Any ways of strapping onto a mount?

[Nikkok]

Let's suppose you are riding a very fast mount. Naturally fast creature, like a cat, or buffed with something like Cheetah's sprint. The speed of the mount allows it to make very long and very high jumps, because it gains enormous Acrobatics bonuses on running jump checks.
The problem is, that you will not be able to stay on it's back. As the Ride skills says, when you make the mount jump, you either make an Acrobatics check for the mount, or the Ride check yourself, whichever is lower, the DC is equal to the jump DC.
A usual +5 bonus from the saddle isn't gonna help. Is there any special equipment to work with this, and if you would design something yourself, how would you balance it?
I thought about some kind of saddle, that takes about a minute to strap in, but allows you to autopass all checks to stay mounted. Of course, it prohibits you from dismounting (maybe, a full-round action to unstrap) and creates a danger of mount falling on top of you, if it is falling prone.

What do you think?

P.S. This should also be usable for riding something like a giant spider, crawling on the seiling. Or staying on the flying mount without appropriate Ride skill.

[avr]

A military saddle helps stop you fall off, and an exotic saddle is required for weird creatures. Exotic military saddles are possible. I can't see why you couldn't make a saddle which strapped you in enough that you absolutely couldn't fall out, though it might risk you losing your dex bonus if your mount lost theirs, or if an enemy managed to get on your mount with you (grappling one or the other in PF terms). If possible I'd use the exotic military saddle rather than the new one but YMMV.

If your mount falls being trapped underneath it is a real problem with any saddle. In RL, anyway. I guess a special saddle which you could use even when upside down would make this worse.

[LordKailas]

Nikkok wrote:

Let's suppose you are riding a very fast mount. Naturally fast creature, like a cat, or buffed with something like Cheetah's sprint. The speed of the mount allows it to make very long and very high jumps, because it gains enormous Acrobatics bonuses on running jump checks.

The problem is, that you will not be able to stay on it's back. As the Ride skills says, when you make the mount jump, you either make an Acrobatics check for the mount, or the Ride check yourself, whichever is lower, the DC is equal to the jump DC.
A usual +5 bonus from the saddle isn't gonna help. Is there any special equipment to work with this, and if you would design something yourself, how would you balance it?
I thought about some kind of saddle, that takes about a minute to strap in, but allows you to autopass all checks to stay mounted. Of course, it prohibits you from dismounting (maybe, a full-round action to unstrap) and creates a danger of mount falling on top of you, if it is falling prone.

What do you think?

P.S. This should also be usable for riding something like a giant spider, crawling on the seiling. Or staying on the flying mount without appropriate Ride skill.

I've read the description multiple times and I don't think the check works the way you think it does.

Ride wrote:

Leap: You can get your mount to leap obstacles as part of its movement. If the Ride check to make the leap succeeds, make a check using your Ride modifier or the mount’s jump modifier, whichever is lower, to see how far the creature can jump. If you fail your Ride check, you fall off the mount when it leaps and take the appropriate falling damage (at least 1d6 points). This usage does not take an action but is part of the mount’s movement.

So, there are two checks involved here

Check #1 is to get the mount to leap, the dc for this is always 15. Failing this check causes you to fall off of the mount.

Check #2 is to see how far your mount jumps. For this check you compare your mount's jump modifier against your ride modifier. Which ever of these is lower is then used to determine how far you're able to get your mount to leap.

So, as long as you can beat a dc 15 you'll never fall off of your mount. However, it is true that because you're on the mount's back it will be limited as to how far it can jump.

So, if it's jump modifier is +30 but your ride modifier is only +14, then you are forced to roll 1d20+14 to see how far it can jump.

Conceivably if you're on the back of a mount that's capable of walking on the ceiling, the exotic saddle for said mount should provide straps you can brace yourself against to stay on the thing while its upside down.

there are items like the Equestrian Belt, that might prevent you from falling off (it's a DM's call though since I believe it's referencing the "stay in saddle activity" not staying in the saddle in general).

But basically anything that boosts your ride skill will help increase your mount's jumping distance when it comes to very fast mounts.

[VoodistMonk]

If there was ever a time for Skill Focus/Signature Skill (Ride), this is probably it. Lol.

Signature Skill will increase your mount's speed, which will increase how far you can make it jump, too.

[Mark Hoover 330]

Two words: Sovereign Glue

Barring that, as far as I understand it LK Ultra upthread has it right for the process of making your mount Jump using Acrobatics or your own Ride check.

A quick perusal of saddles on the D20 PFSRD site reveals none that give you immunity to be unsaddled, but all of the ones I saw give the rider at least a +5 Competence bonus to their Ride checks, as does the exotic military saddle noted above. With a good saddle any PC taking 10 while riding should be able to get the mount to jump without them falling.

If you're in a situation without being able to Take 10 you simply want to pump your Ride check as high as possible. A PC with a +1 Dex bonus, 1 rank in Ride and Ride as a class skill is already at +8 on their check. Add in a Trait for another +1; a Feat for +2 or +3; certain classes/archetypes allow you to ignore Armor Check penalties; an Ioun Stone for another +1 or so... just keep loading up your Ride check.

My advice: play a halfling warpriest (Divine Commander). Choose the Outrider Alternate Racial trait. For Traits, choose Beast Bond and Cavalry Rider. With your starting stats buy your way to a 20 Dex. Now, wearing even Medium armor but in the saddle of your mount you're looking at a Ride +13.

The check to remain in the saddle when your mount is jumping is DC 15. You automatically fail if you roll a 1 on a D20. Without even spending the money on a fancy saddle this PC at level 1 automatically succeeds on a 2 or better, or 95% of the time.

Or, y'know, glue yourself in...

[Cevah]

All saddles for flying mounts have this feature. You don't want to fall off your saddle when 500' up. War saddles are designed to keep the rider in the saddle even when they are unconscious. I.e. when they will ordinarily fall off.

/cevah

[Mark Hoover 330]

Cevah wrote:

All saddles for flying mounts have this feature. You don't want to fall off your saddle when 500' up. War saddles are designed to keep the rider in the saddle even when they are unconscious. I.e. when they will ordinarily fall off.

/cevah

They do? I'm not seeing what you're seeing. I do see the 75% chance to stay in the saddle when knocked unconscious, but I don't see a 100% guaranteed "You'll stay in this saddle when upside-down-flying" saddle.

What I do see is that if you go unconscious, it's likely you'll stay in your military saddle. There are other things, such as a failed Ride check when attempting to make a mount jump, being attacked by a foe, or perhaps gravity, that could unsaddle you; in that event, several of the saddles, both magic and mundane, provide a +5 bonus to your Ride check to stay saddled and the Sky Marines saddle gives you Feather Fall if you fall out.

Maybe it's on Archives of Nethys and I'm missing it?

[Cevah]

You are likely right. I recall a "Flying" saddle, which did this explicitly. But it must have been for a previous edition of D&D.

/cevah