Large creatures and mounts

[orphias]

So, a player in my campaign has a Large awakened polar bear as his PC. Everyone else in the party has access to mounts either through animal companions or the use of a marvelous mount spell.

From the spell description it would seem only medium or smaller creatures can make use of the spell. Any suggestions on a mount for a Large creature ?

Marvelous Mount
You conjure a Large fantastical creature to serve as a mount for the target. The mount is the target's minion, has a Speed of 40 feet, and can bear the target with any carried possessions. It can't carry any other creature. The mount uses the target's AC and saves, but it's destroyed if it takes more than 10 damage at one time, ending the spell.

Heightened (3rd) The mount can walk on water, but it must end its turn on solid ground or sink.

Heightened (4th) The mount has a Speed of 60 feet and can walk on water.

Heightened (5th) The mount has a Speed of 60 feet and can walk on water. It also has a fly Speed of 60 feet, but it must end its turn on a surface or fall.

Heightened (6th) The mount has a Speed and fly Speed of 80 feet.

[Azothath]

You need the PF2 Advice forum for PF2.5:Marvelous Mount:2ADOP advice on good choices.

[Claxon]

I mean, what exactly the creature is isn't terribly important. It could look like anything.

The important part is, normally a large PC couldn't even benefit from Marvelous Mount. I assume you're willing to ignore that part of the spell though, or else you wouldn't ask the question.

I went through the list of huge creatures on Archives of Nethys for PF2 Remastered, and the first creature I found that I felt made sense was the Elephant.

[Mysterious Stranger]

Why does the character need a mount? He is about the same size as a horse and is only slightly slower.

[Squark]

Mysterious Stranger wrote:

Why does the character need a mount? He is about the same size as a horse and is only slightly slower.

If the player chose climbing or swimming animal (reasonable choices for bears), he's significantly slower.

If the party is still in a Polar environment, a Mammoth or Mastadon could be a good fit. But the player would need to acquire one without using animal companion or spells, which is tricky. The only huge animal companion is a Roc, which requires you to be 16th level, unfortunately.

[Claxon]

Squark I don't follow exactly, using Marvelous Mount the player isn't getting a climb or swim speed.

If the spell is cast at a high enough level, it can get an "air walk" type effect, a "walking on water" effect, and full on flight.

[Squark]

Claxon wrote:

Squark I don't follow exactly, using Marvelous Mount the player isn't getting a climb or swim speed.

If the spell is cast at a high enough level, it can get an "air walk" type effect, a "walking on water" effect, and full on flight.

The Reply was to the Mysterious Stranger who I quoted. I was pointing out that only one of the heritages for Awakened Animal can even partially keep up with a Marvelous Mount or Horse animal companion.

[Finoan]

By the rules, you are going to need a Size Huge creature to carry a Size Large character.

Marvelous Mount isn't going to give that without houserules. You could certainly houserule it so that Marvelous Mount does give a creature of a size large enough to carry it. I don't think that would break the game balance. And it is probably your best option.

I don't think an Animal Companion grows large enough to carry a Large creature - even at higher levels. Though I could be wrong. Maybe a Megafauna Companion... Yes, with Gigantic Megafauna Companion from the Mammoth Lord archetype.

You could also homebrew a mundane Mount animal. Though it would need to be one that is both large enough to carry a Large creature and wouldn't have a problem if that Large creature is a polar bear.

[Mysterious Stranger]

The OP stated that some of the other party members had access to mounts through animal companions. I don’t play second edition, but I doubt many animal companions get climb or swim speeds. I checked the AON and it list polar bears as an option for animal companions.

So, my questions remains why does the character need a mount? The speed difference on AON is only 5 feet between a bear and a horse. What is the horse animal companion giving that the character does not get?

[Errenor]

Mysterious Stranger wrote:

So, my questions remains why does the character need a mount? The speed difference on AON is only 5 feet between a bear and a horse. What is the horse animal companion giving that the character does not get?

It doesn't work exactly like that. You can't take a statbloc from monsters and make this your character. The topic is this Awakened Animal. It's a 'skin' and a fixed (but varied) set of abilities. To make polar bear, I'd probably take Running animal Heritage and Sea Legs feat. That would give 30 normal speed and 10 swimming speed. Or maybe Climbing animal and Sea Legs: 20 normal, 20 climb and 10 swim.

Not that your question isn't valid anyway. Awakened animal not using a mount looks very normal and traditional. No one would expect Iorek to use a mount.
And mechanical part of it has other solutions in the game I think.

[JiCi]

Is it for fighting or simply for traveling?

If the latter, how about using a chariot, cart or wagon?