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We have a game going on and took in a new character. I'm curious of a few major points regarding the character. Lots of questions as to how PFS handles this situation
First is that he is a Halfling Paladin wishing to ride a Ram.
Are Paladin Mounts limited to the listings within the Core Rulebook? Does this preclude purchasing any mount versus the Divine Bond feature?
Reality is he would like to ride a Ram into combat, is there a reason why he cannot? Is there a way he can?
Finally how do tricks really work? He has to buy a Riding Ram, which has a listing on the SRD, but I am unsure where the costs are coming from within the books. Can he teach it tricks before the game begins (theoretically unlimited time before the scenario)? Can you teach a trick for each scenario building up to a purpose and then teach the Purpose? Are you stuck waiting to upgrade the Ride to Combat Purpose at level 4? Why does this seem so brutally against mounted characters?
Honestly a lot of debate going on and I am hoping to find some clarity. Sorry for the barrage of questions ahead of time.
Oh and a final question for me directly. Constantly the FAQs are referencing a "Legal Source" What exactly are these? I would assume official Paizo content minus things that are against the heart of the Organized Play (i.e. Item Creation).
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The Paladin bonded mount is limited to the listed choices, as answered in the PFS FAQ here. This limit applies to the bonded mount. He can buy a mount for use at other times, and is not limited to the listed choices for this mundane mount.
Some mounts arrive trained, others do not. See the PFS FAQ here, and the next entry on training animals.
If you are new to PFS, you'll want to see the [url=http://paizo.com/pathfinderSociety/playerResources]Player Resources, which includes a link to the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play and also the Additional Resources page. These two documents outline what rules resources can be used in PFS play. In addition to items in these documents, you might occasionally run across additional rules items available through adventuring and subsequently recorded on Chronicle Sheets.
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Are Paladins limited to the mounts listed in the Core Rulebook? Yes, unless you find an archetype that allows something different. I am not aware of any.
Can he ride a ram anyway? Absolutely. Though you can't count it as an animal companion with the Divine Bond ability. If you choose this route, I'd go with the weapon bond.
How do tricks work?You can teach an animal tricks between scenarios. You make the handle animal check depending on what trick you are teaching it. You can train it in a general purpose instead but the DC is higher.
You can buy a combat trained ram for 50GP, so there is no need to worry about teaching it the tricks yourself. The animals you see listed are most likely from Animal Archive.
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Thanks, yeah I know the between scenario. We were just wondering about the whole ranks limit to times you can train. Mainly needing to have 4 ranks of Handle Animal in order to train a Combat Purpose. Or instead between each scenario he could just train the individual tricks, which would work as well.
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Reposted with corrected links.
The Paladin bonded mount is limited to the listed choices, as answered in the PFS FAQ here. This limit applies to the bonded mount. He can buy a mount for use at other times, and is not limited to the listed choices for this mundane mount.
Some mounts arrive trained, others do not. See the PFS FAQ here, and the next entry on training animals.
If you are new to PFS, you'll want to see the Player Resources, which includes a link to the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play and also the Additional Resources page. These two documents outline what rules resources can be used in PFS play. In addition to items in these documents, you might occasionally run across additional rules items available through adventuring and subsequently recorded on Chronicle Sheets.
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Are Paladins limited to the mounts listed in the Core Rulebook? Yes, unless you find an archetype that allows something different. I am not aware of any.
Can he ride a ram anyway? Absolutely. Though you can't count it as an animal companion with the Divine Bond ability. If you choose this route, I'd go with the weapon bond.
How do tricks work?You can teach an animal tricks between scenarios. You make the handle animal check depending on what trick you are teaching it. You can train it in a general purpose instead but the DC is higher.
You can buy a combat trained ram for 50GP, so there is no need to worry about teaching it the tricks yourself. The animals you see listed are most likely from Animal Archive.
I'm not finding the Animal Archive in the Player's Resources list of "Legal Sources". Since it's relatively new, perhaps it hasn't been added to the list yet (oversight? or possibly it's not "legal"?).
Might make getting a Riding Ram difficult.
As far as existing "Legal Sources" go, you have 2 ways of getting a ram, buy a farm animal or capture a wild animal.
Let's explore these options:
1) Buy a farm animal. A ram is a male sheep, sheep have the same stats as goats, goats are small animals. A mount has to be one size larger than its rider. A farm animal sheep is too small for a halfling, who is also size small, to ride.
