Animals and Their Tricks

Monday, March 11, 2013


Illustration by Emily Fiegenschuh

One thing the Venture-Officers and I have noticed is that there tend to be questions that continually come up on the messageboards about pushing animals to do something, animals using trained tricks, and other such issues regarding animal companions, familiars, etc. The newly released Animal Archive added several new tricks that a lot of GMs were hand-waving. I received numerous emails asking for clarification. Instead of replying to each email separately, I thought the community could be better served with a blog post.

The Ontario Venture-Captain, Adam Mogyordi, has written Mergy's Methods in the past and posted on both paizo.com messageboards and the Southern Ontario Pathfinder Lodge website. Not only have these been popular, but players have advised they have been very helpful articles to explain confusing rules and the like. I reached out to Adam and he was thrilled to write something to help clear up some common confusions players and GMs might have about animal companions. Thanks, Adam! Below is the article he wrote for the Pathfinder Society community.

Animal Archive gives druids and other pet classes a wide range of new options. To utilize these options, a review of the basics is a good place to start. Today I want to go over some of the rules that go with handling an animal for GMs and players. There are some benchmarks Handle Animal users need to meet, and I also have some tips for handlers and their GMs.

New Tricks: There are 18 new tricks available in Animal Archive, and some of these may be taken more than once! But while you now have much more freedom in what your pet can know how to do (my personal favorite new one is Bombard), there is also a side to this that some players may find displeasing. The addition of a Flank trick and an Aid trick means that pets do not, by default, know how to perform these, even if they know the Attack trick. If you command your companion to attack, it will take the most direct route. If you want your companion to always flank, you now need the Flank trick. If your companion doesn't know one of these tricks, pushing your companion with a successful DC 25 Handle Animal check is also an option.

Handling Your Companion: Some players and GMs hand-wave this, but it's important to note that just because your pet knows a trick doesn't mean it can perform the trick on command. Animal companions certainly cannot read your character's mind, and that's why we need to use the Handle Animal skill. A trick the animal knows is DC 10 and is a move action. A trick it does not know is a full-round action at DC 25. There are, however, a few ways to make this easier.

Druids and other classes with the animal companion feature get a +4 circumstance bonus when handling their own companion from the Link class feature. This also allows them to handle an animal as a free action, or use a move action to push the animal. Keep in mind you may still only perform the free action on your turn, so even if your animal wins initiative, it's not going to automatically do what you want before can you order it.

With Link, we can set some benchmark numbers a companion class needs. The DC to command an animal to perform a trick it knows is only 10, but this increases to 12 if the animal is injured or has taken nonlethal or ability score damage. With the +4 bonus from Link, the magic Handle Animal modifier you want to hit is +5. If you have a +5 modifier at level 1, you are guaranteed to always command your uninjured animal companion (the number for an injured companion is +7). GMs may wish to log what the player's Handle Animal skill is at the start of the game so that they know when to ask for a roll.

Smart Kitty: If you have increased your animal companion's intelligence score to 3 using various means, then great! You can now have your companion learn any feat it can physically perform, and it can put ranks into any skill. What this increase does not accomplish, however, is any advantage in commanding your companion whatsoever. It's still the same DC 10 to handle and DC 25 to push. It may still only learn six tricks plus your druid bonus tricks. However, for every point of Intelligence it gains above 2, that is three more tricks it can learn. A smart animal will have more versatility without needing to rely on pushing.

Why druids don't dump Charisma?: So how do we reliably overcome DCs like 25 at reasonable levels? I think Skill Focus (Handle Animal) is certainly an option for some druids who see themselves as dedicated animal companion users. There is also the training harness item from page 76 of the Advanced Race Guide that will give you another +2 bonus on these checks. The most important thing is to not dump Charisma. If your druid has a Charisma score of 7, you are likely looking at a 20% chance of your animal ignoring you at 1st level. If you want to reliably push your companion, you are going to make it much more difficult with a negative Charisma modifier.

If you have other questions not addressed here, please feel free to reply in the comments below. Adam and I will do our best to try to answer those in a timely manner.

Mike Brock
Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator

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Grand Lodge 5/5

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Mike, just wanted to say thanks for using this space for this kind of post. I do enjoy reading the status messages from the various PFS organizations around the world, but this sort of PFS / FAQ like post addressing the ever growing rule base and clarifying it for PFS a great addition to the content here.

