Rough Rider too strong?

[RainElement]

As of tonight's game session with a rough rider goblin in the party, if the player so wished they'd be able to use all three of their actions to give an animal companion 6 actions total. Is that too strong for Level One?

[Tiene]

This is a part of the rules that needs to be made clearer. Animal companions are minions (defined on pg. 416). Minions only have two actions which are used when you use one action to command them (called the "Command a Minion action" in exactly two places). Minions can't get more than two actions per turn and they can't take reactions. Rough rider therefore doesn't work with animal companions. Again as far as I can tell, you don't need to use Handle an Animal to command an animal companion.

Now admittedly this is all very confusing because it means the normal uses of Handle an Animal and Command an Animal don't work on Animal Companions and never can. I would personally rule that you can use either option depending what you're trying to do -- so long as you don't combine them in the same turn. (e.g. if you have the ride feat you can give an animal companion you're riding three actions by spending three actions, or you can give it two actions by spending one, but not three by spending two.)

[JoelF847]

Seems to be better than the Ride feat alone, with the extra +1 bonus for goblin dogs and wolves. To differentiate, it should only give bonuses above what the Ride feat does, or give penalties as well, so it's not just simply better than Ride.

Also, for flavor reasons, what about other wolf like creatures, like the classic worg mount? Seems like a feat applicable to orcs as well, but with different mounts listed for the bonus.