Riding Horse 5e: Stats, Mount Rules and Travel

A riding horse is a CR 1/4 Large beast with a 60-foot speed, 13 hit points and AC 10 (11 in 2024). It costs 75 gp, carries 480 pounds and is the stat block the Phantom Steed spell borrows. It isn't a combat animal. Its hooves hit for 8 (2d4 + 3) in 2014 or 7 (1d8 + 3) in 2024, but a horse ridden as a controlled mount can't attack at all, and its low AC and hit points make it the easiest target on the battlefield.

Table of Contents

• •Riding Horse Stat Block (2014)
• •The Riding Horse in the 2024 Rules
• •Riding Horse Mount Rules
• •Travel, Carrying Capacity and Cost
• •How Riding Horses Fight
• •Running Riding Horses in Encounters
• •How Players Beat Mounted Enemies
• •Riding Horse Encounter Ideas
• •Frequently Asked Questions

Riding Horse Stat Block (2014)

The only number that matters most of the time is the 60-foot speed, double a typical character's. Strength 16 is why it carries so much. Everything else says "don't take this into a fight": AC 10, 13 hit points, no traits.

The Riding Horse in the 2024 Rules

Small changes. The 2024 horse is a little harder to hit and a little less damaging, with a swingier damage die. Nothing about how you use it changes.

Riding Horse Mount Rules

The mounted combat rules apply to any creature at least one size larger than its rider with a suitable body, so a Large horse can carry a Medium or Small rider. The warhorse guide covers falling off, opportunity attacks and saddles in detail. What matters for a riding horse:

It's trained. You can only control a mount trained to accept a rider. Both editions name domesticated horses as trained, so a bought riding horse qualifies.

Mounting costs half your speed. A character with a 30-foot speed spends 15 feet of movement to get on or off.

A controlled horse runs, it doesn't fight. Its initiative changes to match yours, it moves as you direct, and its only actions are Dash, Disengage and Dodge. With Dash, a riding horse covers 120 feet in a turn while you still take your own action. That's the real combat value: a rider who arrives, attacks and leaves.

An independent horse acts on its own. It keeps its own initiative and does what it wants. You can't control a horse that isn't trained to accept a rider, so an untrained horse you manage to ride acts as an independent mount; whether a frightened trained horse bolts is the DM's call.

Phantom Steed uses this stat block. The 3rd-level Phantom Steed spell creates a Large horselike creature that uses the riding horse's statistics with a 100-foot speed. In 2014 it travels 10 miles in an hour, or 13 at a fast pace; in 2024 it travels 13 miles an hour. Any damage ends the spell, so it's a travel spell, not a war mount.

Find Steed doesn't. The 2014 Find Steed offers a warhorse, pony, camel, elk or mastiff, not a riding horse. The 2024 spell uses its own Otherworldly Steed stat block.

Wild Shape. A druid can become a riding horse at 2nd level in both editions (CR 1/4, no fly or swim speed), and the 2024 rules list it as a recommended form. A druid-horse can carry a party member, but the druid keeps control of their own turn. The 2014 rules say intelligent creatures act as independent mounts, and running a player character as anyone else's controlled mount is a poor fit in either edition.

Travel, Carrying Capacity and Cost

Cost. 75 gp in both editions, with a 60-foot speed and a 480-pound carrying capacity. A warhorse costs 400 gp and carries 540 pounds.

Carrying capacity. The 480 pounds comes straight from the rules. In 2014 carrying capacity is Strength × 15, doubled for each size above Medium: 16 × 15 × 2 = 480. In 2024 a Large creature carries Strength × 30: also 480. A rider in plate (65 pounds of armor) plus a 200-pound character plus a pack fits easily. Pulling a cart or wagon, an animal moves up to five times its base capacity including the vehicle, so 2,400 pounds for one riding horse.

Overland speed. Mounts don't raise the normal travel pace. They let you sprint:

• •2014: a rider can gallop for about an hour, covering twice the usual distance for a fast pace (8 miles instead of 4). With fresh mounts every 8 to 10 miles, a group can keep that up, though the rules note that's rare outside populated areas.
• •2024: a mounted group can move twice the normal distance for 1 hour, after which the mounts need a Short or Long Rest before they can do it again.

So a horse matters for an escape, a race to the next town or a messenger run. Outside that one-hour sprint, a mounted party uses the same travel pace table as a party on foot.

How Riding Horses Fight

A riding horse fights only when it's independent: wild, panicked, or defending itself with no rider giving orders.

Damage per round: +5 against AC 13 hits on an 8 or higher, 65% of the time. That's about 5.2 damage a round in 2014 (8 average per hit) and about 4.9 in 2024 (7.5 per hit). Enough to hurt a commoner, not a party.

