I am playing a monk and would like a pet tiger.
On the story side of things my character is studying the tiger because of its perfect grace and to learn its secret techniques and improve my fighting style.
On the rules side of things I have no idea how I could accomplish this. Can I buy a trained tiger? I would like a hunting tiger. I am not dipping into other classes and don't have the skill points for handle animal, which is not a class skill.
Does anybody know of any options?
well if you have a druid in your party, they could train your tiger while you "bond" with it or you could just ask the DM when you reach a town
I am playing a monk and would like a pet tiger.
On the story side of things my character is studying the tiger because of its perfect grace and to learn its secret techniques and improve my fighting style.
On the rules side of things I have no idea how I could accomplish this. Can I buy a trained tiger? I would like a hunting tiger. I am not dipping into other classes and don't have the skill points for handle animal, which is not a class skill.
Does anybody know of any options?
There is a feat on the WotC website that allows for animal companions. I think you would have an effective druid level of 3 less than your character level. There is also a feat to boost your druid level for the sake of animal companions by 3.
I cant remember the name of either feat currently.
Wild Cohort & Natural Bond (Complete Adventurer pg.111)
I am playing a monk and would like a pet tiger.
On the story side of things my character is studying the tiger because of its perfect grace and to learn its secret techniques and improve my fighting style.
On the rules side of things I have no idea how I could accomplish this. Can I buy a trained tiger? I would like a hunting tiger. I am not dipping into other classes and don't have the skill points for handle animal, which is not a class skill.
Does anybody know of any options?
Could you buy a pet tiger? Sure if your DM is willing to let you have one. Are there rules for something like that, no, not really in Pathfinder. I can only imagine the price being rather high. The tiger would be more an exotic pet and as a "pet" wouldn't be useful in combat ("Yeah, I have a pet tiger at home, last time I tried to bring it with me it almost mauled half the party and the time before that it got loose and we had to spend half the adventure tracking it down" - basically the same reason you don't have normal people with pet tigers in real life). Unfortunately you can't use the warhorse or guard dog as a starting point because the tiger is so much more of a combat animal (more HD, more attacks, bigger strength score, etc.) and it isn't a fair or balanced comparrison to come up with a price.
If that is what you are going for (non combat pet at home) figure out a price with your DM and then figure out how much it would cost to feed the animal and how much it would cost to hire an NPC to take care of the day to day needs of the tiger. If you want something more "useful" you are kind out of luck in terms of rules. You would be getting into a house rule which you'd want to discuss with the DM.
Personally, if it we me, I'd suck it up and take the level of druid or ranger. Trying to understand the animal more (philosphy) seems more druid-y and you would have some rules to back up what you are doing with the character. Taking a level of an odd class doesn't have to be "My monk is becoming a druid now!" it can just be flavoring and is something I've done quite a bit of in 3.x. Now with the no XP penalty in PFRPG it is even easier to fit in. Taking the level would be less of a headache for your DM too which is something to consider.
I would think you could get an awakened tiger with the leadership feat, though you'd have to houserule the ECL. If you can get a pegasus or unicorn or blink dog, a tiger doesn't seem so crazy.
3000gp... straight up. You want trained, pet tiger, lovely tiger? Then hand over 3000gp... I get it to you by nightfall... her name Sing Sing, she sit pretty, roll over, and kill orc.
You want white tiger? oh, that's 4000gp, and only partial guarantee on the training....
White tiger with no blemishes? 5000gp and up. 7000gp and I'll get you one exactly like the one the prince has.
(No, I'm not basing this value on anything.... but it sounds about right to me)
Or... okay, here's a possible ad hoc rule....
pets...
beyond the normal animals available in the game, which already have a set value, the general rule of thumb for pets is this....
Common Animal Pet: The basic cost for a common animal pet is 2sp per 1lb of body weight. Common pets include cats, toads, local lizards, everyday birds, rats, rabbits, garden varieties of snakes, etc. These animals are considered domestic enough to be tame but otherwise untrained. Handle animal costs should be figured in seperately in addition to basic cost.
Uncommon Animal Pet: The basic cost for an uncommon animal pet is 1gp per 1lb of body weight. Uncommon pets include animals that are fairly common to the native region but not typically found in the most common of pet offerings. For example, such temperate forest locale creatures would include raccoons, squirrels, woodchucks, young deer, skunks, etc. Tropical locale creatures could include small monkeys, parrots/parakeets, common sand sharks, etc. These animals are considered domestic enough to be tame but otherwise untrained. Handle animal costs should be figured in seperately in addition to basic cost.
Rare Animal Pet: The basic cost for an uncommon animal pet is 10gp per 1lb of body weight. Rare animal pets are either imported from another area live or are particularly hard to train even by handlers of their own local region. Tigers, bobcats, jackals, cobras, wolverines, etc. are just a few of such possible creatures. These animals are considered domestic enough to be tame but otherwise untrained. Handle animal costs should be figured in seperately in addition to basic cost.
Hope this maybe helps....
Thanks everyone. There were some very helpful posts.
The druid level is very tempting, but my GM said that we are probably going to play to 20th level with these characters (provided they live) which is pretty rare for us. I have decided that my monk is going to search for perfection and upon reaching 20th hopefully I'll find it and gain the perfect self class ability.
It looks like the wild cohort feat, which I had never heard of, will fit the bill for what I want it for. I can start with studying something like a crane and eventually get to the tiger. I'm not nearly as interested in the fighting abilities of the pet as I am the role playing aspects.
Thanks again for all the great ideas. I'll show my GM this thread as a starting point and I'll likely just take the wild cohort feat.
