Pack animals

[Akritas]

Well, I leveled up a character for the first time not that long ago and with a sizable pile of gold I'm looking over all the shiny new toys I can get. Unfortunately, I'm discovering I can't carry them. I only have a strength of 10 (archer bard) and when you count the 20 pound armor, bow and some arrows I have about 5 pounds of non-weapon equipment I can carry without going into medium encumbrance. Since I have a Dex of 19 I'd loose rather a lot doing so.

Now, eventually that Handy Haversack will deal with it, but I won't have the gold or PP (PFS) for one of those for quite a while. Muleback cords are another magic possibility and I have been making sure I save enough gold to have the 1,000 the instant I hit 9 PP. That still leaves a few adventures though.

The solution I hit upon was the 8 gp donkey. While it isn't always easy to get to, it is affordable and can easily haul around camping gear and things I won't need in combat, like food. In my 3 games at least, I don't need such things indoors or underground much. However, playing through the first scenario where he really matters, PFS Intro 3, I realized that just dropping the rope and letting him wander in the middle of battle could cause problems. Namely, he could run away in the middle of the fight with all my stuff.

Here it wasn't a problem due to an NPC, but it got me thinking and I have spent a while trying to find a solution. I'm still undecided so I figured I would ask the veterans here what they do.

My solutions:

Have a piton/spike and rope to tie him. Unfortunately that means giving up a combat turn so I don't like it.

Hope he doesn't run away and track him down if he does. I could add bells and maybe some sort of hook to slow him down. Still, with a Survival of -2 (Bard) that's risky and could slow the party down in bad ways.

Tie him to me. Unfortunately, he is stronger, so if he runs, guess who is in trouble. Maybe a pack dog...

I looked through the spell list but nothing seems very useful, and I doubt I would use a spell slot for this if there were something.

Ride him. I'd have to upgrade the donkey to a combat horse, but that's not too unaffordable. I'm a little concerned about how this would level up though. At lvl 2 15 HP is respectable but pretty soon it won't be. Mounted combat sounds like fun but I have a Human in PFS so I hate to use feats on something I probably can't use half the time.

Anyway, I ask your collective wisdom here. I'm not sure how practical a pack animal is unless you have a designated holder, which is probably not worth it. I'm also not sure how well mounts hold up since I have yet to play a game about the 1st level. I'm also getting annoyed at not being able to have a buckler or cold iron arrows because I can't afford 8 pounds more encumbrance, so any help is appreciated.

[Akritas]

I was looking through the list of animals again in d20pfrd, and is this pseudodragon absurdly good or am I missing something? He might actually be able to just track the donkey for me since he gets +6 survival. He has telepathy so we can communicate, even if I have to learn Draconic. I have 9 new skill points, I can get one into linguistics. He has a lot of utility stuff into the bargain like darkvision, blindsense, +6 perception and +19 stealth. At this level 15 HP and 16 AC isn't very easy to kill either. Granted in combat it won't be much use, but for 200 gold it sounds like a steal. Not only will it help with the donkey, it gives quite an assortment of other options, particularly for stealth stuff. +19 stealth isn't even possible for a PC in PFS play. Am I missing something or should I make sure to get this guy on the team next time I am in Absalom? In PFS that won't be long.

EDIT: Apologies for the double post if that's not how you guys do things, I am not sure if you edit the OP or double post in these cases.

[Callarek]

A cheaper, interim solution, one I used for my Fighter Archer build, was the Masterwork Backpack from Adventurer's Armory. 50 gp, and you get to treat your Str as 1 higher when using it. Not a lot, but affordable as an interim solution.

On the mule. If you have Handle Animal, teach it the Stay command, and that should keep it from running, for the most part. Heel would be amusing, as well.

On the Pseudodragon: "a pseudodragon is not legal for purchase unless you're a wizard with the Improved Familiar feat". That comes from the Additional Resources page, on the site here: [url=http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/resources[Additonal Resources[/url]

Overal, for the encumbrance issue, I would keep close watch on gear, and upgrade to things that can help encumbrance issues as you can.

Mithril chain, for instance, is going to be a go-to for you. Half the weight of a chain shirt, and better Dex cap.

Darkwood bow, reduces the weight by 50%, for 30 gold. Of course, that is a whole new bow...

Darkwood arrows, again, lighter weight for a little extra money. Not a great concern once you can afford those efficient quivers and the handy haversack...

I think Classic Treasures Revisited has another possibility at the 1,000 gp level, the Minor Bag of Holding.

And I think the Pathfinder Society Field Guide has a special item (a pocketed belt, IIRC) available that serves as a small Bag of Holding, as well, but with a few sneaky advantages.

[Akritas]

Thanks for the advice. I didn't look at darkwood. The masterwork backpack actually weights 4 pounds and with my current pack-animal strategy I've dropped the pack altogether. Even the masterwork one would just break even at my current strength. With PFS rules in place I can't buy most of the lighter armor until I could just get the muleback cords. And the minor bag of holding costs the same 1,000 gp as said cords and only increases capacity by 45lbs rather than the 70lbsish of the cords, so it just seems like a bad buy.

The pseudodragon seemed pretty absurd, thanks for the clarification. So many rule pages. :P

I don't have Handle Animal, and it isn't a class skill so teaching tricks would be a dicey process. I notice that you can buy war-trained ponies though, and as I looked over the Handle Animal skill it seems to me that they would have the attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel tricks learned, correct? Between down and heel I could probably mostly keep it under control.

The main problem I see is that, again assuming I understand the rules right, I'd have to use a move action to give the command. Loosing a move action at the start of every fight isn't appealing, as much as I like the idea of a pack animal. Maybe I'll just go for riding a horse. Hmm, lots of stuff to figure out. :P