Looking for an Amphibious Mount

[Thaanos]

So I'm making up a character that will always have rowboat that's mounted on a wagon, and I'm looking for an amphibious creature that I could purchase to pull it. Does anyone have any recommendations? And preferably which book it is in too so I can keep it PFS Legal.

[Blymurkla]

So it's supposed to be a simple purchasable animal rather than an animal companion? Okay.

Since it's supposed to pull a rowboat, does it really need to be amphibious (as in able to breath both air and water)? Isn't it sufficient with a Swim speed?

Unfortunately, I can't find any sufficiently large animal with a swim speed ...

[Thaanos]

It needs to be able to pull a wagon on land. I just want it amphibious because there's no room for it in the boat.

[lemeres]

well now we have a question- if a creature has a swim speed, does it necessarily have anything to fear if it just stays in the water without being explicitly amphibious.

And if they do...then why do dolphins survive? Sure, they have hold breath, but that only makes the drowning take 6 times longer....

Anyway.... how about a dinosaur? Spinosaurous is both an animal companion, and a listed creature for purchase as a pet/mount... wait, no.... for PFS, you can only buy something with a CR up to your level, and those are CR 11 (so basically useless).

Ok, quick look at other options:
Giant toad: cr 2, large, move 30, swim 15, no other abilities of note
Crocodile: cr 2, large, move 20, swim 30, hold breath

Both of these cost under 200 gp. I am not going to search further than that into the matter though.

[Davia D]

I imagine a toad would make a poor mount due to gate.

A Hippo might be nice, if it's not too strong (CR 5).

Giant Tortoise! They float. It would make slow cart pulling but, y'know, a great image ^^ You might need two depending on the size of your cart, though they do have the bonus of never being slowed by weight as well.

[avr]

With a decent base speed, the swim skill and the Endurance feat, it may not actually need a swim speed.

A heavy horse has +5 swim just from strength, 50' base speed and Endurance.

A hippopotamus (Bestiary 2, CR 5) has +11 swim, 40' base speed, Endurance and the hold breath ability if it needs to dive.

Alternately a Hippogriff (Bestiary 2, CR 2) can just fly when you need to cross water.

[Pizza Lord]

Giant constrictor snakes would make a pretty impressive image pulling your wagon or chariot and they have both a swim and a climb speed, so dragging your wagon up steep slopes is a real possibility (sheer cliffs is still probably not an option unless the snake was very strong and your wagon was very light.) However, their typical speed is only 20 for all cases, so it would be slow going without constant use of longstrider or a special collar of speed or something, since they don't wear magic horseshoes.

[UnArcaneElection]

Be pretty hard to make a practical harness for a snake . . . .

[Pizza Lord]

Staples.

Or a more humane method I suppose would be a good bit and bridle and a multiple belted harness, like one of those ratcheting tree-stands or a logger's leather climbing belt, one that naturally inches along from the wave-like actions of the snake's muscle movement. I am sure it could be designed, we just don't have one in the real world because, thankfully, our snakes aren't big enough (or if they are, they aren't common enough) to have been considered as draft animals in most civilizations.

[lemeres]

UnArcaneElection wrote:

Be pretty hard to make a practical harness for a snake . . . .

Hell, I would be worried about the logistics of the cart.

Snakes are more known for being long.... likely long enough that their dragging tail gets caught in the wheels.

You might be able to get away with WAY longer harnesses... but then that raises the difficulty again for just making as snake harness....

[Pizza Lord]

Presumably it would have to be trained for Work like any other draft animal. The assumption would be that the training would engender in the creature not only the training to understand what tugs on the reins do, but also that there's a cart behind them (though a custom harness is still going to be required) and also how to wear the harness without freaking out.

[lemeres]

Pizza Lord wrote:

Presumably it would have to be trained for Work like any other draft animal. The assumption would be that the training would engender in the creature not only the training to understand what tugs on the reins do, but also that there's a cart behind them (though a custom harness is still going to be required) and also how to wear the harness without freaking out.

i could buy that for a lizard... but the problem with snakes is that their primary form of movement is based on that long dragging tail.

it just seems hard to justify it without a harness that gives lots of room... which could seriously affect turning radius. it would be fine for water (since water tends to be wide open), but for unpaved forsty roads used by adventurers?

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

lemeres wrote:

Pizza Lord wrote:

Presumably it would have to be trained for Work like any other draft animal. The assumption would be that the training would engender in the creature not only the training to understand what tugs on the reins do, but also that there's a cart behind them (though a custom harness is still going to be required) and also how to wear the harness without freaking out.

i could buy that for a lizard... but the problem with snakes is that their primary form of movement is based on that long dragging tail.

it just seems hard to justify it without a harness that gives lots of room... which could seriously affect turning radius. it would be fine for water (since water tends to be wide open), but for unpaved forsty roads used by adventurers?

Don't put the wagon behind the snake, put it on the snake, in sections, on that custom ratcheting harness thingy.