Wasteland Knight
Adventurer
This situation came up during my last campaign. Party bard was fond of using Inspire Courage, and another character was as ranger with an eagle animal companion. Question at the time was if the Inspire Courage applied to the eagle, as the eagle was an animal. My ruling at the table was "yes", as it seemed reasonable. Now I'm trying to figure out what the rules say should happen in this situation. Here's what I've come up with:
Bardic music (from the SRD): "Once per day per bard level, a bard can use his song or poetics to produce magical effects on those around him (usually including himself, if desired). While these abilities fall under the category of bardic music and the descriptions discuss singing or playing instruments, they can all be activated by reciting poetry, chanting, singing lyrical songs, singing melodies, whistling, playing an instrument, or playing an instrument in combination with some spoken performance."
Inspire Courage (from the SRD): "To be affected, an ally must be able to hear the bard sing."
Animal Subtype (from the SRD): "An animal is a living, nonhuman creature, usually a vertebrate with no magical abilities and no innate capacity for language or culture."
My take on it is this - an animal has no capacity for language or culture, but to be affected by Inspire Courage the animal doesn't need to understand the bard, just be able to hear him. Indeed, a bard can inspire courage simply by whistling or chanting, two activities which have no understandable speech, just rhythmic sounds.
Conclusion: animal companions ARE affected by inspire courage. Which would lead me to think that allied summoned monsters would also be affected. Thoughts on this? Is my rules-logic sound (pun intended
), or am I missing something?
Bardic music (from the SRD): "Once per day per bard level, a bard can use his song or poetics to produce magical effects on those around him (usually including himself, if desired). While these abilities fall under the category of bardic music and the descriptions discuss singing or playing instruments, they can all be activated by reciting poetry, chanting, singing lyrical songs, singing melodies, whistling, playing an instrument, or playing an instrument in combination with some spoken performance."
Inspire Courage (from the SRD): "To be affected, an ally must be able to hear the bard sing."
Animal Subtype (from the SRD): "An animal is a living, nonhuman creature, usually a vertebrate with no magical abilities and no innate capacity for language or culture."
My take on it is this - an animal has no capacity for language or culture, but to be affected by Inspire Courage the animal doesn't need to understand the bard, just be able to hear him. Indeed, a bard can inspire courage simply by whistling or chanting, two activities which have no understandable speech, just rhythmic sounds.
Conclusion: animal companions ARE affected by inspire courage. Which would lead me to think that allied summoned monsters would also be affected. Thoughts on this? Is my rules-logic sound (pun intended
), or am I missing something?
