Nature Oracle Mount question

[Genuine]

A nature Oracle's bonded mount starts with an intelligence of 6. To be clear, that's a score playable by a PC and far beyond usual animals.

Clearly they can't talk, but how does that work with other mechanics? Can they be treated as an intelligent being, or do you still need to use handle animal and various tricks? Do they get additional 'languages' with all those extra intelligence points? Not skill points, at least until it gets 10 int.

I suppose it probably isn't any different than an animal with Int 3, but it still feels strange to treat something smarter than the party barbarian as an animal. Well, I can't actually think of a pathfinder race with an Int penalty, but you get my point. Question. Whatever.

[RainyDayNinja]

Yes, you still need to use Handle Animal to control it. If you search on the boards I'm sure you can find one of the threads where the developers point that out.

They don't get languages without a rank in Linguistics (and even then they can't speak).

And you CAN get a boon to play a Nagaji, who has an Int penalty. So you could make a Nagaji Paladin or Oracle, who is dumber than his horse.

[CRobledo]

Cue multiple opinions time!

By the book (PFS rules), it is still an animal, and will behave like one most of the time. It still has instincts and such, which is why yes, you still need to teach it tricks and use handle animal.

Note that your mount will have 3 tricks per point of int (on top of bonus tricks) so it will start with at least 18 tricks. That should cover 99% of what your mount will want to do.

It does not get a language, but you may put a point in Linguistics to teach it to UNDERSTAND a language (like you said, it still can't speak).

Thanks to its higher int, it can use ioun stones.

But that is about it. Some GMs will be more flexible with higher intelligence mounts, but that is the skinny.

Link to the PFS FAQ

[Zahmahkibo]

It creates some strange corner cases, I agree, not to mention getting tedious if the GM demands you actually go through the motions of rolling out every push. But as everyone has said, animal companions always require Handle Animal checks for player direction, regardless of their Int.

I wasn't aware of the (Int-2)*3 bonus tricks, but that's a pretty nice consolation prize.