I am running as DM and am unsure of rules for mounting / dismounting. Say initiative order is player, villain (speed 30), villain's mount (speed 50).
After player's turn, the villain spends half its movement to mount the creature. The mount then gains the villian's initiative order.
Does this mean the villain can mount (15 feet), move 50 feet on mount, dismount (not specified in rules as this taking an action or movement), move 15 feet, attack. Then it becomes the mount's initiative again as it was dismounted. The mount can then attack? Or move even further!? I would think for game balance that it would lose this turn but it is not specified in the rules.
Alternatively, say the mount is independent but turn order is the same. Could the villain hold its action to dismount and attack a foe in melee, then the mount moves and attacks, eg a dire wolf can knock an enemy prone, followed by the villain's held action?
Mount (using half your movement) Ride 50 ft. Dismount (using the last of your movement) Attack a target adjacent to you, Attack at range, or Cast a Spell Use your Bonus Action
You could not, however, hold Action to Dismount and Attack since you can only Ready one or the other.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Mounting is not an Action, page 198 PHB, (emphasis mine)
Once during your move, you can mount a creature that is within 5 feet of you or dismount. Doing so costs an amount of movement equal to half your speed. For example, if your speed is 30 feet, you must spend 15 feet of movement to mount a horse. Therefore, you can’t mount it if you don’t have 15 feet of movement left or if your speed is 0.
As such my example is still wrong, the correction would be:
Mount (using half your movement) Ride 50 ft. Dismount (using the last of your movement) Attack a target adjacent to you, Attack at range, or Cast a Spell Use your Bonus Action
You could not, however, hold Action to dismount and Attack since you can only Ready one or the other.
I'm getting two different answers! To reclarify, I think Sigred and DMThac0 are both right on different interpretations.
Sigred says mounting and dismounting requires an action. I don't think this is correct. The rules say you can do this once per turn, and it is implied it is a free action, like opening an unlocked door would be. Unless you have an errata source!?
You can not choose to both mount and dismount in the same round. The rules DO imply this, but the use of OR can have a legitimate interpretation that you could mount, dismount, but not mount again. Which also makes sense since it specifies that it uses half your movement to do either. So I would say that the rules as written don't really specify clearly if you could mount and dismount on the same turn. Is there an errata source or is this your interpretation?
When you mount a creature, it takes its turn immediately. A mount does not get a turn from being dismounted. The rules do imply this, as if the mount initiative becomes the creatures, its turn was spent as a mount.
You can not dismount and attack as a single readied action. This is definitive. The rules say that readying allows you to ready movement or action. So you could ready either a dismount (since it counts as movement) OR an attack from mounted position.
So, I believe rules as written, you can not mount or dismount as a readied action.
As the rule specifies you can "choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it."
However, to me, this would also mean you can't choose to stand from prone, or drop prone as a reaction, even though the former doesn't actually cause movement in space and the latter is a free action.
Therefore, I think rules as intended, you would reasonably be able to do drop prone or stand from prone. Which to me also implies you can ready a mount or dismount (but not also attack).
I am more convinced however that rules as written and rules as intended, you can not both mount and dismount on the same turn.
Sigred says mounting and dismounting requires an action. I don't think this is correct. The rules say you can do this once per turn, and it is implied it is a free action, like opening an unlocked door would be. Unless you have an errata source!?
It is not a free action, nor is opening a door during combat a free action. Mounting/dismounting is done through your move action. Opening a door is either a full action via the [Tooltip Not Found] action, or (depending on your DM) as your one item interaction for the round. In either event, it counts as something, and is limited in usage per round. This is in the PHB.
You can not choose to both mount and dismount in the same round. The rules DO imply this, but the use of OR can have a legitimate interpretation that you could mount, dismount, but not mount again. Which also makes sense since it specifies that it uses half your movement to do either. So I would say that the rules as written don't really specify clearly if you could mount and dismount on the same turn. Is there an errata source or is this your interpretation?
