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Today at 3:00 PM (PST) on https://t.co/DpIgaTGlXM, @Gregtito and I will record a new Sage Advice segment for Dragon Talk. What rules topic would you like us to discuss? #DnD

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) February 26, 2018

“Can I cast using spell slots?” has came up a LOT.

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

— Jeremy Crawford (@JeremyECrawford) February 27, 2018

D&D Sage Advice

Questions on Dungeons & Dragons answered by game designers

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Do shields fall within “Light” or “Medium” armor?

If druid created a magic pebble, could I attach it to an arrow and fire it from a bow?

Charger feat is the +5/ push ability seperate from the bonus attack?

If Druid casts Guardian of Nature on himself and then wild shape, the effects of the spell carry on to the Wild Shape?

How you guys envisioned the rules for dying from old age worked?

How does Unicorn Spirit and Disciple of Life interact with a healing spell?

Sage Advice on Mounted Combat – Dragon Talk

Which Catapult spell is the correct one Elemental Evil’s or Xanathar?

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