Goat

Goat

(Creature)

Type

Animal

CR

1/3

Environment

Any

Alignment

LG	NG	CG
LN	N	CN
LE	NE	CE

Adjective

Caprine

Images of goats

Source: Bestiary 3, pg(s). 112

Goats are hardy, nimble four-legged herd animals. They can be domesticated for milk, cheese, meat, fur, and hide, and can serve as pack animals or mounts for smaller races as well as familiars for spellcasters and as animal companions. They have a reputation for being temperamental and stubborn.

Appearance

Goats can have a wide variety of appearances, but all have fur, horizontal slit-shaped pupils, cloven hooves, and four-chambered stomachs that allow them to eat and digest a vast variety of food. Many have at least two horns of varying shapes, as well as beards on their chins.

Height and weight vary by breed; they can range in height from 16 inches to several feet and weigh from 45 to 300 pounds.

Abilities

Goats are nimble enough to scale nearly sheer walls in pursuit of food.

On Golarion

Varying adaptations in many goat breeds allow them to inhabit almost any environment. In the wild, herds of goats prefer edible grasses and roots in fields and plains. However, some goat breeds are especially well-adapted to mountains and cliffs, scaling steep inclines for sparse fibers and minerals. Wild goats are known to roam the Wyvern Mountains and Menador Mountains, and live year-round in even the High Ice near Golarion's North Pole.

They are raised as agricultural mainstays across Golarion, from the Zenj of the Mwangi Expanse to Carpenden in Andoran, the Gronzi Forest of Brevoy to the Nesmian Plains of Nirmathas, and even Erutaki villages like Iqaliat in the frigid Crown of the World.

They are also prey animals for mountainous kuchrimas.

Specific breeds

Mindspin mountain goat

Found in the Mindspin Mountains after which it is named, this breed of goat is famous for its ability to climb effortlessly in its native mountainous terrain, even able to ascend vertical inclines. This capability is a boon to any that adopt a Mindspin mountain goat as a mount.

In religion

A goat is awakened by sitting on The Shepherd, a diabolic manifestation of Barbatos.

Goats are sacred or favored animals of many deities, with a particular bent toward diabolic and demonic deities. Asmodeus favors goats, and goat heads are part of the unholy symbol of Shub-Niggurath (also called the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young). Goats are the sacred animals of Belial, Orcus, Slandrais, and Zepar.

In the Vudran pantheon, goats are the sacred animal of the goddess Ashukharma.

In magic

One kind of figurine of wondrous power is the trio of ivory goats, which can create magical goat mounts for travel, travail, or terror.

In society

Goats are common and widespread animals, and many places and groups on Golarion are named for goats. For instance:

• The town of Goatshead in the Shackles takes both its name and its flag—a white goat's head on a black field—from the animal.
• The Goatherds gang of Egorian in Cheliax operates out of a group of buildings known as the Goat Pen.
• Goat Hill is a district of the city of Jol in the Lands of the Linnorm Kings.
• Chimera Cove in Andoran includes three islands for its namesake's three heads, one of which is the Goat.

The Shoanti language has a word for children kicked in the head by a goat: skentok.

Goats can be such important herd animals in some small towns, such as Dustpawn, that they comprise most of the town's economy.

Creatures with goat-like features

• The div species aghash has the legs of a goat.
• Aberrations known as capramaces are goat-headed creatures with rear hooves that were mutated by the Mana Wastes.
• One of a chimera's three heads is typically that of a goat.
• A dreamthief hag has goat-like horns.
• Krampus resembles a monstrous humanoid goat.
• A satyr resembles a goat from the waist down, including its cloven hooves.
• A schir is a goat-headed demon.