I'm working on making a gnome Witch, gnome primarily so I can be small and ride on a Pony while still only being Medium-sized. (why gnomes? Because I might be playing PFS, and halflings look kinda lame as witches. Also I like learning tons of languages, even though I know I have both a hex and a spell to speak every language. But I digress. :P)
I'm not really interested in getting an Animal Companion or anything like that, and turning my familiar into a mount robs it of all manner of more interesting combat activities. (like hiding, if the enemy is very dangerous. :P) I'd be perfectly fine with a combat-trained Pony, and at high levels, the Mount spell will last from dawn til dusk, or longer if I Extend it.
But there's a small problem with this: what happens if we come to, say, a ladder leading up to another level in a dungeon or some such thing? At higher levels, the solution is obvious: cast Mount again, or perhaps Fly on the pony. But at very low levels, I don't want to waste my spell slots like that. So, what kind of methods are available to get a 900 pound quadruped up a ladder?
Were I a wizard, this would be so easy. Spider Climb is the obvious solution, or even Monkey Fish to use just a 1st-level slot.... but those are not Witch spells. If Reduce Person could target animals, it would bring the pony down to ~112 pounds, possibly small enough to have a barbarian or someone carry.....
I don't know, I'm probably thinking way too hard about this when the answer might just be "You have no choice but to leave the pony behind," but I figured I'd toss it out there and see if anyone has an answer? How can a low-level Witch - without depending on her allies, since I have no clue what they'll be right now - bring her pony up a ladder?
Pearls of Power are definitely good, gonna be picking some of those up for sure. Wands are nice too, but really, am I gonna need to use this trick 50 times in my entire life? For these prices, I feel like scrolls may be a better solution. For 750 gp - the price of a Wand of Mount - I could get 30 scrolls, still more then I'm likely to need if these are only a backup. (what I'm envisioning is, I cast my own Mount spell to start off with, it lasts most of the day, then if I run into problems I summon a backup with a scroll. Even at 3rd level, the original one will last 6 hours if I Extend it, and I shouldn't have to use more then maybe one scroll per day, unless we're climbing up a ludicrous tower that doesn't have stairs for some reason.)
i guess maybe I'm worrying too much. 25gp for a scroll, I'll probably be alright even at low levels. That said, if anyone can think of a way to save me those precious coins, let me know I guess. :P
Carry Companion is a 2nd level Witch Spell. A scroll or two of this spell would probably be enough for an adventure.
Don't ride a pony. Ride a Giant Gecko. It has Climb +21. Move 40', and a climb speed 40'.
/cevah
Can I buy giant geckos or summon them with the Mount spell? Cause frankly, at higher and higher level play, my mounts are gonna start dying more and more. I need a cheap way to replace them, or else a perfect way to keep myself out of the blast radius of EVERYTHING that does more then a dozen damage. (technically I could solve this by taking a pair of feats to get an animal companion at effective druid level -3, but I'd rather it not come to that.)
EDIT: Okay, so I can definitely buy them. 150gp for a combat trained one. That wasn't hard to find, I should've just looked. Still not sure on the Mount spell though.
Ultimate Equipment lists riding geckos at 300 gp (400 gp if they are combat trained).
Mount only gives you a choice of light horse or pony.
Those ones are Large though, the medium ones are from.... uuuh I dunno what sourcebook or how to find that, but this link. Scroll down to "Riding Animals."
EDIT: "Mount only gives you a choice of light horse or pony." Didn't notice that. That potentially poses a problem. If I summon a pony with a spell and it dies, I get a new one tomorrow for free. Gecko dies, that's 150gp lost. So, geckos may not be a great answer.
This is probably enough information to work with. Feel free to add anything else if you can think of something relevant. :P
Those ones are Large though, the medium ones are from.... uuuh I dunno what sourcebook or how to find that, but this link. Scroll down to "Riding Animals."
EDIT: "Mount only gives you a choice of light horse or pony." Didn't notice that. That potentially poses a problem. If I summon a pony with a spell and it dies, I get a new one tomorrow for free. Gecko dies, that's 150gp lost. So, geckos may not be a great answer.This is probably enough information to work with. Feel free to add anything else if you can think of something relevant. :P
D20pfsrd isn't a Paizo site, and it often has errors or references 3rd party materials. The section you mentioned doesn't cite any sources and doesn't match anything that I could find by searching the PRD (which is an official site). The 400 gp for a combat-trained gecko would seem to be the actual price.
It barely matters. Even if it were the price I said, it's too expensive to justify unless I can find a way to guarantee its safety, and I doubt I can. Better to just get ponies from the Mount spell and have a few scrolls on standby in case of ladder-related emergencies.
I've been searching for other options, but haven't found any that would be affordable/available at the lowest levels.