Ahenoam Didma
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Your mount acts on your initiative count as you direct it. You move at its speed, but the mount uses its action to move.
Combat while Mounted: With a DC 5 Ride check, you can guide your mount with your knees so as to use both hands to attack or defend yourself. This is a free action. When you attack a creature smaller than your mount that is on foot, you get the +1 bonus on melee attacks for being on higher ground. If your mount moves more than 5 feet, you can only make a single melee attack.
Fighting while Mounted
Fight with a combat-trained mount DC 10
Fight with a Combat-Trained Mount: If you direct your war-trained mount to attack in battle, you can still make your own attack or attacks normally. This usage is a free action.
And under Cavalier
A cavalier's bond with his mount is strong, with the pair learning to anticipate each other's moods and moves.
On first read, these rules seem pretty simple, but they become a little more susceptible to interpretation when actually in play. My wife has just begun playing a Cavalier for the first time, and after two games, questions are already coming up. Her character is a gnome, and she has a wolf as a mount. First, can a mount take a five foot step? One of our other party members has a companion animal of the same size that can, but it has been indicated that the mount cannot do the same.
Second, we need some clarification as to how sharing the same initiative as the mount will affect actions/movement. The way we read the rules were that the cavalier and mount would essentially be acting at the same time, within the same 6 second period. If that is the case it would be possible for the mount to attack once and then the rider guides the mount to move back from a foe that is directly in front of the rider/mount as the round’s movement so that the rider can attack with a lance. Or another scenario would be: the rider attacks with a sword, the mount attacks, and then the mount is guided to move. If the five foot step isn’t possible for a mount, then I understand that an attack of opportunity would then come into play when moving out of a threatened space.
The GM said this was not possible because the rider would have to tell the horse to move on the rider’s turn and then wait for the horse to move on its turn. This would mean the rider could not attack with the lance until the rider’s next turn. It’s being treated more like two player characters who are acting at the same initiative roll one after another.
Both of us thought the connection between rider and mount would be a bit more sophisticated considering that the mount is combat trained and the rider is of a Cavalier class. Can you help us out with this question?