Is Heel enough to make a dire bat follow a druid by day

[Grisu]

Hi,

is it enough for a druid to teach his dire bat "Heel" to make it follow the druid by daylight? Or is this a push action, because bats like to sleep at day and fly at night?

If it has the "Attack" trick, will the bat attack every creature (like undeads, etc.)?

grisu

 

[Thanee]

Not entirely sure about the first, that's mostly open to DM interpretation.

Generally, a creature should still be able to follow its usual sleep pattern, I guess.

As for the Attack trick, you need to teach it twice to do that (it's mentioned in the Attack trick description), otherwise the animal will only attack 'normal' opponents (i.e. humanoids, other animals, giants, and so on, but not supernatural beings, etc).

Bye
Thanee

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I would say, yes, Heel is sufficient.

It is fair for the DM to impose consequences if the PC consistently requires the Companion to act in a manner that it would find highly unpleasant, but the DM should give the PC the benefit of the doubt.

 

[lukelightning]

I'd say no trick is necessary; an animal companion is your companion, after all.

 

[Drowbane]

The Heel trick would work for awhile, as long as the Druid was respectful of the fact that the Bat is not happy... if this is ignored too long it becomes Pushing with increasing DCs until the Bat finally has enough and leaves.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Perfectly reasonable. Bats don't have light blindness and often fly late in the day. Note that the bat might be too sleepy, however, to want to do anything if the druid wants to adventure at noon.

 

[Tonguez]

My brother had a flying fox as a pet and it would hang off his jumper during the day (a sleeping). Not sure how big a dire bat is but I assume it should be able to do a similar trick (fly to the druid then settle onto his shoulder to sleep)

 

[Jack Simth]

My brother had a flying fox as a pet and it would hang off his jumper during the day (a sleeping). Not sure how big a dire bat is but I assume it should be able to do a similar trick (fly to the druid then settle onto his shoulder to sleep)

Size Large. A halfling Druid could ride one readily (provided, of course, the Druid took ranks in Ride). I don't think you want that on your shoulder.

Edit: Ah, it's in the SRD: "A dire bat has a wingspan of 15 feet and weighs about 200 pounds."

Not something most people would want clinging to their shoulders....