Wild Empathy + Diplomacy = teach tricks?

[RUMBLETiGER]

If you have the Wild Empathy ability, can you use your Diplomacy skill in order to teach an animal tricks and the other various things the Handle Animal skill accomplishes, or do you still work off the Handle Animal skill?

Does the spell Speak With Animals provide any bonus to Handle Animal according to any RAW ruling?

 

[Arrowhawk]

If you have the Wild Empathy ability, can you use your Diplomacy skill in order to teach an animal tricks and the other various things the Handle Animal skill accomplishes, or do you still work off the Handle Animal skill?

Does the spell Speak With Animals provide any bonus to Handle Animal according to any RAW ruling?

Srd says:

Untrained If you have no ranks in Handle Animal, you can use a Charisma check to handle and push domestic animals, but you can’t teach, rear, or train animals.​

Seems like a no on the training, right?

Regarding the speech, I haven't seen anything in RAW. If a person had SwA functioning the entire week of training, seems plausible to allow a modifier.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

Srd says:

Untrained If you have no ranks in Handle Animal, you can use a Charisma check to handle and push domestic animals, but you can’t teach, rear, or train animals.
​

Seems like a no on the training, right?

Regarding the speech, I haven't seen anything in RAW. If a person had SwA functioning the entire week of training, seems plausible to allow a modifier.

It does seem a no, I've found nothing to support either of these things, I was hoping someone knew an obscure book reference someplace that'd work out for me.

 

[Arrowhawk]

One thing to consider is that SRD states that Diplomacy only works on "others (nonplayer characters)". So Wild Empathy is simply Diplomacy for animals.

While it would have seemed logical to allow WE to provide a bonus to all HA checks, unfortunately WotC didn't seem to think that was appropriate. It's also unfortunate that RAW says you can't train without at least one skill point in HA. WotC imposes a lot of binary outcomes, which imho, seem contrived, but keeps the game clean and tight.

A Rule 0 option might be to allow training animals without HA by doubling the time required and giving the person a -4 penalty.

 

[Arrowhawk]

I was hoping someone knew an obscure book reference someplace that'd work out for me.

You can always hire someone to train the animal for you...or buy an animal trained for a specific purpose.

 

[LiL KiNG]

I agree with Arrowhawk on hiring someone to train the animal or buying one pre-trained - also look at the Magebred and Warbeast templates if your DM allows them. One or both of them can turn a normal animal into a killer beast pretty quickly.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I agree with Arrowhawk on hiring someone to train the animal or buying one pre-trained - also look at the Magebred and Warbeast templates if your DM allows them. One or both of them can turn a normal animal into a killer beast pretty quickly.

Oh I Know. Seriously.

 

[LiL KiNG]

Oh I Know. Seriously.

LOL yes, yes you do. Hadn't seen it mentioned so just wanted to throw them out there. I only learned about them in the last year or so - but I'd never had a pet/mount/animal companion to worry about it for. I usually use ACF's to replace a Pally's mount or Ranger's AC.