Hello everyone, I've got a party who like to do things which are not covered by the rules (isn't that every party?) and one player especially likes to stretch things to the limit. Generally, I apply rule of cool and allow most things that should be possible.
Sometimes, though, the rule of cool leads to cheese. Like when my ratfolk magus casts Reduce Person on himself, making him Tiny, then "mounts" the Paladin so he doesn't have to use his move action to get into combat range and gets his full round attack.
Since RAW this simply shouldn't be allowed, and I don't want to prevent my players from using a viable tactic, I need to come up with rules that allow this but don't allow the magus to cheese (he's already a super cheese character, he doesn't need more ways to cheese).
Any suggestions?
EDIT: Just realized that a Tiny creature has a reach of 0. He's been fighting from the Paladin's shoulder. Whoops! Anyway, I'll still take suggestions since I still need a way to determine whose move actions are used and what should be allowed.
You can technically do this RAW. Just simply add the mounting character's weight to the amount of weight the other character is carrying. A ratfolk weigh between 71 to 89 pounds. When reduced, he's 1/8 of that. If this changes the character's load, then encumber them accordingly. As a quick rule, simply reduce the character's movement speed from 30 to 20 or 20 to 15. I don't consider it too cheesy, because there's a significant downside to doing this (encumbering an ally). Plus, the magus could simply buy a riding dog or something.
Yea i dont find this overly cheesey if the players actually set up for it. Have them get a custom saddle for hodor style riding, and I dont see why it should be any different then any other kind of mount. If the ratfolk was on a pony he could do the same thing. He wouldnt even need to reduce himself. Maybe slightly increase the difficulty of ride checks due to the humanoid form...thats about it I think.
EDIT: Just realized that a Tiny creature has a reach of 0. He's been fighting from the Paladin's shoulder. Whoops! Anyway, I'll still take suggestions since I still need a way to determine whose move actions are used and what should be allowed.
I was going to say this but you already did. Don't forget he provokes when he moves into the enemy's square. There's even a recent debate around this forum that says Acrobatics does not prevent that particular AoO, you might want to search for it.
He might want to dismiss the Reduce Person and 5' step next to the paladin/enemy and still full-attack, but don't forget that dismissing spells is a standard action so still no full attack.
He might want to get a reach weapon. Presumably that would let him sit on the paladin's shoulder and attack an adjacent enemy. This is plausible but there is also a recent debate about whether a tiny reach weapon actually reaches adjacent squares. Search for it.
If you want to cheese back, have the paladin cause soft cover to all the magus' attacks. After all, the magus has to attack through the paladin's square while he sits on the paladin's shoulder, and doing that with a ranged or reach weapon grants soft cover to the enemy.
Not to mention enforcing all the mounted combat rules including concentration checks for casting - it can't be easy to hold a weapon in one hand and cast a spell with the other hand while perched on the paladin's shoulder, while the paladin is engaged in combat, swinging his arms/weapons, causing his shoulder to be moving "violently" as per the concentration rules.
Side note: none of this is house rules. All straight out of RAW (though the soft-cover might be debatable, but I'm confident that RAW supports it).
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Since I doubt the bigger PC is wearing a saddle, the small PC would be taking a -5 ride check penalty for that. Then another -5 for riding a creature ill-suited to being a mount. It takes a DC5 just to avoid falling off, so I assume he's going to want some ranks in ride.
If he takes the necessary ranks to make his checks, and encumbrance is applied appropriately to the other PC while being ridden, then I say have-at. (EDIT: Also, concentration checks!)
A mount is a mount, even if it's a really weird one.