I think my game group broke the game....


Rules Questions

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Scarab Sages

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You can Vital Strike on a charge. When your mount is charging, you just gain certain charge benefits, you are not the one charging. See my post here for associated links.
Further, the rules for Mounted Combat strongly indicate that you are not actually taking the charge action. If that were the case, it wouldn't need to state "If your mount charges, you also take the AC penalty associated with a charge. If you make an attack at the end of the charge, you receive the bonus gained from the charge. When charging on horseback, you deal double damage with a lance (see Charge)." They wouldn't need special rules for what happens when your mount charges if you were the one charging.
You'll also see that the lance equipment entry states "A lance deals double damage when used from the back of a charging mount".

The Mounted Skirmisher feat further says "Normal: If your mount moves more than 5 feet, you can only take an attack action." Compare to Vital Strike which states "When you use the attack action...." the same action allowed when attacking from a charging mount.

And in case anyone missed it in my earlier link, SKR states unequivocally "If YOU are mounted, the MOUNT is making the charge, YOU are NOT making a charge. "

So you can absolutely use Vital Strike from the back of a charging mount.
And before we get into the "Then Spirited Charge doesn't work right..." Conversation, see JJ's thread here.
"heavy sigh

Those feats work fine. The language might not be 100% super precise, but you can assume that in the cases of those feats, a charging mount that you're riding lets you use the feats as written.

If you think they need errata, post in the proper book's thread and hit the FAQ button."


RJGrady wrote:


Emphasis mine. He is stating only a restriction, not giving you permission to take any standard action. And the mounted charge section states that if you make an attack, you gain the bonuses and penalties of charging, and it strongly implies (via the lance section) that you are charging.

(emphasis mine)

Except that the rules do not say "you gain the bonuses and penalties of charging." Instead, it specifies the parts of the mount's charge action that apply to the rider: "take the AC penalty associated with the charge" and the attack bonus if you decide to attack. In that same section, it also clearly states that "the mount uses its action to move."

A little more clarification on whether a mounted rider is considered charging from SKR: "If YOU are mounted, the MOUNT is making the charge, YOU are NOT making a charge." If you have a conflicting rules or dev quote--something like, "If YOU are mounted, your MOUNT is making the charge, and so are YOU"--I'd love to see it.

The main implcation that the rider is considered charging if the mount is charging stems from word economy. As stated earlier, "when you are on the back of a charging mount" was shortened to "when charging on a mount" because of word count. That Rage-Pounce thread with SKR referenced above clarifies this.

Silver Crusade

If the rider was using the charge action when his mount charges, then a mounted barbarian could Pounce with his twin lances.

In the thread and FAQ which clarifies that the rider cannot use Pounce, the justification for the Pounce denial is the the rider is not charging! His mount is!

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