Pyrofool's page

Some actions are involuntary as well and do not use an action. Like the rules for shove, if you are shoved, you move without taking an action and do not trigger abilities which trigger off of a move action. But you still moved.

I'm not saying that dropping an item is always involuntary, but if you are falling off a cliff, I can easily see myself rulling it as such.

A 4th Level PC wants to upgrade their +1 weapon to a +1 striking weapon. They are Untrained in Crafting.

A +1 weapon is 35gp.
A striking rune is 65gp.
A +1 striking weapon is 100gp.

Is upgrading as simple as paying the difference (65gp, in this case), or are there other hidden costs to upgrading?

Based on Table 11-6 Weapon upgrade prices on page 582. The cost to upgrade a +1 Weapon to +1 Striking is 65gp. That's all.

Ride checks aren't anywhere in the rules as far as I know. What you mean seems to be "you need the Ride feat if you play with this house rule I made up." Which is fine if you want to suggest a house rule but you're framing it as something else. Not sure if you are intending to.

Okay, I'm Home. Lets break this down starting with rules as writen. Also, the ride check is called "Command Animal" now. How did you misunderstand that? And if you mess up, your mount misbehaves in some manner which can cause you to make a check to stay on. Thats a ride chck, regardless what skill you actually use. you could use reflex, or athletics, or Nature, or Acrobatics. the end result will be the same. you fail to "ride" your mount.

Ride

When you Command an Animal you’re mounted on to take a move action (such as Stride), you automatically succeed instead of needing to attempt a check. Any animal you’re mounted on acts on your turn, like a minion. If you Mount an animal in the middle of an encounter, it skips its next turn and then acts on your next turn. Page 249 has more on Command an Animal.

You can already see where I get most of my rules from. Heck, here even tells you that the mount is treated like a minion when it comes for when it can move. It also states that when your mount makes a move action such as stride. So this also includes, Step, leap, Climb, and flight etc. All the move actions.

Now lets look at page 249

You issue an order to an animal. Attempt a Nature check against the animal’s Will DC. The GM might adjust the DC if the animal has a good attitude toward you, you suggest a course of action it was predisposed toward, or you offer it a treat.

You automatically fail if the animal is hostile or unfriendly to you. If the animal is helpful to you, increase your degree of success by one step. You might be able to Command an Animal more easily with a feat like Ride (page 266).

Most animals know the Leap, Seek, Stand, Stride, and Strike basic actions. If an animal knows an activity, such as a horse’s Gallop, you can Command the Animal to perform the activity, but you must spend as many actions on Command an Animal as the activity’s number of actions. You can also spend multiple actions to Command the Animal to perform that number of basic actions on its next turn; for instance, you could spend 3 actions to Command an Animal to Stride three times or to Stride twice and then Strike.

Success: The animal does as you command on its next turn.

Failure: The animal is hesitant or resistant, and it does nothing.

Critical Failure: The animal misbehaves or misunderstands, and it takes some other action determined by the GM.

So here you can see where my logic is going. If you want to have the mount move, you have to spend the action to command it. You have to roll, and you have to spend an action to command it. Ride allows you to succeed automatically, but you still need to take the action.

Now lets look at animal companions.

Source Core Rulebook pg. 214

An animal companion is a loyal comrade who follows your orders without you needing to use Handle an Animal on it. Your animal companion has the minion trait, and it gains 2 actions during your turn if you use the Command an Animal action to command it; this is in place of the usual effects of Command an Animal. If your companion dies, you can spend a week of downtime to replace it at no cost. You can have only one animal companion at a time.

Riding Animal Companions
Source Core Rulebook pg. 214
You or an ally can ride your animal companion as long as it is at least one size larger than the rider. If it is carrying a rider, the animal companion can use only its land Speed, and it can’t move and Support you on the same turn. However, if your companion has the mount special ability, it’s especially suited for riding and ignores both of these restrictions.

Now, I'm gonna be honest here. I completely forgot about the mount special ability. So I was slightly wrong about the final rules. Your mount can only take actions if it has the mount special ability. It can only move on your turn otherwise. So assuming that you are riding an animal companion with this special ability, the animal can still attack on it's turn. (it gets two actions, so one is stride, the other is something else (usually strike

Now, I made a couple mistakes.

