Nobody wants to endure their party constantly painting their mount blue while they sleep...nor the giggles the following morning when they party rides into town.
2) Cattle are actually quite a bit dumber than horses and would be very difficult to train to do much of anything more complicated that just move from here to there.
That may not be a sign of being dumber. Perhaps cattle have simply realized that not allowing themselves to be trained means they get a better deal than horses :)
"Hey, see those horses over there? They have to go everywhere with a man on their back, and are always tired when they get home. Yeah, we have it much better."
I humbly submit our porcine friends instead. If you bred pigs properly, they would be fearsome indeed as mounts. Boars are not a joke. They can eat meat, which makes their daily food weight far less than half a ton or so of oats you need to carry for a horse. They are fast, nimble and aggressive. They are far smarter than any horse ever was. There are many races of pig that are very big today, maybe not riding big, but anyway. You can even potty train them.
However, you do not want a T rex as a mount, you want the Tarrasque.
I'm mostly referring to the in-game aspects rather than real world points (which are perfectly fine).
However, I really believe horses are only so great because they were specifically bred to be that way. Had people started with aurochs rather than equines, I'm willing to bet that a lot of their limitations could have been overcome via selective breeding.
I like to think that, that's exactly what happened in certain cultures in a fantasy world. Our dwarven war-cattle aren't quite as broad, skittish, or untrainable as human cows. ;P
I'm mostly referring to the in-game aspects rather than real world points (which are perfectly fine).
However, I really believe horses are only so great because they were specifically bred to be that way. Had people started with aurochs rather than equines, I'm willing to bet that a lot of their limitations could have been overcome via selective breeding.
I like to think that, that's exactly what happened in certain cultures in a fantasy world. Our dwarven war-cattle aren't quite as broad, skittish, or untrainable as human cows. ;P
Well here's an in game answer for you.
The horse is not a wild animal. The aurochs is. In addition to trying to train it, you need to make the rather difficult (for a peasant) roll to rear it. this means that you're likely to spend 3 hours of spare time that you don't have accomplishing nothing.
Also
While adventurers may gloss over the fact that a horse is not a car: you do not simply get in it and go where you're going, the world does not. You still have to shoe it, feed it, put the saddle on, take the saddle off, rub it down, water it etc. A lot of that involves handle animal checks.
Untrained: If you have no ranks in Handle Animal, you can use a Charisma check to handle and push domestic animals, but you can't teach, rear, or train animals
So any idiot can TRY to get a horse to do something, but you need to be good at handling animals to get an aurochs to do anything, even if its been trained.
So horses are a automatic transmission, the aurochs is a shiftstick.
More or less.
Nobody wants to endure their party constantly painting their mount blue while they sleep...nor the giggles the following morning when they party rides into town.
I already paint my ox blue, thanks. Dwarven lumberjack!
I've got a series of rules questions in the RQ forum about this, but it seems also that the Trample (ex) ability pairs rather well with the Trample feat.
For some odd reason, if you try to ride the Aurochs before 7th level it will only be medium sized. :P
I think it is in Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs and Steel" where he talks about why certain animals became domesticated and others didn't.
For example horses have four gaits - walk, trot, canter and gallop - meaning they can be flexibly used (and more comfortably ridden). Donkeys have walk and gallop. So while you can ride donkeys you don't get the same range of movement that makes the horse so good for military use.
I'd imagine cows (and an aurochs is just a bloody big cow) have the same limitations as a donkey.
It's either a slow plod or full steam ahead.
(But I do think the idea of riding a giant cow has a great fantasy gaming apepal!)
Gallo: Only if you wield a huge axe and your name is Paul. :)
- Gauss
2) Cattle are actually quite a bit dumber than horses and would be very difficult to train to do much of anything more complicated that just move from here to there.
That may not be a sign of being dumber. Perhaps cattle have simply realized that not allowing themselves to be trained means they get a better deal than horses :)
"Hey, see those horses over there? They have to go everywhere with a man on their back, and are always tired when they get home. Yeah, we have it much better."
How is THIS a better deal?
Dragonamedrake: Horses wind up as glue (or at least they used to). :D
- Gauss
Dragonamedrake: Horses wind up as glue (or at least they used to). :D
- Gauss
Thats true. I forgot that. But wasn't usually after they died of old age or where no longer of use? Come to think of it... wasn't soap made from horses back in the day too?