Bard wants a furry friend


Advice


I play a bard who found a wounded fox in the wilds. He ended up healing the creature and is now nursing it back to health. It should take a week for it to fully heal. My question is how can I get the animal to become an ally to my bard if he doesn't know Handle Animal?


He can't actually teach it anything with Handle Animal until he gets another level and puts ranks into it (he's a Bard, he'll have plenty). It's certainly not a huge stretch to figure that the fox would be friendly towards him before then.


It will by nature go where nuture is
Feeding it and healing it and keeping it safe will have it accompany him. But it's unlikely to join in any fights.

Basically so long as he knows it's there to pet and talk to and keep warm with at night, but little else, he should be fine.


since Handel animal is a trained skill and not a class skill, a bard can put a point into it?


Winterfox707 wrote:
since Handel animal is a trained skill and not a class skill, a bard can put a point into it?

Of course. Anyone can put a point in anything as long as the number of ranks in that skill don't exceed the character's character level and the character's Int is higher than 2. Trained Only means you can't use it if you have no ranks in it, and Class Skill means you get a +3 bonus to checks using it if you have ranks in it.


Plus you have CHA as the bonus linked to it, so given Bards usually have good CHA the skill won't be too bad if only a couple of points are assigned.

If you're not feeling particularly feat-starved: Familiar Bond?

Not as good as a full familiar class feature, but you do get some things...

The Feat "Animal Ally" you would need a pre-req for, and you may have to "re-skin" the animal to be your fox (not that difficult...)

Another possibility is you've just gone and healed some other NPC's familiar or animal companion. Maybe that NPC will be more friendly to you as a result, or let the fox go with you, for a favor, or as a guide, etc.?

Otherwise, it would be a slightly more friendly fox than a "normal" fox, until you get Animal Training?

Shadow Lodge

In addition to the above linked feat there are others such as eldritch heritage (arcane) or (if third party or 3.5 material is allowed) obtain familiar


If you want it to be a familiar, look into Familiar Folio.

Sovereign Court

Fox mauler in battle form is strongest familiar (str 16).

Excellent choice! ;)

Dark Archive

Doki-Chan wrote:


If you're not feeling particularly feat-starved: Familiar Bond?

Not as good as a full familiar class feature, but you do get some things...

If you want it to be a full familiar you can just pick up Improved Familiar Bond later. You can also Eldritch Heritage Arcane Bloodline, or VMC Wizard or Witch - lots of ways to get a scaling familiar now.

Silver Crusade

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While I lived in an apartment where pets were not allowed, I would enjoy petting my friends dogs when I visited. I also gave them treats that their owners gave me. The dogs quickly learned where to get their ears scratched and treats. The dog would often spend the game curled up near my feet which I enjoyed.

I would often ask my GM if my character could buy a dog, usually just like their dog, and he was fine with it.

So in the game, after the adventure, in the in, or camp, my character would feed his dog, pet his dog, and it would sleep next to his bed roll, or on his bed in the inn room he rented. There wasn't any really "game effect" other then the Gm would have the dog get into the garbage, come out of the woods with a small critter, or sit and beg from our adventuring company's potential employer, while we were dining together.

When we went into a dungeon, my character would tie the dog off with the horses.

I suppose the only "game effect" was that the GM would allow the dog to make a perception roll while my character was asleep, and have it bark at something. Sometimes it was a monster, or a wolf sneeking up on our camp.....other times it was a small furry critter the dog wanted to chase....we had fun.

Now that I have my own little beagle, I have asked my GM if my character could have a dog just like my dog.

The GMs never even asked me to spend a rank on animal training.

I don't know if this will apply to your fox but i hope it helps.

Oh speaking of foxes you might find this article interesting: domesticated Soviet foxes


Pathfinder Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

That or look at Duettist. Perhaps your GM will allow you to retrain your Bard into one that gets a familiar.


Become a duettist

Liberty's Edge

Bards can also get Handle Animal through Versitile Performance. Percussion also gives intimidate, and wind also gives diplomacy, iirc.

Sovereign Court

Psyren wrote:
Doki-Chan wrote:


If you're not feeling particularly feat-starved: Familiar Bond?

Not as good as a full familiar class feature, but you do get some things...

If you want it to be a full familiar you can just pick up Improved Familiar Bond later. You can also Eldritch Heritage Arcane Bloodline, or VMC Wizard or Witch - lots of ways to get a scaling familiar now.

"Arcanist exploit: Familiar" works as well...

Sovereign Court

BretI wrote:
That or look at Duettist. Perhaps your GM will allow you to retrain your Bard into one that gets a familiar.

That is the ultimate option for a bard, bar none.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

As much as I love duettists (and I love them sooo much I am playing two different characters with that archetype, one for PFS and one for a Kingmaker campaign) they do give up a lot for their familiar. If you were playing a bard that relies heavily on bardic knowledge, you may want to get your familiar via eldritch heritage or one of the other methods.

On the other hand if skills are mainly covered in your group, having a familiar that can inspire courage for you is awesome and well worth doing!


That archetype is amazing! Thank you.

Sovereign Court

bardic knowledge is fun (used it every two games or so, when I could remember I had it, when I played a 'no archetype' bard up to level 15 last year) but it's in no way as useful as a familiar, and not even in the ball park if you take Duettists.... you made the right choice, Hmm! :)

Sovereign Court

sorry: I meant lore master is fun...

now that I took a second look at duettist (losing dirge of doom and frightening tune, which I NEVER used as a bard), it now looks even awesomer! :)

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