Mounted Combat Rules

**Test page to work out formatting for future rules pages. Should change to 'Mounts & Mounted Combat Rules', finish page off first before transfering page.**

## Mounts and Vehicles

A good mount can help you move more quickly through the wilderness, but its primary purpose is to carry the gear that would otherwise slow you down. The Mounts and Other Animals table shows each animal’s speed and base carrying capacity.

An animal pulling a carriage, cart, chariot, sled, or wagon can move weight up to five times its base carrying capacity, including the weight of the vehicle. If multiple animals pull the same vehicle, they can add their carrying capacity together.

Mounts other than those listed here are available in the worlds of D&D, but they are rare and not normally available for purchase. These include flying mounts (pegasi, griffons, hippogriffs, and similar animals) and even aquatic mounts (giant sea horses, for example). Acquiring such a mount often means securing an egg and raising the creature yourself, making a bargain with a powerful entity, or negotiating with the mount itself.

## Mounted Combat

A knight charging into battle on a warhorse, a wizard casting spells from the back of a griffon, or a cleric soaring through the sky on a pegasus all enjoy the benefits of speed and mobility that a mount can provide.

A willing creature that is at least one size larger than you and that has an appropriate anatomy can serve as a mount, using the following rules.

*Players Handbook - Chapter 9*
## Mounting and Dismounting

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.

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.

*Players Handbook - Chapter 9*
## Controlling a Mount

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

### Method One

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.

### Method Two

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.

*Players Handbook - Chapter 9*
## Dragon Talk Sage Advice Video

*Editors Note - Need to look up how to embed videos but has a lot of useful information*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99tX6tmc73Q

### Transcription

Transcript autogenerated by youtube, will be edited to just the useful information rather than all the small talk, intros and outros.

