Mounts

[Darrell Impey UK]

Someone said to me the other day that mounts were not allowed to be purchased in Society play.

I know that vehicles are out, but I cannot find anything limiting or restricting mounts. Am I wrong?

[Monkhound]

What is/was the specific situation and what were you trying to do?

Common mounts should normally be legal, but you might need some form of access through a class feature or a feat of you want to use them in combat. Though even then, depending on various situations, your character could not be able to use them because you can only use a single minion creature (ie. mount, animal companion, pet, familiar,...) during an adventure.
Secondly, (assuming this is about second edition) some mounts are uncommon, rare or restricted and require some form of access (same as for gear).

[Tomppa]

"can only use a single minion" is slightly simplified: Rules about pawns/minions says that Familiars, temporary creatures (such as those summoned by summon spells) and creatures that stay in their controller's square (mounts) don't count towards the limit of 2 pawns, so you could have: Mount, familiar, and an eidolon, provided that you stay mounted during combat.

But yes, at face value that statement is not true, mounts are definitely legal in PFS, but there could be some other important context here to refine the question and answer.

[Darrell Impey UK]

Monkhound wrote:

What is/was the specific situation and what were you trying to do?

"Don't buy a mount, they're not allowed in the game." (May not be word for word.)

[Super Zero]

That's not true. I've seen at least one scenario where the PCs are told they should go buy some, in fact.

But it's really more of a solution to a particular problem. If you have a character who wants to be mounted regularly you really need a companion.

I have one character who purchased a mount because she needed to speed up some travel time. It did not survive to the end of the scenario, though it lasted long enough to accomplish the objective.

[Tomppa]

To be specific, The rules (for bying) the typical mounts are from player core p.295->, they are common, and not listed as restricted or limited on character options page, so they are indeed legal.

[RedOrca]

There is a certain scenario where the Venture Captain recommends against buying horses for an overland travel section (with a deadline), saying the mounts may not survive. If the party follows this advice, it will be very difficult for them to reach their destination on time, just based on simple distance per day math. Since the Society would obviously know this, I just adjust the box text to encourage mounts instead. That's about the only situation I can think of where the GM may come to that misunderstanding.

Some more details about the scenario:

The scenario is Lightning Strikes, Stars Fall. What's even more annoying, is that the mounts aren't really in any danger. Having mounts also makes it pretty difficult for the party to arrive late (unless they intentionally take a long detour). That means the GM doesn't really have to track days any more, which makes the scenario run much smoother.

[Sir Belmont the Valiant, II]

I just played in a PFS scenario where the NPC guides provided local-type horses (used to the local terrain/conditions). Obviously mounts have a place in PFS.

But what was said above is true: is you want a mount long term, obtain an animal companion with the mount trait. The companion levels with you, the warhorse/etc. does not.