Rear Kick

[Sir Tiamat]

Discussion thread for Rear Kick (http://www.birthright.net/brwiki/index.php/Rear Kick). If you would like to add a comment, click the Post Reply button.

one square moved back and prone on a failed save can get silly for large quadrupeds...

[kgauck]

Would large quadrupeds fail the save?

[Sorontar]

All horses know how to do this action semi-instinctively so there should be a weaker version of this already available to all horses.

Is this feat just indicating that it can be used as a targeted attack during a combat environment, where as the weaker one can't be requested by the rider, or well targeted by the horse, or thought of as an attack by the horse? What if the rider wanted to try and knock through a barred door? (or wall for that matter) Would the horse need this feat?

Sorontar

[kgauck]

How does this sound?

Creatures medium sized or smaller would be knocked back one square and prone, larger creatures are knocked back three squares.

[kgauck]

How does this sound?

With the feat, the rear kick is a standard attack that can be performed once per round.

A rear kick by an animal without this feat is a full round action and cannot be initiated by its rider unless it is a trained trick as described by the [[Handle Animal]] skill. Normally, a horse kicks because it is frightened, in pain, or feels crowded from behind.

[Sorontar]

I am not a 3.5e player so I don't know the significance of it normally being a full round action. I'll leave that to the judgement of others.

I certainly agree with the lack of control of the rider. I am wondering whether the horse itself should get some sort of bonus for its training, e.g. if it has the feat, it knows how best to target its kick well so as to injure the opponent. Think of it being like humanoids punching. They all know how to do it, but only those who are trained know how to do it well.

Perhaps a penalty to attack with Rear Kick if they don't have the feat, just as if it is a weapon they are not familiar with (ie. don't have the required Feat). I suspect most people get kicked by horses by surprise rather than by the horse carefully aiming.

Sorontar

[Sorontar]

Another thing.... why 3 squares for a large creature? Surely the difference would just be that large creatures aren't prone. If a horse kicked a centaur or a brown bear, I wouldn't expect it to knock it very far. How about small creatures go three squares and are prone, and large creatures just go one square and are not prone. Anything larger (e.g. an elephant or old dragon) is not moved at all, regardless of whether they save or not.

Sorontar.

[kgauck]

The normal horse entry says its main attack (hoof) does 1d6, so the d28 in the feat is like the difference between a large bastard sword, and a medium short sword.

The original rule from Noble Steeds had the 3 squares, I was thinking person, and substituted 1 square and prone. With the point that a large creature might be the target I just put the original 3 squares back in. I suspect the notion is that whatever got kicked is trying to get out of reach, but that is speculation.