1) I gave the animal companion three actions. It's supposed to be two.

2) I said that if you fail the check you fall off. That's not true. if you fail the animal just does not do what you tell it to. Only if you critically fail does it have a CHANCE of you falling off if the animal misbehaves heck, the animal might just step left when you tell it to step right. or it may try and buck you off. Or it might "slip and dip" which is where the horse drops one shoulder then steps the opposite direction while at the same time changing it's speed suddenly. At that point you MIGHT have to roll your athletics or Acrobatics to stay on if your GM is, well, me. :P

I normally simplify to the least amount of rolls required for an action. So when I run it I just have the players roll either athletics if they are strong arming the animal, or Acrobatics, if they are trying to finesse the animal. Sure, you could roll nature as well if you are riding through your understanding of how to command an animal beneath you. (and IRL, this is definitely a thing, there are commands, and hand grips, and leg presses, and all sorts of tricks to let your horse know what you want it to do.) This is the part I house rule in order to streamline the game. Sorry if that offends you.

Now lets look at mounted combat.

Mounted Combat

Source Core Rulebook pg. 478
You can ride some creatures into combat. As noted in the Mount specialty basic action (page 472), your mount needs to be at least one size larger than you and willing. Your mount acts on your initiative. You must use the Command an Animal action to get your mount to spend its actions. If you don’t, the animal wastes its actions. If you have the Ride general feat, you succeed automatically when you Command an Animal that’s your mount.

For example, if you are mounted on a horse and you make three attacks, your horse would remain stationary since you didn’t command it. If you instead spent your first action to Command an Animal and succeeded, you could get your mount to Stride. You could spend your next action to attack or to command the horse to attack, but not both.

Mounted Attacks
Source Core Rulebook pg. 478
You and your mount fight as a unit. Consequently, you share a multiple attack penalty. For example, if you Strike and then Command an Animal to have your mount Strike, your mount’s attack takes a –5 multiple attack penalty.

You occupy every square of your mount’s space for the purpose of making your attacks. If you were Medium and on a Large mount, you could attack a creature on one side of your mount, then attack on the opposite side with your next action. If you have a longer reach, the distance depends partly on the size of your mount. On a Medium or smaller mount, use your normal reach. On a Large or Huge mount, you can attack any square adjacent to the mount if you have 5- or 10-foot reach, or any square within 10 feet of the mount (including diagonally) if you have 15-foot reach.

Mounted Defenses
Source Core Rulebook pg. 478
When you’re mounted, attackers can target either you or your mount. Anything that affects multiple creatures (such as an area) affects both of you as long as you’re both in the area. You are in an attacker’s reach or range if any square of your mount is within reach or range. Because your mount is larger than you and you share its space, you have lesser cover against attacks targeting you when you’re mounted if the mount would be in the way.

Because you can’t move your body as freely while you’re riding a mount, you take a –2 circumstance penalty to Reflex saves while mounted. Additionally, the only move action you can use is the Mount action to dismount.

Well I think that is pretty clear.

Rules as Writen, you and your mount fight together. you share your multi-attack penalty and you cannot attack or move with your mount without spending an action to command the animal. But lets look back at animal companions real quick. Lets make sure that the mount special ability works the way i said it does. Well, that's weird. it looks like the only mention of it is in "Riding Animal Companions" let me know if you find it.

It looks like if the animal companion does not have the mount trait special ability, you can only have it move on your turn by spending an action. but if it has the mount trait it works like any other mount.

EDIT: I went to the Bestiary as well and could not find "Mount" as a special ability. It was not even in the ability glossary. However i did notice that you could also interpret the Riding an Animal companion rules to imply that the Animal companion with the mount special ability can take it's own actions to support you. So in a weird way, I guess you could command your animal to move (make a check because you are riding it and auto succeed if you have the ride feat) Make your strikes, then your animal companion could use an action to support you, such as step or strike. again let me know if you find the mount special ability to clarify this.

So yeah, I get that. It makes it hard for my new players when they need it and then have to ask where it is on the sheet. Then I have to explain that, yeah there is no spot that's easy to view it because it's so easy. To which, they reply, yeah, no it's not. To which I reply, yeah you are right. It is a huge oversight on the character sheet.

So It came up in my game. and i was like, wait, why is there no place to put my save DCs. Seems like an oversight.