What kinds of animals can a Cavalier's Expert Trainer ability be used on? When I first heard it described by my player, I thought it would be limited to animals a cavalier can normally select as a mount. Upon actually reading the text, I'm not sure. What do you all think? Party is befriending all sorts of animals in Ironfang Invasion.
At 4th level, a cavalier learns to train mounts with speed and unsurpassed expertise. The cavalier receives a bonus equal to 1/2 his cavalier level whenever he uses Handle Animal on an animal that serves as a mount. In addition, he can reduce the time needed to teach a mount a new trick or train a mount for a general purpose to 1 day per 1 week required by increasing the DC by +5. He can also train more than one mount at once, although each mount after the first adds +2 to the DC.
"On an animal that serves as a mount" is the key thing. Since 'mount' is a fairly ambiguous term, the idea would seem to be animals that are more suitable for mounts. Horses, ponies, camels, riding dogs, yeah, definitely. Anything called out as an option within the mount class feature. But not just anything that one could theoretically tame into a mount, at least not until it's actually been trained as one.
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If it's a PFS character, then your (animal-companion) mount choices are narrowly confined to book-listed choices, with some leeway depending upon feats and module boons.
-- The Cavalier's Expert Trainer class feature merely accelerates the training time for mounts; it has nothing to do with determining whether or not a particular animal could become your special (AC/druid) mount. For example, you quickly could train some nobleman's circus menagerie of rideable exotic animals a lot faster than, say, a ranger could (and routinely doing so could very well be your "day job").
Expert Trainer isn't something you'll otherwise likely see any in-game aspect with given that training is typically a "downtime" activity settled with a few die-rolls to determine whether or not you've succeeded in teaching tricks. (Expert Trainer mainly exists as a "feat tax" for Horse Master.)
If it's a PFS character, then your (animal-companion) mount choices are narrowly confined to book-listed choices, with some leeway depending upon feats and module boons.
-- The Cavalier's Expert Trainer class feature merely accelerates the training time for mounts; it has nothing to do with determining whether or not a particular animal could become your special (AC/druid) mount. For example, you quickly could train some nobleman's circus menagerie of rideable exotic animals a lot faster than, say, a ranger could (and routinely doing so could very well be your "day job").
Expert Trainer isn't something you'll otherwise likely see any in-game aspect with given that training is typically a "downtime" activity settled with a few die-rolls to determine whether or not you've succeeded in teaching tricks. (Expert Trainer mainly exists as a "feat tax" for Horse Master.)
We are running Ironfang Invasion though, which has both lots of animals you can befriend and turn into animal companions and heavy day to day wilderness survival element. So thanks the wild empathy of the druid and ranger, the party currently has a wolf, a jackal, and a dire wolverine they are feeding regularly and intend to train, on top of the Cavalier's horse and the Druid's Elk. And there will be more.
So I'm trying to figure out what animals that Expert Trainer will apply on, because the difference between being able to get to teach an animal a trick a day vs a trick a week is HUGE here. If Saethori is correct...
Anything called out as an option within the mount class feature. But not just anything that one could theoretically tame into a mount, at least not until it's actually been trained as one.
... then what determines when it has been trained enough to be considered a mount? I don't see a riding trick under handle animal, for example.
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Riding is a purpose. It consists of three tricks. See also the Combat Training purpose for war-mounts.
Train an Animal for a Purpose
Rather than teaching an animal individual tricks, you can simply train it for a general purpose. Essentially, an animal’s purpose represents a preselected set of known tricks that fit into a common scheme, such as guarding or heavy labor. The animal must meet all the normal prerequisites for all tricks included in the training package. If the package includes more than three tricks, the animal must have an Intelligence score of 2.
An animal can be trained for only one general purpose, though if the creature is capable of learning additional tricks (above and beyond those included in its general purpose), it may do so. Training an animal for a purpose requires fewer checks than teaching individual tricks does, but no less time.
Riding (DC 15) An animal trained to bear a rider knows the tricks come, heel, and stay. Training an animal for riding takes three weeks.
Combat Training (DC 20) An animal trained to bear a rider into combat knows the tricks attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel. Training an animal for combat riding takes 6 weeks. You may also “upgrade” an animal trained for riding to one trained for combat by spending 3 weeks and making a successful DC 20 Handle Animal check. The new general purpose and tricks completely replace the animal’s previous purpose and any tricks it once knew. Many horses and riding dogs are trained in this way.