So thanks!

Dark Archive 4/5

Oops. I already see where I didn't edit enough. See if you can catch my mistake for bonus points! :D


I don't play PFS, but I found this to be a really useful breakdown of the rules for clarifications in my home games. Thanks for sharing!

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

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Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

So this is an interesting part of the Blog...

Animals and Their Tricks wrote:
Keep in mind you may still only perform the free action on your turn, so even if your animal wins initiative, it's not going to automatically do what you want before can you order it.

I know a lot of GMs (Including myself) have Companions/Pets/Eidolons go on the PCs initiative. I know there have been attempts on getting a clarification on that without any success. I guess I can count this as and start having all the Companions/Pets/Eidolons roll their own imitative...


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Just when I thought I had all the books I needed till ultimate campaign.

Dark Archive RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

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Dragnmoon wrote:

So this is an interesting part of the Blog...

Animals and Their Tricks wrote:
Keep in mind you may still only perform the free action on your turn, so even if your animal wins initiative, it's not going to automatically do what you want before can you order it.
I know a lot of GMs (Including myself) have Companions/Pets/Eidolons go on the PCs initiative. I know there have been attempts on getting a clarification on that without any success. I guess I can count this as and start having all the Companions/Pets/Eidolons roll their own imitative...

And yet even if the pet wins initiative over its master it is gonna have to delay to get an order :-p

If the master wins, then the pet's response winds up being delayed, and may even be a useless command by the time the AC's turn comes about anyway... so the master would want to delay till the ACs turn :-p

4/5

Justin Riddler wrote:
Dragnmoon wrote:

So this is an interesting part of the Blog...

Animals and Their Tricks wrote:
Keep in mind you may still only perform the free action on your turn, so even if your animal wins initiative, it's not going to automatically do what you want before can you order it.
I know a lot of GMs (Including myself) have Companions/Pets/Eidolons go on the PCs initiative. I know there have been attempts on getting a clarification on that without any success. I guess I can count this as and start having all the Companions/Pets/Eidolons roll their own imitative...

And yet even if the pet wins initiative over its master it is gonna have to delay to get an order :-p

If the master wins, then the pet's response winds up being delayed, and may even be a useless command by the time the AC's turn comes about anyway... so the master would want to delay till the ACs turn :-p

True, but using delay to take the worse of two initiatives and then acting at the same time is still pretty different than taking just the one. Ever since I saw a Gunslinger/Summoner with +12 initiative who had an Eidolon with +1 initiative but never had to roll it at the +1 because other GMs were having them go on the same turn, I've been even more entrenched in my position that they roll separately.

Liberty's Edge 5/5

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Dragnmoon wrote:

So this is an interesting part of the Blog...

Animals and Their Tricks wrote:
Keep in mind you may still only perform the free action on your turn, so even if your animal wins initiative, it's not going to automatically do what you want before can you order it.
I know a lot of GMs (Including myself) have Companions/Pets/Eidolons go on the PCs initiative. I know there have been attempts on getting a clarification on that without any success. I guess I can count this as and start having all the Companions/Pets/Eidolons roll their own imitative...

If it is a mount, I typically have it roll initiative with the rider, as that makes sense. If it is a stand-alone pet, I rule that it gets its own initiatve.


What does this mean for summoned animals? The spell text says they automatically attack the caster's enemies, but they can't flank? Does a wizard have to use Handle Animal as a full-round action at a DC 25 to get his summon monster I celestial dog to flank?

Grand Lodge 2/5 RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

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Joana wrote:
What does this mean for summoned animals? The spell text says they automatically attack the caster's enemies, but they can't flank? Does a wizard have to use Handle Animal as a full-round action at a DC 25 to get his summon monster I celestial dog to flank?

Not that big of an issue when you can just summon them into a flanking square to begin with.

Liberty's Edge 5/5

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Yes. They are animals. I am typically even more strict on summoned animals than I am on companions or mounts.

You shouldn't be able to command summoned animals on the battlefield like you would a companion or like they are an extension of yourself.

Alternatively, if you summon more than one animal, just summon them into the flanked position. Then their direct route to attack will be into a flank.

EDIT: Ninja'd by Jiggy!

The Exchange 4/5 5/5

I actually saw a very funny solution to the summon communication problem in a home game. A player summoned a mite with SMI (having previously learned undercommon) because "it's the only SMI with a language!" He then proceeded to have it open doors and flank things.

