The feat Acrobatic Steps say:
Benefit: Whenever you move, you may move through up to 15 feet of difficult terrain each round as if it were normal terrain. The effects of this feat stack with those provided by Nimble Moves (allowing you to move normally through a total of 20 feet of difficult terrain each round).
Does that mean if your mount has this feat you can charge through difficult terrain as long as there's nomore than 20 ft of it?
Also, would it be a reasonable houserule to say that the Step Up feat works as long as you're threatening the target? As is, someone with a Lance can't use both the Lance and the Step Up feat at the same time, since the Lancer must be 10ft away, which isnot adjacent.
On a related note, if my mount has a good enough Jump bonus to jump over some low-lying difficult terrain (like...say there's a 10ft patch of really soft mud) would it make sense to allow a Charge attack to cross that patch as long as the Jump check is enough to get completely over to the other side? If the check fails then it just becomes normal movement and not a charge.
I would say yes, as long as the jump in question is a "long jump" and not a "high jump", as I would consider a high jump to be a "direction change" which is normally not allowed on a charge.
Granted, the two types of jumping were folded together in the 3.0 to 3.5 conversion, but the idea still stands. Jumping over a pit to slam into the archers on the other side? Sure. Jumping over a six foot high fence? You'd better be able to clear that like a hurdle.
Actually, I might impose a limitation like this: If you jump covers more vertical distance than your own space, it counts as a direction change for the purposes of limiting a charge.
I just figure if you are landing from a jump that high, you are likely loosing a great deal of momentum. If for some reason the nature of the jump means you would keep the momentum, well, charge away I guess.
I don't see why the limitation would be unreasonable. Since you're always going to have less vertical than horizontal distance with a long jump, as long as you make the jump distance you should be fine.