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Message: <blockquote data-quote="haakon1" data-source="post: 4208960" data-attributes="member: 25619">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.</blockquote>

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