Thinking about running “In the Shadow of the Horns” so making sure I get the rules for mounts.
There’s a hobgoblin leader with a band of goblins all riding Helgeits (Hell goats).
The advantage of riding is access to Nature, might and weapons. But there’s nothing for disposition.
If the party tried to drive off the band how do you get the disposition? The Hobgoblin has a standard disposition of 2. Plus he has 3 goblin friends so we are up to 5. The Helgeit mounts don’t contribute.
Does the hobgoblin roll the Helgeit’s nature for his actions? That’s 5 plus the 3 goblins. So that’s 8. The goblins would also have 8 for the same reason.
If it was just the Helgeits fighting the party their disposition would almost certainly be higher but they wouldn’t benefit from the goblin’s weapons. So am I right to think that the goblin’s don’t really contribute much except for their armaments and will to do evil?
Could I choose to use a goblin’s Drive Off disposition instead of the hobgoblin leader’s? It’s one point higher.
Krakki is a hobgoblin. He’s the leader of the group, so you should use him to set the disposition. His Drive Off disposition is 2. He has three goblins and four helgeit with him. Each contributes +1 dispo, so their starting disposition is 9. Those points must be distributed between Krakki, the three goblins, and the four helgeit. Likely you’ll give Krakki 2 points and everyone else one point a piece.
Krakki rolls his own nature + any help when he’s acting. Others on his side can help. But everyone in the group, including the helgeit can be given actions and will roll their own nature when doing so.
Just like with players, everyone on Krakki’s team must take an action before anyone on that team can take a second action. You can absolutely choose to give the helgeit all three of the actions in the first round. But that means you need to give the goblins and/or Krakki the actions in the second round.
Ok, seems like it’s the same as running the conflict without the mount rules and just having all opponents be a team. Are the mount rules for players to use rather than the GM?
Being mounted increases your Might to the Might of your beast. Since Krakki and his goblins are riding demon-goats, their Might increases to 4. Though the Might will drop again if the ridden helgeit gets knocked out of the conflict.
Being mounted means you can use your Rider skill for Manuevers in a Kill, Drive Off or Capture conflict and for Attacks in a Chase or Flee conflict. However, Krakki and the Goblins don’t have a Rider skill. They just have Nature. So they don’t get that benefit.
During an action, the rider can use their mount’s weapons instead of their own. So in a Kill conflict, for instance, a goblin could choose to attack with his helgeit’s Flaming Horns rather than his own Polearm.
The helgeit still get to take their own actions in the conflict, as long as they have disposition.
I thought that a team in a conflict had the Might of the highest Might team member. So there’s no difference between them being team mates or mounts.
The third benefit makes sense.
What I mean is if a player character rode into a fight on their horse it the player would still take all the actions, it wouldn’t alternate between the horse’s actions and the warriors. Would it?
The text says the rider gets bet the benefit of the mount’s Nature. Is that saying the mount gets actions using their Nature in a conflict? I thought it meant that the player could opt to use the mount’s Nature descriptors as their own.
While the type of conflicts a team can engage in is determined by the highest Might on the team, the individual team members still keep their individual Might scores and all that entails during a conflict, barring special exceptions, such as Riders increasing their Might to the level of their Mounts.
For example, if a group of Adventurers (Might 3) ambushed a band of monsters made up of a group of goblins (Might 2), a Dire Wolf (Might 3), and an Ogre (Might 5), the Ogre’s Might would prevent the Adventures from engaging in a Kill Conflict, due to it being +2 Might above them in the Order of Might. If the Adventurers choose to engage in a Drive Off conflict, they would still be considered +1 Might compared to the Might 2 Goblins, and therefore get +1s for actions against them. The Adventurers would be evenly matched with the Might 3 Dire Wolf, and the Might 5 Ogre would get +2s for actions against the Adventurers.
If one of the Goblins mounted the Dire Wolf, then that individual Goblin would also be treated as Might 3, and the Adventurers would no longer be considered higher Might, and they would lose their +1s for actions against that specific Goblin.
If, on the other hand, one of the Adventurers had an ability or item that boosted their Might to 4, but didn’t boost the party’s Might (such as a class ability, like the Elf Ranger’s level 10 Sons and Daughters of Arda ability, or a magic item like the Girdle of Troll Might), then the whole party would be able to engage in a Kill conflict with the above group of Monsters, because the type of conflicts that are possible are determined by the highest Might on the team, but only the Adventurer with the ability or item would be treated as Might 4 during the conflict. Only they would get +2s for actions against the Goblins, +1s for actions against the Dire Wolf and it’s potential Goblin rider, and the Ogre would only add +1s for actions against the Might 4 Adventurer. The other Adventurers’ bonuses and penalties would be unaffected.
Hope this helps clarify at least one of the advantages of mounted combat.
That’s where I was going wrong, I thought might was a team attribute and was thinking the mounts would provide that benefit just from being on the team.
Glad I could help!
That misconception would not just change the dynamic of a conflict with mounts, but would significantly increase the difficulty of any conflict with a boss monster and minions, like a troll or ogre with a a handful or even horde of kobolds or goblins, so I am glad I could offer some clarification.