your mount to do what needs doing, you're probably better off going with the first option. However, this is essentially how things have run the few times that Maji was a "mount" in SW, he's intelligent, so kept his own initiative, which frees him up to make attacks, etc. on his turn. If you have a non-intelligent mount that is trained in combat (eg, warhorse), it might be worth putting them on their own?

In either case, if the mount provokes an opportunity attack while you're on it, the attacker can target you or the mount.

It's really the lack of staying power that will make most mounts an iffy proposition for mounted combat for most characters. The 'best' mount that would be regularly available would be a warhorse, with AC 11 and HP 19. Riding horses have a puny AC 10 and HP 13, so it's pretty easy to cut a horse out from under a rider not trained to fight on one (ie, Mounted Combatant feat), so in most cases, horses and other mounts are mostly going to be a way to get around more quickly than walking, as well as be able to carry more stuff.

Rodgeir wrote: ↑Wed Jan 09, 2019 3:04 am An untrained horse (and probably most trained) are not going to be able to take a dodge or disengage action, they just aren't smart enough.