| 2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
Topic says it all; our fighter just told my animal companion to stay, with a handle animal skill check of 17. Will my companion just sit there, because I'm not near?
|
Topic says it all; our fighter just told my animal companion to stay, with a handle animal skill check of 17. Will my companion just sit there, because I'm not near?
This depends on how your group views animal companions. Some view them as an animal with some extra abilities and loyalty to their character-master. Others view them as akin to a spiritual extension of the the PC. There is a continuum in between these extremes.
The rules are subject to interpretation, which brings in all sorts of past experience and varied points of view of what is desirable. The rules that seem to apply are:
Handle Animal
If your AC is trained with the stay command then it will, if successfully given a stay command, stay. The fighter needs a move action to deliver the DC 10 command. If the AC isn't trained with stay, it would be a Push, requiring a full round action and DC 25. If he has no ranks in Handle Animal, he cannot succeed if the animal is not domesticated.
Animal Companion
A druid's animal is a loyal companion who gains additional abilities. The druid gains circumstance modifiers in training and directing the animal through the Link (ex) attribute. That's about it. Everything else is a matter of interpretation and one's understanding of loyal.
To my thinking, loyalty doesn't mean the animal solely follows the commands of the druid.
If the fighter's command were in opposition to the druid's commands, I could see loyalty being viewed as paramount, if the animal can understand that the commands are in conflict and not merely sequential. Otherwise, use opposed Handle Animal checks to break the confusion.
Only if you, as its parent or guardian, give permission to handle your animal...
|
|
Only if you, as its parent or guardian, give permission to handle your animal...
That is a matter of role play between the druid and the fighter, both in terms of whether permission was given and any possible aftermath. Trained animals follow commands as a matter of conditioned response; it isn't a matter of who gives the command.
I could see bonus tricks being a different matter, in theory, but rarely in practice due to the bookkeeping.
this isn't really a game answer. but I thinkna rained animal of the level of Druids and rangers likely won't listen to anyone else. I think for example a trained police dog likely wouldn't even listen to the dog whisperer.
one solution is decide what language all the commands are I'n.... say Druidic and then good luck on giving commands. they are animals though with food and other stuff they can likely be swayed.
|
|
this isn't really a game answer. but I thinkna rained animal of the level of Druids and rangers likely won't listen to anyone else. I think for example a trained police dog likely wouldn't even listen to the dog whisperer.
one solution is decide what language all the commands are I'n.... say Druidic and then good luck on giving commands. they are animals though with food and other stuff they can likely be swayed.
And thus, as originally advertised, you have what gets close to the extremes of opinions on the issue. :D
If you have a creature simply trained to follow you around, maybe.
Animal companions, hells no. They get the link, and they are bound to you, getting their powers from YOU. They obey one person, and one person only. If the druid or ranger taught it a trick to accept other people's commands, then maybe.
There are other ways to influence an animal. Charm, hold and dominate animal are all low level druid and Animal domain spells. A charmed companion might be susceptible to handle animal checks from the charmer.
You didn't mention where you were in relation to the animal companion and the fighter.
If you were anywhere that the AC could sense your presence, I don't see the fighter having any chance to use the handle animal skill.
On the other hand, if you weren't around, didn't leave any instructions before leaving, and your AC had seen you interact in a friendly manner with the fighter in the past, then maybe it might work. Even then, though, I'm not certain.
I am reminded of the time I agreed to feed my friend's Newfoundland while he was on vacation. I had been around that dog plenty of times, and I walked out into the backyard with a bowl full of food, and the damn thing still chased me out of there! I had to toss food over the fence, and shoot water into its water dish with a garden hose every day for a week. But the next time I came over when he was around, the dog was fine with me.
I think after you have been put into this position a number of times, with different animals and different groups, you find the answer is much more fluid.
We have been in this position a number of times, maybe strangely more than the usual group, judging by the by-the-book and somewhat rigid answers here.
In every case, the first thing I checked on was the player's attitude. If the player was okay with another PC interacting in this way with his companion, it then moved on to a discussion of the animal's reaction based on its previous behavior and what sort of animal it was.
I allowed all sorts of opinions from the other players (because that's the kind of guy I am).
In the case of the ranger's wolf, we decided that it WAS likely to (hesitantly) follow the commands of one of the other (trusted) PCs, because being a pack animal, would likely view the whole party as its "pack." It had, on occasion, come to the rescue of other party members.
In the case of the great cat, we decided it would ignore the other party member, and basically hang out until its master returned. That's just how cats are.
