Approach wild animal without wild empaty

[MadLuke]

Hi guys,
I feel I'm drown in an inch of water: one of my player, a pure fighter, is trained at Handle Animal, but he hasn't the wild empaty feat. Now he met a raven in the forest and he wants to approach it.
So, how can he handle it, if he can't make Diplomacy check before?

Bye, MadLuke.

PS. I apologize in advance for my bad english.

 

[Starfox]

Diplomacy is for creatures you can communicate with. Without speak with animals or wild empathy, he'd have to go about it the same way you do in our world: capture it and train it. Domestication would be the first hurdle. The Handle Animal rules only describes how to domesticate an animal if you rear it from birth. Some animals (wild horses is the prime example) can be captured and domesticated as adults, but for most wild animals its probably impossible to do.

It might be possible to establish a relationship with a wild animal, generally by continously feeding it. Over days and weeks, you establish a habit where you meet every day at dusk or some such. This is easier if the animal is hurt or otherwise needy.

If you want a more magical world, the raven might respond more intelligently. In this case, role-play the raven to the best of your ability and play it for story value. If a permanent relationship occurs, you might let the raven adopt the non-supernatural abilities of the familiar of a 1st level wizard, perhaps at the cost of a feat. Or you could introduce some magic item that does it.

 

[MadLuke]

Just capture it!

Thank you, MadLuke.

 

[Greenfield]

He can entice it in with treats, or use some form of Charm on it, courtesy of a sympathetic caster.

One way or another though, he has to "capture it", either physically or magically. Catching it in a non-magical manner might involve a Survival check, since that includes catching animals (usually for food.) I'd look at that as a base, and then apply the -4 penalty we normally apply in combat for non-lethal attacks.

After that, use the Training rules described under Handle Animal. It can learn X number of tricks, based on its intelligence, and that's it.

I think I'd consider speaking a single trick, but remember that it's still animal intelligence. It's making noise that sounds like speech, nothing more. It can't hold a conversation unless something is done to raise its Int score.