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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 1299809" data-attributes="member: 2629">I said *understands*. Not *trained to do*. There is a huge difference. If you can't communicate to the animal what it is supposed to do, you can not push it to do that action.Think of it this way: You go to work and your boss calls you into his office. The boss asks you to flidger his gidget because the time is right for gidget flindering. Although you've never trained in gidget flindering, it is a task you can perform once you understand what he wants. Because the concepts in gidget flindering are so foreign to you, it takes a little while for him to pass along the proper instructions. Once you understand what he wants, you can perform the task for him. You're not a trained gidget flinderer, but you can do it for him this time under the particular circumstances that he has presented to you.That is the same process that an animal and druid needs to go through to get across unusual ideas to an animal companion. Pushing an animal animal companion to jump through a loop of fire should probably take a move equivalent action. Pushing an animal companion to climb into the mouth of a dead T-rex, climb down the throat, sniff out the Golden Loaf of Triton hidden in the pack of the dead assassin in the T-rex's belly and then return out of the T-rex with the loaf would take more than a move equiavlent action. Climbing into the throat of a dead T-rex would not be something that the animal would instinctively understand as a good thing. Sniffing around in an acid filled stomach would seem bad to an animal companion (not understanding that you've cast protection form acid on it). Is this expressed in the rules? No. Neither are the rules for drinking water. But, if something arises where we need to know how a PC dsrinks water, we need to figure out how it should be handled using common sense. The rules cover the basics. We, as DMs and players, need to deal with the fine details.</blockquote>

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