2) Capture a wild ram. From the Bestiary, a "Herd Animal, Ram" is a Medium creature with curving horns, weighing up to 300 lbs. Basically a bighorn sheep. Definitely big enough for a halfling to ride. How do you get one?
a) Trap a grown male bighorn sheep. Tough job. Hope you have good climbing skills (they live on mountain tops). Hope you have good Disable Device skills to set a good enough trap.
Is trapping a wild animal and putting it in a pen or cage an EVIL act?
b) Train the adult male wild sheep, which weighs 4 to 5 times what you do. Like breaking a wild stallion.
Is breaking an animal's spirit an EVIL act?
c) Capture a young wild sheep and train it when it is a gentle lamb. They run in herds (Herd Animal). So you have to separate it from the herd. The lambs are in the middle of the herd, following momma real close. You might have to kill several adult wild sheep to capture one baby.
Is slaughtering wild animals so you can steal their babies an EVIL act?
d) Find a poor abandoned, orphaned bighorn lamb. Sounds pretty close to a miracle to me. Better be a good paladin, so that god will smile on you and send you the little lamb to succour from the cougar who ate his momma and drove off the rest of his herd. You must be WORTHY.
So the last option is about all you have, without some moderately serious atonement issues, until someone makes the Animal Archive part of the "Legal Sources".
Actually, I like the concept. I would love to see a whole passle of paladins of Hathor riding Holy Cows, or Knights of the Order of Osirian Ostriches, or halfling paladins hanging from kangaroo pouches.
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Well, since I'm the whole reason this started I figure I should drop in and lay my 2 copper on the table.
Here's the question:
In the PFS FAQ it says:
Do purchased animals come fully trained or do I have to train them myself?
The entry for Handle Animal on pages 97–98 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook details which animals come trained—namely, some riding horses and riding dogs have training, but they only come trained to bear a rider into combat. All other animals are subject to Handle Animal to learn additional tricks. See the “Mounts and Related Gear” table on page 159 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook for additional details.
This seems to state that non-combat animals come with no tricks learned which seems seriously inconvenient if you purchase a horse, pony, or mule for the purpose of transportation or as a pack animal. I'd think that such an animal would at least come trained for the Riding purpose listed under Handle Animal (3 tricks: Come, Heel, and Stay) or the Heavy Labor purpose (2 tricks: Come and Work). With the DC to 'Push' an animal being 25 it's extremely difficult to be able to control an animal at low levels, even out of combat, if they don't know at least the Come or Heel tricks.
Also in the FAQ it says:
How can I teach tricks to an animal using Handle Animal?
You can teach any animal a trick so long as you follow the rules for Handle Animal on pages 97–98 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. A GM must observe your Handle Animal check, and must initial what tricks the animal gained in the "Conditions Gained" section of the scenario's Chronicle sheet. The first time a character with levels in druid, ranger, or any other class that grants an animal companion gains an animal companion, the animal enters play knowing its maximum number of tricks as dictated by the animal companion's Intelligence and the character's effective druid level. If the character replaces the animal companion for any reason, the new animal starts with no tricks known, save for bonus tricks granted based on the PC's effective druid level. Once per scenario, you may attempt to train the animal companion a number of times equal to the number of ranks you have in the Handle Animal skill. Each success allows you to teach the animal a single trick; a failed attempt counts against the total number of training attempts allowed per scenario, and you may not attempt to teach the same trick until the next scenario. Alternatively, you may train one animal for a single purpose as long as you have enough ranks in Handle Animal to train the animal in each trick learned as part of that purpose. You may take 10 on Handle Animal checks to teach an animal companion tricks.
This is the part that really bothers me, according to this a level 1 character that purchases a animal can only teach it 1 trick per scenario if the character has a rank in Handle Animal. If riding animals don't come trained with at least the Riding purpose already trained that means a level 1 character's purchased mount can only begin play with 1 trick known unless it's purchased as a combat mount (which by PFS character creation rules is extremely difficult to afford if you want a balanced set of gear given the 150gp limit to starting gold), in which case the animal will begin play knowing the 6 tricks listed under the Combat Trained purpose. This means a level 1 character that doesn't get a mount or companion as a class feature not only has to invest a good portion of starting cash in the mount, but also needs to spend up to 3 scenarios getting the animal trained for the Riding purpose and up to 6 scenarios teaching it tricks before it's fully Combat Trained. The character will likely increase in level and be able to shorten that to 3 or 4 scenarios if they put more points into Handle Animal, but that's still an incredible amount of time to wait for your mount to be ready for combat if you opted to not(or more likely couldn't afford to) purchase it already Combat Trained.