Remember that all elementals have a language as well, just make sure you speak it. (Actual language varies by elemental type.)

Silver Crusade 4/5

Great post, especially since I statted up a Huntmaster for this weekend at Coastcon. Now the GM and I can be on the same page; 99% of questions I have seen at various tables were answered by this post!

It's times like this, I miss a sage advice type column...

4/5

How does sharing a language factor into Handle Animal checks? (less common of a factor for Animal Companions though a gnome druid or any druid who has cast Speak With Animals could be in combat and speaking with their companion)

For familiars however it is very likely that the familiar's master will be able to speak with the familiar directly. Does this impact what they can ask the familiar to do? and/or how to resolve tricks vs pushing? (as a DM or Player I haven't required pushing with familiars at all - but perhaps that is mistaken?)

Also if my math is correct would a Paladin's mount or an Oracle with a mount via a revelation that has an INT of 6 have a base max # of tricks of 18? Plus druid bonus tricks (for a total of a lot of tricks..)

With that smart of an animal can you teach it multiple "packages" instead of 18 individual tricks? (and for PFS play how does the individual trick vs package get documented on Chronicle sheets)

Shadow Lodge 4/5 *** Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant

Adam Mogyorodi wrote:
Oops. I already see where I didn't edit enough. See if you can catch my mistake for bonus points! :D

Spoiler:
It may still only learn six tricks plus your druid bonus tricks. However, for every point of Intelligence it gains above 2, that is three more tricks it can learn.
5/5 *

Rycaut wrote:

For familiars however it is very likely that the familiar's master will be able to speak with the familiar directly. Does this impact what they can ask the familiar to do? and/or how to resolve tricks vs pushing? (as a DM or Player I haven't required pushing with familiars at all - but perhaps that is mistaken?)

Also if my math is correct would a Paladin's mount or an Oracle with a mount via a revelation that has an INT of 6 have a base max # of tricks of 18? Plus druid bonus tricks (for a total of a lot of tricks..)

Familiars are not ACs, and are treated separately. IIRC they are actually sentient and magical beasts, not animals (pseudo awakened). I've never seen anyone enforce handle animal for familiars.

Paladin mounts indeed have 18+ tricks. My own Paladin's mount had a lot of empty trick slots until animal archive came out.

YMMV regarding actual magical beasts (such as Paladin Mount with 6 int). In my opinion they are also sentient, but still follow druid AC rules. So, you will see table variation.

Dark Archive 4/5

Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
Adam Mogyorodi wrote:
Oops. I already see where I didn't edit enough. See if you can catch my mistake for bonus points! :D
** spoiler omitted **

Winner. I sent in my fix, but forgot to take out the part that was wrong in the first place. >_>


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Rycaut wrote:
How does sharing a language factor into Handle Animal checks? (less common of a factor for Animal Companions though a gnome druid or any druid who has cast Speak With Animals could be in combat and speaking with their companion)

You beat me to it. Speak with Animals says that a friendly animal "may do some favor or service for you". Does that supercede the trick/Handle Animal rules? What about intelligent animals who have taken the Linguistics skill: would they similarly be willing to perform favors or services?

What about animals acting in self-defense: are they also limited by the type and number of tricks they know? It doesn't seem right that a wolf without the Attack trick would never bite anyone, but on the other hand it doesn't seem right that a wolf without the Flank trick can flank on its own initiative but not when ordered to attack.

Grand Lodge 5/5

hogarth wrote:
Rycaut wrote:
How does sharing a language factor into Handle Animal checks? (less common of a factor for Animal Companions though a gnome druid or any druid who has cast Speak With Animals could be in combat and speaking with their companion)
You beat me to it. Speak with Animals says that a friendly animal "may do some favor or service for you". Does that supercede the trick/Handle Animal rules? What about intelligent animals who have taken the Linguistics skill?

Not sure about peak with Animal, but even if theya re trained in Linguistics, you still have to make the HA check.

Dark Archive 4/5

I would offer that speak with animals' "may do some favour or service" is not the same as pushing an animal in combat to flank. Speak with animals may get the task complete eventually, but you are negotiating with an int 2 creature at that point. That's not a combat thing.

