So, I'm not sure if this falls under errata, house rules, or what, but am I reading the animal companion descriptions right that the animals no longer get their racial modifier to skills?
For instance, in the Bestiary Preview, a tiger gets a racial +4 to acrobatics, +4 to stealth (with an additional +4 in high grass). But this isn't in the writeup for large cats under druid.
Another example is the dog gets a +4 to Acrobatic jump checks and a +4 to survival when tracking by scent.
So, are animal companions really that sub-par to their counterparts? Was this an oversight? Would people house rule these back in? Animal racial skill modifiers always were what made the animal "normal" for its type due to the lack of intelligence and subsequent skill points. Without these, the animals seem to be very subpar. "Everybody sees my stalking tiger. My hunting dog can't pick up on the trail. I guess I'll just use handle animal to train a decent mundane animal."
Also, and I think this may be an actual errata, but on the PRD the Wolf animal companion is listed as not having low-light vision. Basically every other animal companion does, as does the wolf write up in the bestiary preview. Is there a reason they wouldn't get low-light vision? Or is this just a mistake?
For anyone still looking for this, I was just looking for an answer to this, and found it Here. Quoted below.
Actually... animals don't get their bonuses to skills like this as written. An animal companion's stats are built off of different rules than those intended to be used as monsters.
That said, I don't think it'd hurt much to go ahead an apply the bonuses to skills as presented in the Bestiary if you want.