> 0:00
>
>
> [Music]
> 0:05
> hello everyone and welcome to another segment of sage advice I am Greg Tito
> 0:11
> and I'm joined by Jeremy Crawford hi everyone how's it going I'm doing well yeah yeah I've had a long weekend
> 0:18
> because of the little snow flurry we had it was snow flurry II I was away on San
> 0:23
> Juan Island and we got to quite a bit of snow when we were there and and I was also recuperating after finishing
> 0:29
> finishing Morton Kamen's tomb of foes congratulations it's out the door yes exactly being printed as we speak
> 0:36
> gosh that's crazy to think about we should do like one of those mr. Rogers type segments where we go to like this
> 0:41
> is how a book is made we'll start here and then it will end up at the printer and like we put the glue here and then
> 0:47
> everybody could be like oh that's why the all of our pages are messed up we should remember that for a future sage advice segment I share I could just talk
> 0:54
> about how a D&D book is made exactly that's a good idea put in our brain pan cutter actually
> 0:59
> write a note about that today we were trying to come up with a good topic for this and mounted combat is where we
> 1:07
> settled on to start with yes yeah because we have never done a segment specifically on mounted combat but it
> 1:13
> does generate a number of questions yeah I think I mean I mentioned I I rarely use it because it doesn't unless your
> 1:20
> character is made for mounted combat it doesn't always make sense in my mind but I'm sure we can figure
> 1:26
> out a little bit more about why and how easy it is to integrate without it making you know having to create all
> 1:32
> these choices right so what's the with the basic of mounted combat that you you
> 1:39
> wanted to get across here so so first off to get it the kind of bigger picture question of how to include mountain
> 1:46
> combat why should you include it why is it even in the game because a lot of
> 1:51
> adventures take place in dungeons inside castles with narrow corridors and so
> 1:58
> there are many adventures where mounted combat won't even come up because D&D adventurers spend a remarkable amount of
> 2:05
> time indoors not unlike those of us who play the game and so you might have
> 2:12
> multiple campaigns where your characters are never on a mount but then suddenly you might have a a paladin your group
> 2:20
> who's cast find steed or you might have a Trixie Ranger Beastmaster who is maybe
> 2:28
> a halfling or a gnome and figured out they can turn their beast companion into a mount which by the way is perfectly
> 2:34
> legal and or you might be in a campaign
> 2:40
> that involves a lot of wilderness exploration or might have a more sort of
> 2:47
> warlike theme where cavalry charges are a thing or you might have a more sort of
> 2:53
> like mythologically themed campaign where like heroes of old you know you are a stride your mighty steed and
> 2:59
> you're you know going to face the dragon out on an open field there are so many like tropes associated with that to me
> 3:05
> I'm thinking of you know the writers Rohan and even a tray you and his mount and neverending story
> 3:12
> nice call out to neverending story I love that movie I actually watched it
> 3:18
> last year and more of it held up than I expected yeah I think there was a point where I was like mass is no good you
> 3:23
> know maybe in my mid-20s and I'm like now I'm like you know what no it's it's it's it pulls it the right heartstrings in the right way yeah but yeah but it
> 3:31
> got us that a bond that he has with his with his horse so I'm forgetting the name of it but then also even a Falkor
> 3:37
> and and the writing a dragon is part about to combat - yeah Gandalf and Shadowfax
> 3:42
> yes and yeah it is such a a classic
> 3:47
> image of not only the knight in shining armor astride a horse but you know again
> 3:53
> Gandalf a wizard on top on a horse many heroes and myth and in fantasy
> 4:00
> literature are often associated with amount of some kind yeah and it's something again because of the
> 4:07
> find steed spell or the fine grater steed spell that appears in XANA thighs Zanna Thor's guide to everything that we
> 4:14
> have at least one class that is highly motivated to have a mountain Cavaliers that subclass that also appears in Santa
> 4:21
> thar's guide to everything also has this desire often to include amount in
> 4:27
> some way it's a shame to let it fall by the wayside and and yeah how do we how do we integrate it more into your game
> 4:34
> so part of that is DMS just designing more outdoor encounter opportunities and
> 4:41
> also to remember that in all of those points and adventures where people are
> 4:47
> traveling long distances from one place to the next then unless they're traveling by river or by sea or by air
> 4:55
> often they're gonna want to get on a horse or some other kind of mount to
> 5:02
> make that journey and weather because it's a random encounter on the journey
> 5:08
> or because the villains are hunting the adventurers down there are actually many opportunities to have encounters that
> 5:16
> will involve the mounts now not all mounts are going to be combat-ready
> 5:21
> you can imagine a typical riding horse or a donkey you know freaking out when battle breaks
> 5:28
> out and you could have situations where the DM decides that the mounts are more
> 5:34
> of a liability than then an aid also on
> 5:39
> the top of many players Minds is if they're playing a character who cares
> 5:45
> about the welfare of the animals they're often going to want to get the animals out of there as quickly as possible so that they're not gobbled up by whatever
> 5:51
> monster is suddenly you know reared its ugly head but however a DM decides to integrate
> 5:59
> mounts into the game yeah and it's something I did quite a bit of not in my
> 6:04
> current campaign which is a very urban horror game but in my previous campaign which was very Celtic themed with a lot
> 6:12
> of battles out in open countryside they're actually very few battles in my previous campaign that took place
> 6:17
