Mount for a Dankwood Goblin

[Ogun]

I would like my Dankwood Goblin spore druid to have a mount.
I will not be able to speak with them all the time, since they will be medium sized, but I should be able befriend almost any beast.
I was going to go with a goat, since they are cheap, very common and extremely self sufficient.
I do wish they had Athletics proficiency, to reflect their climbing and jumping abilities.
A flying mount, like wasp would be great, but I can't imagine a DM allowing that starting out.
But then again a vulture should be easy to find...
Wolf spider would be amazing, but I'm more likely to end up with a wolf, which would be ok.
Any ideas on acquiring and training these beasts?

[Dualight]

This is extremely far into "Ask your DM" territory.
Bluntly put, the only mounts you can assume to be accessible are those in the Mounts and Other Animals table on PHB 157, everything else is pure DM fiat.

As for the narrative justification: What kind of environment did your character grow up in (if you try to justify starting with a mount)/ What kind of environment does the campaign take place in? Those will constrain what kinds of mounts are available. It is safe to say that flying mounts won't become available in any permanent sense (summon beast would be able to give you a flying mount from 3rd level onward, but that would be 1 hour at a time, using at least a 2nd level spell slot and concentration each time).

This really is something to discuss, at length, with your DM. There are too many variables that depend on your DM's judgement that giving advice is very difficult.
If you are looking for inspiration, not rules help, then what kind of character are you trying to pair with a mount? (Sub)class +race tell next to nothing, after all.

There is one bit of rules advice I can give sat this point, though: take Animal Handling proficiency, in my experience DMs are most likely to call for rolls where it applies when mounts are involved.

[Bardbarian91]

I agree with the DM discussion, all you can really find here are suggestions anyway so might as well roll with it - having said that, depending on your playstyle, taking the Mounted Combatant feat can be alright or great, since at minimum you always get the benefit of the second half of it, allowing you to take an attack directed at your mount.

For what it's worth on my end, I would be happy to allow the wolf spider mount just because it presents an awesome visual, and has some glorious potential with the spore Druid - though admittedly that might be a combination of picturing a spider-mounted goblin crawling around a dark, dank cave system, and a bit of childhood nostalgia remembering Paras and Parasect.

[Ogun]

I guess I was looking for feedback on what is reasonable.
For example there are like 3 races or more races that start with flight at first level, so when would it be reasonable to get a squishy flying mount?
Not like it should be available for sale, more like something to be acquired in downtime.

On the subject of inspiration, I'm planning to lean into the creepy crawly that spore druid offers thus animals associated with carrion,decay, death and disease are ideal.

I would like to use the Retainers from the Noble background reflavored into animal friends.
With animal friendship, speat to animals,the ability to talk to small beasts, summon familiar, animal handling, and regular summoning, I hope to have plenty of creepy friends.
At the same time, this little guy is more happy little fae than grimdark.

The obvious mount to start with is a Mastiff.
How could I reflavor him to fit the happy goth theme?

I would also like to trap beasts alive,any ideas on how can I do that?

Eventually I want an Huge Skeleton minion so I can build a hut on it, Babba Yaga style.

I plan on swapping Scimitar proficiency for Lance proficiency and play at being light calvary.
Javelins for "horse" archery, and a shield in the off hand.

[da newt]

IMO reskinning is always something I'll go along with as DM - IOW if there is a vanilla option that is fully supported by RAW, I'll let you have that and you can make it LOOK like anything you want as long as it functions per RAW.

You can buy a mastiff or a mule and it does exactly what RAW allows, but if you want to reskin your mastiff as a hyena or your mule as a sturdy goat - go for it (or even say your Mastiff is dead already).

As for something that gives you a mechanical advantage (like flight), this is where I get much more restrictive, but I would allow you to use a flying race mechanically but reskin it as your animal friend providing the flight (IOW use the aarokocra stats but say you are goblin who rides a big vulture - skin it anyway you like, but RAW constrains the mechanics).

But this is just my preference.

[yellowrocket]

The only appropriate mount for a DANKwood goblin is a Snoop Dogg.

I'll go back in to the bad pun corner again.