If you're trying to build a level 1 character with the intention of specializing in mounted combat this is a serious problem if you don't want to play a Druid or Cavalier. Rangers, Fighters, and Paladins all have archetypes that specialize in mounted combat, but they're seriously hamstrung by this limitation, Fighters especially since they never gain the benefit of a special mount.
Is it possible this rule is a hold over from 3.5 rules where you gained more skill ranks at first level and is in need of an update to follow the current rules? It makes more sense if you'd be able to train 1 trick per skill rank +3 if it's a class skill.
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Regarding the limited selection of animals that are legal as Paladin bonded mounts, the PFS FAQ states:
As a paladin or cavalier, what mount can I have?
As a paladin, your divine bond mount must be at least one size category larger than you starting at 1st level. If you’re a Medium PC, your mount must be Large. If you’re a Small PC, your mount must be at least Medium. You may only select a mount from the listed mounts on page 63 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook unless another source grants access to additional creature choices. As a cavalier, you may select a mount from those listed on page 33 of the Advanced Player's Guide. No additional mounts are legal in Pathfinder Society Organized Play except when granted from another legal source.
In the list of legal sources it lists the PFC: Animal Archive, to which I sadly do not access at this time. It states:
Animals: all animal companions on pages 28–29 are legal for purchase. Animals on pages 14–15 are legal for purchase except dinosaurs and megafauna (unless already allowed in this document in Bestiary 1, Bestiary 2, Bestiary 3, or Ultimate Equipment) and dire animals. Additionally, only creatures of the animal type of size Large and smaller may be purchased. Goblin dog is restricted for purchase and only available to goblin PCs;
Without access to the book I don't know what's listed on those pages, but I do have access to Bestiary 2 which has the Herd Animal, Ram entry on page 154 right next to the entry for the Camel. The page even has a small blurb about Rams as Animal Companions. Also on the list of legal sources under Bestiary 2 it lists the Ram as being added to the list of legal animal companions.
The only thing I can see stopping me from keeping my Ram as my bonded mount is the vague restriction of 'No additional mounts are legal in Pathfinder Society Organized Play except when granted from another legal source' and no source actually stating that the animals it's adding to the list of legal animal companions is also adding any or all of those companions to the list available to Paladins or Cavaliers. So is it assumed that all of the animals added are added to the list for Paladins and Cavaliers as long as they satisfy the only other requirement of being at least one size category larger than you, or are none of them added regardless of them being otherwise viable as mounts?
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The only thing I can see stopping me from keeping my Ram as my bonded mount is the vague restriction of 'No additional mounts are legal in Pathfinder Society Organized Play except when granted from another legal source' and no source actually stating that the animals it's adding to the list of legal animal companions is...
"Another legal resource" here refers to things like legal archetypes, additional options opened up by a chronicle (of which there is at least one out there that I know of), etc. The language was likely left open to allow for them to release such resources in the future without being constrained by the wording already in there. This does not open up the list to anything you want.
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From the CRB, you may purchase a riding dog, and combat trained light horses, heavy horses, or ponies. All come combat trained w/tricks.
From Ultimate Equipment, axebeaks, dire bats, griffons, hippogriffs, and riding geckos comes combat trained. (although these will be beyond the reach of a level 1 character)
AA, like you said, opens even more.
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so, as a GM that is running into this issue as well (Hmm...Halfling Paladin with a Ram mount sounds vaguely familiar... ;) )
The equipment list clearly indicates which animals are combat trained. Page 14 of the Animal Archive calls out costs for combat trained animals. Not an issue.
My question is...you buy a riding horse. I have not been able to find anything in the rules that state when you buy a riding horse it is trained for the purpose or Riding (comes with the Come, Stay and Heel tricks).
So, does that Ram on the list of Riding Animals on page 14 of the Animal Archive for 25 gp (non-combat trained) come trained for Riding? Or does it need to be fully trained with all tricks?
Taking it back a step...Light Horse, page159 of the CRB...A horse is suitable as a mount for a human, dwarf, elf, half-elf, or half-orc. Does it come trained for Riding (not in combat...) with the Come, Stay and Heel tricks?
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For that matter, what about Mules, Oxen, or Horses purchased for pulling carts, wagons, or carriages?