We've had another wolf cooperate with other party members to find its missing master (always a classic plot point, by the way). We've had a fox ride on a pegasus with a paladin while her druid searched the forest below, because that particular group was so like a family, it just seemed to make sense to them. On the other hand, I ruled from what I understood of the rules, that the same pegasus (that paladin's mount) would not let another party member ride it without the paladin also in attendance.
A lot of factors at play in this. It's going to depend mainly on the relationship between the players and their PCs.
They're just tougher representations of normal animals. Someone else can absolutely "handle" your animal. However, if you tell it to do something, and someone else tells it to do something different, you're going to win out.
Yes, anyone can attempt to "handle" the animal companion. There is nothing that suggests otherwise.
If there is a contest between two characters, the druid and anyone else, remember that the druid has a +4 bonus to his check (I hope he still put ranks in handle animal) and can handle it as a free action. In addition, the druid can push it to do things other than what it knows. This is where the druid's bond is stronger.
You didn't mention where you were in relation to the animal companion and the fighter.
If you were anywhere that the AC could sense your presence, I don't see the fighter having any chance to use the handle animal skill.
On the other hand, if you weren't around, didn't leave any instructions before leaving, and your AC had seen you interact in a friendly manner with the fighter in the past, then maybe it might work. Even then, though, I'm not certain.
I am reminded of the time I agreed to feed my friend's Newfoundland while he was on vacation. I had been around that dog plenty of times, and I walked out into the backyard with a bowl full of food, and the damn thing still chased me out of there! I had to toss food over the fence, and shoot water into its water dish with a garden hose every day for a week. But the next time I came over when he was around, the dog was fine with me.
yeah I recently asked my mothers tenant to let the dog out while I was at work. when I'm around the dog loves him goes out of her way to say hello. he could not get her to come down the stairs while I was gone.
My opinion would be based on the character interactions and the commands given.
In the example of 'stay'... then yes, I think it probably WOULD stay. If the party is together often enough, then the animal will probably see all the party humans as enough of a 'pack' or 'authority figure' to listen to them...
I can go to my parents or sisters house and tell their dog to 'stay' or 'Get down'.
Now If he wanted to tell the dog to 'go around back, and make a distraction..." Then no, he's not got the bond to do that.
If the Druid calls it across the camp, and the fighter tlels it to stay, then the fighter naturally loses.
But simple things. 'sit' 'Stay' 'Down' from creatures it sees as allies, it would probably listen.
yeah I recently asked my mothers tenant to let the dog out while I was at work. when I'm around the dog loves him goes out of her way to say hello. he could not get her to come down the stairs while I was gone.You didn't mention where you were in relation to the animal companion and the fighter.
If you were anywhere that the AC could sense your presence, I don't see the fighter having any chance to use the handle animal skill.
On the other hand, if you weren't around, didn't leave any instructions before leaving, and your AC had seen you interact in a friendly manner with the fighter in the past, then maybe it might work. Even then, though, I'm not certain.
I am reminded of the time I agreed to feed my friend's Newfoundland while he was on vacation. I had been around that dog plenty of times, and I walked out into the backyard with a bowl full of food, and the damn thing still chased me out of there! I had to toss food over the fence, and shoot water into its water dish with a garden hose every day for a week. But the next time I came over when he was around, the dog was fine with me.
I have had the same experience, but I have also had an animal treat me the same, whether the owner was around or not. Both sides have merit.
For my games I would say that as long as the party member has been around the animal for a few months in game time, and is generally nice to it then it will cooperate.
You didn't mention where you were in relation to the animal companion and the fighter.
If you were anywhere that the AC could sense your presence, I don't see the fighter having any chance to use the handle animal skill.
On the other hand, if you weren't around, didn't leave any instructions before leaving, and your AC had seen you interact in a friendly manner with the fighter in the past, then maybe it might work. Even then, though, I'm not certain.
I am reminded of the time I agreed to feed my friend's Newfoundland while he was on vacation. I had been around that dog plenty of times, and I walked out into the backyard with a bowl full of food, and the damn thing still chased me out of there! I had to toss food over the fence, and shoot water into its water dish with a garden hose every day for a week. But the next time I came over when he was around, the dog was fine with me.
Our party wizard asked me to "hold his shoulder" and dimension door-ed us out of the trap ladden dungeon (i should have known)
So i was save in a temple at the other end of the city....
I'm going to reteach my animal companion his tricks in druidic.
thanks for the advice!
I would never let someone override a druid/ ranger's commands to their own animal companion. Beyond that this is purely the GM's call. If it makes sense then yeah.
This.
If there was a valid reason etc then maybe, but ultimately the Druid/Ranger>All when it comes to his Companion
I would probably require the animal to have a disposition of at least "indifferent" for Handle Animal to work (e.g., no using Handle Animal on a vicious guard dog that's biting your leg).