It's late here so allow me your patience...
A 2nd level character purchases a 6th level tiger for 500 gold and he can ride it as a mount and use it to attack (3 times) in combat?
I would appreciate directions to the appropriate references as I don't have the time to look this up right now.
Thank you all for any assistance.
A tiger stands at only 3 ft tall at the shoulder, according to the Bestiary. I suppose a gnome or halfling could ride it. Anybody else would be scraping their knees on the ground. (Yes, I know it's Large, and technically by RAW a human might be able to ride it, but...)
Tigers don't have "levels" per se. They have 6 Hit Dice, and are a CR 4 creature.
Where are you getting the price of the tiger? Is that the price of a fully trained tiger?
is this actually a Pathfinder Society question?
Those animals are way too cheap. There is a book, which has the prices and it is PFS legal AFAIK. I think it is "animal archive".
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Animal Archive (pg 14) reads: "Riding Animals: When reared from birth, the following animals can easily be ridden by Small or Medium humanoids, depending on the riding animal’s size. In addition, most of these animals can be purchased already trained for combat." It then lists the combat-trained tiger as 500gp. It's PFS-legal too.
In the Animal Archive, a combat trained riding tiger costs 500 gold pieces. You would treat it like any other mount. You'll need to make the DC 10 Ride check (look up the Ride skill) to be able to attack with your mount and still make your own attacks.
May I suggest that you become familiar with the mounted combat section of the PRD.
Tigers are much nicer in Golarion than on the planet Earth it seems.
Then again, who didn't want to have a mount like He-man.
Of course, that was a Saber-Tooth Tiger when transformed instead of the cowardly tiger (Cringer..sp?).
I don't know about nicer... 500g for something that goes:
Melee 2 claws +10 (1d8+6 plus grab), bite +9 (2d6+6 plus grab)
Thanks for the responses all; I will get back to reading about this now.
He's talking about a combat trained riding tiger. You make ride checks in this situation.
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Remember that as an animal, NOT an animal companion, you are needing to use move actions to apply the 'handle an animal' use of the skill and a full action to 'push an animal'. This does slightly cut down on the power of it, but not enough in most games, generally unless you want most combats at levels 1-3 to end with the tiger chewing on the enemies you might want to decide that tigers aren't for sale in most places as a GM. If you do decide to go with it, bear in mind that tigers need to eat around 40-70 pounds of fresh meat in a day, that's going to cause some issues most likely and certainly helps make it a bit more interesting if the tiger starts to get hungry... ;)
It's a DC 10 ride check and it's a free action to have your mount attack when you do. You might also need to make a DC 5 ride check to guide with your knees depending on your weapon. It's also a free action.
Remember that as an animal, NOT an animal companion, you are needing to use move actions to apply the 'handle an animal' use of the skill and a full action to 'push an animal'. This does slightly cut down on the power of it, but not enough in most games, generally unless you want most combats at levels 1-3 to end with the tiger chewing on the enemies you might want to decide that tigers aren't for sale in most places as a GM. If you do decide to go with it, bear in mind that tigers need to eat around 40-70 pounds of fresh meat in a day, that's going to cause some issues most likely and certainly helps make it a bit more interesting if the tiger starts to get hungry... ;)
Does paying to feed your animal apply to Pathfinder Society? I hadn't considered that...
A tiger stands at only 3 ft tall at the shoulder, according to the Bestiary. I suppose a gnome or halfling could ride it. Anybody else would be scraping their knees on the ground. (Yes, I know it's Large, and technically by RAW a human might be able to ride it, but...)
You have 3 ft long thighs? ;)
I know nobody is a perfect model for all of humanity and all creatures of a specific size category, but I am about average height (that being just about 5'5'' for women around here), and my legs are around 2 and a half feet. From what I've seen, riders don't have their legs stretched when sitting down in the saddle, raising their legs further from the ground. There is also just a little bit of leverage to be gained from the fact that the tiger isn't a paper cut-out, so the rider's legs will be standing out at a small angle to make room for the animal's body between them.
A typical human's legs will make up a little under half their height. I can find no citations for this, but a comparison of images on google points to this. This means that a 6 ft tall human can likely still sit with stretched legs on a tiger without touching the ground.
The tallest possible medium PC in the ARG is a male orc. A male orc can stand at a possible maximum of 7'1''. That is impressive! But even allotting as much of half of his height to his legs, that's still just 3'6''. It's not that hard to just bend your legs, especially if you're riding with a saddle and stirrups.
Sure, their feet won't be as far above the ground as on a horse, but I think it's fair to say that a medium character can ride a tiger.
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Shouldn't the Handle Animal DC for a 6th-level tiger be too high to use reliably? Tigers aren't ever really tamed, so failing a check could result in fighting a more powerful creature. Even if you win, you don't have it as a mount.
Giving the attack order to a combat trained tiger would be a move action but then you don't have to repeat it every round, at most you would have to point at a different target the next round. The Attack trick say: "The animal attacks apparent enemies. You may point to a particular creature that you wish the animal to attack, and it will comply if able."
With a tiger you probably don't really need to give it an attack order for it to attack, most of the time it will be its natural response to a threatening situation (that or fleeing). You need the Attack trick (and the down trick, you really need it) so it attack only when you order it and not every time if feel threatened.If you have some friend that love big explosions a combat pet that react with a fight or flee reaction every time it feel threatened will be the last thing you want.