"Pets" and what they can do...


Advice


I thought about posting this in the "rules" forum, but figured it could go either place.

What can you do with a non-familiar, non-companion, non-cohort, non-follower "pet" animal?

If I am reading the rules about "handle animal" correct, then you can train an animal for combat, either as a mount or as a "guard dog." In fact you can outright buy an already trained guard dog.

So... if I wanted to, couldn't I train a rhinoceros to be a combat rhinoceros and buff it up with buff spells and send it into combat?

Is there a limit to how many animals I can train and send into combat?

What if I wanted to train a pride of lions and send them all charge/pouncing into melee?

Is the only limitation to this the inability to level animals up?

Liberty's Edge

Correct.


Animals don't gain levels when you do. So that guard dog may be quite nice at 1st level, but at 6th level he's a) not doing any significant damage anymore b) if he hits at all and c) if he gets hit he's dead.

Also handling animals (aka making it do tricks they kniw) that are not your animal companion is a move action with a DC of 10 (12 if they took damage already). So you'll lose a move action there, and it might not even work.

Sure you could rear a rhino, but first you gotta find a baby, and then it will take a long long time for it to grow up.


Quatar - why do you say it would be necessary to "rear" a rhino? Why can't I just go find one in the wild, use "handle animal" like diplomacy, spend a few days getting it friendly then spend a few weeks training it?

And sure that guard "dog" might not be so hot at level 6, but what about that guard "lion?"

Sure you have to invest some game time into training... but many of my PCs have lots of game time between adventures and could locate and train some level appropriate animals as "guard dogs".

And certain animals would be useful with certain tricks (such as tracking by scent, for example) at any level.

Has anyone played a PC who has invested in "handle animal" for the specific purpose of training and utilizing normal animals in this way?


It basically falls under GM fiat to decide that is even allowed. Many wild animals won't be your "buddy" after hanging out for a few days. You are basically walking food in many cases.

Dog are more easily domesticated than rhinos in real life, and I am sure the games follows that to a large extent. That is why the game allows you to buy dogs, but other creatures don't have a price or even guidelines for most of them.


a) You can't use handle animal like diplomacy. A druid or ranger has Wild Empathy and can do something like that, but its still different.

b) just because an animal is friendly does not mean it will from now follow you around and learn tricks. People that are friendly/helpful will also not just follow you around all the time and fight for you.

c) yes a guard lion is useful at level 6, but either it's expensive if its available to buy or you have to spend lots of time to rear it. If your GM allows you to train an adult lion, then good luck, but I'd not.


wraithstrike wrote:

It basically falls under GM fiat to decide that is even allowed. Many wild animals won't be your "buddy" after hanging out for a few days. You are basically walking food in many cases.

Dog are more easily domesticated than rhinos in real life, and I am sure the games follows that to a large extent. That is why the game allows you to buy dogs, but other creatures don't have a price or even guidelines for most of them.

1st paragraph: Ditto. However, there is a precedent for domesticating large animals IRL. Elephants have been used in war, and are still kept as pack animals in India to this day.

2nd paragraph: it's not that dogs are easier to domesticate, it's that humans have spent thousands of years doing so. If you started with a pack of wild wolves from Yellowstone it would take you a similar length of time and selective breeding to make them settle down.


Wolves by their nature don't view men as dogs do even when kept as pets. They won't just attack them, but their are more distant. If I could remember the discovery channel or animal plant show I saw that on I would quote it.


Hmm... I think you're right Quatar, at least a quick search through my books doesn't show any other way to "domesticate" an animal, which seems to be a requirement for training.

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