> indoors often there were opportunities for mounts and to be clearer when we're
> 6:23
> talking about mounts we're not just talking about horses although horses are the most iconic amount can be any
> 6:31
> creature that is suitable for you to ride around on so in my previous campaign that included you
> 6:37
> one point wyverns that their foes were writing you know it can in certain stories like in Dragonlance
> 6:43
> tales can include being a stride dragons themselves yeah there are pegasi in the
> 6:50
> game all sorts of creatures that you can use as mounts so the base requirement
> 6:58
> for a creature to be your amount is that it be at least one size category larger
> 7:04
> than you so most humanoids in the game are medium some are small and so it means okay they
> 7:10
> need to they need to be at least one size category bigger than you mm-hmm so it's normally going to mean large it
> 7:19
> they also have to be willing a monster that or a monster or animal or what-have-you
> 7:24
> is not going to be your mount unless it's been trained to be your mount or a wants to be your mount so again that
> 7:30
> willingness is important and then there's a part that's really up to the DM and that is does the creature have an
> 7:37
> Anatomy that lends itself to being amount to bearing the weight of another
> 7:43
> creature without that that weight bearing inhibiting the creatures
> 7:49
> movement too much now one way a DM can ascertain this is take a look at the creatures strength and using the rules
> 7:57
> on strength see what the creatures carrying capacity is keeping in mind
> 8:02
> that there are some creatures where we talk about oh they taking their unusual and they can carry more than more than
> 8:08
> normal but I wouldn't get too hung up on that as a DM I would say really just
> 8:14
> sort of go with your narrative gut if something is horse like you know that strong and four leg it's likely it can
> 8:23
> it can bear the weight of a creature that is you know one or more one or more
> 8:29
> sizes smaller than it this rule is here partly because and this has been true
> 8:34
> for many editions of D&D anytime there are mounted rules and you know if they ever refer to someone being bigger of
> 8:41
> course someone's gonna ask can the halfling ride the paladin around because
> 8:46
> because the paladin let's say we're talking about a half fork paladin whose medium-sized and the
> 8:53
> hand the halfling is is small looks like
> 8:59
> well if the half-orc is willing and he's one size larger you can t be a mountain
> 9:05
> so that's why we say DM does this person have a suitable Anatomy sure that half
> 9:11
> work is probably really strong but most of us if we had someone bearing down on
> 9:16
> our shoulders all the time we can do it for a little while I mean many of us have you know had kids up on our
> 9:23
> shoulders at different times but imagine doing that for hours on end and
> 9:30
> regretted it for weeks to come right yeah exactly it's not we're not made for that yeah so normally when we think of a
> 9:37
> creature with an appropriate Anatomy we're thinking of something that's a quadruped head or it could be also
> 9:45
> something that maybe is like giant and worm like you know if like you could
> 9:50
> actually get one to be willing dune style you can imagine yeah right yeah
> 9:56
> riding around on a big purple worm which I'm pretty fantastic so if you if you've
> 10:03
> met that requirement the the creature isn't appropriate Amanah me it's big enough and it's willing hop on then the
> 10:10
> question is well how do you hop on yeah so our game has open-ended movement rules so you know getting up next to
> 10:17
> your mount you move up next to it how the same way you move up next to anything in D&D now getting up on to the
> 10:23
> Mount does have a special rule and these rules I'm referring to are in the combat chapter of The Player's Handbook and
> 10:29
> there's a section at the very end of the combat rules called mounted combat and I actually have the book open to that page
> 10:35
> perfect and one of the special rules there is once your once your adjacent to
> 10:41
> this mount to get up on it you need to spend an amount of movement equal to
> 10:47
> half your speed this is actually just the like the rule for standing up from when you're prone okay the reason why
> 10:54
> this is a variable amount so you know it's essentially an amount of movement that changes depending on what your
> 11:02
> speed is the point is we want you to burn half your potential movement whatever your
> 11:08
> speed is because you're not just moving this is also representing you know
> 11:15
> you're kind of climbing on you're getting into place you're situating yourself you're getting the reins if
> 11:20
> there are reins or you're grabbing on to the creatures mane or to its horns or whatever it is you're grabbing on to
> 11:26
> this represents not just getting there it's getting situated you're ready to go right a DM I could imagine might allow
> 11:34
> somebody to mount faster and then you know if a person's really in a panic the
> 11:40
> DM might say okay you can mount faster than that and then maybe a imposed disadvantage on the next check the
> 11:47
> person makes or the next attack role or the next saving throw they make so or you could be I mean there's I'm just
> 11:53
> throwing this out there but like I'm thinking of a few fantasy films I've seen where there's a very acrobatic
> 11:58
> mounting of a horse or yes flipping around I'll be doing on that if you roll
> 12:03
> a high DC acrobatics check you might allow something like that and in fact as DM I have allowed that very thing I've I
> 12:10
> am as I've mentioned before in sage advice I am very generous and encourage other
> 12:17
> diems to be very generous when players are creative and use their characters
> 12:24
> capabilities in fun cinematic ways and so if I have a character who yeah
> 12:31
> they're gonna try to do some you know crazy my flit il fan yeah up onto their horse and I also yeah go ahead give me
> 12:38
> give me that acrobatics check and if they nail it BAM they're on the horse
