Under Horsemanship Skills category.

Requires Horsemanship: Exotic (Winged). Costs 2 skill slots.

Base Skill 35% + 5% per level.

Skill at fighting from the back of a winged creature such as Griffins, Dragons and Pegasus.

+2 Parry and Dodge.

+1 Initiative.

+1d6 Damage.

+2d6 Damage on charge.

Mount may attack for 2d6 (front legs) or 4d6 (rear).

These bonuses apply when the rider is fighting non-airborne creatures whilst the creature is not airborne. Taking off from combat or confined spaces requires a skill roll. Failure means the mount could not clear ground, and must retry next round.

At 1^st Level, the rider has the option of attacking with a weapon, or use the mount’s natural weapons.

At 3^rd Level, the rider may have the mount make a bite attack in addition to his normal attacks, or use the mount’s natural weapons.

At 5^th Level, the rider may have the mount make a bite attack and two front-claw/stomp attacks in addition to his normal attacks, or use the mount’s natural weapons.

At 8^th Level, the rider may have the mount make a bite attack, two front-claw/stomp attacks and two rear-claw/stomps to rear opponents, in addition to his normal attacks, or use the mount’s natural weapons.

+3 Parry.

+4 Dodge.

+4 Initiative.

+1d6 Damage per 25mph speed, rounding up. Bonus also applies to mount.

Bonuses apply when fighting other flying opponents. If the rider wishes to swoop ground targets, make a skill roll. If successful, the rider may make one attack on a number of opponents equal to his number of hand to hand attacks. Opponents may only strike back once if they won initiative. If failed by up to 30%, the attack was too shallow, but the rider is under danger of missiles and long weapons.

If the roll was failed by more than 30%, roll again or crash (as 50%+ failure). If the roll was failed by 50% or more, the mount has crashed. Causes 2d6 damage to mount and rider per 25mph. Roll to stay mounted.

+1d6 Damage per 15mph of approach speed, rounding up. Requires a lance.

Damage is calculated from combined speeds of combatants, e.g. Two 100mph opponents = 200mph = +14d6 damage. If charging a ground based giant, roll as if making a swoop attack. If charging a ground based target under 10’ tall, roll at -10%. If the mount if diving, roll to pull out of the dive at -10 for giant opponents, -20% if the target is 10’ tall or under.

A fumbled dodge will unsaddle the rider unless he makes a ride roll. Riders may tie themselves into the saddle, but dodge bonuses are halved. Note that dodge bonuses apply to the rider only, not the mount, unless otherwise noted.

Under Horsemanship Skills category.

Requires Horsemanship: Knight or Paladin, or Arial Mounted Combat. Costs 2 skill slots.

With this skill a rider may keep his usual Rate of Fire, with strike modifiers reduced by 4 for normal mounts, 6 when flying. Every 3rd level (3,6,9,12,15) reduces this penalty by one.

Really high-velocity charging attempts have a good chance of destroying the rider's lance, or the loss of the weapon because it's sunken too deeply into the target. Make a skill roll to keep the lance intact at a penalty equal to damage dealt minus (doubled) the rider's level.

If you hit a target but fail to penetrate its armor rating, the lance must save vs. The target armor rating number or break. So, if your lance bounces off AR 14 armor, the lance must roll a 14 or higher to remain intact.

Richard Thomassen. Lance notes by Bill Coffin (coffinw @ ambest.com)

v1.1 20.08.97