What is needed, mechanically, to get a tamed but exotic animal, such as a wolf or lion, into a mount?
I see there is a Riding training, including Come, Heel and Stay. Is this training the only way to turn an animal into a mount? Is the animal having these three included tricks what's needed? Say, if you already taught it Come and Stay, would teaching it Heel make it mountable?
Best Answer
If your animal is tame, then you can ride it. In the Ride skill description, it says about riding animals:
This heavily implies to me that you can ride tame animals regardless of what tricks they know through Handle Animal. However, without knowing tricks, the animal will be very difficult to use practically. You will likely need to make ride checks to control your mount in combat if it hasn't been trained in combat, and you will need a DC 25 Handle Animal check to make it do anything that it hasn't been trained to do already.
You can mount a tame lion that knows Come and Stay, but it will be difficult to bring it into combat, and you won't be able to have it walk alongside you without a DC 25 Handle Animal check.