> 12:43
> and I probably won't charge the MEXT or movement at all for that yeah but
> 12:49
> there's always the risk if they fail that check then I'm probably gonna have some some pratfall happen right they
> 12:55
> they not only didn't make it on the mount but in my their action or they land in you know the water trough on the
> 13:01
> other side you know there all sorts of fun things that can happen yeah because really anytime you hand
> 13:08
> USDM decide to hand over some of the decision making to the d20 part of that
> 13:14
> decision-making as d-m get ready for crazy because crazy good
> 13:19
> and yeah easy bad exactly because the d20 as as I've talked about before is so swinging that and part of the fun of D&D
> 13:27
> is even the DM can be surprised by the outcome and then you have the fun of coming up with well what happened like
> 13:33
> you just you you vaulted right over that Griffin you were trying to to land on
> 13:39
> and you land it in the lake you know on the other side okay and now you get to use the swimming rules I would even make it your trusted mount
> 13:47
> sidestepped a little bit to the left at the last second getting back for you know giving a moly carrot before the
> 13:54
> little scowl yeah so once once you're on your mount you then have a choice and
> 14:03
> this choice point throws people up a little bit sometimes and that is you
> 14:10
> decide am I going to control this mount or am I going to let it act
> 14:15
> independently and we tell you in the
> 14:20
> rules that intelligent creatures which is and and this is admittedly vague in
> 14:26
> the rule they will act independently and really here when we say intelligent
> 14:32
> creatures we mean creatures that are their own their own person basically
> 14:38
> yeah luncheons yeah like a dragon like I think of is does this thing have a name
> 14:43
> can it talk that thing is gonna act independently yeah it it's like it's
> 14:49
> allowing you on its back you're you are welcome to communicate your desires to it but it's entirely up to that creature
> 14:56
> whether it's going to follow your instructions but it's not like a trained horse that is bred and manicured only to
> 15:04
> do what you commanded right now if you if you control the mount and it has to
> 15:11
> be kind of a a less intelligent thing that you do this with although I will
> 15:18
> say this if the intelligent creature decides you take it from here the DM and
> 15:29
> you could certainly agree that the intelligent creature has decided to be controlled because because really that that would in effect be a better way of
> 15:36
> us writing this rule is just saying the intelligent creature it gets to decide you don't get to because it's its own
> 15:42
> person it makes sense so once you've made that decision that actually has a strong mechanical outcome
> 15:50
> if the creature is behaving independently like you're basically alright alright mr. ed you take it from
> 15:57
> here that means your mount decides what to do and this can be good or bad because the
> 16:04
> mount might decide to do things that are not advantageous and you especially
> 16:10
> probably do not want to allow a kind of dumb just regular horse take the reins
> 16:18
> as it were because if it's a big battle it might just decide I'm out of here so it it can be risky to let the
> 16:27
> creature do its own thing but there's also an advantage when it can do its own thing it gets to take its full turns as
> 16:35
> normal that means it can move around on its turn it can attack on its turn it
> 16:40
> can have all the action options it would normally have because it roll its own initiative yes yep yeah it's its
> 16:47
> initiative as its own that independent creature it just acts like any other
> 16:52
> creature on the battlefield it's just you're on its back got it that's really that's the main difference and then of
> 16:58
> course again there are these other rules in the combat chapter about getting on and off it they're also some rules I
> 17:03
> won't go into here about you know the potential for getting knocked off your
> 17:08
> mount and those rules apply whether you're controlling the mount or it's acting independently the main thing is
> 17:16
> you know once you make this decision that affects how much of a turn your
> 17:22
> mount has if it's independent it acts like anybody any other creature in the fight and it's really up to the player
> 17:28
> and the DM who is controlling that mount at the table because many DMS will say
> 17:34
> even though this creature is in depend and it's it's making its own choices on the battlefield you player go ahead and
> 17:40
> control it and I recommend that actually to most DMS oh yeah yeah yeah I said um
> 17:45
> partly because dm's often have plenty of other things to control hmm and also because players like to have
> 17:51
> that's kind of that sense of companionship and ownership of their mount and so even if the mount is an
> 18:00
> intelligent mount I would like to empower players say hey you get to control it unless again it's an
> 18:06
> important NPC like you're writing on the back of a really intelligent dragon who might have knowledge that the players
> 18:13
> aren't privy to or you know the DM has maybe something in the dragon stat block
> 18:18
> that the DM doesn't want to reveal there are situations where the DM should retain control of that creature right
> 18:25
> otherwise I'd say let the players do it the DM already has plenty of things to keep track of at the table and most
> 18:31
> players would enjoy I think controlling their mount even if it's a I mean making
> 18:37
> decisions for the mount even if it's acting independently yeah but and they like that duality they like having like
> 18:42
> oh this is a symbiotic thing so I'm gonna make choices that the mount is doing even though it's the mount making it it's exactly there our team it
> 18:50
> because really it's good to think of really any kind of animal companion or
> 18:55
> monstrous companion in your group just think of it as another NPC and sometimes diems also will allow
