Sorting out costs to acquire a tiger "pet"

[aboyd]

Gosh, I'm not sure, Frank. I use the battlemats from Chessex, which are 1" squares on one side and 1" hexagons on the other side. Is that what you mean? For your graphic, I'll be using the tiger in the upper right side corner, as that matches up with a large tiger (4 squares) from the SRD.

As for your other thread, yes, I've had that bad boy bookmarked for a long time now.

EDIT: I just realized that due to how I worded my reply it could appear that I was being snarky, even though there is nothing to be snarky about. So I thought I would point out that my comment is genuine and not snarky. Thanks.

 

[Thanael]

The Wild Cohort feat gives you an animal cohort (which is similar to an animal companion) as if you were a druid 3 levels lower than your character level, but it's powers advance slower than a regular animal companion's powers.

The feat Natural Bond raises your effective druid level by 3 for animal companions (but not higher than character level.) I would let this feat work on the animal cohort as well, though from the wording this is debatable.

One level of the Beast Master prestige class from Complete Adventurer gives you an animal companion at class level +3 (stacks with previous animal companion).

 

[Thanael]

Ways to get a tiger in D&D.
1) 7th lvl druid, as animal companion
2) 14th lvl ranger, as animal companion
3) 12th level druid or cleric using a FR feat (allows you to rebuke/command animals)
4) optional feat on WotC site; I don't recall the name. Basicly a leadership/cohort type thing. I imagine you'd have to be at least 7th or 8th level.

Wild Cohort has no prerequisites. But your effective druid level (EDL) is your class level -3. (See above post.)

More ways to get a tiger companion (at CL6):

5) xxx2/Druid3/Beastmaster1 (EDL 7)
6) Druid5/Beastmaster1 (EDL 9)
7) Ranger4/Druid1/Beastmaster1 (EDL 7)
8) Ranger5/Beastmaster1 with Natural Bond Feat (EDL 9)

If one of the players wants to invest in the appropriate skills, feats and/or classes why not let them get a very young tiger and raise it themselves ? Use cat, leopard, and lion stats for the young tiger and advance him to tiger when the EDL hits 7 .

If they don't want to invest in at least a few ranks of Handle Animal they better get a Ring of Animal Friendship for 10,800 gp to be safe.

 

[Thanael]

For befriending/capturing a tiger the charm animal spell goes a long way. An extended charm animal lasts for 2 hours per level so at caster level 12 it lasts the whole day. Train animal is a 2nd level Ranger or Druid spell from Complete Adventurer which temporarily boosts the number of tricks known for 1 hour/level. It's casting time is 10 minutes.

And then there is option d : Someone with spells and/or Wild Empathy could capture a baby animal and use Handle Animal skill to “rear a wild animal.” Rearing a tiger is DC 21 Handle animal check. A gifted Animal Tamer could do it more or less reliably (taking 10) at CL 1 (4ranks +2cha +3skillfocus +2animal affinity). So a CL6 Beastmaster could easily do it. As he can raise up to 3 animals at once, one probably becomes his companion, and of the two others at least one will probably be successfully tamed. Having the appropriate spells or class features also helps offset the possible failures of course. The animal could even be the tamers ex-animal companion (then he would have gotten +4 on the handle animal check), and when he "upgrades" to another animal companion he sells the old one.

A general question: How does such a tamer know if the reared the animal right? Maybe the animal has learned all the tricks but is not really domesticated. Maybe only the spells class features of the trainer kept it in check and after being sold it could revert to it's wild behaviour. Maybe it is a young or adolescent tiger, which is still growing, and when it finally advanced to 6 HD (or when a grown tiger advances to 7HD) a new Handle Animal check is in order, else it reverts to wild behaviour) Plot hooks galore....

 

[Thanael]

The Uncivilized trait gives +1 on Wild Empathy and Handle ANimal checks.

 

[aboyd]

Can an animal trainer take 10 on the handle animal rolls, if failure would result in attack? Or is it only taking 20s that cannot be done if there is potential for a seriously bad consequence?

 

[Kask]

Someone in my campaign would like to purchase a tiger as a pet. I think this is overpowered

Looking over the options you gave, the PC himself would still be in more danger than any opponent. Since it isn't magically bonded/controlled by/to the PC, the Tiger (especially if used to attack) WILL eventually attack the PC when the PC is very vulnerable. (Tigers & such attack when they have the upper hand and and almost always when your back is turned.)

You are being kinder than I as a DM. I let the player tell me what their plan is and I let the chips fall where they may.

 

[frankthedm]

Can an animal trainer take 10 on the handle animal rolls, if failure would result in attack? Or is it only taking 20s that cannot be done if there is potential for a seriously bad consequence?

Taking 20 does not work if there is a consequence for failure. it also means actual doing the skill use 20 times. I think take 10 is a very good idea when training a dangerous animal that may try to eat you if you roll badly and is exactly what a trained professional would be doing. In a modern setting you'd want a doctor skilled enough to take 10 & succeed on a surgery.

Taking 10
When your character is not being threatened or distracted, you may choose to take 10. Instead of rolling 1d20 for the skill check, calculate your result as if you had rolled a 10. For many routine tasks, taking 10 makes them automatically successful. Distractions or threats (such as combat) make it impossible for a character to take 10. In most cases, taking 10 is purely a safety measure —you know (or expect) that an average roll will succeed but fear that a poor roll might fail, so you elect to settle for the average roll (a 10). Taking 10 is especially useful in situations where a particularly high roll wouldn’t help.

 

[Kask]

. I think take 10 is a very good idea when training a dangerous animal that may try to eat you if you roll badly

Taking 10
When your character is not being threatened or distracted, you may choose to take 10.

If there is a threat ie: the tiger is getting out of control, you can't take 10. If you are in a battle situation you couldn't either.