All,
My wife has a basic, vanilla fighter. She bought a war horse and wants to use it in combat. I know some characters can have animal companions that they direct in battle, but I don't know if a basic war horse can be used this way. I think there must be a particular skill that she needs to take in order to have a combat-ready animal that she can direct to fight independently of herself.
Also, as we level up our characters a standard war horse is going to be lunch meat for the higher level monsters we will fight, unless the horse can also level up some way. So I'm thinking that there must be some way of obtaining such a horse.
A person in our organized play group has a wolf companion that fights for her. I'd ask that person directly but we have something coming up on our regular Pathfinder night this week so it's going to be a couple of weeks before I can even ask them. And my wife's fighter has just hit level 4, so she wants to choose her new skills right away.
I don't even know what terminology to use in a search for this information myself.
Please pardon my ignorance. Can someone point me in the right direction, please?
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You also can ride a regular war horse with the Command Animal action or the the Ride feat. It's not as efficient as an actual companion, though.
You also can ride a regular war horse with the Command Animal action or the the Ride feat. It's not as efficient as an actual companion, though.
Seconded. The action is Command an Animal. It doesn't require a feat, but you are making a Nature check, so it would be good to have training in that.
There is also the Ride general feat that will remove the need to make checks in most cases.
There is no method in the printed rules for leveling up a purchased mount. That doesn't mean that you can't use the Building Creatures rules, Animal Companion stat progression, Summon Animal, or Animal Form to create stats for a higher level version of a horse.
Well, you can't in organized play, but Command an Animal and Ride are still relevant. Org play may have its own solution for this type of thing. In Organized Play, it would be better to take one of the various animal companion archetypes.
You also can ride a regular war horse with the Command Animal action or the the Ride feat. It's not as efficient as an actual companion, though.
This. From a practical combat view point it's BAD (due to action economy), but it can be done.
If the player wants to make mounted combat a frequent part of their repertoire it is advisable to spend some feats on either the Cavalier or Beast Master archetypes.
Another important distinction is that non-companion animals must be commanded on a one-for-one action basis.
For example, if you wanted to Command your horse to Stride to your side, so that you can Mount it, then Stride again, that's all three of your actions.
Another example: Commanding your non-companion pet wolf to Stride to the enemy, then Strike, then Trip, is three actions on your part.
An animal companion, on the other hand, can only be Commanded once per turn, but gets two actions in return (2 for 1). In some ways, it's more limiting as, barring rare exceptions, it can never take three actions in a turn. That being said, animal companions quickly outpace their mundane counterparts in the numbers game.
Other important points to be aware of:
- Non-mount minions do not share your multi-attack penalty.
- Mounted minions do share your multi-attack penalty.
I hope that helps. Personally, I recommend the Cavalier archetype; it's a lot of fun.
An animal companion, on the other hand, can only be Commanded once per turn, but gets two actions in return (2 for 1). In some ways, it's more limiting as, barring rare exceptions, it can never take three actions in a turn. That being said, animal companions quickly outpace their mundane counterparts in the numbers game.
Even better, once you get a few feats in, the Animal Companion starts getting one free (if somewhat limited) action per turn even on turns when you don't command them.
Basically, if you want something to ride on out of battle, then a purchased horse is fine. If you want something to ride in battle, then Animal Companions can be well worth it, but they do require investment.