> 19:03
> players to control humanoid NPCs who join the party you know you might have a
> 19:09
> hench person who's with you and the DM will say okay you you get to go ahead
> 19:14
> and control you know Cynthia that the town guard who who marched off into the
> 19:20
> dungeon with you now if you decide you're controlling them out different
> 19:27
> rules here because suddenly the creatures initiative changed changes to
> 19:33
> your initiative you're now acting as a unit it still has a turn that its turn
> 19:39
> basically overlaps with yours it gets its move and so the part of the
> 19:46
> advantage of this is basically it's moving on your turn so then far easier for your character to
> 19:52
> coordinate with the mount right it's a movement is taking place on your turn and it's action options are limited
> 20:00
> there's kind of a good knee Namit mean mnemonic here we play the game called D&D this controlled mount has the D and
> 20:08
> D and D option which is it's only actions are - disengage and dodge and so
> 20:17
> that means it's not attacking or anything like that it is fully dedicated at this point to being a mount to moving
> 20:27
> you around right not in the like oh it can attack and claw and butt or even as a horse you know pray and do that it is
> 20:33
> if it is your vehicle exactly it is it is focused entirely on this point at this point at moving you
> 20:41
> around and doing so safely because you know the fact that it can disengage
> 20:49
> means it can move without triggering opportunity attacks and the beauty of it
> 20:57
> acting on your turn to make it you know it's turn overlapping with yours is that
> 21:02
> then also your movement is still free to use on your own turn and all your
> 21:08
> actions are still available so the mount almost becomes a movement and action extension for the writer so it's a
> 21:16
> really powerful advantage so even though the mount is giving up things like attacking and whatnot you're gaining on
> 21:23
> your turn all this potential extra movement and also basically a free for
> 21:32
> the mount at least disengage dodge or - which and - means even more movement yeah and that's I mean the main reason
> 21:39
> why mounts are used in combat anyway as you mentioned the cavalry charge and things like that yes literally just to get to the point
> 21:45
> faster and to smash and take advantage of you know a large-scale battle like Oh
> 21:51
> a flank and motion and things like that right and then in this case it's more about like oh I can make an attack and
> 21:57
> then travel you know double-double movement speed away from the range of most even range weapons and
> 22:03
> come back and make that same attack the next around yeah that's the advantage there yeah and so it's actually and it can potentially be a huge advantage yeah
> 22:11
> so many people partly because it's easy as whenever any of us are playing D&D we
> 22:17
> like yeah but attacks attacks and so people all right but what how about will make the mount independent so let's just
> 22:22
> let's assume you do that and it's not a creature that's just gonna bolt you know like as many horses if you say all right
> 22:29
> again mr. ed you get to decide do whatever you it's out of there yeah
> 22:35
> exactly but assuming your mount is allowed to act independently and decides
> 22:42
> to stand the fight and then therefore gains the use of its own attacks the
> 22:48
> disadvantage you now have as a writer is you're gonna have to wait till the mounts turn for it to move
> 22:54
> so there's then is the that disjointedness with mountain rider where
> 22:59
> again still advantageous because you're still going to get that extra movement but it can be confusing and it's
> 23:05
> execution right right because it it's it's broken up over multiple turns but that's the trade-off if you if you it's
> 23:13
> more if it's more important to you that the mount gets gets its attacks off
> 23:18
> rather than having all that extra movement occurring on your turn and that
> 23:25
> tight coordination then go for it make the mount independent cool but again if
> 23:30
> it's all about let's just - around and for it to happen exactly when you want
> 23:35
> it to happen control that mount I also as d-m would allow you to make this
> 23:41
> decision at various points in the battle it's not like once you decide to control the mount it's controlled forever in
> 23:48
> that case would you roll initiative multiple times or you just have one that the the mount can drop in and out of so
> 23:55
> so when you decide to control amount its initiative changes to yours and so once
> 24:00
> you've made that decision I would leave its initiative there I wouldn't keep changing its initiative so even if it
> 24:06
> then became independent like imagine you're knocked unconscious well at that point your mount you're not controlling
> 24:11
> it anymore your mount becomes independent at that point but I would still leave its initiative at that
> 24:17
> point partly because we designed the combat system so that you almost never
> 24:22
> have to change the initiative anything in fact the mounted combat rules are one of the rare places where we have you
> 24:28
> change something's initiative yeah well would we would that be a way to game the
> 24:33
> system a bit if you started off say you know independence and then you wanted to
> 24:39
> get that your initiatives matched up so you could do the the kind of maneuvers that you can do easier when you're
> 24:45
> similar and then like okay now they're independent again you that would definitely be one way to try to break
> 24:53
> the intent of the rule and then at that point I'd leave it to the DM because it already would be an element of DM grace
> 24:59
> to allow a person to switch from controlled to independent because the
> 25:05
> rules don't have that grace bill that's something that you were like oh I do this sometimes yeah because again I as a
> 25:11
> DM I tend toward generosity but I also part of me of the social contract in D&D
> 25:19
