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I need help interpreting rules and coming up with house rules. Please correct me if I am misunderstanding anything.
From the FAQ: "Note that a "mounted charge" is synonymous with a "charge while mounted," and that when a lance is "when used from the back of a charging mount" it is during a mounted charge not when only the mount charges. A mounted charge is a charge made by you and your mount. During a mounted charge, you deal double damage with your first melee attack made with a lance or with any weapon if you have Spirited Charge (or a similar effect), or you deal triple damage with a lance and Spirited Charge."
Problem #1: both mount and rider have to take the charge action for it to be a "mounted charge." Charging requires you to move to the closest space from which you could make a melee attack. So RAW, it is impossible to make a mounted charge if the rider has 10ft of reach (lance) and the mount (horse) has 5ft. Clearly not intentional.
1. House rule: So RAI, a "mounted charge" stops at the rider's reach? And if the horse had the lunge feat it could attack along with the rider?
Problem #2 Ride-by attack . To use this feat, you must "continue in the straight line of the charge," but charging requires you to move DIRECTLY toward the opponent, to the closest space from which you could attack them. So RAW you can't use ride-by attack unless you pass through your opponents space, which would be overrunning them.
2. House rule: So RAI, is the consensus to pass through the opponents space as if they weren't there, or can you choose to change your charge lane to one side of the opponent? If the latter, can you charge toward either side or just the closest side (assuming one side is closer to you than the other).
3. Does the post-charge movement allowed by ride-by attack still count as part of the charge? If so, could the mount make an overrun attempt "as part of a charge?" Would it get +2 to cmb?
4. To use the ride check "fight with a combat trained mount," do I first have to make a handle animal check telling my mount to attack an enemy? Can I make this check AFTER I myself have attacked to see whether the mount can attack with me, or is the check specifically to see whether I can attack after the mount has? If I fail this check, can I still have the mount charge but not make a charge attack?
5. If a mount has the greater overrun feat and knocks an opponent prone does only the mount get an AoO or does the rider also get one, assuming he has a weapon with 5ft reach?
Upon closer inspection, I think I know the answer to question #3. Correct me if I am wrong. The wording of the ride-by attack feat seems to state pretty clearly that the post- charge movement of the feat is actually part of the charge. "WHILE charging, you can...and then continue moving"...."as if with a STANDARD charge." After extreme amounts of research on the poorly worded overrun maneuver, it seems that overrunning "as part of a charge" means doing it in place of the melee attack at the end of your charge, like bull rush, rather than doing it on your way to the target. The feat charge through would be useless otherwise. The movement from ride-by attack happens after your free attack/overrun/bull rush, so I believe that would make overrun a standard action again, and not usable during a ride-by. Also, Apparently RAW overrunning triggers an AoO from movement if you continue moving after a successful attempt, even if you have improved overrun, but 95% of people house rule this away.
Welcome to mounted combat and the rules that don't work and have lots of different views on how they work.
One thing for sure is if you and your mount have the same reach it helps. So lunge could work
Ride by for sure lets you attack and then move 5ft more for the animal to attack letting the charge work.
as to how it works for free overrun, needing to overrun, or off to the side a little bit is one of the areas that there is no real agreement since there's no clear rule for this that really makes the feat worth having.
Update: RAW interpretation (and probably RAI) regarding overrun is actually really common. Many agree that if your mount has improved overrun and tries to overrun, it doesnt provoke from initiating it, but the movement upon success triggers 2 AoOs, one for the mount and one for the rider. This means that overrun builds aren't reallly feasible unless you use cheesy tactics like escape route , which doesn't work RAI. Also, turns out greater overrun (question 5) allows everyone who threatens the victim to take the AoO.
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1) Table variance, so ask your GM if different reach values matter or normalize the reach.
2) Table variance again. Directly toward is frequently interpreted in a way that doesn't match RAI nor dictionaries. Moving directly just means no turns (you go directly to the grocery store doesn't mean you drive through back yards and roads don't take you in a straight line) and toward means gradually getting closer (so moving obliquely is toward). Ride by is an example of moving obliquely toward someone but continuing past them. SKR post a diagram example of this.
3) Table variance but overrun is in my mind not a ride by. I don't think a pair of tables will rule the same on this, it will be all over the map as to how it works. I had a 9th level overrun specialist who never had a PFS table rule the same way.
4) ride and handle are different checks. Make ride when riding and handle when not.
5) all adjacent or in reach take aoo.
1) Table variance, so ask your GM if different reach values matter or normalize the reach.
2) Table variance again. Directly toward is frequently interpreted in a way that doesn't match RAI nor dictionaries. Moving directly just means no turns (you go directly to the grocery store doesn't mean you drive through back yards and roads don't take you in a straight line) and toward means gradually getting closer (so moving obliquely is toward). Ride by is an example of moving obliquely toward someone but continuing past them. SKR post a diagram example of this.
And then a few posts latter posted that he was remembering an old rule and that his diagram was not legal per the rules. Going directly to the store means you'll arrive at the store, not drive past the store.
Towards means moving at it, so that one would eventually arrive there.If I move directly towards a doorway, and then run into the wall next to it, I would say I failed to move directly towards the doorway, but moved directly towards the wall next to it as that's the place I reached via my direction of movement.
3) Table variance but overrun is in my mind not a ride by. I don't think a pair of tables will rule the same on this, it will be all over the map as to how it works. I had a 9th level overrun specialist who never had a PFS table rule the same way.
4) ride and handle are different checks. Make ride when riding and handle when not.
5) all adjacent or in reach take aoo.