Mounted Ranged Combat and AoO

[Alzaire]

Ok, in the campaign I'm in, we have a halfling bard that owns a riding dog with a heavy crossbow mounted on the saddle. We were in a situation where she was riding the dog in combat, and it was cramped and nowhere to really move. She was adjacent to an enemy and since her mounted crossbow is her only weapon, she wanted to fire it at the enemy adjacent to her. I spoke up that this would provoke an attack of opportunity, as from what I understand a ranged attack provokes an AoO. She and the others, including the DM, were confused as to whether to allow the AoO or not. The DM's reasoning on not having the enemy get an AoO is that because she's riding on the dog (which is combat trained) and so she shouldn't be threatened because "the dog is protecting her". I don't really like this reasoning, as I see this having potential to lead to the halfling getting immunities from dangers while on the dog that she might not supposed to be getting. She relies so much on the dog already, so I want to make sure I get this right, as the DM isn't sure on this either.

So, in short, what I want to know is will attacks of opportunity occur normally while the halfling is riding on the dog? Especially in regards to ranged attacks at adjacent enemies, spellcasting, ect.

[Howie23]

Alzaire wrote:

So, in short, what I want to know is will attacks of opportunity occur normally while the halfling is riding on the dog? Especially in regards to ranged attacks at adjacent enemies, spellcasting, ect.

Yes.

[BigNorseWolf]

Quote:

So, in short, what I want to know is will attacks of opportunity occur normally while the halfling is riding on the dog? Especially in regards to ranged attacks at adjacent enemies, spellcasting, ect.

Short answer

Yes. You still draw an AoO while mounted.

If the DM wants to give you some protection, they could rule that if someone tries to disarm you without improved disarm (the standard tactic against a bow wielder) then the dog gets to bite them.

[R_Chance]

And I hope your DM doesn't know too much about mounted archery... the archer (or crossbowman in this case) acts to absorb shocks and keep the weapon on target when holding it. Being mounted on the saddle the weapon would be bouncing up and down everytime the mount moved with no "shock absorber", doing horrible things to it's accuracy. Even standing still, better hope the animal doesn't fidget. Not a rules bit per se, but a good example of why DMs are needed to make judgements in the game... imo, of course. Nothing in the RAW about saddle mounted weapons that I'm aware of, probably because no one considered it :)

Oh, yeah an AoO should apply if you're firing a crossbow adjacent to an enemy mounted or afoot btw, Howie 23 is spot on there.