Wild Shape to talk to an Animal Companion?

[haakon1]

If a druid Wild Shapes to the same form as his Animal Companion, can he talk to it?

Specifically, we're talking a Riding Dog. He's out of Speak with Animals and wants to find out what his dog is trying to tell him.

This seems legit to me, but I don't see in the SRD it saying that you get the communications abilities of the Wild Shape form.

Also, I'm thinking "dog talk" without the aid of SWA is a fairly limited vocabulary, but it should be enough to bark and growl something like "smoke, lots of it, that way, a long way off", which is what the dog has sensed.

 

[Lord Slaw]

A druid loses her ability to speak while in animal form because she is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but she can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as her new form.

Yep, that's a go. How much they are able to communicate really just depends on your opinion of "dog talk."

 

[Bad Paper]

So dogs can talk to each other? Really?
Not only can dogs conceptualize smoke, but they can communicate its amount and direction? Really?

This is ridiculous. An animal companion is not a familiar; it's an animal. Int score of 2.

At most I would allow the communication of anxiety. Unless the druid somehow picked up the Scent extraordinary ability, I would not allow the player to deduce that it has something to do with the smoke in the air.

 

[Lord Slaw]

Like I said, it completely depends upon your interpretation of "dog talk." I guess that you could rule it as an empathetic link, or you could go with Shakespeare. Personally, I would find Shakespeare a little more entertaining - the idea of eloquently placing an invitation to sniff another's hindquarters would keep me laughing for a good while (juvenile, I know - but immaturity is temporary, and we're mature 'till the day we die)!

 

[haakon1]

Oh, I missed this in the SRD:

<<A druid loses her ability to speak while in animal form because she is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but she can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as her new form. (The normal sound a wild parrot makes is a squawk, so changing to this form does not permit speech.) >>

So, yes a dog-shaped druid can definitely "communicate" with a dog animal companion, and it's down to what dog talk can convey.

We could debate how smart dogs are, but I'm of the school that says they're in the same class as most monkeys, but a little below dolphins and chimps, e.g., pretty darn smart, not quite smart enough to develop primitive tools, but a lot smarter than cows, horses, etc. SRD says dogs, monkeys, and horses are all Int 2, so it's doesn't get into that old debate.

Here's what I had the dog say (play by email, so it's slow):

Lick lick on the muzzle (hello old friend!)
Head slips under your mouth (I acknowledge your superior position in the pack)
Heavy sniffing (nose sensory data incoming)
Pointing his nose in a certain direction (that vector)
Tensing up his shoulders and neck (danger), but not growling or bearing his teeth (non-predator danger)
Not searching by pivoting his ears and eyes (distant)

I like the idea of a dog "talking" like an engineer, with a very limited, dog-relevant vocabulary that's mostly digital (yes or no) but can form compound words like German (non-predator-danger).

Fun stuff.