Mounted Combat Rules
As noted, riding is a skillset and mounted combat is not uncommon on Valerick and should be an option and available to your players within their games and stories in the Adventures in Valerick TTRPG experience.
Thankfully, mounted combat is relatively simple, though it may seem not intuitive at first. So follow along, here are the things to know and rules to understand about mounted combat;
The first thing to understand about mounted combat in Valerick is the inherent benefits and negatives that it provides to mount and rider. This lies at the core of the principle of the idea that mounted combat is '2 creatures becoming 1'. What this means in practice is simple. Both rider and mount act as a team and share one initiative, which is rolled using the Rider's appropriate Ride skillset. They are defended by their own armor scores however the mount gains the benefit of any shield that the rider has equipped as well. Finally they take their turn as one. How this works in practice is explained below;
A mounted character and their mount, once it is their turn in initiative get 2 actions each instead of the normal 3. Whilst this may seem like a negative, what this represents is the action tax of staying mounted for the rider and the action tax of moving in a way that will not dislodge their rider for the mount. They both can take attack actions, but only the mount consumes an action if they wish to move and they use the mount's movement speed. Finally if the rider dismounts or is forcibly dismounted, the pair both get any actions they have remaining, and could remount if the rider has an action to do so. If they choose not to remount or are unable, once they finish any actions they each had left , the pair re-enter initiative next round at the beginning of the next round, rolling their new initiatives seperately and as normal.
They also have a unique ability with their two actions each. The rider may roll an appropriate Ride skill check as their action at a TN equal to 10+2/enemy in melee range to give that action they just used to the mount as another movement action. Similarly, the mount can utilize a movement action in a charge, which so long as it ends adjacent to an enemy, the rider may make a weapon attack with a cavalry melee weapon for free as part of the mount's action, which will not count against the Multi-Attack Penalty tracker. This will consume the rider's reaction however, though not the mount's.
Thankfully, mounted combat is relatively simple, though it may seem not intuitive at first. So follow along, here are the things to know and rules to understand about mounted combat;
Running Mounted Combat
The first thing to understand about mounted combat in Valerick is the inherent benefits and negatives that it provides to mount and rider. This lies at the core of the principle of the idea that mounted combat is '2 creatures becoming 1'. What this means in practice is simple. Both rider and mount act as a team and share one initiative, which is rolled using the Rider's appropriate Ride skillset. They are defended by their own armor scores however the mount gains the benefit of any shield that the rider has equipped as well. Finally they take their turn as one. How this works in practice is explained below;
A mounted character and their mount, once it is their turn in initiative get 2 actions each instead of the normal 3. Whilst this may seem like a negative, what this represents is the action tax of staying mounted for the rider and the action tax of moving in a way that will not dislodge their rider for the mount. They both can take attack actions, but only the mount consumes an action if they wish to move and they use the mount's movement speed. Finally if the rider dismounts or is forcibly dismounted, the pair both get any actions they have remaining, and could remount if the rider has an action to do so. If they choose not to remount or are unable, once they finish any actions they each had left , the pair re-enter initiative next round at the beginning of the next round, rolling their new initiatives seperately and as normal.
They also have a unique ability with their two actions each. The rider may roll an appropriate Ride skill check as their action at a TN equal to 10+2/enemy in melee range to give that action they just used to the mount as another movement action. Similarly, the mount can utilize a movement action in a charge, which so long as it ends adjacent to an enemy, the rider may make a weapon attack with a cavalry melee weapon for free as part of the mount's action, which will not count against the Multi-Attack Penalty tracker. This will consume the rider's reaction however, though not the mount's.
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