I want to build a goblin wolfrider.
Rides with wolves.
Shoots bows.
Does the outdoor thing.
I would like to start with a reskined riding dog.
Would this be acceptable, given the in universe lore?
The earliest way to a rideable canine companion seems to be second level,with Rough Rider and Cavalier.
Assuming this takes care of wolf riding,I'm inclined to go druid from the outdoor skills and allowing me to talk to my wolf.
Unfortunately druids don't seem to be trained in using bows.
I could ditch the bow use in favor of a spear, princess mononoke style, or choose another base class.
Bard actually seems like it makes sense.
I'd lose the ability to talk to my wolf, but be able to boost my "pack".
I'm a 5e refugee who prefers support casters, so I'm looking for that kind of feel.
Advice on a class choice is welcome.
Ways to add bow to druid or animal speech to Bard are welcome.
Curiously PF2 for some reason don't have any canine mounts. We have Horses, Camels, Elephants, Monitor Lizards,
Rhinoceros, Triceratops, Beetles, Terror Birds, Riding Drakes, Skeletal Mounts, Zombie Mounts and even Legchair but no dogs, wolves or wargs. OK, we have Corgi Mounts but they are basically a mountable familiar exclusive for tiny sprites only.
By rules you still can mount a Wolf/Dog Animal Companion but they aren't project as mounts, if you are a small sized creature you mount them but only beginning in level 4 after buy the level 4 mature companion feat found in classes that have access to Animal Companions or Beastmaster/Cavalier Archetype or if you are a medium creature after level 8 when you take some companion feat that allows you to increase your companion to larger size. Yet this non-mount especially suited for riding companion and is unable to use it's support ability while mounted and cannot use any other speed than land speed.
Maybe someday Paizo release some canine Animal Companion but until now you have to talk with your GM to allow create an especial wolf companion that begins medium or large sized and have mount special ability or reskin a some of these currently companions and call as wolf.
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You don't need a riding dog. Animal companions have their own stats, and while you're encouraged to choose a specific creature within the category the canine companion is already named "Wolf" by default.
You don't need your animal companion to have the Mount trait to ride it--and neither Rough Rider nor Cavalier add it anyway--those companions just have some advantages when ridden. The big one is that you can't ride your flying animal companion unless it's a Mount, and getting an AC who has both a fly speed and the Mount trait is a high-level Champion feat.
So you don't need Rough Rider unless you're using Champion or Cavalier to get your AC, since it lets you ignore the Mount requirement.
That said, if it has to be a goblin you might want Cavalier, because otherwise your Wolf companion will be too small to ride until you can make it a Mature Companion. A Druid can do that at level 4.
Archer Dedication can grant bow proficiency, but conflicts with Cavalier. Several Ancestries have feats for talking with types of animals, but I don't think Goblins or wolves are on the list.
Other than "support caster," everything you've said fits Ranger. Rangers have the Wild Empathy feat at 2nd level.
If I was your GM and you made a Ranger who started with a wolf companion, and then wanted to take Cavalier Dedication at second level to get a Medium-sized wolf a few levels early, I'd say go ahead and trade out your now-redundant Animal Companion class feat without needing to use the Retraining rules. It's a little trickier for Druids since their starting feat is tied to their Order, but we could talk about it if you told me it was your plan in advance.
I'm want use this part of Cavalier Dedication to get a rideable animal early "if the animal usually starts as Small, you can begin with a Medium version of that animal (changing no statistics other than its size)"
I want to use this part of Rough Rider to make the animal something other than a creature with the Mount trait"You can always select a wolf as your animal companion, even if you would usually select an animal companion with the mount special ability, such as for a champion's steed ally."
Yeah. Sounds good to me.
Goblin with Rough Rider should be able to choose a Wolf animal companion for Cavalier. And Cavalier would make the Young Animal Companion size medium. Which means that your Goblin could ride it sooner. I think at level 2 even since Goblins are size small and the companion only needs to be one size larger in order to be ridden.
Wolf riding goblin Cavalier advice
I think goblin cavaliers typically ride their canines rather than the other way around, but you can never really know where goblins are concerned I suppose. Who am I to judge? You do you. :)
;P
Seriously though, I wouldn't recommend druid. It doesn't sound like it would meet your needs anyways. Besides, you can get speak with animals as a bunch of scrolls, or a wand, or if you have a lenient GM, you could get a choker of elocution with the "canine" language.
I'm sure there are other options out there that will let you talk to dogs without you needing to be a druid too.
Maybe ranger instead? They get animal companions and have a lot of abilities that would complement an archer cavalier.
Don't worry about outdoor skills and class associations too much; since there are no class skills, cross class skills or the like, you can get those as a member of any class. All you really need is Nature and Survival, and perhaps a relevant lore skill (like Animal Lore perhaps).
It sounds like Ranger has most of what I want.
It would lose out on casting, which wasn't on my original wish list.
I've never played a Ranger in any edition, so I'll read up on it.
I forgot about retraining, but I would rather have a riding dog than an immature animal companion.
Regular animals are fragile, but also cheap.
It sounds like Ranger has most of what I want.
It would lose out on casting, which wasn't on my original wish list.I've never played a Ranger in any edition, so I'll read up on it.
I forgot about retraining, but I would rather have a riding dog than an immature animal companion.
Regular animals are fragile, but also cheap.
In PF2 it's not really feasible to ride things that don't have the minion trait.
I would suggest playing a ranger as you mention, and getting a wolf animal companion. Play a ranger with the precision hunter's edge using a bow. You wolf wont be able to move and use support ability on the same turn, as it doesn't have the mount trait but it's not the end of the world.
As an archer, you're generally going to be hanging out away from the enemy anyways.
It sounds like Ranger has most of what I want.
It would lose out on casting, which wasn't on my original wish list.I've never played a Ranger in any edition, so I'll read up on it.
I forgot about retraining, but I would rather have a riding dog than an immature animal companion.
Regular animals are fragile, but also cheap.
Here's a goblin tiger rider character of mine that I've had some success with, to help encourage and inspire you.
It would lose out on casting, which wasn't on my original wish list.
I came back to this and wanted to point out something.
In your original post you talk about riding your animal companion and using a bow.
You should know that in this edition (PF2) spell casting classes are left behind in terms of martial prowess. For example, a druid becomes an expert (proficiency levels are untrained, trained, expert, master, legendary) at level 11 (and it's only in simple and unarmed weapons).
A ranger becomes an expert in their weapons at level 5, and a master at level 13.
A fighter starts as an expert at in martial and simple weapons. And trained in all advanced weapons. At level 5 he increases to master in martial/simple weapons of a particular weapon group and expert in advanced weapons of that same group. At level 13 you become legendary in your weapon group and master in all martial/simple weapons. Now fighters are special because they are the only ones to get legendary in weapons, their benefit is the accuracy bonus of proficiency.
By comparison rangers get their hunter's edge.
Overall my point here is, if you want to be good with a bow, have an animal companion you can ride ranger fits the bill well. They can also gain some focus spells that are nature themed. And you can always choose the druid dedication to get some spell casting (not a lot be maybe enough to suit you). Some groups even play with a free archetype/dedication so it makes it very easy to get.
Ultimately you have to answer do you want to be more of a spell caster or more of an archer?