How to get a monstrous mount?

[Fosco Overhill]

I'm playing a Halfling Cavalier at the moment, and I intend to pick up the Monstrous Mount feat at level 5 (it is Society legal, I believe). How do I get a monstrous mount (specifically, a Worg, as that's the only medium-sized mount), exactly? My GM ruled that it'll just come with the feat, much like a starting Cavalier comes with a free mount, but say that that mount dies, how do I get a new one? I'm assuming I can buy one in between adventures, but I can't find the price of a Worg anywhere (in the Animal Companions section, "Finding a replacement" never states anything about a price, just "purchasing an animal of the desired type." Do I pay as much for a first-level mount as when I'm sixth-level, presuming that my mount is always of my level? On the other hand, the Witch's Familiar section mentions a 500 gp fee per level to replace a familiar.). Also, if I buy one as soon as I hit level 5, do I still get the benefits associated with the mount, such as the Link and Evasion and such (replacing a mount means losing most benefits until you level up)?

[Nefreet]

You don't pay anything for Animal Companions, and you don't need to pay anything to replace them like Familiars. If your current one dies, you just replace it in between scenarios. It begins play knowing any bonus tricks as according to the Animal Companion chart, and you can teach it additional tricks equal to your number of ranks in Handle Animal between each scenario.

Cavaliers have the extra stipulation that when your Mount dies, the new mount does not gain the link, evasion, devotion, or improved evasion special abilities until the next time the cavalier gains a level, but that's the only drawback.

[Fosco Overhill]

Thanks for the quick reply. So I basically get a free Worg whenever I want, as long as I qualify for it? I can imagine that being abusable (selling off the Worg, getting a new one for free, selling that one again...), but I won't do that, of course. :P
So it'd be best if I were level 5.2 before acquiring the new mount, so there's as little time as possible between getting my mount and it being full-powered again?

[John Compton]

Fosco Overhill wrote:

I can imagine that being abusable (selling off the Worg, getting a new one for free, selling that one again...), but I won't do that, of course. :P

Well, since your worg has a market price of 0 gp (due to being an animal companion), I can't imagine that becoming an issue.

[Nefreet]

Fosco Overhill wrote:

So it'd be best if I were level 5.2 before acquiring the new mount, so there's as little time as possible between getting my mount and it being full-powered again?

Your mount comes "full-powered". Only when it dies does your replacement seem a bit wimpy for a while.

[crunchydemon]

Huh... you're playing a Cavalier? That's its own base class.

How were you intending to meet the Divine Bond prerequisite (which I can only find getting as a level 5 Paladin)?

[Jeff Merola]

crunchydemon wrote:

Huh... you're playing a Cavalier? That's its own base class.

How were you intending to meet the Divine Bond prerequisite (which I can only find getting as a level 5 Paladin)?

Not only is this thread a couple of months old, a Cavalier definitely fulfills the "mount class feature with an effective druid level of 4" option.

[Nefreet]

Monstrous Mount wrote:

Prerequisites: Handle Animal 4 ranks; Ride 4 ranks; divine bond (mount), hunter’s bond (animal companion), or mount class feature with an effective druid level of 4.

[crunchydemon]

Lol yeah, but this is what came up on my Google search when I was trying to find the same question!