Run first. A riding horse is a prey animal with a 60-foot speed. Played honestly, a spooked horse runs, and Dash takes it 120 feet away in one turn. A horse only stands and kicks when it's cornered or protecting a foal.

Horses as a stampede. A herd running through a camp is better handled as a hazard than as twenty attack rolls. Have each character in the path make a Dexterity save or take one hooves hit; set the DC to suit the scene, since the stat block doesn't give one.

Running Riding Horses in Encounters

A riding horse is worth 50 XP, but whether you count that depends on what it does.

Mounts that don't fight shouldn't count. Four bandits on four riding horses is 100 XP of bandits plus 200 XP of horses. Under the 2024 SRD 5.2.1 budget, 300 XP is a Moderate fight for four level 1 characters. If the horses are controlled mounts that only Dash and Dodge, the real threat is the 100 XP of bandits. Count the horses only if they'll attack.

The 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide guidelines that our encounter difficulty calculator uses make the gap bigger. Eight creatures at 300 XP, times 2.5 for a group of 7 to 10, is 750 XP, Deadly for four level 1 characters (nearly twice the 400 threshold). Four bandits alone are 100 × 2 = 200, a Medium fight. The second number is closer to what happens at the table.

Where horses add difficulty. Mounted enemies can attack and leave at 60 feet (120 with Dash), which shuts down melee characters. That's a tactics problem more than an XP problem: give the party ranged options or terrain that stops horses.

How Players Beat Mounted Enemies

• •Shoot the horse. AC 10 and 13 hit points. A +5 attack hits it 80% of the time (75% against the 2024 horse's AC 11), and two hits from most weapons drop it. A rider whose horse goes down loses all that speed.
• •Area spells end the mount. Fireball deals 28 on average and 14 on a successful save, so a riding horse dies even when it saves. Shatter deals 3d8 (average 13.5), enough to kill one on a failed save about 60% of the time (3d8 rolls 13 or more 59% of the time).
• •Spook it. A horse that isn't trained for battle is still controllable as a mount, but a DM can reasonably rule that fire or a loud explosion makes it bolt and become independent. That's a ruling, not a rule; agree on it before the session if it will come up.
• •Use terrain. Horses need open ground to use 60 feet of speed. Woods, hills, a narrow pass, or a fight indoors take away the rider's advantage.
• •Ready an attack. A rider who charges in, attacks and rides off passes through the same space twice. Ready an action for when they come back into reach.

Riding Horse Encounter Ideas

The relay station. The party has to deliver a cure to a town 60 miles away before nightfall. On their own they can't do it. Under the 2014 rules, they can gallop between relay stations that keep fresh horses every 8 to 10 miles. The second station has been raided, its horses scattered, and the station keeper wants help rounding them up before he'll give them his last two.

The horse thieves. Three bandits have been stealing riding horses from a ranch and moving them at night. Tracking them is easy; catching them isn't, because each bandit has a 60-foot mount and the party is on foot. The players have to find where the herd is held and get there first, or make the thieves come to them.

The phantom rider. Every night for a week, a rider on a pale horse has crossed the same bridge at a full gallop and vanished. It's a wizard using Phantom Steed to carry messages to a smuggling camp. Any damage ends the spell, so a single arrow drops a very surprised wizard in the middle of the bridge.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CR is a riding horse in 5e?

A riding horse is CR 1/4 (50 XP) in both editions. It has 13 hit points and AC 10 in 2014 or 11 in 2024.

How much does a riding horse cost in 5e?

75 gp in both the 2014 and 2024 rules. A warhorse costs 400 gp and a draft horse 50 gp.

How much can a riding horse carry?

480 pounds. It can pull up to five times that, 2,400 pounds, including the weight of a cart or wagon.

How fast is a riding horse in 5e?

Its speed is 60 feet in combat. For overland travel, mounts can move at twice the normal distance for about an hour (2014) or 1 hour followed by a rest (2024).

Can a riding horse attack while you ride it?

Not as a controlled mount. A controlled mount can only take the Dash, Disengage and Dodge actions. An independent mount can attack, but it acts on its own initiative and the DM decides what it does.

What's the difference between a riding horse and a warhorse?

A warhorse is CR 1/2 with 19 hit points, costs 400 gp and carries 540 pounds. The riding horse is CR 1/4 with 13 hit points, costs 75 gp and carries 480 pounds. Both have a 60-foot speed.

Stat blocks: System Reference Document 5.1 (2014) and 5.2.1 (2024), Wizards of the Coast, CC-BY-4.0. Tactics, encounter math and ideas are Loreify's own.