That is not a legitimate interpretation. The syntax does not imply both. The use of a simple "or" in this syntax is exclusionary. If it were both, it would be phrased as "and/or" instead of "or", or the passage would read as, "During your movement, mounting and dismounting can each be done once per turn."
When you mount a creature, it takes its turn immediately. A mount does not get a turn from being dismounted. The rules do imply this, as if the mount initiative becomes the creatures, its turn was spent as a mount.
You can not dismount and attack as a single readied action. This is definitive. The rules say that readying allows you to ready movement or action. So you could ready either a dismount (since it counts as movement) OR an attack from mounted position.
Correct.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Sigred says mounting and dismounting requires an action. I don't think this is correct. The rules say you can do this once per turn, and it is implied it is a free action, like opening an unlocked door would be. Unless you have an errata source!?
It is not a free action, nor is opening a door during combat a free action. Mounting/dismounting is done through your move action. Opening a door is either a full action via the Use an Object action, or (depending on your DM) as your one item interaction for the round. In either event, it counts as something, and is limited in usage per round. This is in the PHB.
You can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack.
If you want to interact with a second object, you need to use your action. Some magic items and other special objects always require an action to use, as stated in their descriptions.
The DM might require you to use an action for any of these activities when it needs special care or when it presents an unusual obstacle. For instance, the DM could reasonably expect you to use an action to open a stuck door or turn a crank to lower a drawbridge.
Sigred says mounting and dismounting requires an action. I don't think this is correct. The rules say you can do this once per turn, and it is implied it is a free action, like opening an unlocked door would be. Unless you have an errata source!?
It is not a free action, nor is opening a door during combat a free action. Mounting/dismounting is done through your move action. Opening a door is either a full action via the Use an Object action, or (depending on your DM) as your one item interaction for the round. In either event, it counts as something, and is limited in usage per round. This is in the PHB.
You can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack.
If you want to interact with a second object, you need to use your action. Some magic items and other special objects always require an action to use, as stated in their descriptions.
The DM might require you to use an action for any of these activities when it needs special care or when it presents an unusual obstacle. For instance, the DM could reasonably expect you to use an action to open a stuck door or turn a crank to lower a drawbridge.
Yeah, that's an unfortunate choice of naming. Calling it your "free object interaction" can imply that interacting with objects is "free" and therefore unlimited, while, in fact, as Sigred points out, is not at all unlimited. You get one per turn; a second one would cost your Action. (The "free", I think, is meant to indicate that you get one that's "action-free": that's your "free" object interaction.)
Yup, I wasn't correcting you, I was pointing out that the "free vs not free" argument comes from an unfortunate naming choice on behalf of the D&D 5e designers. I think we all agree that opening a door counts as an object interaction, meaning you can do so once without using your action, and that doing so implies you can't draw your weapon as part of your attack (for example).
Rynegade called it a "free action", Sigred said it was not a free action, and you responded saying it was a free action. I'm saying you're all correct, you're all talking about the same thing (the single object interaction you get per turn without using your action), but the game designers' choice to call it a "free" object interaction is causing communication problems.
The designers use the term 'free,' and I believe this has been intentionally muddled because this is so up to DM decision, based on how long something would reasonably take.
For example, as a DM, using RAF, if a player said he wanted to mount a horse, move, then jump off and dismount, I would say that mounting is a type of free action (though it costs movement speed), and they could Dismount as their action, but they couldn't do both as free actions. Dismounting in this case would be highly situational, and the only thing I could think of using it for is to drop prone, or to prevent yourself from being knocked prone if the mount is close to death. The player could have simply attacked, then waited while mounted next turn, dismounted as a free action, and gotten another action.
The reason why I say this is because in the description of mounted combat "If your mount is knocked prone, you can use your reaction to dismount it as it falls and land on your feet. Otherwise, you are dismounted and fall prone in a space within 5 feet it." Also, it implies that this isn't happening on your turn, and specifies nothing about having movement remaining. If you can use your reaction to dismount in an unsafe situation on another player's turn, then you should be able to use your action to dismount in a controlled situation on your turn. I'd have a hard time arguing against this with a player without feeling like a control freak. Of course, I can't think of any way to abuse it.