5/5 *

My pov:

So, speaking to a summoned elemental (4 INT for small and medium) using their native language (water elementals speak Aquan, etc...) is allowed, and you may then command them to do other things besides just attacking. (unless we are saying the text on summon monster is what makes this possible)

Speaking to a 6 INT bonded mount with a language shared through a point in linguistics sounds like the same to me. (I'd say that unless you are commanding them to do something they would not naturally do, like jumping off a cliff, I wouldn't need a handle animal check)


Adam Mogyorodi wrote:
I would offer that speak with animals' "may do some favour or service" is not the same as pushing an animal in combat to flank. Speak with animals may get the task complete eventually, but you are negotiating with an int 2 creature at that point. That's not a combat thing.

To use a specific example, I had an animal domain cleric who purchased an untrained dog (this was during the era when purchased animals were assumed to be untrained, so bear with me). I generally had her ask the dog (using Speak with Animals) to follow her around, despite the fact that it didn't have the Heel trick. Should this have worked or not?

Similarly, sometimes the dog would get attacked. Should the dog be able to defend itself or not?

(For the record, every GM I played with allowed the dog to follow and allowed the dog to defend itself if necessary.)

5/5 *

hogarth wrote:

Similarly, sometimes the dog would get attacked. Should the dog be able to defend itself or not?

(For the record, every GM I played with allowed the dog to follow and allowed the dog to defend itself if necessary.)

I'd think a non-combat trained dog would rather flee that defend itself if attacked.

doubly so if the attacked was undead or other unnatural creature (as per the attack anything trick)

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/5 RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8

Good bit of info in this blog post. It'll eliminate a lot of questions.

Even so, I still have some, regarding speaking to animals...
Example: Druid with a celestial mammoth companion. It has an int of 3+. It understand sylvan. Can she speak to it and tell it to:


  • move to a specific square
  • use smite evil on a foe
  • provide flanking for a foe
  • fight defensively
  • use a combat maneuver
  • etc

1/5

Question regarding source ownership. I assume that in order to train the new tricks we must own the Animal Archive book/pdf. Do we have to own the source if we are attempting to push the AC to do a trick from the book that it's not trained in?


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CRobledo wrote:
I'd think a non-combat trained dog would rather flee that defend itself if attacked.

Would it make a difference if it was a wolf instead of a dog? If not, can I tell that to the GM every time our party gets attacked by wild animals? "Sorry, they don't have Combat Training so they'd rather run away."

;-)

Sovereign Court 5/5 RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Hmm, Linguistics skill is a good question. If Boots the Alligator Animal companion has an int of 3+ and a rank in linguistics (say he speaks creole) doesn't that mean that Boots will understand "Attack!" just as easily as "Attack the big guy from the left!"

I can understand not understanding "Attack the big guy in the ful plate, go for the groin, it's softly armored."

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Seems like everyone has the same exact questions as before... ;)

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/5 RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8

Dragnmoon wrote:
Seems like everyone has the same exact questions as before... ;)

That's not entirely true.

Everything was answered except for the "if my AC understand a my language, what can I do?" Which Adam/Mike is likely formulating a response for.

Liberty's Edge 3/5

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Thanks for this, Adam. I'm very strict with animal companions when I GM because I have been in games where an unrestricted animal companion overshadowed both the fighter and the monk in melee effectiveness, and the druid was a skill monkey, having invested his second best intellectual ability score into Int and dumping Charisma. I will keep a link to this post handy for the next player who questions what I mean by "what tricks does your animal companion know?".

Silver Crusade 4/5

Man! I wish this post was up a week earlier! I got schooled at a convention table this past weekend about flank so I had to go all the way around! If I could have gotten Jameson (My cat) that trick earlier, I could have killed the baddie faster!

Thanks a bunch for posting this blog!

Sovereign Court 5/5 RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

@Ryan

I've started asking the same thing, for both animals *and* animal companions. Few things more amusing as a GM when you get the look on a player's face when his store bought guard dog *won't* attack the icky undead thing.

Scarab Sages 1/5

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What about PCs with telepathy?

3/5

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Dragnmoon wrote:

So this is an interesting part of the Blog...

Animals and Their Tricks wrote:
Keep in mind you may still only perform the free action on your turn, so even if your animal wins initiative, it's not going to automatically do what you want before can you order it.
I know a lot of GMs (Including myself) have Companions/Pets/Eidolons go on the PCs initiative. I know there have been attempts on getting a clarification on that without any success. I guess I can count this as and start having all the Companions/Pets/Eidolons roll their own imitative...

