| 2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
In a PFS game tonight, I had several players (who had flying mounts) argue that mounts could not fly when carrying anything more than a light load. They spent several spell slots casting things like ant haul on their mounts just so they could ride them into battle.
I always understood that ONLY medium and heavy barding kept a mount from flying, and that encumbrance in general didn't otherwise limit their ability to fly (except for perhaps a reduction in speed and a penalty to fly skill checks). When I mentioned this to them, however, they pointed out the following two rules to me:
(Equipment chapter, under Mounts and Related Gear)
AND
(Additional Rules chapter, under Carrying Capacity)
They took this to mean that a medium load counted as medium armor, which barding is (or so they argued), and so the mounts were unable to fly with their riders without magical augmentation.
Were they correct in this? Why or why not?
Well, if a medium load counts as medium armor, and a creature can't fly in medium armor...
But this rule is only limited to MOUNTS, not to flying creatures in general, correct?
So...what you are suggesting is that if a Roc(random example) is carrying a rider it can't fly in a medium load, but if it's just picking up an elephant in it's talons it can fly away with no issue even if it's in a medium load?
(i'll note i posted in that thread also....5 years ago even.) My answer is basically unchanged today.
I don't have to suggest it. That's what the rules say, and I keep hearing that PFS GMs can't deviate from what the rules say.
I had to play a pregen tonight AS WRITTEN even though it was riddled with errors. PFS is STRINGENT.
It looks legit to me that it only affects mounts from a rules perspective, but otherwise its silly that having a rider keep it from flying. However with this being PFS the rule has to be followed.