> is that basically when the DM is giving you a gift graciously accept it
> 25:25
> graciously yeah because actually when I when my generosity starts to run out and
> 25:30
> then I start being an impish DM and players start vaulting into you know mud
> 25:36
> pits and falling in lakes or or trip into the toilet is when is when they
> 25:43
> start to abuse my generosity right you don't look at gift horse in the mouth yes exactly
> 25:48
> well done sir so there are a few other neat wrinkles with mounted combat when
> 25:55
> you are on your mount and the mount triggers an opportunity attack your foes
> 26:04
> have the option of attacking the mount or you hmm now this introduces an
> 26:12
> interesting wrinkle that is specific to playing with miniatures everything I've
> 26:18
> said so far works with or without miniatures okay as soon as you introduce the use of a grid and you have actually
> 26:26
> you know on the grid here's my horse miniature and here here's the miniature of my barbarian and
> 26:32
> now my miniature goes on the horse it introduces a question that theater of the mind doesn't have and that is where
> 26:39
> on the horse is the barbarian because you're you're now playing in a context
> 26:45
> where you know the exact 5-foot square where everything is suddenly matters and
> 26:52
> so there I would say just follow the normal movement rules you know when you're when your figure moves on to the
> 27:00
> other figure just decide which of the spaces on the Mount your miniature moved
> 27:07
> on to just and and so it's that easy you understand because it's a large miniature it takes up four squares yes
> 27:13
> yes so you just pick one of those and just say that's that's where you are but
> 27:18
> when you say you're kind of in the center if you the DM can make that can
> 27:23
> make that decision it and there's really no there's no sort of wrong answer here
> 27:29
> for the DM to say okay you're you know you're in this square that square you're right in the middle of the square
> 27:35
> it's just our rules don't really account well for things that are partially n
> 27:43
> square although we do have a little bit of guidance in this realm in our area of effect rules in the Dungeon Master's guide we're there we
> 27:50
> talk about if if and this is specifically in the area of effect rules to be clear about circular area of
> 27:57
> effects we do say in those rules if a circular area of effect covers at least
> 28:02
> half a square the area of effect affects that square so one way DMS could decide
> 28:09
> when it comes to positioning people or creatures on the grid if they're not
> 28:14
> actually sort of snapped to the grid and they're and they're overlapping several squares if the miniature is filling at
> 28:22
> least half the square you can say okay the miniature is technically in that Square and so you can kind of use that
> 28:29
> as a guiding yeah thing for this too and I and I think in general that's a good rule of thumb is you know this is as
> 28:36
> opposed to if you know just a tiny bit of the miniature is is going over the line into into another square
> 28:42
> I would generally say in the times when I do use miniatures that now you're not really there yeah but again that's it's
> 28:50
> a determination I make you know scene by scene as a DM depending on how things
> 28:55
> were described and whatnot although honestly I think and again it's fine if
> 29:04
> people decide to use miniatures but you often if you're doing high-speed cavalry
> 29:10
> charges roaming battles in open country I would say in most cases don't use
> 29:15
> miniatures that'll just confuse more than illustrate well plus it you'll
> 29:22
> you'll quickly find out as I have many times since I have actually I'm getting
> 29:27
> to the point where I've run almost more combats in outdoor circumstances than indoor circumstances in my my multiple
> 29:33
> decades long career as a DM often your tables not big enough because if you
> 29:39
> have a really exciting battle on the run with horses and Dragons and wyverns and
> 29:46
> pegasi and Griffin's and other mounts or you know carriages that are barreling
> 29:51
> you know drawn by four horses at top speed slowing that down to moving things
> 29:58
> square by square a can can sometimes suck some of the excitement out of it
> 30:05
> but then again also often your table is just not big enough for the distances that are going to be covered there's a
> 30:11
> reason why war gamers use you know 12-foot tables to do what they do right
> 30:16
> yeah it'd take up the most space in the game store because of that reason yes you know right it needs that that scale
> 30:21
> they want to make it feel epic yeah right and so if you can't deliver that on a you know a small you know card
> 30:27
> table or stuff like that it's just yeah you're right it's not worth it yeah and also I agree the I think the epic nature of it of the cinematic nature is kind of
> 30:33
> I mean we started this off talking about how mountain combat has this this kind of movie like or cinematic character and
> 30:40
> if you're not getting that across with the miniatures it's better just to keep it in to that arena of how you describe
> 30:47
> it yeah now if people decide they do want to kind of zoom in to to sort of
> 30:54
> almost like again you on with the cinematic metaphor you know they want to go in for a close-up yeah you know knock yourselves out it's
> 31:02
> fine to use miniatures and consider using this rule of thumb about positioning miniatures and you you can
> 31:10
> make it simple on yourself and just snap to the grid and I know I know some
> 31:15
> people will will feel aesthetically odd that their miniature is like only on the front of the you know only in one corner
> 31:22
> of the horse basically but it helps but you know it's a game yeah and and there are many things what I know I hate to
> 31:29
> break that this is a game it's life and we and we will often make choices that
> 31:35
> are you know walking that tightrope between smooth fun gameplay and
> 31:44
> believable world building and and I think it's important to try to always