I wouldn't assume I could use that ruling at another DM's table.
That's not true at all though. You're Reacting to being thrown from the mount, it's a specific thing you're reacting to. Mounting is not a type of free action, it's a separate thing that's part of your Movement. You could move half your movement, and as a free action as part of that movement you could open a door (say you're going outside), and then use the remaining half of your Movement to mount a creature.
Also you cannot mount and dismount a creature in the same turn, even if you had enough movement or used the Dash action to double your movement. The rules specifically say you can only mount or dismount once per turn: Once during your move, you can mount a creature that is within 5 feet of you or dismount.
You can of course always homebrew things however you want as a DM (of course you mention as RAF), but this doesn't have ambiguous rules.
I am running as DM and am unsure of rules for mounting / dismounting. Say initiative order is player, villain (speed 30), villain's mount (speed 50).
After player's turn, the villain spends half its movement to mount the creature. The mount then gains the villian's initiative order.
Does this mean the villain can mount (15 feet), move 50 feet on mount, dismount (not specified in rules as this taking an action or movement), move 15 feet, attack. Then it becomes the mount's initiative again as it was dismounted. The mount can then attack? Or move even further!? I would think for game balance that it would lose this turn but it is not specified in the rules.
Alternatively, say the mount is independent but turn order is the same. Could the villain hold its action to dismount and attack a foe in melee, then the mount moves and attacks, eg a dire wolf can knock an enemy prone, followed by the villain's held action?
The way I understand it, yes, you could:
Mount (using half your movement)
Ride 50 ft.
Dismount (using the last of your movement)Attack a target adjacent to you, Attack at range, or Cast a Spell
Use your Bonus Action
You could not, however, hold Action to Dismount and Attack since you can only Ready one or the other.
(edited due to a correction I found)
require an action, andeach consumes half of your movement.is an action.can only be done if your readied action is to use your movement.You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Mounting is not an Action, page 198 PHB, (emphasis mine)
As such my example is still wrong, the correction would be:
Mount (using half your movement)
Ride 50 ft.
Dismount (using the last of your movement)Attack a target adjacent to you, Attack at range, or Cast a Spell
Use your Bonus Action
You could not, however, hold Action to dismount and Attack since you can only Ready one or the other.
I'm getting two different answers! To reclarify, I think Sigred and DMThac0 are both right on different interpretations.
Sigred says mounting and dismounting requires an action. I don't think this is correct. The rules say you can do this once per turn, and it is implied it is a free action, like opening an unlocked door would be. Unless you have an errata source!?
You can not choose to both mount and dismount in the same round. The rules DO imply this, but the use of OR can have a legitimate interpretation that you could mount, dismount, but not mount again. Which also makes sense since it specifies that it uses half your movement to do either. So I would say that the rules as written don't really specify clearly if you could mount and dismount on the same turn. Is there an errata source or is this your interpretation?
When you mount a creature, it takes its turn immediately. A mount does not get a turn from being dismounted. The rules do imply this, as if the mount initiative becomes the creatures, its turn was spent as a mount.
You can not dismount and attack as a single readied action. This is definitive. The rules say that readying allows you to ready movement or action. So you could ready either a dismount (since it counts as movement) OR an attack from mounted position.
So, I believe rules as written, you can not mount or dismount as a readied action.
As the rule specifies you can "choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it."
However, to me, this would also mean you can't choose to stand from prone, or drop prone as a reaction, even though the former doesn't actually cause movement in space and the latter is a free action.
Therefore, I think rules as intended, you would reasonably be able to do drop prone or stand from prone. Which to me also implies you can ready a mount or dismount (but not also attack).
I am more convinced however that rules as written and rules as intended, you can not both mount and dismount on the same turn.
That seems to be the correct interpretation of it.
