Exotic saddle required, perhaps?
30gp for a custom-fitted saddle? I think I can handle that.
I'm not confirming that you can do it... with no opposable thumbs, you can't hold the reins. Not sure the Ride check penalty for that, but guiding a mount with your knees is a Ride check, but if you fail then you have to use your "hand" to control the mount, and you don't have them.
If it came up at my table, I would say "no".
Perhaps a better way to do it within the rules: grapple an opponent two or more sizes larger than you. You hold on but they are not considered grappled.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
|
I'm not confirming that you can do it... with no opposable thumbs, you can't hold the reins. Not sure the Ride check penalty for that, but guiding a mount with your knees is a Ride check, but if you fail then you have to use your "hand" to control the mount, and you don't have them.
If it came up at my table, I would say "no".
What if it were impossible to fail the "guide with knees" check? Have you looked at that DC?
Forbidding the entire possibility of riding while quadrupedal just because of the results of something that can't actually happen? That seems... well, it seems like maybe that's not the real reason you'd disallow it.
Boy, you read intent into a lot! :) I did look at the DC, and unless you can foresee the negative modifiers in all situations, you have no idea if the check "can" be failed.
Foxes also don't have knees, by the way... at least, not in the way humanoids do, and the rules were written for humanoids.
Since there are no rules for it, let's look at the situation. A fox has no opposable thumbs(making it harder to hold on); no knees, is very small, without sufficient strength to actually guide a horse with knees if it had them (opinion, but seems reasonable); has claws, to enable it to hold on better.
To me, that sounds more like a grapple check than a ride check. YMMV.
Another google search for "Star Frontiers, Volturnus, planet of mystery" may show cover art of an octopus riding a velociraptor-like dinosaur.
Okay, who gave the Monktopus ranks in ride animal?
Creatures can willingly fail their grapple defense, right? :P
Creatures can willingly fail their grapple defense, right? :P
Not that I know of.
That must make certain... Activities quite hard.
When did we start talking about riding a horse?
Doh, my bad. Still, guiding with knees implies a certain level of force, and a certain length, relative to the lizard mount. And the OP is talking about a tiny fox riding a large monitor lizard. Sounds like significant penalty at the very least, not the typical DC5 check for a medium-sized humanoid to do it.