What is the BTB ruling on mounted combat? ie. pc on a horse fighting an enemy on the ground. pc on a horse fighting some sorta monster. pc attacking an enemy from the ground where the enemy is mounted.
I have looked in the DMG. Two pages on aerial combat but nothing on fighting from horseback.
I don't know if you have it or not, but The Wilderness Survival Guide (a 1e product, and one of my favorites!) goes over this.
Check out pages 86-87 for general rules.
Characters who are proficient in land-based riding may have modifiers. See page 15.
I know that you are using 1st edition rules, but I have found that 2e went into more depth on certain topics, this one included. Crack out your 2e PHB and DMG, if you want to use it, or have those references.
well met sir lanthorn. I checked for responses a couple times and when there were none the pea kicked in. I have the WSG in hand. All questions answered. Happy hunting fellow gamers!
Coming to this a bit late, but the WSG is a great book for situational things, and what is in there doesn't just apply to what folks might think of as the traditional "wilderness." As to this question, the WSG rules will apply not just to riders mounted on horses, but also to drow mounted on subterranean lizards in the Underdark running along ceilings and walls, and other similarly bizarre ridden critters.
A point of note is that the combat bonuses/penalties apply to creatures larger/the same size/smaller than the *rider*, not the critter the rider is mounted on. A bit of wiggle room must be allowed for though due to the size of the mount. A human riding a massive creature may not even have the reach to attack something very small on the ground, and so may not be able to attack it at all, while attacking something their own size on the ground might still be far away and so difficult to attack.
For example, a character mounted on a Large horse and using a single handed melee weapon (a sword, axe, mace, etc.) attacking Medium infantry is +1 to hit and -1 to hit Small infantry, as normal, while a character mounted much higher up on a much larger critter, like an elephant, and still armed with a one handed weapon as above, will gain +1 to hit Large infantry, a -1 penalty to hit Medium infantry, and not be able to attack Small infantry on the ground at all due to them being too low and out of reach.
Longer weapons will be able to reach lower opponents of course, but they would still be harder to hit. In the latter elephant rider example, perhaps give a rider with a longer spear the ability to attack Small infantry within reach at a -2 penalty. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
What i find interesting is that the WSG was not released copyrighted until 1986 and released in '87. Thats almost ten years after the DMG. What the hell was the ruling on mounted combat before that. There is a reference to TSR's Swords and Spells in the charge description in the DMG so i checked it out briefly. Not sure if thats where the ruling was or not? Maybe it was in chainmail? It was not in the basic or the expert rules.
I think there was some rule elsewhere, but it may have just been +1 to hit due to elevation - the attacker being on higher "ground" than the opponent. _________________ - Moderator/Admin (in some areas)/Member -
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