Looking at the rules for handle animal I see Combat Training that gives 6 tricks attack, come, defend, down, guard and heel. I also see riding which gives 3 tricks come, heel and stay. Riding takes 3 weeks with a DC of 15. It does not include any combat ability so a horse with the riding general purpose will not fight. What is going on is that you can take an ordinary riding horse that will not fight and upgrade it to a combat trained mount that will. Doing so take 3 additional weeks and requires a DC 20 handle animal roll. When you do so the horse loses the stay trick and but gains attack, defend, down, and guard.
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*Riding (DC 15): An animal trained to bear a rider knows the tricks come, heel, and stay. Training an animal for riding takes 3 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.
You upgrade an animal with the general purpose of "riding" into one with the general purpose of "combat."
Why would you do it that way? Maybe you bought or found an animal trained for riding and wanted to retrain it. Maybe you only had three weeks at a time for training.
The other thing to consider is that training the animal for riding first and then upgrading it to combat training takes the same amount of time as training it for combat to begin with. Considering the DC to train for riding is only 15 most character that have handle animal as a class skill can take 10 and succeed. A druid or ranger has no chance of failing with their animal companion unless they have a 3 CHA. Any character without a CHA penalty with 2 points in handle animal or any character with a CHA bonus with a single point in handle animal will always succeed when taking 10.
Doing it this way is better, because it gives you a mount you can at least ride in 3 weeks. You might not be able to use it in combat but it can at least get you around. After 3 more weeks it is fully trained. By comparison the animal trained for combat from the start cannot be used to get you around until the full 6 weeks are finished.
Don’t forget that a normal horse has an INT of 2 which means it can only learn 6 tricks. Combat Riding gives 6 tricks, but only includes attack once. So, a normal horse cannot take the second attack trick without raising its INT or using something like the bridle of tricks. This means most ordinary combat trained horses will not attack unnatural creatures. An animal companion gets bonus tricks so they can easily avoid this problem.
You can train a normal horse to attack humanoids, monsterous humanoids, giants and other animals by taking the attack trick. To get it to attack unnatural creatures like undead and aberrations you need to take the attack trick twice. At that point your horse can be directed to attack any opponent. If you want to do this with a normal horse, you will need to decide which trick the horse does not learn.
Combat training includes more than attack trick which is why it takes 3 weeks. Upgrading from riding to combat riding also gets you defend, down and guard in addition to attack. Without down the horse would continue to attack even if you wanted them to stop. Defend means the horse will defend you even without being told or allows you to tell it to defend a person or place. Guard is similar to stay except it means the horse prevents other from approaching. Basically, you are retraining stay to guard.
If all you did was add the attack trick to a horse trained in riding, it is still likely to cause problems. An animal that cannot be called off is likely to become a hindrance in combat. Likewise, one that ignores things approaching it unless attacked or that does not come to your aid without being specifically told to. That is what upgrading riding to combat training is doing.
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You can train a normal horse to attack humanoids, monsterous humanoids, giants and other animals by taking the attack trick. To get it to attack unnatural creatures like undead and aberrations you need to take the attack trick twice. At that point your horse can be directed to attack any opponent. If you want to do this with a normal horse, you will need to decide which trick the horse does not learn.
Or decide what trick you want to replace. Defend or guard are both valid choices for that. While useful, they are hardly the primary uses of a combat mount.
@Azothath That stuff about different horses is interesting. I will look at it.
Guard replaces stay when you upgrade to a combat trained mount. I think one of those is going to be needed because otherwise your horse will wander off when it wants to. Having to chase down your horse when it moves out of the area you left it in or running away instead of defending itself is going to be a pain in the neck.
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Guard replaces stay when you upgrade to a combat trained mount. I think one of those is going to be needed because otherwise your horse will wander off when it wants to. Having to chase down your horse when it moves out of the area you left it in or running away instead of defending itself is going to be a pain in the neck.
Stay (DC 15): The animal stays in place, waiting for you to return. It does not challenge other creatures that come by, though it still defends itself if it needs to.
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Guard (DC 20): The animal stays in place and prevents others from approaching.
A bit more than "keep the horse from wandering off because the grass on the other side of the street is greener".
A picket and a line work perfectly in keeping the horse in place if needed.The Come trick allows you to call it back if it moves away.
A picket and line keep it from wandering a way, but also prevent it from moving if needed. It also may not work in every situation.
Come only works if it is fairly near you. If it fled the area it may not be close enough to hear you.
Any combat trained horse missing any of the commands is going to be less than ideal. It can be done but the horse will not be as useful as one with the tricks. The other thing to look at is if the standard horse be of use when fighting unnatural creatures. A standard horse is great for low level, but once you get into mid to high level it tends to be slaughtered by any level appropriate creature. An animal companion class creature grows in power with the character so will have a much better chance of survival than a normal horse. Teaching a normal horse, the attack anything trick is more likely to end up with a dead horse than a combat worthy mount.
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You use a low HD creature against low HD treats. Skeletons are undead and a horse would be useful against them.
A normal horse in middle to high-level combat is simply death meat, regardless of how it is trained. The only possible exception is you use ranged attacks against opponents without them.
The other option is to use it as a one-shot item for a Leeroy charge (for the horse) while wielding a lance.
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...standard horse is great for low level, but once you get into mid to high level it tends to be slaughtered by any level appropriate creature. An animal companion class creature grows in power with the character so will have a much better chance of survival than a normal horse. Teaching a normal horse, the attack anything trick is more likely to end up with a dead horse than a combat worthy mount.
Animal companions get d8 hit dice and other slow forms of progress compared to melee characters. They will get left behind melee characters eventually unless you get something unusual. Like a Mammoth Rider prestige class.
An animal companion may only get d8 for HP but many especially horses have good starting physical stats. A paladin’s horse mount will have about 37 HP at 5th level. The paladin will have about 49 assuming a 14 CON. By 12th level the paladin’s mount could be around 85 HP depending on where the stat bonuses are put. While that is lower that the paladins HP, it is enough that the mount has a decent enough chance of survival.