Lets say...........

[Wolfsfire2001]

Lets say that at some point you want an animal companion/familiar but you are not of the druid or sorcerer class or any associated? Could you with a high enough charisma and handle animal roll tame something such as a wolf to have for a companion??? And is there anyone who can tell me how the heck Drizzt Do'Urdin Manages to summon and unsummon Ghwynnevhar?

 

[JimAde]

From the SRD description of the Handle Animal skill:

Rear a Wild Animal: To rear an animal means to raise a wild creature from infancy so that it becomes domesticated. A handler can rear as many as three creatures of the same kind at once. A successfully domesticated animal can be taught tricks at the same time it’s being raised, or it can be taught as a domesticated animal later.

So yes you can do it, but it takes a long time.

 

[andargor]

I believe Handle Animal will do the trick (pun intended).

Train an Animal for a Purpose: Rather than teaching an animal individual tricks, you can simply train it for a general purpose. Essentially, an animal's purpose represents a preselected set of known tricks that fit into a common scheme, such as guarding or heavy labor. The animal must meet all the normal prerequisites for all tricks included in the training package. If the package includes more than three tricks, the animal must have an Intelligence score of 2.

EDIT: JimAde beat me to it, and has a more relevant quote.

Andargor

 

[wuyanei]

You can obtain an animal trained for battle relatively easily, but the animal will not have any of the benefits of a druid's animal companion.

As for the-drow-that-must-not-be-named, his panther is more akin to a summoned Int 3 ~ 6 magical beast, instead of a normal animal, and the H Ani skill doesn't really apply.

 

[Infiniti2000]

And is there anyone who can tell me how the heck Drizzt Do'Urdin Manages to summon and unsummon Ghwynnevhar?

The panther is a figurine of wondrous power, not an animal companion. This is why he must, as you put it, unsummon him from time to time.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

As for Guenwhyvar ...

Figurines of Wondrous Power: Each of the several kinds of figurines of wondrous power appears to be a miniature statuette of a creature an inch or so high (with one exception). When the figurine is tossed down and the correct command word spoken, it becomes a living creature of normal size (except when noted otherwise below). The creature obeys and serves its owner. Unless stated otherwise, the creature understands Common but does not speak.

 

[Pinotage]

Lets say that at some point you want an animal companion/familiar but you are not of the druid or sorcerer class or any associated? Could you with a high enough charisma and handle animal roll tame something such as a wolf to have for a companion??? And is there anyone who can tell me how the heck Drizzt Do'Urdin Manages to summon and unsummon Ghwynnevhar?

As others have pointed out, the answer is yes. Note however that the DCs to handle an animal are often high (DC 20 to fight, for example) so that you need quite a number of ranks to get the animal to reliably perform a trick it knows. Once you've generally achieved that number of ranks, most animals are nothing more than cannon fodder and cannot compete with high level nasties without dying.

Pinotage

 

[glass]

The panther is a figurine of wondrous power, not an animal companion. This is why he must, as you put it, unsummon him from time to time.

IIRC, the panther is not exactly a figurine of wonderous power. Her current condition is the result of the creation of a figuirine being interupted by Drizzt, saving the panther who was due to be sacrificed to power the figurine, and whop instead became bound to it.


glass.

 

[IcyCool]

Also, isn't there a feat that will grant you an animal companion? I could have sworn there was one in Races of the Wild.

 

[wuyanei]

OTOH, if you treat H Ani like a Profession skill for pricing (1 sp x check result per day), it costs only 42 ~ 84 gp to get a first level expert to train the creature to fight for you (assuming your DM allows it).

1 Exp: take 10 + 1 Cha +4 ranks +3 Skill Fcs (H Ani) +2 Animal Affinity = 20

Fighting trick package (DC 20, 3 weeks, counts as 3 tricks): 20 x (3 x 7) x 0.1 gp = 42 gp

Guarding trick package (DC 20, 4 weeks, counts as 4 tricks): 20 x (4 x 7) x 0.1 gp = 56 gp

Fighting trick package + Attack any creature type (DC 20, 4 weeks, counts as 4 tricks): 20 x (4 x 7) x 0.1 gp = 56 gp

Guarding trick package + Attack any creature type (DC 20, 5 weeks, counts as 5 tricks): 20 x (5 x 7) x 0.1 gp = 70 gp

Guarding trick package + Come + Attack any creature type (DC 20, 6 weeks, counts as 6 tricks): 20 x (6 x 7) x 0.1 gp = 84 gp

You still need to make a DC 10 (DC 12 if the animal is wounded) H Ani check each time to get the creature to obey your commands.