A sturdy mount saves you stamina on the road and changes how you fight. It
is not a pure gain: riding trades some of your own defence for reach,
protection and an extra attacker.
GETTING A MOUNT
Mounts can be bought from the stablemaster at the Grunting Boar in
Midgaard, and from stables elsewhere in the world. To ride one you need
the RIDE skill, taught by the riding instructor at the Midgaard Corral in
the Grunting Boar. Type DISMOUNT to get down again.
Once you have RIDE you will start noticing which creatures in the world can
be ridden. Higher ranks make you better at spotting them.
RANKS IN RIDE
Rank 3 You can ride a flying mount.
Rank 4 You can mount in the middle of a fight.
Rank 5 You can mount a creature that is already fighting.
WHAT A MOUNT GIVES YOU
Every class gets a bonus to AC while mounted, and fighters get a larger
one. From level 15 a mount will attack your enemies on its own, hitting
harder as it grows, and any experience it earns is awarded to you.
Your mount's stamina appears on your score if you type DISPLAY MOUNT, and
it will tell you how it is doing if you ask it -- see the usage below.
Attacking someone else's mount is treated as PKILL. Think before you swing.
WHAT A MOUNT COSTS YOU
Fighting from the saddle makes it harder to defend yourself. PARRY, DODGE,
BLOCK, RIPOSTE, SHIELD USE and DEFEND are all less effective while mounted,
and each has a minimum rank below which it will not work from horseback at
all -- see the help for each skill.
The penalty shrinks as your rank in that skill rises, so a practised rider
gives up far less than a novice does. Parrying is the exception worth
knowing: against an opponent who is also mounted you are barely penalised,
so the worst case is fighting someone on foot from horseback.
OUTFITTING
You can OUTFIT a mount with gear such as saddles and bridles, and UNOUTFIT
it to strip all of that off again.
Usage: mount horse
mount report (ask your mount how it is doing)
dismount
outfit <item>
unoutfit
See Also: DISPLAY, PKILL, "SUMMON MOUNT", TETHER, OUTFIT, "GRUNTING BOAR",
RIDE, PARRY, DODGE, BLOCK, RIPOSTE, "SHIELD USE", DEFEND