|
This question came up yesterday:
Is it possible for a combat trained mount (in this case, it was a horse) to get an attack if it is essentially unattended?
Consider that the rider has dismounted and is in a 5 foot square next to the mount. Can the rider direct his horse to attack an opponent that is within reach of the horse? Can the mount be directed to move (sans rider) to an opponent to attack?
What if the the opponent is asleep in the above scenario?
This question came up yesterday:
Is it possible for a combat trained mount (in this case, it was a horse) to get an attack if it is essentially unattended?
Consider that the rider has dismounted and is in a 5 foot square next to the mount. Can the rider direct his horse to attack an opponent that is within reach of the horse? Can the mount be directed to move (sans rider) to an opponent to attack?
What if the the opponent is asleep in the above scenario?
I would say that since a combat trained animal knows the attack trick can be ordered to attack with a DC 10 handle animal check (move action). Remember that :
" Normally, an animal will attack only humanoids, monstrous humanoids,giants, or other animals. Teaching an animal to attack all
creatures (including such unnatural creatures as undead
and aberrations) counts as two tricks."
So an average combat trained mount should be "pushed" (full round action DC 25") in order to attack a zombie for example.
While the rider (I guess you mean the rider of the mount) is asleep the animal shouldn't normally attack someone unless it was trained to guard and also ordered to do so. But the DM is always the judge of whether the animal felt threatened and attacked. For example a horse might not be trained to guard but got frightened and attack the enemy instinctively.
|
|
Hmmm...I didn't say the rider was asleep, but I think you've answered the question in partial anyway.
I'm really wondering if it's possible to order a combat trained horse to attack an opponent even though his rider is not currently mounted. It seems to me that a horse would need more than a verbal command to do so. It seems appropriate that a horse would need a rider pulling the reins in a certain way in order to coax the trained horse to attack. <shrug>
Does it seem reasonable that a horse could be commanded (for instance) by it's rider (that is standing 20' feet away) to run over to a sleeping opponent and kick it in the head? What if that opponent was not sleeping? (To me, it seems like the horse would be rather passive about it...unless it was being attacked of course.)
Would a trained wolf obey that order?
"Eat him" While the enemy is sleeping?
My answer is that if the attack is natural for example two parties are fighting and the animal is ordered to attack an enemy then it will obey. Now in great areas where the animal is not normally trained to do that kind of things then you must either push it or you have to train it with to 2tricks in order to do that special attack thing.
So if I was the DM I would allow a rider of a horse 10 feet away to order his combat trained horse to kick his enemy. But in order to command it to step a sleeping man I would request a push or a special combat (2 tricks instead of 1) training in order to do so. The DM is the arbitrary of what is expected of a specific trained animal and what demands exceptional training or push in order to do so.
In your campaign for example you might think that commanding a horse generally to attack without riding it is to much and demand 2 trick for even that. And maybe think that step over a sleeping person is a special trick that demands an extra trick rather than the regular attack. These kind of things are abstract and this is a nice thing. You have the mechanics of handling things that hard and things that are easy. But the DM decides what is baptized as easy and what as hard
|
Under the handle animal skill it explains that a combat trained horse knows several tricks including "attack". Using a DC10 handle animal skill then it can be commanded to attack an obvious target (non riding animals get the same attack training - so riding isn't an obvious requisite).
So the question becomes: is a sleeping person a target that combat training would have trained a a horse to attack? I think that is a GM call. It sounds difficult because there is no obvious threat to the horse and I am not sure how you would indicate the target.