Riding Checks

[Steff]

So.. I have a player who decided he wanted to get into mounted combat. We were in an encounter and he was getting his clock cleaned so on his turn he says, "My horse attacks with his hooves, then we move away, and then I take my action to drink a potion of healing."

This seems like too much to me but I am not that familiar with the 'ride' skill. It seems like he is double dipping.. using the horses standard action AND move action then getting his own move action (pull out the potion) and his own standard action (drink it) but his contention is that he pulls the potion as they are moving away (simultaneously) and then he gets his own standard action because his and the horse's are separate.

Seems like he is being kind of skeezy about this but I wanted to ask the community.

[Mysterious Stranger]

Fight with a Combat-Trained Mount: If you direct your war-trained mount to attack in battle, you can still make your own attack or attacks normally. This usage is a free action.

Control Mount in Battle: As a move action, you can attempt to control a light horse, pony, heavy horse, or other mount not trained for combat riding while in battle. If you fail the Ride check, you can do nothing else in that round. You do not need to roll for horses or ponies trained for combat.

Is the mount combat trained? If so controlling the mount is a action, if the mount is not combat trained it is a move action to control it. Considering the character is using mounted combat it is probably a combat trained mount.

This is no different than a druid having its animal companion attack while he does something else. If the character gets a mount as a class feature it is an animal companion.

[Azothath]

General Advice
there are a couple of unique things about mounts;
1) the rider and mount act on the same initiative.
2) often they do the same action but the rider gets the mount's move.
3) there are two rolls; Ride check and Handle Animal check. It is one or the other, not both per action. The last one is used to 'push' an animal to do a trick it doesn't know. The list of tricks an animal knows is very important so make sure it is detailed on the mount. Usual list of tricks [attack, come, defend, down, guard, heel]. Animals need attack twice (or be pushed) to attack aberrations, undead, and unusual/unnatural[not a; humanoid, monstrous humanoid, giant, animal] creatures.
4) mount RAW is very simplistic. Most GMs have to come up with some guidelines and rules to define and reign it in a bit. It's not so bad at 1-3rd levels but it gets silly pretty quick.
5) review the Charge and Overrun actions.
6) an attack from a mount can be requested/directed by the rider OR the mount can act according to its nature & training (no Ride check needed but you may need a HndlAnml check to get it to stop {enraged elephant}). If a foe threatens a mount it knows it will hurt and may attack on its own until it thinks the foe is subdued or withdraws.

⇨ there are plenty of mounted combat threads, so look into those.
Mounted Combat CRB FAQ and there are others on the page.

There are purchased mounts(don't advance with level but see my thread), class mounts(animal companions operating at some PC level)/familiars(their own advancement table), druid class defines animal companion advancement, pets(don't advance). PFS limits the menagerie a PC can bring as it can effect CR and/or be a PITA to run.

Attacking the mount depends on the foe(s) and its nature and/or intelligence. Some are tactical, some are operating off basic learned behaviors or instinct.

[Belafon]

There are two Ride checks he needs to make, but it sounds like he's doing it correctly.

First, determine how many hands you have free:

Ride skill wrote:

(DC 5) Guide with Knees: You can guide your mount with your knees so you can use both hands in combat. Make your Ride check at the start of your turn. If you fail, you can use only one hand this round because you need to use the other to control your mount. This does not take an action.

Then, determine if you are able to get your mount to make the attack and move as you want

Ride skill wrote:

(DC10) Fight with a Combat-Trained Mount: If you direct your war-trained mount to attack in battle, you can still make your own attack or attacks normally. This usage is a free action.

or

Ride skill wrote:

(DC20) Control Mount in Battle: As a move action, you can attempt to control a light horse, pony, heavy horse, or other mount not trained for combat riding while in battle. If you fail the Ride check, you can do nothing else in that round. You do not need to roll for horses or ponies trained for combat.

Assuming you succeed on your checks, what you can do depends on what you tell your mount to do.

Mounted Combat rules wrote:

If your mount moves more than 5 feet, you can only make a single melee attack...You can make a full attack with a ranged weapon while your mount is moving. Likewise, you can take move actions normally.

Do bear in mind that moving away provokes an attack of opportunity. Against either the rider or the mount. And - particularly past 4th level or so - horses don't have many hit points compared to what NPCs are capable of dishing out. (The rules for what happens when your mount falls are in the mounted combat section.)

[bbangerter]

Couple of additional points.

If the mount is taking more than 1 single attack, it is using a full attack action, and cannot move more than a 5' step afterwords.

From your original description you indicated the mount attacked with its hooves (multiple) then moved away. Unclear if the moving away was a 5' step, or an actual move of some distance (~30-40 feet). A full move action could not be taken if it did indeed make multiple attacks.

Also, horses (if not trained for combat) treat hoove attacks as secondary attacks, even though that is their only form of attack, so take a -5 to attack rolls.