I have a player that is going this route and I want to make sure I have it right. The animal companion is *not* the Tiger from the Bestiary, right? Because that seems like way too much. As an animal companion, it starts out more as a young, not fully grown tiger (size Medium) and grows at 7th level.
Also, can a medium-sized human ride a medium sized tiger? He wants to do this, but it seems off to me. Should I just keep the -5 on Ride checks in mind since the animal is not a normal mount type animal? Make sure he gets an exotic riding saddle and has taught the Tricks to get it to use it?
Thanks in advance.
AJ
No, the animal companions are always from that list. If it isn't on the list you try to take the closest thing to it, or reskin something that has stats like you want.
An animal has to be at least one size bigger for you to ride it. Cavalier rules really reinforce this. If you want to houserule something to help him ride it that would be pretty nice though.
Correct. 3.5 had you use the actual animal, however in PF you use a base advancement shared by all, and then some modifications individual to each animal. So a druid will use the tiger animal companion found in the Druid section of the Core Rulebook.
One of the unwritten rules of the game is that a mount needs to be at least one size category larger than the person riding it, so you won't actually be able to ride a medium sized tiger as a medium person. It's annoying that it's unwritten though.
There is no "tiger", "leopard" or "lion" animal companion for druids. There is the "small cat" and the "big cat" animal companion. If you want it for a mount, you'll definitely want the "big cat".
My druid "flavors" the "big cat" to be a tiger. She rides her tiger all over the place.
There is no "tiger", "leopard" or "lion" animal companion for druids. There is the "small cat" and the "big cat" animal companion. If you want it for a mount, you'll definitely want the "big cat".
My druid "flavors" the "big cat" to be a tiger. She rides her tiger all over the place.
Right, but the listing on page 54 says, "Cat, Big (Lion, Tiger)". And those were the stats we actually used. But I was looking for rules on what size a mount has to be and came across the Bestiary entry for Tiger and almost spluttered my coffee all over my laptop. So I went to check what the actual listing under Druid said and then figured I would ask here to make sure I was reading it correctly.
AJ
One of the unwritten rules of the game is that a mount needs to be at least one size category larger than the person riding it, so you won't actually be able to ride a medium sized tiger as a medium person. It's annoying that it's unwritten though.
I thought that was the case. I probably read it in a FAQ or errata somewhere back in 3.5.
He has described his character as small (not halfling small, but small for human), though, so I may allow the riding with the penalties for "not meant as a mount" and make him get a special saddle or take the bareback penalty, too. He didn't sound like he planned on riding it into battle anyway.
AJ
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Yes, those are the stats you should be using. The Bestiary Tiger is something different - the AC stats exist for balance reasons so there's not a huge power difference between druids with, for example, wolf and tiger companions. It's a little weird that an AC tiger is so different from the bestiary tiger, but I flavour it as the druid having a young animal companion at early levels, which eventually grows up.
Sounds like a reasonable way to bend the mount rules.