What's the weirdest thing you've ever used as a mount?


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


Pathfinder offers A LOT of choices for unconventional transportation. My question is simple: What's the weirdest thing you've ever used as a mount?

Comic for illustrative purposes.


A had a Gnome inventor character in a 3.5 campaign that created a vehicle that was operated by 2 mules in rodent wheels. It had a jack so that the wheels could spin freely and drive 2 flywheels that powered a battering Ram. It also had a ballista that could throw alchemally charged projectiles.

He called it the Tactical Armored Assault Autonomously-Navigated Carriage, or TAAANC, for short.

I was thinking it would be cool to have a Druidzilla character with the Leadership Feat. The cohort would be some kind of melee character that used lance and composite bow: she would be an Animal with a Human Companion! Sort of a Hong Kong Fooey and Spot kind of relationship.

I also have a build for a halfling Eldritch Guardian Fighter with a Mauler Dragonfly Familiar who would ride the Familiar as a Mount.

I had a similar idea for a fantasy story about Halfling light cavalry riding on Giant Wasps and Halfling Heavy Cavalry riding on Giant Skunks.

Orcish General Grawlix's last words wrote:
%^@#%$#!@!! The Halflings are retreating!

I was recently turned onto the Arsinotherium as a mount.


I GM as much as I play, so most of my stranger mount choices are for NPCs. The most exotic mount any of my PCs has is the axe beak that my PFS tengu cavalier rides (thanks to a Chronicle sheet boon making it a legal mount choice).

In my homebrew Pathfinder campaign setting, there is one human empire that breeds certain races of dinosaurs as mounts and beasts of burden. The party hasn't visited that nation yet, so there haven't been any dino-riders "on stage" yet.

One of the conceits of the campaign is that the PCs will fight the Tarrasque someday when they're at (or close to) 20th level. The half-orc cavalier PC wants to ride the biggest, toughest things out there, so will likely take the Beast Rider feat at 7th level, But what she really dreams of riding is the Tarrasque--if only for one glorious moment before it tears her apart.


I had a dwarf npc alchemist that used his iron golem as a mount - it was built bipedal with a seat on its back, like a baby carrier, but facing forward.

Sovereign Court

Mauler King Crab familiar for my Shaman/Ninja.

I once had a Camel animal companion (on my Ifrit Blistering Feint Inquisitor) who climbed up 70' of a 100' cliff, fell, and stabilized all on its own at level 1. Now he has Planar Focus and can burrow/feather fall/swim speed and can sneak, pick pockets and bluff. Basically a Ninja-Camel.


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Myself....

More specific details, my character served as a mount for their specialized Eidolon to ride into battle.


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My dwarven druid was a rhino mount for his lance trained ape companion. :D


In our Kingmaker game, my druid spent a lot of time wildshaped into a giant owl, which was ridden by our gnome cleric.

We did all the party's scouting, which usually meant that we tangled with things earlier than everyone else. Good times.


I have the Scepter of Ages in a game. This thread has made me want to use it to time travel to the past and use my past self as a mount.


I never got to play him but I designed a grippli Mesmerist that rode a peacock


You can have a lot of fun without even having to get into weird mount selections.

Example: Notice how little detail the rules go into regarding riding dogs? Remember how much variation there is in dog breeds? Remember that this is a different world where breed variation is probably much larger due to various factors?

Long story short, our last game's grippli swashbuckler started the game riding a purchased Taldan Giant Corgi named Captain Jack. : D


Casting a spell to slow the enemy, then mounting the barbarian with your move action so he can run away is a perfectly valid escape tactic.


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A little immunity to poison, a little resistance to acid...gelatinous cube.


Quixote wrote:
A little immunity to poison, a little resistance to acid...gelatinous cube.

I think you win the thread.

Definitely weird.


In one AP our party managed to ally themselves with a Giant Moth. The moth offered to act as a group transport. So it wasn't a mount per se...but we rode it.


A floating-disk (years before those rotten feats showed up to ruin the concept as something a very lightweight small character could pull off on their own without having to allocate one of the most parsimoniously doled-out quanta in the game).


The weirdest one of my characters has used was a mere animated wagon. Admittedly it had a banner flying above it supported by a pair of animated shackles.

@Quixote: I think there was a prestige class in D&D for riding inside a gelatinous cube. Did you use that or did you figure out what you needed to do and just take it from there?


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Not me, but somebody I knew had those feats that let you detach your hand and have it possessed, allowing you to use your detached hand as a Familiar. They were small. Their Familiar had the Mauler archetype. I think you see where I’m going with this.


avr wrote:

The weirdest one of my characters has used was a mere animated wagon...

@Quixote: I think there was a prestige class in D&D for riding inside a gelatinous cube. Did you use that or did you figure out what you needed to do and just take it from there?

A cube rider class? That's awesome. And dumb.

Though it's not quite poison immunity, now that I think about it. Just paralysis.

Also, taming an animated clawfoot bathtub.


Reksew_Trebla wrote:
Not me, but somebody I knew had those feats that let you detach your hand and have it possessed, allowing you to use your detached hand as a Familiar. They were small. Their Familiar had the Mauler archetype. I think you see where I’m going with this.

That may just beat out the gelatinous cube. Wow.


If you guys can find me an actual use for a Cavalier or Paladin to have a Giant Tortoise mount, that would take the cake.

I mean, having a mount is supposed to be a focus on mobility... so why would you want the slowest companion :P ?


Because he’s got the warmest heart!


JiCi wrote:

If you guys can find me an actual use for a Cavalier or Paladin to have a Giant Tortoise mount, that would take the cake.

