MA style for horses

[Snargash Moonclaw]

How much does the style take into account encumbrance and barding, e.g., is it viable for heavily armored knights on heavily barded warhorses or is it more suited to lighter or unarmored fighting? If I'm not mistaken a lot of modern dressage was only developed for "modern" (post firearm) cavalry - I don't know where your material here is falling into place for historical comparison of equipment/tactics/encumbrance issues.

[Dangerious P. Cats]

Originally Posted by jacobmuller

Truly impressive.

Two hooves for +1 damage sounds familiar, but, can't find it.

All those rearing attacks sound like great opportunities to gut a horse. There must be some kind of intimidation aspect - it might be a great target but who wants a ton of meat falling on their head. Intimidation as part of the rear? Fear checks for someone wanting to target the belly of a rearing horse? Or maybe it's part of foot-training - "...that horse belly looks like easy meat but it'll crush you flat faster than you can carve it..."

A person with any weapon shorter than a resonable spear would be suicidal to attack the belly of a rearing horse. They would have no defence against the horse crashing down on them and they would need to come much closer to the beast to hit it. Fighting horses, especially moving ones, is very different to fighting humans. Horses move much faster and their weight alone can be a weapon and attacking a moving horse is really difficult. It's not so much fear that stops you from attacking a chaging horse as self preservation.

[JAW]

Originally Posted by Gef

If a horse attacks with two hooves at the same time, is that two attacks? Suppose, for instance, that the horse rears and comes down with his full weight on you on one hoof, versus two hooves that hit at the same time. Likewise the capriole, a back kick with both legs together. I'm thinking for simplicity this should maybe add +1 damage, like an attack with a two-handed weapon, and not count as a Dual Attack. Do you two have any thoughts on that approach?

I'd say it's two attacks AoA double.

Two hooves would not "penetrate" armor better than one - and on the other hand parrying them would be hard with just a single parry - so it would be closer to two attacks than one.

On the other hand one could likely block both hooves with a shield. But that's could be one block and one dodge with DB from the shield..

[Gef]

The talent for a steed which moves like the wind: Zephyr (5/lvl), adds to Acrobatics, Hiking, Jumping, Mount, Running, Stealth, and reactions from riders and handlers.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Gef

Martial Art for Horses

In another thread I asked if hooves negated the penalty for kicking. Per Kromm, they don't. How then would I design a paladin's warhorse with the Kicking technique? Horses don't train at the dojo!

Actually, the question I would have for Kromm is not whether *hooves* negate the penalty for Kicking, but whether the Four Legs or Horizontal traits should not negate that penalty, at least when kicking with only one out of four or more feet. Or at least remove the possibility of falling down a failed roll, since one has much more stable support as a quadraped than a biped...

[Snargash Moonclaw]

I think this is really well done. I was wondering about animal training in general a few days back - brings up the question of what it takes to train a horse to do these things and the effects on their cost/value. I'm curious about similar training and MA styles for war, guard and hunting dogs (the latter trained for taking down/pinning game, not merely tracking it).

[Gef]

Originally Posted by Snargash Moonclaw

I'm curious about similar training and MA styles for war, guard and hunting dogs

Grr. You just had to mention that, didn't you?

In a medieval campaign, trained animals are rather more important to everyone's livelihood than in the modern developed world, and more people interact with them. If the GURPS magic system worked in real life, the Animal Control spells would be a big deal, and I would like to do a better job of portraying that in my fantasy campaign.

Now that you bring up dogs, I could probably hoak up something for my campaign, but I'm no animal afficianado (except for parrots). This post was based on the scholarship of another; all I really addressed were the game mechanics. Can you point me to an equally good article on man's best friend? And maybe one on raptors as well?

GEF

[Lord Carnifex]

Great work so far!

I have a couple of peripheral suggestions for rounding out Equine Fu, though:

1) Most horses frighten pretty easily in combat: there's shouting, horses getting hurt, the smell of blood, and so on. As I recall, part of a warhorse's training is to overcome a horse's inherent skittishness. Probably a level or two of Fearless might be justified as a recommended Advantage.

2) I can't cite a reference, but I've often been told that in some times and places, warhorses were given weapons to increase their attack power, like spurred or spiked horseshoes. These might be good for a +1 damage, or maybe a shift to a cutting damage type.

[Gef]

Originally Posted by Lord Carnifex

1) Most horses frighten pretty easily in combat

I feel pretty silly listing "Combat Reflexes" as a recommended advantage for this or that martial art - it's recommended for combat, period. Same with High Pain Threshold, Fearlessness, Enhanced Defenses, Peripheral Vision, and more.

However, I might add a note about using a Will-based Mount roll for fright checks in combat. Seems reasonable to use Soldier skill in the same way for humans.

Originally Posted by Lord Carnifex

2) I can't cite a reference, but I've often been told that in some times and places, warhorses were given weapons to increase their attack power

I'd sure like to see a reference. Spiked horseshoes sound like they'd just be a nuisance.

GEF

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Gef

I feel pretty silly listing "Combat Reflexes" as a recommended advantage for this or that martial art - it's recommended for combat, period. Same with High Pain Threshold, Fearlessness, Enhanced Defenses, Peripheral Vision, and more.

I had the same thought initially, but upon further reflection it occurred to me that Combat Reflexes is actually not really realistic or worth it for many sorts of Martial Arts despite its general golden status in games that feature violence. Anything that you expect to use on a real battlefield, with zero preparation, and/or against multiple enemies, sure, but for somebody who trains to fight one-on-one in scheduled matches, even brutal ones, Enhanced Parry (Unarmed or Primary Weapon) is far more plausible and efficient IMHO.