Right now, there's not much point to using a lance riding a large-sized mount like a standard horse; the reach is the same as any non-reach weapon. One could get around this by simply riding a medium-sized mount, something akin to historical light cavalry riding pony-sized horses. However, would it be imbalancing if lances simply offered their full reach on large mounts? In a normal game, I feel this would mostly just effect monsters that can take reactive strikes but don't have reach. (I'll admit my exposure to PF2e is still limited at this point such that I don't know if that encompasses most monsters, so I'm wondering what other people's experiences are.)
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Technically, gaining reach from your mount's space on a large mount is very strong, since it allows you to threaten a massive area, dramatically increasing the number of reactive strikes or other reactions you can make and how much of the battlefield you "control". This gets worse the larger your mount gets.
Your proposal probably isn't going to make a dramatic difference in people's enjoyment and the overall game balance, however. It just makes mounted combat stronger.
Unfortunately, it hasn't come up in my game, but my intention has been to rule it as each round at the start of your turn selecting a square of your mounts space and calculating reach from there as normal for the rest of the round.
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Technically, gaining reach from your mount's space on a large mount is very strong, since it allows you to threaten a massive area, dramatically increasing the number of reactive strikes or other reactions you can make and how much of the battlefield you "control". This gets worse the larger your mount gets.
Your proposal probably isn't going to make a dramatic difference in people's enjoyment and the overall game balance, however. It just makes mounted combat stronger.
Unfortunately, it hasn't come up in my game, but my intention has been to rule it as each round at the start of your turn selecting a square of your mounts space and calculating reach from there as normal for the rest of the round.
this sounds like a good way to do. it may not make a dramatic difference in enjoyment overall, but i for one would enjoy being able to implement this properly without it feeling exponentially broken! i like it!
So my proposed change would end up strongly encouraging people to use lances from horseback to create mobile control points (not intended) over actually charging with it (my intended goal). What if I instead went with jousting weapons giving a lunge effect during a charge? Something like this:
The weapon is suited for mounted combat with a harness or similar means. When mounted, if you moved at least 10 feet on the action before your attack, add a circumstance bonus to damage for that attack equal to the number of damage dice for the weapon and also increase your reach by five feet for that attack as well.
There'd be a bit of a windfall for the war lance over the normal lance, but I consider that negligible.
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So my proposed change would end up strongly encouraging people to use lances from horseback to create mobile control points (not intended) over actually charging with it (my intended goal). What if I instead went with jousting weapons giving a lunge effect during a charge? Something like this:
The weapon is suited for mounted combat with a harness or similar means. When mounted, if you moved at least 10 feet on the action before your attack, add a circumstance bonus to damage for that attack equal to the number of damage dice for the weapon and also increase your reach by five feet for that attack as well.There'd be a bit of a windfall for the war lance over the normal lance, but I consider that negligible.
I think this feels better with the intention personally!
Sounds pretty reasonable.
I'm wondering how that's better for the war lance over the regular lance though, am I missing something?
Sounds pretty reasonable.
I'm wondering how that's better for the war lance over the regular lance though, am I missing something?
The war lance gives up extra reach for the parry and shove traits; if I apply lunge to all jousting weapons (which is just the lance and war lance), the war lance gets the same charging reach as the regular lance. Granted, that's already the case now (at least on a large-or-bigger-sized mount), so I suppose you'd be correct in pointing out that it doesn't really change anything for the war lance vs the regular lance. On an unrelated note, I should add on a caveat that you don't get the added reach if you're already getting the regular lance's extended reach. (I don't want to incentivize people getting on smaller mounts just to get extra reach.)
The weapon is suited for mounted combat with a harness or similar means. When mounted, if you moved at least 10 feet on the action before your attack, add a circumstance bonus to damage for that attack equal to the number of damage dice for the weapon. Also, if your reach is not already increased, increase your reach by five feet for that attack as well.
(edited for clarity)
Sounds pretty reasonable.
I'm wondering how that's better for the war lance over the regular lance though, am I missing something?
The war lance gives up extra reach for the parry and shove traits; if I apply lunge to all jousting weapons (which is just the lance and war lance), the war lance gets the same charging reach as the regular lance. Granted, that's already the case now (at least on a large-or-bigger-sized mount), so I suppose you'd be correct in pointing out that it doesn't really change anything for the war lance vs the regular lance. On an unrelated note, I should add on a caveat that you don't get the added reach if you're already getting the regular lance's extended reach. (I don't want to incentivize people getting on smaller mounts just to get extra reach.)
The weapon is suited for mounted combat with a harness or similar means. When mounted, if you moved at least 10 feet on the action before your attack, add a circumstance bonus to damage for that attack equal to the number of damage dice for the weapon. Also, if your reach is not already increased, increase your reach by five feet for that attack as well.(edited for clarity)
I see! Makes sense now.
But yeah, I like your solution quite a bit