Animal Training
- Thread starter Tetsubo
- Start date
Sagan Darkside
First Post
Salutations,
Well- the handle animal skill mentions it takes a DC: 10 to give a domesticated dog an order, and higher DC to teach one a trick.
This is probably not correct- but I have allowed my players to assume that the DC:10 is for basic commands (heel, attack, sit, etc) and the tricks for more remarkable things- like teaching it to flank, trip, pick up discarded weapons- etc.
It has allowed more flexibility of people who invest in that skill.
SD
Well- the handle animal skill mentions it takes a DC: 10 to give a domesticated dog an order, and higher DC to teach one a trick.
This is probably not correct- but I have allowed my players to assume that the DC:10 is for basic commands (heel, attack, sit, etc) and the tricks for more remarkable things- like teaching it to flank, trip, pick up discarded weapons- etc.
It has allowed more flexibility of people who invest in that skill.
SD
Kahuna Burger
First Post
Tetsubo said:
I'm not sure, but I thought that was just the number of "automatic tricks" an animal companion got and they could be taught more. I work with dogs and have a very high opinion of them, so I would let my players teach a companion dog as many tricks as they could keep track of themselves.
On a lark, I once played a dog druid. Unawakened. She was essentially on par with a really good seeing eye dog or police dog. She had a standard spell list she always prepared, and got very upset when things changed so her spells weren't working "right" and she had to prepare different spells. She could also cast "speak with humans" as it were, and I drove the group buggy doing my best impression of what I thought dogs would say if they could.
Kahuna Burger
When I was playing a ranger and trying to teach a companion a trick, my DM let me use speak with animals a few times and make the tick a lot easier to teach/learn. Isn't the time to teach a trick at least a month? This was my end-around, although I didn't abuse it. I primarily wanted my animal companion NOT to go into combat but go to an exact distance where I'd know to look.
I tihnk it still has plenty of use. Synergies with Ride and Animal Empathy (and I think a circumstantial one for using heal on the companion should be granted), use for Breeding and grooming, commanding an animal that's otherwise unwilling to do a task. There's still plenty of reason to use it, a DM can house rule interesting things for you if you try to raise an animal from birth/youth.
But if time is of the essence (I think the whole campaign lasted 2 months in game time), you might want to be able to have a reasonable amount of tricks for your animal considering you are rather feral yourself and can speak to it in it's own language. There's still the willingness aspect which always keeps the skill relevant.
But if time is of the essence (I think the whole campaign lasted 2 months in game time), you might want to be able to have a reasonable amount of tricks for your animal considering you are rather feral yourself and can speak to it in it's own language. There's still the willingness aspect which always keeps the skill relevant.
