If you use Summon Monster to summon a creature that cannot speak, and have the Handle Animal skill, can you use the skill to direct the creature in combat?
If you do, does that take a standard action from you to direct it?
this is what my dm had me do. I summoned a buffalo I think and it was I'n fog. it killed one thing then just stood there. i had to use a full round action tonpush it. ( as it has no tricks)
but I don't know if this is raw or rai.
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If you use Summon Monster to summon a creature that cannot speak, and have the Handle Animal skill, can you use the skill to direct the creature in combat?
If you do, does that take a standard action from you to direct it?
"This spell summons an extraplanar creature (typically an outsider, elemental, or magical beast native to another plane). It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn. It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability. If you can communicate with the creature, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions."
You summon it. It comes. It attacks to the best of its ability. No communication is required to do this.
As long as you just want to attack the nearest bad guy using a typical attack for its type, no communication or Handle Animal is needed. Note that attacking to the best of its ability might be different than the optimal attack that you want it to do...it's a beast, after all. If you are directing toward a particular opponent, wanting to use combat manouvers, etc., then Handle Animal is reasonable. Since it has no trained tricks, you are attempting to Push the animal to do the command, which is a full round action.
Where the line gets drawn between "it just does it" and the need to control it is a matter of table culture and it can vary.
this is what my dm had me do. I summoned a buffalo I think and it was I'n fog. it killed one thing then just stood there. i had to use a full round action tonpush it. ( as it has no tricks)Any Summoned Monsters should automatically attack your enemies by default.
it did, it killed the one enemy it could see,, appeared swift action smite then gored him. the problem is he couldn't see the other enemies due to the fog.
it has an int of 2 and while it does get magic I know who your enemy is powers they sadly don't come with a gps.
this is really the only situation I can think of where handle animal might be needed.