From the Animal section in the Creature Types chapter:
Quote:
• Proficient with no armor unless trained for war.
From the Handle Animal section in the Skills chapter:
Quote:
Combat Training (DC 20): An animal trained to bear a rider into combat knows the tricks attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel. Training an animal for combat riding takes 6 weeks. You may also “upgrade” an animal trained for riding to one trained for combat by spending 3 weeks and making a successful DC 20 Handle Animal check. The new general purpose and tricks completely replace the animal's previous purpose and any tricks it once knew. Many horses and riding dogs are trained in this way.
From the Horse entry in the Bestiary:
Quote:
Docile (Ex) Unless specifically trained for combat (see the Handle Animal skill, a horse's hooves are treated as secondary attacks.
1a) Is an animal with the Combat Training tricks proficient with armor?
1b) What kind(s) of armor (light, medium heavy)?
1c) If an animal with different tricks is retrained for Combat Training, it becomes proficiency with armor, right?
1d) Whereas, if a Combat Trained animal is retrained with other tricks, it is no longer proficient with armor, correct?.
2a) Or does an animal with the Combat Training tricks earn Light Armor Proficiency as a bonus feat?
2b) Or does it earn all 3 (Light, Medium, Heavy) Armor Proficiency feats as bonus feats?
2c) And are these lost when the animal is retrained to do other tricks?
3) Or does an animal with the Combat Training tricks replace its normal 1st level feat with Light Armor Proficiency as a bonus feat?
The rules don't seem to be too specific or clear about any of these questions. The closest I can figure is that the Animal section says that being trained for war means an animal is proficient with armor, and since it doesn't specify the type of armor, I assume this means light, medium, and heavy armor.
So what qualifies as being trained for war? Combat Training tricks from Handle Animal tricks seem to be the only thing I can find that makes sense.
As a result, I feel like the answers to questions 1a and 1b are YES. 1c is probably YES, and therefore, 1d should be too.
What do others think? Or does anyone actually know?
The 2's provide the basic same result as the 1's, but actually having the feats might be different in some way that I cannot see right now.
3 doesn't make as much sense to me, and I think that is probably NO because it would be weird for an animal that has lived with a feat all its life to suddenly lose it when someone teaches it the Combat Training tricks.
