Hello everyone,
I try to understand if general feat "Ride" applies to Skill Feat "Express Rider" (Move Trait) checks.
Details on Feat Ride:
Benefits: Automatically succeed at commanding your mount to move
(URL: https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?Traits=78&q=name%3Aride&type=eqs&a mp;include-traits=general )
When you Command an Animal you’re mounted on to take a move action (such as Stride), you automatically succeed instead of needing to attempt a check.
(URL: https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=835 )
.Details on Feat Express Rider:
Express Rider
[Traits:] Exploration General Move Skill
[...] you can attempt a Nature check to Command an Animal to increase your mount's travel speed.
(Italics mine, URL: https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=2126 )
.Details on Trait Move:
An action with this trait involves moving from one space to another.
(URL: https://2e.aonprd.com/Traits.aspx?ID=114)
.Details on Trait Exploration:
An activity with this trait takes more than a turn to use, [...]
(URL: https://2e.aonprd.com/Traits.aspx?ID=66 )
.Details on Activities:
An activity typically involves using multiple actions to create an effect greater than you can produce with a single action, or combining multiple single actions to produce an effect that’s different from merely the sum of those actions. In some cases, usually when spellcasting, an activity can consist of only 1 action, 1 reaction, or even 1 free action.
An activity might cause you to use specific actions within it. You don’t have to spend additional actions to perform them—they’re already factored into the activity’s required actions. (See Subordinate Actions on page 462.)[...]
(URL: https://2e.aonprd.com/Rules.aspx?ID=388 )
.Personal comment:
- Even when I naively cling to the letters as written (RAW), I am unsure: Do Express Rider's traits mean that its checks are for (subordinate) Move Actions as part of an "Express Rider" Move Exploration Activity??
- Then again, when I try to guess their intention (RAI), I'm not entirely sure, either: At first glance, Ride's auto-success at commanding a mount seems almost perfectly made for commanding a mount to ride faster. But I've already encountered so many rule pitfalls and been wrong so many times ...
How would you handle it?
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I don't think it is going to be game-breaking either way.
Personally, I think that Ride is for commanding an animal in combat. It wouldn't affect abilities that are part of exploration or downtime such as overland movement.
But getting 150% movement speed without rolling doesn't seem all that powerful since the party's overall speed is determined by the slowest character, not the fastest. And spending two skill feats so that a heavy armor wearing character is no longer the slowest seems fair. So it wouldn't be hard to talk me into allowing it for a particular table.