Do they come trained for the Heavy Labor purpose and are accustomed to using the Work Trick to carry, push, or pull a medium or heavy load? Or does your average farmer purchase a work animal and then have to spend time training it (if he even has ranks in Handle Animal) or be forced to try to Push the animal to get it to do what he purchased it to do? Would a lowly farmer even have enough skill ranks and attributes to pass the DCs to train or push an animal for those purposes?
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Use common sense.
if the animal is listed as a "riding" animal, assume it is trained for riding.
Otherwise it wouldn't be called a "riding" version of the animal.
Lets not get overly pedantic with the RAW please.
Yeah, but the PFS FAQ RAW state an animal not purchased with Combat Training is completely untrained. So RAW says common sense doesn't apply.
Either RAW need to be rewritten and a clarification needs to be made, or 'Riding' animals don't come trained for Riding.
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Use common sense.
if the animal is listed as a "riding" animal, assume it is trained for riding.
Otherwise it wouldn't be called a "riding" version of the animal.
Lets not get overly pedantic with the RAW please.
Yeah, but the PFS FAQ RAW state an animal not purchased with Combat Training is completely untrained. So RAW says common sense doesn't apply.
Either RAW need to be rewritten and a clarification needs to be made, or 'Riding' animals don't come trained for Riding.
They do come trained for riding.
Dog, Riding: This Medium dog is specially trained to carry a Small humanoid rider. It is brave in combat like a war-trained horse. Due to its smaller stature, you take no damage when you fall from a riding dog.
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Nope, the Riding Dog comes trained as for Combat Riding, 6 tricks (attack, defend, down, guard, come, and heel), normal Riding is only 3 tricks (come, heel, and stay).
There's a discrepancy in the descriptions used for combat trained dogs, dire bats, and other exotic mounts and the descriptions for more traditional mounts such as Horses and Ponies.
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Indeed. As a GM I'm usually on the side of common sense, but being new to PFS I'm trying to be prepared for GMs that aren't.
Tryin to make sure everything's 'above board' cause I dislike the idea of getting called out for cheating or something foul like it.
Care to comment on the dilemma of wanting to keep my Ram as my Bonded Mount when I get to level 5? I've got what seems a 50/50 split on that one so far. Half telling me it's not legal, the other telling me it is.
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Indeed. As a GM I'm usually on the side of common sense, but being new to PFS I'm trying to be prepared for GMs that aren't.
Tryin to make sure everything's 'above board' cause I dislike the idea of getting called out for cheating or something foul like it.
Care to comment on the dilemma of wanting to keep my Ram as my Bonded Mount when I get to level 5? I've got what seems a 50/50 split on that one so far. Half telling me it's not legal, the other telling me it is.
You absolutely cannot keep your Ram as your bonded mount. This is not ambiguous.
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Be that as it may, whether trained for combat riding or just riding... riding animals are trained to carry a mounted creature. Otherwise they would not be called a "riding" creature.That's not actually true, Andrew. A Riding Dog is so called because it is large enough to be ridden, not because it is already trained for riding. "Riding dog" is a generic term for various large, sturdy breeds:
Larger dogs (known to Small races like halflings and gnomes as riding dogs) include hardier breeds such as huskies, mastiffs, and wolfhounds.
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But the entry I quoted above from the equipment section of the CRB that you actually use to purchase the animal, says they are trained to carry riders.
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Edit: The FAQ covers paladin and cavalier in the same entry. I thought at first it was only cavaliers. Thanks Andy
As a paladin or cavalier, what mount can I have?As a paladin, your divine bond mount must be at least one size category larger than you starting at 1st level. If you’re a Medium PC, your mount must be Large. If you’re a Small PC, your mount must be at least Medium. You may only select a mount from the listed mounts on page 63 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook unless another source grants access to additional creature choices. As a cavalier, you may select a mount from those listed on page 33 of the Advanced Player's Guide. No additional mounts are legal in Pathfinder Society Organized Play except when granted from another legal source.
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The FAQ is quite explicit.
You can only choose the specifically named animals as your bonded mount.
Anything that requires GM discretion is typically not allowed in PFSOP. The FAQ on Paladin/Cavalier mounts clarifies this to be the case.
The Ram is explicitly not allowed in PFSOP.
Sorry, its a fantastic idea, but you can't do it with a Paladin in PFSOP.
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I both agree and disagree with you:
1) At my table, I’d probably let it go, because honestly it really doesn’t matter in the end run if you are dirty or clean at the end of the day.
