Hold Your Horses – Chariot Rules

Hold your horses, ladies and gentlemen, because the PHB doesn’t have any rules for chariots. In order to correct this grievous omission, the Digits of Vecna have come together, taken the reins and whipped up a proper set of charioteering rules. Hang on to your hats!

Ride Like an Egyptian

Although mounted combat is generally the easiest and most effective way to provide mobile support or devastating charges on the battlefield, there are some times when chariot-based forces are a better option. If you lack high-quality warhorses, for example, or if you don’t have the skills for horseback archery.
     Chariots provide fast-moving fighting platforms that are suitable for a variety of purposes, including shock assault and heavy, ranged support. Most chariots bear two- or three-man crews, who will usually carry polearms or bows, though monstrous humanoids have been known to build giant chariots crewed by a single, massive warrior.

Rules for Charioteering

In D&D, chariots are best represented using the rules for ships: that is to say, the chariot itself has hit points and a damage threshold, as well a fixed speed and crew capacity.
     A table of chariots, organized by size, can be found on the Chariot Types table below; assume that all crew must be Small or Medium unless otherwise specified. A chariot’s horses use the riding horse stat block and can be targeted individually. These chariot types are only typical examples for their size; well-crafted chariots are likely to cost more and have more hit points than similar chariots used in a gladiatorial arena. It is standard practice to bard chariot horses; the cost of this is not included in the table.
     The space that a chariot occupies is somewhat complex: it is made up of two conjoined areas, one for the horses and one for the car. The areas taken up by the two parts are given in feet in the chariot table (length x width); the car is always behind the horses in a central position as per the illustration below.

Chariot Types

Chariot Movement
A chariot you are driving moves on your turn; a moving chariot with no driver moves straight ahead at half speed. You must use both of your hands to control the chariot; you cannot let go of the reins on a turn in which the chariot moves. If a chariot would crash into a solid obstacle, the vehicle takes 8d6 bludgeoning damage and each passenger, including the driver, takes 4d6 bludgeoning damage (DC 15 Dexterity save for half). You can use your action on you turn to make the chariot Dash but, if you do so, the chariot must move in a straight line for its entire movement. A chariot with one dead horse cannot dash and is limited to half of its normal speed. A chariot with more than one dead horse cannot move at all.
     Unlike creatures, chariots must face a particular direction when they begin or end moving. If you turn more than 90 degrees from your starting direction when you move, you must make a DC 15 Strength (Vehicles (Land)) check. On a failure, the chariot overturns and all its occupants are ejected into a random square within 10 feet of the chariot, falling prone and taking 2d6 bludgeoning damage (DC 15 Dexterity save for half).
     An overturned chariot can be righted as an action with a successful DC 15 Strength check.

Boarding
Boarding or disembarking a chariot requires 15 feet of movement. Boarding a moving chariot requires a Strength (Athletics) check (DC equals 13 + 1 for every 5 feet the chariot moved in its last turn).

Trampling and Attacks
You can use your action while a chariot you are driving is moving to attempt to trample a Medium or smaller creature on the ground. To do so, you must move through the target’s space, and each of the chariot’s horses makes a melee attack against the target. These attacks have an attack bonus of +5 and deal 2d4 + 3 bludgeoning damage on a hit each. The target must make a DC 16 Strength saving throw, or be knocked prone. If the creature succeeds this saving throw by 10 or more, your movement stops and you are treated as if you collided with a solid obstacle.
     Melee attacks made from a moving chariot have advantage against targets on the ground. Passengers fighting from within a chariot are considered to occupy the entire space of the car; their reach begins at the edges of it.
     Ranged attacks made from a moving chariot that do not use thrown weapons have half their normal range, and have no changes to their long range.

Chariots with Other Mounts
A chariot need not be pulled by horses. Any large creature with a Strength of 16 or higher and a land speed of 50 feet or higher can pull a chariot. The type of creature does not affect the chariot’s statistics, even if the beasts are slower than horses (horses cannot deploy their full sprint speed while tied to a chariot), if they have a stronger attack (the chariot harness prevents them from using it) or if they are more intelligent than horses (chained together and under the driver’s whip, the creature can’t utilize sophisticated plans or strategies).

New Feats

These feats are available to characters of all classes.

Drive-By Sniper
Years of practice have sharpened your balance and co-ordination, enabling you to hit targets reliably even when firing from a moving platform. You gain the following benefits:

• Your Dexterity score increases by 1.
• Ranged weapon attacks you make from a moving chariot do not have half their normal range.
• Whenever you take the Dash action, you gain a +2 bonus to ranged weapon attacks you make until the end of your next turn. 
• You can quickly switch out weapons, useful for striking on the run. When you take the Attack action on your turn, you can draw a ranged or thrown weapon, make one or more ranged weapon attacks using it, then stow that weapon and draw a melee weapon.

• While in a moving chariot, you have half-cover.
• Ranged spell attacks you make from a moving chariot do not have half their normal range.
• When you are casting a spell that does not require a saving throw, you can consider a chariot to be a creature. For example, you can target the chariot with the spells fly or haste.
• When riding a chariot that you are not driving, you can use your reaction to cast a spell with a range of Touch on any valid target that the chariot passes within 5 feet of during its movement.

Changelog: 6/7/17: Chariot Movement: Crashing saving throws are now Dexterity
Boarding: DC is changed to equal 13 + movement speed/5
Trampling and Attacks: Ranged attacks no longer have disadvantage — it’s half normal range instead. Does not apply to thrown weapons
Feats: Drive-by-Sniper: Ranged weapons at full range
Feats: Wheels of Fire: Added