Just starting a new level one character and thought it would be beneficial to have a (non-combat) mount.
Any suggestions on what would be good?
I'd originally thought a goat, but my combined weight of character and stuff would be a medium load to it (if only by a couple of pounds).
Side Note: Grippli are surprisingly heavy for their height, scaled to human they would have BMIs in the 36ish range and the picture in the ARG doesn't say clinically obese to me. There must be metal in their bones.
Haha, I like the goat idea (even at a heavy load, kinda like Johan on the goat in the old Smurfs cartoons). Your post reminded me of a short story I read as a kid, though, where a mouse knight rode around on a frog. Why not swap spots? Get a ginormous mouse to ride around on (by ginormous I just mean Medium-sized, in this case)?
EDIT: mentioning Smurfs changed my avatar pic! Hahahahahaha! Oh, you silly people!
Might be a bit much for level 1 (and you'll definitely need to get pricing advice from your GM), but I envision grippli swamp commandos mounted on Medium alligators (you could even re-skin them to be Eryops), or mobile skirmishers astride giant geckos.
Giant Frog could be fun if stereotypical and it's stronger than the goat. A giant toad would be even stronger but their poisonous skin might pose a problem.
When it comes to a flying mount, I myself am partial to Giant Dragonflies though sadly there is no companion version of them (probably because all vermin companions are from UM rather than the bestiaries)
I don't think my GM would let me pick up a riding trained giant frog for the town stables or live stock markets. It had been my first thought but I'm pretty certain it would not fly in the game.
I do quite like the crocodile as Eryops plan, but again my GM would be unlikely to let me away with it.
I won't be using the mount for much more than riding, I'm playing an over-archetyped alchemist so can't afford the skill points for fancy riding or the feats for mounted combat. In fact, as it has occurred to me that I'm without handle animal, I may have to suck it up and take a boring traditional type mount.
Edit: Giant bee as dragonfly would be awesome. Shame even a giant bee as giant bee is a little outside the realm of things I could realistically control.
If you could dip druid, you can get a Giant Bee or Giant Mantis. Or Giant Beetle, but it won't be big enough to use as a mount from just a dip.
Or you could get a female boar and name it Miss Piggy...
And then Noireve won the internet.
That being said, giant frogs/geckos *actually* don't cost that much. I think you're going to have to deal with a riding dog, though, starting out. Just make sure your character points out how much it hates the furry feeling, and how it'd prefer the cold skin of an amphibian.
Make sure it points this out frequently.
Gurgle as much as possible.
Spit at those who would disagree.
Design an extremely irritating noise to make in-game in the middle of sentences. Something akin to a goat/frog type deal.
Be weird about it.
Eventually, you're going to get an Amphibian to ride, at which point;
You make the weirdest happy noise possible.
Or you could get a female boar and name it Miss Piggy...
^ end of thread.