Druid Animal Companion as Mount

[spiralout]

I am new to Pathfinder and rpgs in general, but we want to start playing. My friend wants to play a Druid. She wants to Nature Bond with the Animal Companion, but she also wants it to serve as a mount, (she's a human, so she'll need a Large creature or bigger to mount). However, she wants a Giant Owl that is not even considered an animal companion in the Bestiary 3 book. I do not have a clue as to how to start on this. I know that she'll need an exotic harness to ride it, or take a penalty, and I guess she needs skills in Handle Animal and Ride? A regular owl is an animal companion bird option, but it is a small creature that of course cannot be mounted by a human. I am very confused. Please help!

Thank you,

Spiralout

[Adamantine Dragon]

By RAW there are only a specific set of animals that can be taken as animal companions. Some of them will eventually become giant birds which can be mounts. I don't know if an owl is one of them.

However, as a GM you can "fluff" one of the acceptable giant bird mounts as an owl, I would just be very careful about changing anything from the rules for animal companions.

[MacGurcules]

Seems like a fairly easy swap to just call the Roc an owl. However, only camels and horses start as Large at first level and I don't know of any flying ACs that advance to Large before 7th level.

So if having a flying mount from level 1 is critical, she may have to consider life as a small race.

[spiralout]

Thanks for the fast responses! I like the idea of keeping the stats for the Roc and just calling it a Giant Owl. Thanx!

[drbrain]

On a related note, could a smaller druid like a Gnome or Halfling ride, say, a dog or wolf animal companion?

[Threeshades]

drbrain wrote:

On a related note, could a smaller druid like a Gnome or Halfling ride, say, a dog or wolf animal companion?

Short answer: yes.

Long answer: You can ride any animal companion that is at least one size category larger than you. For best results you should train it as a mount though.

[MacGurcules]

The suitability of a creature as a mount is fairly vague. At minimum a mount needs to be strong enough to bear the rider. As far as I know there's no hard rule that says all mounts must be one size category larger than the rider, but pretty much every mount-oriented class feature at least suggests this, so it's probably a safe guideline. Most people seem to allow just about any animal that's big and strong enough to serve the purpose, though.

Wolf and dog are called out specifically as mountable in the paladin and cavalier classes, so those should be just fine by anyone's measure, provided they're taught the appropriate tricks. Keep in mind the dog animal companion starts as small and progresses to medium at the fourth level.