Attack command for Animal Companion

[Baumfluch]

Hi all,

if have a question regarding how to get along with handle animal.

First lets make sure i got RAW correctly:

Anytime i command my animal companion to perform a trick (like attack, come etc) i have to roll on handle animal?

Seems a little weird to me. Assuming you are a 10th Level Druid, you fought for years with your ac and yet still it has a 5% chance not to listen to simple commands?

Even more weird is: From Level 1 to Level 20, the chance of failure remains the same. On level one you have +8 (1Rank +3 via Class skill +4 via link = +8) so you only fail on a 1. Due to the fact you always fail on a 1, your animal doesnt get any more reliable throughout the entire character development.

Do you all play it like this, our did you houserule anything?

[Wu Nakitu]

Baumfluch wrote:

Hi all,

if have a question regarding how to get along with handle animal.

First lets make sure i got RAW correctly:

Anytime i command my animal companion to perform a trick (like attack, come etc) i have to roll on handle animal?

Seems a little weird to me. Assuming you are a 10th Level Druid, you fought for years with your ac and yet still it has a 5% chance not to listen to simple commands?

Even more weird is: From Level 1 to Level 20, the chance of failure remains the same. On level one you have +8 (1Rank +3 via Class skill +4 via link = +8) so you only fail on a 1. Due to the fact you always fail on a 1, your animal doesnt get any more reliable throughout the entire character development.

Do you all play it like this, our did you houserule anything?

Skill checks, with very few exceptions, do not auto-fail or auto-succeed based on dice rolls.

[shadowkras]

Quote:

Seems a little weird to me. Assuming you are a 10th Level Druid, you fought for years with your ac and yet still it has a 5% chance not to listen to simple commands?

That's why the DC is only 10, and you have a +4 bonus to handle your animal companion as a druid.

If you really cannot make that DC 10 check your relation to your companion is NOT that good, seriously.

At lv1, with one rank in Handle Animal, you should automatically pass on all checks for tricks that your companion knows. 1 rank, +3 class-skill, +4 bonus from class, total +8. So if you roll a 1 or 2, you still make the DC, unless your charisma is negative.

[Baumfluch]

ok that is something i totally got wrong all the time.
skills do not fail on a "natural" rolled 1?

[Texas Snyper]

Baumfluch wrote:

ok that is something i totally got wrong all the time.

skills do not fail on a "natural" rolled 1?

The only things that auto fail on a natural 1 are attacks (including CMB attacks) and saves.

[Ciaran Barnes]

I totally missed the actual meaning of "always fail on a 1" in the original post, because 1 + 8 = 9, and the DC is 10. I'm playing a hunter with a 8 Cha, and failing a check at low level is still very possible!

[Pizza Lord]

Even if injured (a +2 DC), a ranger or druid will almost never fail to give a command to their animal companion unless they are asking it to do something it isn't trained to do, like getting it to guard an area or defend someone else without knowing the trick. Even then, you probably still aren't going to fail unless low level and not putting ranks in Handle Animal.

[Ciaran Barnes]

You're right. At 1st level my mod (including the +4 link) was +7, failure was a possibility since I was trying to roll every time I was supposed to. Now that I'm 3rd level, I can't fail unless my elephant is injured. It has happened 2 or 3 times. I think that handling of the companion during combat is oftentime ignored.