2) But when giving advice on the public forums, we really should give advice based on RAW. And while Pathfinder doesn’t use a strict keyword system (e.g. Attack Action not strictly being defined but used in the Vital Strike feat—Since a melee attack is a type of Standard Action, the Attack Action is also a type of Standard Action, but nowhere in the book does it define this so some were thinking they could Vital Strike with a Full Attack action) we have to be very careful about exactly how things are worded when arguing RAW. While this particular example probably really doesn’t matter, it sets a precedent that other rules that aren’t 100% clearly defined can be interpreted outside of the actual words written. And in many cases, we can see where this could cause a problem (e.g. Vital Strike being used by a 16th level fighter for double dice on 4 attacks.)
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You absolutely cannot keep your Ram as your bonded mount. This is not ambiguous.Indeed. As a GM I'm usually on the side of common sense, but being new to PFS I'm trying to be prepared for GMs that aren't.
Tryin to make sure everything's 'above board' cause I dislike the idea of getting called out for cheating or something foul like it.
Care to comment on the dilemma of wanting to keep my Ram as my Bonded Mount when I get to level 5? I've got what seems a 50/50 split on that one so far. Half telling me it's not legal, the other telling me it is.
If that's the case I'd be interested in learning why this ruling was made.
It seems needlessly restrictive to limit Paladins and Cavaliers to such an extremely short list when the list of animals that could serve them as mounts is so expansive given the legal resources available. Especially considering that many of the books the new animal companions come from otherwise have no appeal for a player to look at or purchase.It's almost like they're telling Paladins and Cavaliers that they don't want them buying books to expand their options like they do for other classes.
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Same reason for Rangers...
There were three ways to go about this, because as RAW, its up to each individual GM as to whether alternate mounts are acceptable. And table variation on whether your entire build is legal or not based on some random GM's feeling on a matter (the real life physics of a member of the cat or dog family even being suitable for mounts) is not acceptable.
I'll start with the two that weren't chosen:
1) Open up the choices to all possible animal companions. This seriously takes something away from the Druid, which has the entire available list. Additionally, there simply are some animals that aren't suitable for mounts, like a Snake, yet you'd have some players try to create Snake-Riding Paladins.
2) Create a list of acceptable alternate mounts. This is problematic, because every time a new source book comes out, you potentially have to revise your list. They have better things to do with their time than constant revise FAQ lists everytime a new sourcebook comes out.
3) They went with the choice restricting GM discretion (which essentially means that the Campaign Coordinator is acting as Campaign-wide GM in this case.) Which ensures that all Paladin choices for mount will be legal at every table. There won't be any issues with GM's deciding that a Tiger wouldn't be a suitable mount, while another GM lets you ride an Ochre Jelly.
What did happen though, is in future supplements, there were archetypes that did expand these lists for rangers and cavaliers. I am not aware of any archetypes that expanded the animal companion/mount list for Paladins or Samurai. The Beast Rider archetype allows for many, many different types of mounts to be ridden by Cavaliers and the Beastmaster archetype does the same for Rangers.
The argument that they are losing vast sales because 1 out of 19 classes doesn't get to ride a Ram seems a bit like hyperbole to me.
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Ok, I don't have to like it, but at least I understand it.
Personally I'd have gone with option 2.
Every book that added animal companions would flag a few of those animals as added to the list of legal mount choices for Paladins and Cavaliers. It seriously doesn't take much to update the FAQ, and they do it on a regular basis already so they're not creating much additional work.
Limiting player options on the basis of 'we have better things to do with our time' is insulting to the players in my opinion. Are we not worth the extra effort involved?
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What it comes down to is that lots of people play PFS. They have many different points of view. Some think guns are cool in fantasy, others would prefer they weren't there. Some think atypical animal mounts are cool, others don't. The campaign administrators look at each of these issues with an eye toward being able to communicate with the players what the options are, provide an option that 80% or so of the players accept, which meets the marketing goals of the expenditure for organized play, and which preserves and/or enhances the flavor of the game world.
When you're GMing a home game for 4-6 players, you can usually address the concerns and desires of each of those players. When you're doing so for 50k players and maybe 200k characters, you have to paint in broader strokes. It isn't insulting, it's simply logistics in a world where time costs money.
I'm not being dismissive of your players new to the campaign, but organized play is a different beast. You can accept the inherent limitations and enjoy it for what it is, you can argue for change in a persuasive manner that acknowledges the logistical limitations, you can play a different game that better meets your needs, or you can play your awesome ram-mounted halfling paladin idea in a homegame and play something within the scope of the campaign for PFS.
