Can a Heavy Horse be turned into a Heavy Warhorse? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Can a Heavy Horse be turned into a Heavy Warhorse? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Cameron_DuModre
04-10-08, 02:06 PM So I'm playing a druid in a new game and I started with a heavy horse (because I was tired of having a wolf when I play druids). I gave it the Combat Riding "bundle" of skill tricks.

Now the heavy horse takes a -5 penalty on attacks because its hooves are considered secondary weapons since it is not trained to use them. Do the skill tricks included in the Combat Riding "bundle" remove that penalty?

This is the entry in the SRD: A horse not trained for war does not normally use its hooves to attack. Its hoof attack is treated as a secondary attack and adds only half the horse’s Strength bonus to damage. (These secondary attacks are noted with an asterisk in the Attack and Full Attack entries for the heavy horse and the light horse.)

This is the skill bundle: Combat Riding (DC 20): An animal trained to bear a rider into combat knows the tricks attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel. Training an animal for combat riding takes six weeks. You may also “upgrade” an animal trained for riding to one trained for combat riding by spending three weeks and making a successful DC 20 Handle Animal check. The new general purpose and tricks completely replace the animal’s previous purpose and any tricks it once knew. Warhorses and riding dogs are already trained to bear riders into combat, and they don’t require any additional training for this purpose.

What do you think? Neither my DM or I are particularly sure about this.
Sinfire Titan
04-10-08, 03:22 PM There is a template in MM2 called Warbeast. Applying it to a Heavy Horse turns it into a Heavy Warhorse. They will have identical stats.
ciaran
04-10-08, 06:28 PM You're talking about using Handle Animal to upgrade the horse, right? I haven't seen anything that flat out says it but thats how I would run it. Its the least a DM could do for putting skill points into something non-combat and taking all the required time to do it.
risner
04-10-08, 06:57 PM What do you think? Neither my DM or I are particularly sure about this.

If you train the horse for war, spending the 6 weeks (or whatever it is) and the successful checks, you should have just made a warhorse from a heavy horse.

It may not be explicitly clear that it works this way, but this is a fair and reasonable interpretation of the rules.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Cameron_DuModre 04-10-08, 02:06 PM	So I'm playing a druid in a new game and I started with a heavy horse (because I was tired of having a wolf when I play druids). I gave it the Combat Riding "bundle" of skill tricks. Now the heavy horse takes a -5 penalty on attacks because its hooves are considered secondary weapons since it is not trained to use them. Do the skill tricks included in the Combat Riding "bundle" remove that penalty? This is the entry in the SRD: A horse not trained for war does not normally use its hooves to attack. Its hoof attack is treated as a secondary attack and adds only half the horse’s Strength bonus to damage. (These secondary attacks are noted with an asterisk in the Attack and Full Attack entries for the heavy horse and the light horse.) This is the skill bundle: Combat Riding (DC 20): An animal trained to bear a rider into combat knows the tricks attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel. Training an animal for combat riding takes six weeks. You may also “upgrade” an animal trained for riding to one trained for combat riding by spending three weeks and making a successful DC 20 Handle Animal check. The new general purpose and tricks completely replace the animal’s previous purpose and any tricks it once knew. Warhorses and riding dogs are already trained to bear riders into combat, and they don’t require any additional training for this purpose. What do you think? Neither my DM or I are particularly sure about this.
Sinfire Titan 04-10-08, 03:22 PM	There is a template in MM2 called Warbeast. Applying it to a Heavy Horse turns it into a Heavy Warhorse. They will have identical stats.
ciaran 04-10-08, 06:28 PM	You're talking about using Handle Animal to upgrade the horse, right? I haven't seen anything that flat out says it but thats how I would run it. Its the least a DM could do for putting skill points into something non-combat and taking all the required time to do it.
risner 04-10-08, 06:57 PM	What do you think? Neither my DM or I are particularly sure about this. If you train the horse for war, spending the 6 weeks (or whatever it is) and the successful checks, you should have just made a warhorse from a heavy horse. It may not be explicitly clear that it works this way, but this is a fair and reasonable interpretation of the rules.