Mounted flying combat and rolls

[buddahcjcc]

How does flying a mount in combat work? The DM was confused and has ruled that if youre on a flying mount, you dont make ride checks, that the flying creature has to make fly checks and you maker ride checks to stay on.

That makes very little sense to me as for one this is a Crusader class skill's bonded mount (the same DM let me tame and ride a giant eagle as a Crusader mount). For two; you dont have to use your horse's ride check when mounted, right?

Need to know how this is supposed to work as per RAW. The DM is fairly new, and we probably made a mistake in letting the flying mount in in the first place, but the rules he's looking at dont make sense either and I want to figure out where to point him to. If I cant have the flying mount, Im actually fine with that, I just dont want to screw it up later for those who CAN.

[DM_Blake]

Did you consider this feat? If not, maybe you should take it (retroactively) next time you can. That's up to you and your GM though.

You don't need the fly skill, your eagle makes those checks. You do, however, need to make Ride checks exactly as defined in the Mounted Combat section of the rules. It doesn't matter if you're riding a horse on land or an eagle in the sky, the Ride checks you make (in or out of combat) are basically the same.

Don't forget to have a decent Handle Animal skill if you want it to do things it is not trained to do. Refer to that skill for more info.

[Claxon]

You make ride checks to anything that pertains to the ride skill, and your companion makes fly checks for anything that pertains to flying.

Getting your companion to attack or do some other specific things is covered by the use of Handle Animal and tricks.