Animals are notoriously troublesome in organized play because there are so many different opinions about what's reasonable, fun, creative, unrealistic, silly, cheesy, what the rules say vs. what is left to the GM, etc. It's an unfortunate topic through which to be introduced to the campaign.
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Animals are clearly an issue in organized play, an issue that PFS has gone to great lengths to deal with as is evident by the number of rulings surrounding them and the extensive list of Tricks available to be taught to those animals.
With so many rulings and so much time already invested in clarification of animals and companions already it doesn't make sense to me that they haven't expanded the mount lists.
There's nothing stopping me from keeping the ram as a mount and instead using the bonded weapon class feature, except that the archetype I chose (the Shining Knight) forces me to take a bonded mount. I'll probably just do a rebuild on Garron and use a different archetype so I can keep the ram as a mount because it's the core idea of the character. I just find it ridiculous that I have access to the animal as a mount through a vendor, but I don't have the option of using that same animal to support a core feature of my class.
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Ya know what...I just noticed that the cool things I get from Shining Knight work with any mount, not just my bonded one.
Since the PFS FAQ says I can have a mount and an animal companion I'll just take the riding dog at level 5 and not use him as a mount and keep riding the ram. I'll be able to control the dog as a free action using Handle Animal and still use the mount I want to use.
It's not the way I want to deal with the situation, but it's how I can deal with it within the rules. Sure the ram won't get all awesome with extra feats and stats, but as long as I'm riding him he'll benefit from my class abilities. I don't even need to worry about trading a feat for an armor prof for him because he's never going to take any actions so the ACP won't matter.
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The point of the FAQ that says you can have a mount and an animal companion simply means that you can purchase a mount to ride around. However, at the beginning of the scenario you must declare which animal is your combat animal. If the combat animal is not your mount, then you must dismount to engage in combat.
You don’t get the mount’s extra speed or any other abilities the mount has while riding him, in combat, if you declare your non-mount animal as your combat animal.
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Before you do this, I would suggest doing a forum search in the Pathfinder Society forums, and read all the threads that already have covered this, ad nauseum.
And Mike Brock is the one who makes these decisions. And the answers I've given you here are generally paraphrased answers that he's already given in all those threads I suggested you search for.
I'm sorry you feel its a ridiculous decision, but Frankly you really don't know how long it takes to update FAQ's and how much effort it takes to know the 20 different FAQ's you'd have to keep track of to keep updating various lists everytime a new product comes out.
But if you really want to take it upstairs, I'd suggest emailing Mike Brock.
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You're assuming I don't know what it takes to keep a FAQ up to date.
I assure you that as a computer programmer and software developer I'm well aware of what it takes to keep information orderly and available to large groups of people.
As far as I can tell there is only 1 FAQ that Paizo itself has any responsibility for keeping up to date, and that's the one here on their own site. FAQs on other sites are the responsibilities of those sites.
As for keeping lists up to date, that's as simple as changing the rule to state a Paladin or Cavalier can select any animal classified as a Riding Animal as a bonded mount, with the restriction that the mount must be Large or smaller. That would allow them to use any mount they can already purchase from the list of available riding animals as their chosen mount. Such a change would not cause them any extra work since they already classify animals in this fashion in the books as they're printed. At worst they'd have to make a clarification on the Additional Resources page about what animals are legal choices, which they already do as the resources are released.
I'd be far less inclined to complain about this if I didn't understand how easily it could be changed or there wasn't a list of mounts available for anyone to purchase that wasn't included in the list of animals available to Paladins and Cavaliers as mount.
It's not ridiculous because it's not allowed, it's ridiculous because I AM allowed to purchase and use an animal as much as I want, but I am NOT allowed to use that same animal as a part of a core feature of my class. They made this great list of things to enhance the variety of flavors available to players, and then told a small portion of those players they're not allowed to use them while everyone else can.
Edit:
Please note that a Fighter using the Roughrider archetype doesn't suffer any sort of restriction at all about what kind of mount he can choose to use.
I could legally build Gorran as a Roughrider with a Ram mount and there would be no issue.
Why then is there are problem when I try to build him as a Paladin archetype that focuses on mounted combat in the same way the Fighter archetype does?
Half-elf fighter on a tiger is acceptable, but a halfling paladin on a ram is not. This is the problem.