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Handle Animal vs. Animal Companion
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<blockquote data-quote="Big Jake" data-source="post: 1643117" data-attributes="member: 19203"><p>No, not too powerful.</p><p></p><p>First of all, the Druid and the Ranger can use the Handle Animal skill just like anyone else. They can train animals to accompany them (in addition to their animal companion) just as you said for the fighter or the paladin or the barbarian. They are simply treated like normal animals vice an animal companion.</p><p></p><p>Handle Animal is in fact a very beneficial skill to use... especially if you're running a wilderness based campaign. It not as useful (but still useful) in a city. Bears (or any other animal), no matter how well trained, are not comfortable outside their prefered environment. Even the animal companions feel the same way.</p><p></p><p>Animals will rebel if not treated well. The animal companion may put up with a little more than normal, but not much.</p><p></p><p>But too powerful? At lower levels, an animal in the party can make a HUGE impact. The animal often has more hp and does more damage than the character that it follows. But that slowly fades (less so for the animal companion) to the point that the animal is less likely to hit the really big CR baddies, less likely to overcome DR, and just about gauranteed to die in combat.</p><p></p><p>For an animal companion to die in combat, the druid or ranger simply spends a day or two meditating and calling a new animal to them. The new animal is just as well trained as the previous animal and equally as faithful.</p><p></p><p>But when a trained animal dies in combat, the character has to spends weeks training the new animal. Not to mention finding the animal. Or maybe even the expense for purchasing a new animal.</p><p></p><p>Some important things to think about:</p><p></p><p>Using the Handle Animal skill to do the simplest trained "trick," to include "Attack," "Down," or "Stay," is a <strong>move action</strong>. Thus, any character with three trained animals can only handle two of them the first round (and lose his own attack) and then one the next round.</p><p></p><p>A druid or ranger can handle his animal companion to do a learned trick as a free action.</p><p></p><p>--------------------</p><p></p><p>I could go on quite a while. There is a druid in my current campaign, and a druid and a ranger in my last one. I had to look at the rules very carefully to make sure that the animals were not being used beyond their true capabilties.</p><p></p><p>When used beyond their true capabilties, the animals can almost assume a PC-level status. I've read posts where the DM includes the animals in the party when dividing up xp, possibly to compensate for the abuse of the handle animal rules.</p><p></p><p>In my experiences, I have seen animals (and animal companions) fall one after another to the point that it becomes difficult for the non-druids/rangers to keep up. Equally as often, the party encounters things that animals simply do not want to attack (undead), or creatures with DR 15/whatever that the animal's attacks simply become useless.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Big Jake, post: 1643117, member: 19203"] No, not too powerful. First of all, the Druid and the Ranger can use the Handle Animal skill just like anyone else. They can train animals to accompany them (in addition to their animal companion) just as you said for the fighter or the paladin or the barbarian. They are simply treated like normal animals vice an animal companion. Handle Animal is in fact a very beneficial skill to use... especially if you're running a wilderness based campaign. It not as useful (but still useful) in a city. Bears (or any other animal), no matter how well trained, are not comfortable outside their prefered environment. Even the animal companions feel the same way. Animals will rebel if not treated well. The animal companion may put up with a little more than normal, but not much. But too powerful? At lower levels, an animal in the party can make a HUGE impact. The animal often has more hp and does more damage than the character that it follows. But that slowly fades (less so for the animal companion) to the point that the animal is less likely to hit the really big CR baddies, less likely to overcome DR, and just about gauranteed to die in combat. For an animal companion to die in combat, the druid or ranger simply spends a day or two meditating and calling a new animal to them. The new animal is just as well trained as the previous animal and equally as faithful. But when a trained animal dies in combat, the character has to spends weeks training the new animal. Not to mention finding the animal. Or maybe even the expense for purchasing a new animal. Some important things to think about: Using the Handle Animal skill to do the simplest trained "trick," to include "Attack," "Down," or "Stay," is a [B]move action[/B]. Thus, any character with three trained animals can only handle two of them the first round (and lose his own attack) and then one the next round. A druid or ranger can handle his animal companion to do a learned trick as a free action. -------------------- I could go on quite a while. There is a druid in my current campaign, and a druid and a ranger in my last one. I had to look at the rules very carefully to make sure that the animals were not being used beyond their true capabilties. When used beyond their true capabilties, the animals can almost assume a PC-level status. I've read posts where the DM includes the animals in the party when dividing up xp, possibly to compensate for the abuse of the handle animal rules. In my experiences, I have seen animals (and animal companions) fall one after another to the point that it becomes difficult for the non-druids/rangers to keep up. Equally as often, the party encounters things that animals simply do not want to attack (undead), or creatures with DR 15/whatever that the animal's attacks simply become useless. [/QUOTE]
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