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The rules for mounted combat say:

The initiative of a controlled mount changes to match yours when you mount it. (...) A controlled mount can move and act even on the turn that you mount it.

What, if the mount was before you in the initiative order and already used its move and actions, for example, a warhorse that moved its full speed, then attacked a wolf with its hooves. Does this new intiative give it new movement and actions and a new turn?

My understanding is that the mount will have its own turn, on which it would normally move and act, even though its intiative changes to the same number as the rider's.

I believe that all the sentence "A controlled mount can move and act even on the turn that you mount it." does is tell you that the mount can move and act on the rider's turn, instead of on it's own (to which it normally would be limited for doing those things). It does not:

  • explicitly grant an extra action to the mount, like, for example the fighters Action Surge does to the fighter,
  • increase the mounts speed or grant it extra movement, like for example the Dash action does.

So, it does get a "new turn" in the sense of having a new slot in the initiative order, (if it used to have a different intiative than the rider, maybe not if it already had the same), and in the sense that it can act on the riders turn. But it does not get a new turn in the sense of getting the resources refreshed that normally come with taking a turn.

Is this reading correct?

Matthieu
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Nobody the Hobgoblin
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1 Answers1

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Each participant gets one turn per round.

The rules for initiative state:

A round represents about 6 seconds in the game world. During a round, each participant in a battle takes a turn.

Since nothing in the mounted combat rules creates an exception to the general rule that a creature gets a turn each round, a mounted creature still only gets one turn per round.

“More milk per milk”

There’s this joke about a guy who loves milk so much that he put powdered milk into his liquid milk so that he could drink “more milk per milk”. That’s kind of what you would be asking to do here: shoving an additional six seconds into the six seconds the horse already has in the round. You’re asking if the horse can live his life at a rate of two seconds per second, or 12 seconds per 6 second round. This obviously doesn’t make sense, just as it isn’t “more milk per milk” - you’re adding mass and volume to the liquid milk.

Thomas Markov
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    I mean, "more milk per milk" guy isn't wrong. He's turning his skim milk into full cream or cream-and-a-half milk, which could be considered "more milk per milk". – nick012000 Jun 27 '23 at 20:44
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    But there are already rules for creatures getting more milk into their milk in 5e, like Thief's Reflexes, this seems like a weak argument. – Cubic Jun 28 '23 at 09:07
  • I agree, there plenty of ways to do far more than would be possible in 6 seconds so that part is not convincing. It should be possible to answer this from the rules text without resorting to analogies (although in enjoyed the milk part because it's fun). – Nobody the Hobgoblin Jun 28 '23 at 09:59
  • @Cubic I think the name “thief’s reflexes” explains what’s going on there…they have fast reflexes. Again, taking the time to mount a horse doesn’t make the horse faster. – Thomas Markov Jun 28 '23 at 10:00
  • @NobodytheHobgoblin …which is why I answered conclusively using the rules, and only then did I use the milk analogy. – Thomas Markov Jun 28 '23 at 10:00
  • @Cubic Also, “there are rules for a thief that allow them to do more in six seconds than other characters, ergo a horse can also do that even though the horse is not a thief” seems more reasonable to you than “mounting a horse does not make the horse even faster”? – Thomas Markov Jun 28 '23 at 10:03
  • As a DM, I'd probably allow the horse to act during the player's turn, but only with whatever it has left after its turn. If it took an attack action this round, then its action is expended already. If it moved 30 feet to get to you, then it only has 20 feet of movement left. I'd hate to tell a player that they just mounted up and now they can't move until their next turn, especially because the rules specifically say the opposite,, but I do want to avoid just giving the horse extra actions and such. – Darth Pseudonym Jun 29 '23 at 20:19
  • @DarthPseudonym That’s a great idea, and it’s still just 1 milk per milk. – Thomas Markov Jun 29 '23 at 20:20