[PF] Roc as an animal companion

[HedgehogRanger]

I'm playing a ranger in my game, and my DM has decided to strike down the normal restrictions on animal companions, and I've decided to chose a Roc. However, I have several questions about the various mechanics of riding one.

1. Is a Roc suited as a mount for the purposes of not taking a -5 penalty to ride checks?
2. Can animals fly with a medium or heavy load?
3. Can one saddle hold more than one person?
4. Do I suffer any additional penalties for firing a bow from a flying creature?
5. If the enemy escapes the grapple of my Roc who is in the air, does he just fall?
6. Can my medium sized Roc grapple and begin flying with a Medium creature?

[silverwolfer]

umm a rock ...okay

1. They tend to roll instead of fly, instead of the usual ride check, maybe a profession in barrel rolling or something?
2. Certain animals can, and usually is declared in the statement of the animal stat block. A rock is usually pretty good with holding things up though, if you are worried about getting the rock crushed, upgrade the HD so it becomes a boulder.
3. Yes it is called piggybacking
4. Yes
5. IF someone is grappling a rock that is in the air, most likely they will be squished when both land.
6. No, unless you put some sort of land glide or land fly to make it a hover rock.

[Crossblade]

umm a rock ...okay
Considering I'm not seeing any Edit time stamps on OP's post, he's referring to a giant bird not a rock like you'd find in your head.

For HedgehogRanger:
There are rules for Rocs as Animal Companions. It's on the Roc's info page (or here, on the SRD: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/animals/roc)

It is down graded a bit. It starts and Medium size and only grows to Large size. This is for balance.

For 3, I believe I've seen once that a being can carry 2 creatures for each size category lower, (as horses carry 2 riders frequently) but remember that weight still counts.

For 6, you should refer to the Grapple rules of moving while in a grapple. Again, weight is a factor.

For other questions, it's been too long since I've played. The rules are written though. Check the SRD or your PHB.

[HedgehogRanger]

Thanks Crossblade. After rereading my original post, I realized that the answers to both 1 and 5 are probably yes, and that the answer to 4 is probably no. However, that still leaves 2 and 6. The rules say nothing about flight being affected by encumbrance, so I would be inclined to believe that it doesn't, but creatures can't fly with Medium or Heavy barding, and the PHB says this about armor and encumbrance: "A medium or heavy load counts as medium or heavy armor for the purpose of abilities or skills that are restricted by armor." This is enough to make me wonder. For 6, the reason I ask is because mounts cannot be used by creatures of the same size as the mount, so I was wondering if my Roc before the size increase could pick up medium creatures and fly with them.