Horse riding

Horse riding is a feature of Neverwinter Nights introduced in patch 1.69. This allows both player characters (PCs) and non-player characters (NPCs) to ride horses, with varying degrees of benefits and penalties depending (among other things) on the level of support for horses in a module. In order for a PC to ride a horse, the horse menu must be used.

In some modules, particularly older modules, the only horses available for riding will be those obtained via summon mount. (This includes the modules making up the official campaigns.) These modules are likely not balanced for horses, and introducing them is not recommended.

Effects of riding
Riding a horse provides several default benefits. This benefit is only applied if specifically enabled in a module. This benefit is only applied if specifically enabled in a module. There are also default penalties resulting from horse riding. These effects can be overridden for special horses, and a module can (as usual) modify these effects.
 * Armor class: : If the horse has a higher armor class than the rider, the rider is given a natural armor bonus equal to the difference in armor class.
 * Hit points: : The rider receives half the hit points of the horse in the form of temporary hit points.
 * Speed increase: : The rider receives a 50% bonus to movement rate. Speed increases from barbarian and monk levels are negated, though.
 * Archery penalty: : The rider receive a -4 penalty to attack rolls made while mounted and wielding a ranged weapon. This penalty is reduced to -2 by the mounted archery feat. This penalty requires module-level support and may malfunction in modules that do not specifically support horses. (To avoid a malfunction in such modules, it is recommended that a ranged weapon not be wielded while mounting or dismounting a horse.)
 * Skill decrease: : The rider receives a -50 penalty to disable trap, hide, move silently, open lock, pick pocket, set trap, and tumble while riding. (The armor class bonus from tumble is not negated.)

In addition, a module can enable "damage sharing" which causes half the damage incurred while riding to be transferred to the horse upon dismounting. This is rounded down, and further reduced if needed to avoid killing the horse.

Builders
Supporting horse riding requires incorporating several standard scripts into a module.

NPCs can be configured to ride a horse in the Toolset by choosing a "mounted" appearance, a "mounted" or "jousting" phenotype, and a "horse" tail. (When mounted, what appears to be the horse is in fact the rider's tail.)

External link

 * 1.69 Builders Guide to Horses & Creature Scaling by Proleric