IF I'm rolling Initiative for my AC, and IF it beats mine, it will automatically Defend itself and me. Remember, the Defend trick does not require 'activation' (being commanded to do so).

So ...
AC beats my Init and delays to my Init
BBEG moves and tries to attack me
AC will take the AOO if presented (not flat footed)

Overall, most GMs just want my AC to go on my Initiative as it's much easier that way. Generally, I'm not rolling Init for my AC unless it's a special case (like we've been surprised).


So we're again at the situation where reality and PF are worlds apart.

Especially with the init I'd prefer the much simpler and smoother ruling where PC and AC share the init.

Also: will statblocks change now by giving the specific tricks animals presented in the bestiaries know so I as GM can have them behave correctly?

Lastly: will this become offical errata?

Ruyan.

The Exchange 5/5

I've always kind of had a problem with defining when the AC can "Defend" a PC. How does the animal know when to defend you and when it's not an attack. If you have your AC on "defend" (which makes sense to me) and:
1) someone walks up to you - does your AC attack him? just a guy on the street, walking past you or maybe even asking directions.
2) your cleric buddy (who you just met at the VC briefing an hour ago) moves up to buff you at the start of the encounter - does your AC attack him?
3) your down in combat, at -2 HP and bleeding. one of your companions moves up to heal you (to stablize you) - does your AC attack him?

I kind of solve this by stating that an AC is on "delay" until you are attacked, and at that point it will defend you. This does cause problems if you are moving, as the AC might need to move along with you and then delay it's action - which would really be a ready - but then if it took a "ready" action, it would be attacking before you are attacked... which puts us back into the 1,2,3, above. How does an AC know you are under attack - unless your hit?

Grand Lodge 3/5

Lady Ophelia wrote:

Man! I wish this post was up a week earlier! I got schooled at a convention table this past weekend about flank so I had to go all the way around! If I could have gotten Jameson (My cat) that trick earlier, I could have killed the baddie faster!

Except that a cat cannot flank because it is Tiny.

Silver Crusade 4/5

Scribbling Rambler wrote:
Lady Ophelia wrote:

Man! I wish this post was up a week earlier! I got schooled at a convention table this past weekend about flank so I had to go all the way around! If I could have gotten Jameson (My cat) that trick earlier, I could have killed the baddie faster!

Except that a cat cannot flank because it is Tiny.

No not quite... I'm a Ranger, so the cat shows up as a Small-sized creature at 4th level. (Cause it's -3 levels.) Add Boon Companion at 5th level, and POW! -- It's a Medium sized creature!

5/5 5/55/55/5

Just synch up their initiatives for Pete's sake. Doing otherwise is just annoying the hell out of the player as they have to skip their characters turn to catch up to the animal companion in the next round or just loose initiative in the round if they beat the companion.

5/5 5/55/55/5

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nosig wrote:
I've always kind of had a problem with defining when the AC can "Defend" a PC. How does the animal know when to defend you and when it's not an attack. If you have your AC on "defend" (which makes sense to me)

Since real world police dogs without mystical links, room temperature IQ's, and the ability to speak with their owners make that distinction all the time, I'd imagine they decide if their owner is being attacked the same way anyone else does.

Paizo Employee Developer

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A druid or ranger can give its animal companion a command on its own turn and the animal will carry out the direction (if the PC makes the requisite checks) when its initiative comes around. If the animal acts first, it can simply delay until it receives orders. But there's no reason for a PC to ever need to sync up her initiative with her animal companion. Using different initiatives means a player with an animal companion needs to think a bit more tactically about when things are going to go into effect between her two characters, but that's as it should be; they're controlling twice as many creatures as everyone else.

5/5 5/55/55/5

Mark Moreland wrote:
A druid or ranger can give its animal companion a command on its own turn and the animal will carry out the direction (if the PC makes the requisite checks) when its initiative comes around. If the animal acts first, it can simply delay until it receives orders. But there's no reason for a PC to ever need to sync up her initiative with her animal companion.

Good to know the animal can/will delay. (since there isn't a trick for it)

Quote:
Using different initiatives means a player with an animal companion needs to think a bit more tactically about when things are going to go into effect between her two characters, but that's as it should be; they're controlling twice as many creatures as everyone else.

