Archers & Turning Mounted Animals

[Fenn Grunberg]

Hi everyone,
can an Archer Turn mounted animals  ? If so, can the latters' riders try to handle them to calm them and re-gain their control? If so, how? What DC should they reach or beat? Perhaps the Turning DC (10 + 1/2 the turning character's Resolve Bonus)? Or just a variable DC based on the Handling Animals Maneuver? 
Many Thanks,
Galannor

[Krensky]

Yes, why wouln't they?

No. They have to wait it out or dismount.

[Sletchman]

To expand on Krensky's post, from a roleplaying perspective: Your horse is balks, terrified of the person turning them, and rears around the flees in the other direction.  You can choose to jump off, or basically go along for the ride - they are far beyond listening to the riders commands at this point, but will evenually calm down (after duration runs out).

Just in case the raw mechanics give you a "bwah?" moment, like they did a guy I gamed with.

[Fenn Grunberg]

Mmmm...thanks a lot, yet I'm not completely sold on this...

I'm trying to imagine the (dramatic) scene: a heavily armored knight on his trained heavy war horse is galloping and charging an archer, as, suddenly, without even drawing his trusted bow, the archer stares at the horse and shouts: "BUUUUUU!!!", and what? The trained heavy war horse immediately flees from the archer, taking the knight with him, maybe even risking of dismounting him...

Then I start imaging a charge of lots of riding knights, who immediately begin to learn the painful truth: they don't have to be afraid only of the archers' arrows to pierce their suits of armor, but also and foremost of the archers' yells to scare and frighten their warhorses...

Yes, of course i'm joking and kidding, yes, 30 ft. is not that long as a distance, yes, Turning lasts only for 1d4 + Charisma bonus rounds, yes as a GM (...probably...) I wouldn't allow the previously described scenes to happen...
Still... are they possible from a purely mechanical point of view? What am I missing?
Many many thanks,
Fenn

[Sletchman]

Mechanically, you're partially correct.  It takes a full round action - you can't interrupt your opponents charge with one, and you can only ready partial actions (so you also can't ready an interrupt).  So unless those knights charge into within 30ft and stop (instead of a rideby attack, which would make far more sense) then that action just ain't getting used (short of weird/specialised combos).

That said, I'd also like to note that it's a fairly cinematic ability (or semi-mystical in some settings even) - it's the guy that stares down a starving bear until it turns and leaves instead of eating him, it's the guy that with a gaze can make a full grown african lion flee, make packs of wolves think he's too much effort.  With that in mind, it might not fit into really serious campaigns - but in a world where people can throw fire, get (literally) empowered by their faith, and turn invisible through preternatural stealth skill, is it really that out there that someone has so much alpha in them that they can turn away animals who recognise that their prey is simply far more dangerous then they are?

Plus, I've seen fully trained horses balk at full tilt and fully refuse to continue - totally ignoring the rider yanking on their reins and trying to correct the course.  2000 lbs of muscle means they will do what they feel inclined to do in that suitation - training and rider be damned.

[Mister Andersen]

That scene in Crocodile Dundee with the water buffalo? That's also a valid turn action in my books.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

I've also imagined it as things like scaring the animal off by firing an arrow/bullet near them or smacking them hard with a stick.  In the case of animals it doesn't necessarily need to be a mystical ability, just knowledge of what will spook them.