This is my first forum post! Yay! Please be gentle...
So Ive been playing PFS for about a year now and have been puzzled by a couple of concepts therein involving the purchase of animals.
First, I've noticed some players with some kinddda crazy animals they've bought. A combat trained tiger? Wooly Mammoth? Surely this cant be legal in PFS, can it? Can the Handle Animal skill be use in combat, as a Free Action?
Secondly, I was planning on purchasing a Figurine of Wondrous Power. But is there a point when I can buy a Cheetah for 500g and just sink my next Levels worth of skill points into raising Handle Animal? Does Paizo intend to ever maybe buff the Figurines to make them worth buying? I know that you can command them to shrink back to the figurine, so that's a plus...I guess?
Would someone care to offer me some clarity on how Handle Animal was intended to work and maybe if there just some facets to this that I am just not understanding?