I'd say you could either Dismount or Attack as your readied action, but you could not Mount and Dismount in the same turn.
DMThac0 you're right; I fixed my post. The end result is still the same.
It is not a free action, nor is opening a door during combat a free action. Mounting/dismounting is done through your move action. Opening a door is either a full action via the [Tooltip Not Found] action, or (depending on your DM) as your one item interaction for the round. In either event, it counts as something, and is limited in usage per round. This is in the PHB.
That is not a legitimate interpretation. The syntax does not imply both. The use of a simple "or" in this syntax is exclusionary. If it were both, it would be phrased as "and/or" instead of "or", or the passage would read as, "During your movement, mounting and dismounting can each be done once per turn."
Correct.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Opening a single door actually is a free action. Under https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/combat#OtherActivityonYourTurn
You can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack.
If you want to interact with a second object, you need to use your action. Some magic items and other special objects always require an action to use, as stated in their descriptions.
The DM might require you to use an action for any of these activities when it needs special care or when it presents an unusual obstacle. For instance, the DM could reasonably expect you to use an action to open a stuck door or turn a crank to lower a drawbridge.
Thanks everyone. Much more clear on this.
Yeah, that's an unfortunate choice of naming. Calling it your "free object interaction" can imply that interacting with objects is "free" and therefore unlimited, while, in fact, as Sigred points out, is not at all unlimited. You get one per turn; a second one would cost your Action. (The "free", I think, is meant to indicate that you get one that's "action-free": that's your "free" object interaction.)
What I posted says that in the second paragraph.
Yup, I wasn't correcting you, I was pointing out that the "free vs not free" argument comes from an unfortunate naming choice on behalf of the D&D 5e designers. I think we all agree that opening a door counts as an object interaction, meaning you can do so once without using your action, and that doing so implies you can't draw your weapon as part of your attack (for example).
Rynegade called it a "free action", Sigred said it was not a free action, and you responded saying it was a free action. I'm saying you're all correct, you're all talking about the same thing (the single object interaction you get per turn without using your action), but the game designers' choice to call it a "free" object interaction is causing communication problems.
Ah I see. Yes I agree. Quite muddled.
The designers use the term 'free,' and I believe this has been intentionally muddled because this is so up to DM decision, based on how long something would reasonably take.
For example, as a DM, using RAF, if a player said he wanted to mount a horse, move, then jump off and dismount, I would say that mounting is a type of free action (though it costs movement speed), and they could Dismount as their action, but they couldn't do both as free actions. Dismounting in this case would be highly situational, and the only thing I could think of using it for is to drop prone, or to prevent yourself from being knocked prone if the mount is close to death. The player could have simply attacked, then waited while mounted next turn, dismounted as a free action, and gotten another action.
The reason why I say this is because in the description of mounted combat "If your mount is knocked prone, you can use your reaction to dismount it as it falls and land on your feet. Otherwise, you are dismounted and fall prone in a space within 5 feet it." Also, it implies that this isn't happening on your turn, and specifies nothing about having movement remaining. If you can use your reaction to dismount in an unsafe situation on another player's turn, then you should be able to use your action to dismount in a controlled situation on your turn. I'd have a hard time arguing against this with a player without feeling like a control freak. Of course, I can't think of any way to abuse it.
I wouldn't assume I could use that ruling at another DM's table.
That's not true at all though. You're Reacting to being thrown from the mount, it's a specific thing you're reacting to.
Mounting is not a type of free action, it's a separate thing that's part of your Movement. You could move half your movement, and as a free action as part of that movement you could open a door (say you're going outside), and then use the remaining half of your Movement to mount a creature.
Also you cannot mount and dismount a creature in the same turn, even if you had enough movement or used the Dash action to double your movement. The rules specifically say you can only mount or dismount once per turn: Once during your move, you can mount a creature that is within 5 feet of you or dismount.
You can of course always homebrew things however you want as a DM (of course you mention as RAF), but this doesn't have ambiguous rules.