D&D 5E - Equine travel, Longstrider, and other considerations

Publish date: 2024-05-07
First of all, I enjoyed reading the following thread for an overview of travel pace as defined in the PHB 182: D&D 5E - Mounted Tavel Pace

Disclaimer: all my info about horses and their abilities have been gleaned from internet searches. I have no actual experience or clue if anything I read is factual.

  • Forced Gallop- how much longer could a rider force his horse to gallop past the 1 hour limit before it would physically give out?
  • Longstrider- casting Longstrider on your mount increases base movement by 10' for an hour. How would this improve travel times?
  • Galloping in darkness - what kind of light source is needed to provide enough light for horse and rider with adequate visibility
  • Also to note, according to internet sources, the pony express averaged 8 - 10 miles per hour, with horses not galloping but a combination of canters, gallops, and trots. Most horses can only gallop at top speeds from 1 to 2 miles before tiring out completely... so where the PHB allows for 1 hour travel at a gallop would more realistically be described as trotting at an advanced pace. 30 mph top speeds would allow for 30 miles of travel in single hour if such a rate could be sustained, and this obviously isn't the case.

    With some decent luck, someone could get another 8 miles out of a 2nd hour of "galloping" travel - would have to pass con saves of 12, 14, 16, and 18 for their mount - add in some magic buffs and who knows what could happen!

    Would love to hear others ideas, opinions, clarifications, thoughts, etc. on the matter!

    Thanks for reading!

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