Beastmaster Animal Companions

[Nator]

I have a Tiger as an animal companion and according to the Core Rule Book page 53 says that Acrobatics* (Dex), Climb* (Str), Fly* (Dex), Perception* (Wis), Stealth* (Dex) and Swim* (Str) class skills for ALL animal companions and that an animal companion can have ranks in Escape Artist (Dex), Intimidate (Cha)and Survival (Wis). Why does my tiger get Fly as a class skill (+3 Trained) instead of Survival??? This is especially confusing because Survival is used for tracking and my tiger is trained in Hunting (Attach, Down, Retrieve (Fetch), Heel, Seek and Track).

[Deighton Thrane]

Because they decided that animal companions should have the same class skills as the animal creature type. So they get those as class skills, but can also take other skills that animals could reasonably take, or be good at. That's just how they decided skills should work for ACs.

To be fair though, actual tigers aren't good at survival either, they are good at stealth, perception, and acrobatics. Which, if you're an ambush hunter, is actually probably all you really need to be good at.

But this has more to do with standardization of animal skills than what makes sense. It's similar to how animals have low-light vision and scent, even when it really doesn't make sense for the animal.

[Nator]

So I can put points into survival, but get no bonus for class skill and that total is my Tiger's tracking ability, even though he is trained to track?

My Ranger tracks better than his Tiger, even though his Tiger has sent and my Ranger doesn't. This confuses me!!!

Thank you for taking the time to respond to my question, Deighton Thrane.

[dragonhunterq]

Not always. Even with a much lower score there are occasions your tiger will track better. Tracking by scent always has a base DC of 10, tracking on hard ground is base DC 20

Also you will never take sight based penalties.

Fresh snow and rain penalties should probably be reduced as well.

[Nator]

Thank you Dragon Hunter Q. I will keep this in mind. It is too bad that I cannot trade Fly for Survival, since Tigers don't fly. :)