feat Mounted Combat
Mounted Combat (General)
This material is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
Prerequisite: Ride 1 rank.
Benefit: Once per round when your mount is hit in combat, you may attempt a Ride check (as a reaction) to negate the hit. The hit is negated if your Ride check result is greater than the opponent’s attack roll. (Essentially, the Ride check result becomes the mount’s Armor Class if it’s higher than the mount’s regular AC.)
Special: A fighter may select Mounted Combat as one of his fighter bonus feats.
How Mounted Combat Protects a Mount
Mounted Combat lets the rider try to turn one successful hit against the mount into a miss each round. When the mount is hit, the rider makes a Ride check. If the check result is higher than the attacker’s attack roll, the hit is negated. The feat therefore rewards riders who invest heavily in Ride as well as in combat ability.
Mounted Combat Example
An enemy hits a warhorse with an attack roll of 19. The rider uses Mounted Combat and rolls a Ride check of 22, so the hit is negated. If the Ride check had been 19 or lower, the original hit would stand. Because the feat can be used once per round, the rider must decide which hit is worth trying to prevent when the mount is attacked repeatedly.
Why the Feat Matters
- It protects a mount without requiring the rider to spend an attack.
- It becomes more reliable as the rider’s Ride modifier improves.
- It is the foundation for mounted feat chains such as Ride-By Attack.
See the Feats index for additional mounted, combat and fighter options.
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