This wouldn't be so bad if some DM's didn't treat animal companions like a literal genie or a computer program. There's no way to predict what your foes (or the party for that matter) will do in between the command being given. If you tell the wolf to bite the third orc on the left (by pointing at him and using the attack trick) on count 15, then on count 10 the party fighter beheads said orc, does the wolf acting on 5 say "third orc on left not found= null set" or just pick a different orc to chew on? What does it do if the wizard its been commanded to attack takes to the air, or the area in between gets filled with tentacles or body guards move to intercept?

3/5

Mark Moreland wrote:
Using different initiatives means a player with an animal companion needs to think a bit more tactically about when things are going to go into effect between her two characters, but that's as it should be; they're controlling twice as many creatures as everyone else.

Off Topic: I'm trying to get the GMs at my table to use different initiative for all the baddies. Six foes all going together. Also, for a long time, every time I asked, the GM wanted or suggested my AC goes on my initiative, so I've stopped asking. It is more effort to have separate initiatives and keep track of commands and actions. Is it worth it? I'll try next time and see.

Silver Crusade 5/5 5/55/55/5

Animals and their tricks wrote:
If your druid has a Charisma score of 7, you are likely looking at a 20% chance of your animal ignoring you at 1st level.

So what? I'm the brains of this outfit anyway.

Dark Archive 4/5

Conan, do you ever successfully push your Pathfinder Companion?

Silver Crusade 5/5 5/55/55/5

Adam Mogyorodi wrote:
Conan, do you ever successfully push your Pathfinder Companion?

All the time! My druid has the CMD of a damp dish cloth...

(BigNorseWolf)

On a slightly more serious note...

Not very often. I can usually get an animal companion to do what i want it to do with the existing tricks. Attacking/flanking pretty much covers moving a critter where i want it in combat, seek can get him to go somewhere ahead of me out of combat, heel covers following me out of combat, and fetch is good for macguffins/ disarmed weapons. You can wake up, set the animal to defend you or the party meathshield, and not have to worry about making the attack trick in combat (even if the animal may be attacking the more immediate threat rather thatn say the spellcaster in the back) Missing the AH checks because of a low cha only lasts a level or two, the stats you get last considerably longer.

On occasion it means the AC is doing what IT wants to do rather than what my druid wants him to do, especially at the early levels where you can theoretically miss a DC 10. Usually its funny followed by a growl that means "you first mammal" or "I killed it i keep it!"

The Exchange *

I don't think my Ranger animal companion will see a lot of action.

Silver Crusade 4/5

Mark Moreland wrote:
A druid or ranger can give its animal companion a command on its own turn and the animal will carry out the direction (if the PC makes the requisite checks) when its initiative comes around. If the animal acts first, it can simply delay until it receives orders. But there's no reason for a PC to ever need to sync up her initiative with her animal companion. Using different initiatives means a player with an animal companion needs to think a bit more tactically about when things are going to go into effect between her two characters, but that's as it should be; they're controlling twice as many creatures as everyone else.

Question then - Why can't the druid or ranger give their animal companion a command on the animal's turn if it goes first? (Assuming it isn't a surprise round.) Commanding the animal is a free action. Unless I'm missing something, you can take a free action at any time:

In general, speaking is a free action that you can perform even when it isn’t your turn. Speaking more than a few sentences is generally beyond the limit of a free action. - Core Rulebook, pg 188.

Being flatfooted at the beginning of a round (even post surprise) doesn't seem to restrict you from taking a free action, only making attacks of opportunity.

At the start of a battle, before you have had a chance to act (specifically, before your first regular turn in the initiative order), you are flat-footed. You can’t use your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) while flat-footed. Barbarians and rogues of high enough level have the uncanny dodge extraordinary ability, which means that they cannot be caught flat-footed. Characters with uncanny dodge retain their Dexterity bonus to their AC and can make attacks of opportunity before they have acted in the first round of combat. A flat-footed character can’t make attacks of opportunity, unless he has the Combat Reflexes feat. - Core Rulebook, pg. 178.

So unless I've missed something, it appears characters with animal companions can give them free action orders prior to their own initiative count. This would allow the animal to take advantage of a better initiative score, and not have to wait for its character.

Dark Archive 4/5

Speaking is a free action you can take when it isn't your turn, but you cannot take just any free action when it isn't your turn.

A short list of free actions you cannot take when it's someone else's turn:

- dropping prone
- dropping an item
- raging/stopping rage
- using Quick Draw to draw a weapon so you threaten the guy trying to grapple you

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