I mean, having a mount is supposed to be a focus on mobility... so why would you want the slowest companion :P ?

Get the BIGGEST giant tortoise you can (I'm talking Gargantuan or bigger) and turn it into a mobile fort. Walls and fortifications on top of its shell, armor for its legs and head. Get a caster to do some speed increasing magic on it, and you have an almost ideal mobile base of operations.


MidsouthGuy wrote:


Get the BIGGEST giant tortoise you can (I'm talking Gargantuan or bigger)

Like this one?


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SuperJedi224 wrote:
MidsouthGuy wrote:


Get the BIGGEST giant tortoise you can (I'm talking Gargantuan or bigger)
Like this one?

YES, that one exactly! I'm having my group storm a tortoise mounted fort as soon as possible. This idea is too good not to use.


Oh, ok, if it's a Colossal tortoise, reared and trained... but as a companion, that might be trickier :P


A giant tortoise has a fair amount of AC so if you're sick of losing mounts they're an option I guess. Just make sure to give it all the mobility feats you can (step up etc.) and get someone to cast longstrider on it.


And Haste. It'll probably need Haste.

Sadly, I don't have a strange mount story. So far, the only characters that have mounts are my Hunter and Cavalier. And they ride a boar and a horse respectively.


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well, it's not that strange, BUT I did have a flying mount at level 1 in Society play, by using a small hunter, carrying ant haul, and using a dire bat animal companion.


Ride that skunk backwards!


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avr wrote:
A giant tortoise has a fair amount of AC so if you're sick of losing mounts they're an option I guess. Just make sure to give it all the mobility feats you can (step up etc.) and get someone to cast longstrider on it.

Here's what I have found:

- Give the Giant Tortoise the Racer archetype (+10 ft).
- Buy it the Horseshoes of Speed (+30 ft).
- Pick the Barbarian Mounted Fury archetype's Fast Rider ability (+10 ft).
- Pick the Swift Foot rage power 3 times (+15 ft.) as well as the Ferocious Mount and Greater Ferocious Mount powers

The Tortoise can now move at 75 ft while its rider is raging... and it can sprint at 750 ft once/hour, and that's without spells.


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Can a tortoise use the Horseshoes? That might be up to the GM.


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Clearly the answer is a jetpack.


blahpers wrote:
Clearly the answer is a jetpack.

Are you talking about a jetpack as a mount, or making your giant tortes into Gamura?

Grand Lodge

Ran a game of We Be Goblins where one goblin used another goblin as an unwilling mount. That gives you an idea of how the game went, and it was a fun run for all involved.


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Heather 540 wrote:
Can a tortoise use the Horseshoes? That might be up to the GM.

Oddly enough, a tortoise doesn't have the feet item slot... somehow ?_? It has a wrist slot, but not the feet.

Yeah, I would strongly believe that a tortoise can wear boots, similar to horseshoes.


JiCi wrote:
Heather 540 wrote:
Can a tortoise use the Horseshoes? That might be up to the GM.

Oddly enough, a tortoise doesn't have the feet item slot... somehow ?_? It has a wrist slot, but not the feet.

Yeah, I would strongly believe that a tortoise can wear boots, similar to horseshoes.

Bagsy not being the one who has to coax the boots onto it's huge crushing feet.


blahpers wrote:
Clearly the answer is a jetpack.

That's it. My Strange Aeons games is cancelled. We're restarting with Iron Gods. :P


avr wrote:
A giant tortoise has a fair amount of AC so if you're sick of losing mounts they're an option I guess. Just make sure to give it all the mobility feats you can (step up etc.) and get someone to cast longstrider on it.

Or awaken it, and let it learn to cast longstrider on itself.


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I recently played a high-level module in which one PC was a kitsune who spent 99% of his time in Fox Shape, with a bizarre all-martial build meant to allow him to seriously --- up foes once he was in their square. My wife's halfling monk ended up carrying him around most of the adventure, because she was twice as fast and a Tiny fox didn't even come close to encumbering her. When combat started, the halfling would rush in among the enemies, easily dodging AoA's, and drop the fox next to an enemy before taking up a position that would let her engage as many foes as possible the next round.


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Tim Emrick wrote:
avr wrote:
A giant tortoise has a fair amount of AC so if you're sick of losing mounts they're an option I guess. Just make sure to give it all the mobility feats you can (step up etc.) and get someone to cast longstrider on it.
Or awaken it, and let it learn to cast longstrider on itself.

O_O

Turtle . . . druid?

Turtle druid.

Turtle druid!

TURTLE DRUID!


Like... real life???

Jack Russell. It was the Battlecat to my 4 year old He-man.


JiCi wrote:
avr wrote:
A giant tortoise has a fair amount of AC so if you're sick of losing mounts they're an option I guess. Just make sure to give it all the mobility feats you can (step up etc.) and get someone to cast longstrider on it.

Here's what I have found:

- Give the Giant Tortoise the Racer archetype (+10 ft).
- Buy it the Horseshoes of Speed (+30 ft).
- Pick the Barbarian Mounted Fury archetype's Fast Rider ability (+10 ft).
- Pick the Swift Foot rage power 3 times (+15 ft.) as well as the Ferocious Mount and Greater Ferocious Mount powers

The Tortoise can now move at 75 ft while its rider is raging... and it can sprint at 750 ft once/hour, and that's without spells.

What I like about this is that the tortoise probably just likes to move along at its normal speed unless it has to do otherwise.

This means that if encountered by players, it will likely be moving its normal slow speed, unless it or its rider is provoked.

Imagine the look on their faces when the sedate, plodding beastie suddenly springs from one side of the battlefield to the other......!!

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