Is leadership allowed in your game?
I have a player who plays a bard and wanted a buffalo steed so she could focus on mounted combat. Now, personally, I think the standard leadership system is WAY too strong, and she had the charisma to take it anyway, so, instead of a cohort, I gave her a paladin mount at her level-3 (I'm going to give it human int and the celestial template, but none of that teleporting mount nonsense). And, really, it hasn't exactly taken away from the other players or the game thus far (really, I feel it adds a lot).
Honestly, I would ask your DM for a similar ruling. I've never played a single game that didn't involve some kind of houseruling to let players accomplish what they want. There's nothing sacred about RAW from paizo or WOTC. If he doesn't think it's fair, I would simply remind him that you're already playing a relatively underpowered class, and that you've got good RP reasoning for doing so (also, that you could take more powerful cohorts if you opted for normal leadership). I would also remind him that you don't have spells, favored enemy to share, or the paladin special abilities. Good luck, heh.
Handle Animal happens to 100% be the exact skill for doing this.
Monks get 4 ranks/level, 5 w/ Favored Class (since you're apparently single classed), 6 if you're Human, that's before INT. Class Skill or not is just a +3 bonus, all you have to beat is 15+HD (which if a "baby" should be less). I have to say if you're not willing to invest a not-excessive number of ranks to do this, I don't think you deserve the tiger pet (you can buy one, but it won't know the tricks you want, and probably won't particularly like you).
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The Leadership feat idea isn't a bad one at all. You might also want to talk to your GM about swapping out a Monk class feature to get a later-level animal companion (like the Ranger has). The most balanced option seems like it would be dropping Flurry of Blows, and then get an animal companion beginning at level 3, with an effective Druid level of Monk-2 (the tiger provides you with an additional attack each round, with almost as good an attack bonus and damage as a flurried blow, and the tiger can attack opponents removed from the monk, and gets it's own pool of skills and feats).
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I'd go with the Wild Cohort Feat, and have the Monk either use the feat as described (not able to get a tiger until 7th level) or use the monster advancement rules in reverse to give him a medium adolescent tiger from 4th to 6th level and a small tiger cub from 1st - 3rd.
Once he's hit 7th level, the tiger will be 'normal tiger sized' and at full maturity, and additional levels thereafter will allow gaining increased HD and natural armor and whatever normally. (So he'd get the 1st to 2nd level benefits at 7th - 8th level, and the 3rd - 4th benefits at 9th - 10th level, etc.)
The Wild Cohort feat doesn't preclude him needing the Handle Animal skill, as well, so he'll end up paying both a Feat and a skill for this (and perhaps an extra Feat, if he wants to take Natural Bond to increase his effective level by +3 for progressing the tiger up the chart). As he's 'buying' the tiger with the Feat, he won't have to blow any cash on it, at least (although it's feeding requirements might come with their own sticker shock, as even a sedentary great cat can eat two or three whole chickens a day, or a goat every two or three days).
The alternate class feature route could also be an option, but I'd be at a loss as to what features to drop to substitute for an Animal Companion.
I am playing a monk and would like a pet tiger.
Then buy one!
Or talk your GM into allowing it as a cohort for Leadership. You'll have to work out the LA and all that, but it could work.
Or maybe use the Animal Companion rules (albeit at a huge hit. Say, Druid Level -6 or so) to accomplish a tiger companion.
I am not dipping into other classes and don't have the skill points for handle animal, which is not a class skill.
Cross-class skills cost the same as class skills.
If you don't have handle animal, don't be surprised if that kitty Siegfried&Roys you. It's still a wild beast, you never really, completely tame them.
Especially not if you want a hunting tiger, not a oversized housecat that rubs against your legs three times a day until you open a can of cat food for it.
I am playing a monk and would like a pet tiger.
On the story side of things my character is studying the tiger because of its perfect grace and to learn its secret techniques and improve my fighting style.
On the rules side of things I have no idea how I could accomplish this. Can I buy a trained tiger? I would like a hunting tiger. I am not dipping into other classes and don't have the skill points for handle animal, which is not a class skill.
Does anybody know of any options?
Even if you buy a trained tiger, you will still need Handle animal skill to keep it in line.
I would suggest you tell your GM that you would like to aquire a figurine of wondrous power, which can turn into a tiger. It is not an unreasonable request... depending on your level.
EDIT: The Golden Lions should be close enough. Just change their physical description. Also minor tweaking should get you closer to an actual tiger with very little effort
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If you want to stick to PRPG core rules, it looks like Leadership might fit the bill. I found the following in the free Bonus Bestiary for the dragonne:
"Dragonnes as Mounts
A character with the Leadership feat can take a dragonne
as a mount using the animal companion rules. Such
characters must have an effective druid level of 10th.
A character with a dragonne mount counts as 4 levels
lower when determining the abilities and statistics of the
dragonne (meaning that the character’s effective druid
level is 6th for determining abilities when the dragonne
is first acquired). Taking a dragonne in this way counts as
the character’s cohort."
A fully advanced tiger animal companion is available at Druid 7. With those two bits of information, I think it's possible to work out a way to get a tiger as a cohort. You may also want to condsider a Celestial Tiger, so that it's intelligent, or do what several posters have suggested and sink mad ranks into handle animal (or kitty might get a little naughty if left to its own devices).
The Savage Tide Player's Guide actually has a section on acquiring Exotic Pets, including tigers. Basic cost for procuring exotic pets and basic training costs are discussed. Long term care will still require DM attention and some of the ideas presented above will likely come into play.