> 31:49
> sort of stay somewhere in the middle because people want that sense of immersion but we also want a game that's
> 31:55
> going to keep moving keep keep the story exciting always be in service to the
> 32:00
> narrative yeah and to the thrill of whatever it is that's going on you
> 32:05
> mentioned a couple other wrinkles with minor comment other than the opportunity attacks uh
> 32:11
> the well and then again how it relates to especially miniatures use because
> 32:18
> when you're using miniatures then you'll see especially with opportunity attacks and really any attack range becomes a
> 32:28
> very big issue and reach especially for a melee attack because where you are then on the mount could then affect how
> 32:36
> well you can be targeted by someone who's not on the mount yeah so again it
> 32:41
> requires some as soon as you introduce miniatures it definitely is going to require a bit more adjudication on the
> 32:47
> DMS part there are also some other things in the game that can enhance
> 32:55
> mounted combat there are you know the subclasses I mentioned one well subclass
> 33:02
> the Cavalier and then paladin's who have the fine steed spell there's also the
> 33:08
> mountain mounted and feet that will make you more effective as a writer and some magic
> 33:14
> items as well and then there are also other than fine steed other spells that
> 33:20
> can also introduce mounts to the game the phantom steed spell is an example of
> 33:26
> one of those now one of the spells actually the spell that often generates
> 33:33
> the most questions related to the mounted combat rules is the fine Steve spell yeah because people have often
> 33:40
> asked me is the fine Steve I mean it's the fine Steve is the found steed is it
> 33:49
> intelligent or not and because they're asking this question because of the rule
> 33:54
> you know where you decide is are you gonna control the mount or is it gonna act independently and the the spell says
> 34:04
> that you and you and the steed fight as a cohesive unit and you know you can
> 34:12
> communicate with it and it serves you mm-hmm and really what that means is
> 34:18
> it's it's up to you because whether it's intelligent it well know it's up to you whether to control the door to let it
> 34:24
> act it because I think I think sometimes
> 34:31
> when I've been asked this question and it sort of it I early on in the editions
> 34:36
> lifespan a few years ago these questions came up and I think I sometimes misunderstood the motivation for the
> 34:42
> question because I I'm thinking people were asking this because they were wondering do I have a choice you know is
> 34:49
> it intelligent enough that it will always act independently and the spell again says so this is an unusually
> 34:55
> intelligent animal because part of the effect of the spell also is that its intelligence gets increased yeah but the
> 35:01
> spell also tells you you fight as a cohesive unit and it serves you which
> 35:06
> you know I want to make it clear to everyone listening what that means is it's your choice you decide when you
> 35:13
> when you hop on are you controlling it this time or is it independent it's not a spell doesn't determine that
> 35:20
> for you right exactly you have you have Liberty as the player to decide each time you
> 35:27
> mount it all right is it this time going to act on its own or am i controlling it
> 35:33
> keeping in mind that one of the huge advantages of that amount is you know
> 35:38
> it's not going to screw you over because part of part of it is loyal it is loyal and the two of you are
> 35:45
> cohesive and can communicate with each other etc so it which i think is what we all want from our mouths yes yeah I want
> 35:53
> my horse buddy although really I want my unicorn mount yes and it should be
> 35:59
> intelligent yeah mostly just so you can have conversations with it when you're you know on your own yes reply reclining
> 36:06
> in a beautiful forest glade what about pole arms and Spears and that
> 36:13
> kind of like a Jewish like how would you have judicata joust using mounted combat rules so there are there are no specific
> 36:21
> rules for for things like a joust there are a variety of ways you could
> 36:27
> adjudicate a contest like that one of the easiest ways and easy because you
> 36:33
> can just use the rules you already have is have the two riders right at each other and just have each of them make
> 36:41
> attack rolls and then decide well if they both hit you know whoever got the higher roll scored the mightier hit and
> 36:48
> if anyone has been to a renfa you'll you often hear the announcer saying you know it's a mighty striker you know so really
> 36:55
> you're just rolling to see who had the mightier of the strikes or if one of the missed and one hit well then obviously the one who hit got the blow in and then
> 37:04
> the DM could could also determine thresholds where either you need to get
> 37:10
> a certain attack role to dismount the person or it might be that might be
> 37:15
> determined by a separate saving throw where you first see if you can hit the person and then they need to make a
> 37:21
> strength saving throw to hang on and and stay on on their horse
> 37:27
> it's yeah that compasses both those facets and how good you are and then if you get hit how do you stay on yeah now
> 37:33
> if if DM doesn't want to use the combat rules at all you could also just make a
> 37:39
> series of ability check contests for
> 37:45
> instance you could do a sequence of strength athletics contests between the
> 37:51
> two writers although in this case I think it's a bit better to to make attack rolls because you are actually
> 37:58
> writing forward with something that is a weapon in our game yeah but because
> 38:03
> there are no rule there's really no right or wrong way of doing this I mean it really should be you know what is the
> 38:08
> what is the feel the DMS going for right and you would want I mean if someone had taken a feed store or subclasses that
> 38:16
> were designed around them out of combat you would want those to be taken into effect yes yep and and another reason
> 38:23
> why I would lean toward in a joust using attack rolls is I would expect a fighter
> 38:31
> for instance to be better at justing than say a wizard and if you lean into
> 38:38
> the combat rules that is more likely to be the case that makes sense where as soon as you open it up to just general
> 38:44
> ability checks well then you know they but it could be good yeah the lore bard
> 38:49
> is gonna hop right on and one although that could be a really fun scene thinking of what's Gandalf good at
> 38:56
> jousting use it pretty well maybe maybe
> 39:02
> if we ever get the you know the secret tales of what Gandalf the Grey was doing you know all the centuries while he was wandering around maybe for a while just
> 39:08
> he was bored and decide I'm gonna participate in joust and then he moved on to pipeweed the blue wizards who
> 39:17
> knows what they're up to yeah then he was after that found the pipe weed he was just too chill to get to joust
> 39:22
> anymore man I just be watched a Fellowship of the Ring and there's
> 39:28
> definitely some shade being thrown by Saruman to that effect yes yes yep when
> 39:33
> he first when he first goes to or thank Saruman is like who buddy
> 39:39
> I thought it was radagast I'm cool yeah well if people have questions about
> 39:46
> wizards justing or any other amount to combat things how can they get in touch
> 39:51
> with you Jimmy the best place to reach me is on Twitter where I am Jeremy e Crawford awesome and
> 39:57
> you can follow me hi Greg to you although I know less about mounted combat than Jeremy does and yeah of
> 40:04
> course we'll have to have you back and ask you more questions about all these facets of fun rules in sage advice I'm
> 40:11
> always delighted to do it thank you very much all right thanks guys bye-bye everyone
> 40:31
> there was a lot there is a lot there I know right there will always be
> 40:38
> everybody's saying thank you thank you guys so much for watching our live
> 40:43
> recording today I think that's all that's all we got going on always have lots of fun stuff on our twitch channel
> 40:49
> though so check back tomorrow it starts off with Mike doing have you been watching Mike's happy fun hours oh I I
> 40:57
> haven't mostly because he's been doing it while I was finishing mornings alright so tomorrow you gotta be gotta
> 41:05
> get jump in I think he's doing the rogue Acrobat subclass tomorrow and and I have
> 41:10
> been he has told me apparently there are murmurings about getting me on the show
> 41:16
> to develop his design whoo nice because I guess I've been some questions about how is this stuff balanced and and I am
> 41:24
> generally the person who needs to come in and see well maybe not so much it's
> 41:31
> for the kids well cool I can't wait to do that to have you guys do it as a as a dual would
> 41:39
> be pretty fun yeah and then at 2 we got dragon plus with Bart Carroll he's talking to our friends
> 41:46
> from be calm about their tales from candlekeep as well as matt chapman from dialect talking about the new dragon
> 41:52
> plus issue which is releasing today if not actually tomorrow i think it's supposed to go today so if you don't
> 41:59
> know about dragon plus it is an app you can get on your iOS android phone or on the web at dragon mag com it's got to we
> 42:07
> sorry we do this every two months is what I'm trying to say bimonthly that's the term and yeah interviews news images
> 42:15
> stuff you can't get anywhere else all on that dragon plus he'll be talking more
> 42:22
> about that I think for 2:30 to 3:00 with matt chapman as well i'll be back at
> 42:27
> 3:30 for D&D news warming up the channel for dice camera action episode 82 Rachel
> 42:34
> Seeley will be returning again and a lot of stuff will be happening there oh I
> 42:39
> was going to have I kind of make sure I have the updates all this but yeah that's are a big schedule day tomorrow
> 42:44
> Wednesday we're hosting the oh I'm sorry finally miss clicks Anna Prosser
> 42:51
> Robinson are evylyn from DICE camera action is doing her like a second
> 42:58
> session dungeon mastering for a live stream at 6:30 p.m. Pacific time
> 43:03
> tomorrow so go check that out she's jumping into the dungeon master behind the screen and I'm excited about that so
> 43:09
> so go check that out we're hosting on Wednesday c-team and then a whole bunch of fun stuff happening on Thursday
> 43:14
> including 5 p.m. Pacific time trapped in the birdcage a new show with Holly
> 43:19
> Conrad as dungeon master by doing her Planescape thing it looks awesome they just started last week I didn't get a
> 43:26
> chance to watch it because I was on vacation but you should go check it out it might be a rebroadcast we might show the first episode again depending on the
> 43:33
> travel of the group but definitely something you should check out and put on your schedule to watch in the future
> 43:39
> good fun stuff she loves playing scape and I think the players and the artwork that I've been seeing coming out of that look amazing so good stuff happening
> 43:46
> thank you again so much for everything you guys have been doing here and following along on the on the channel
> 43:52
> again thank you for subscribing and we will be back tomorrow all right
> 43:57
> anything you want to say Jamie no that all sounded great alright I'm curious about this Planescape game I know it's
> 44:03
> exciting I love playing Skip it's it's fantastic I feel like as tendrils go into everything we do so I'm excited to have
> 44:10
> like that'd be you know no I mean I think we talked about it a lot here but like having it be more in the end of the
> 44:15
> D&D zeitgeist is always better yeah yeah absolutely so many folks just randomly be like do you know how come this fine
> 44:21
> print I'm like well there's a lot of stuff there there's a lot of material out there it's fun all right you guys
> 44:27
> the best we'll be back tomorrow starting at 1:00 with Mike burrows in his a happy
> 44:32
> fun hour [Music]
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