Animal handling trait?


Homebrew and House Rules


I had in mind a character who was more 'Knightly' and who would have an interest in hunting, either using hounds (or even a falcon) yet noticed a specif lack of animal handling 'traits'.

There is only Pioneer (Kingmaker) and Savannah Child (Katapesh) that mention Animal Handling, yet a stack of other choices for just about any other skill.

So I was thinking something like...


Huntsman

Social

Whether as a noble participating for sport, or as a villager helping sustain your community, you have spent time honing your skills as a hunter and working with tracking animals. You gain a +1 trait bonus to Ride, Survival, and handle Animal checks, and one of these skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you.

(I have just rebadged a few other traits that seemed to have a three skill grab bag and fluffed it up)


I like this idea very much, but traits tend to give a +1 bonus to one skill or to two very-closely related and circumstantial types of skill checks (see Well-informed, World traveler, Scholar of ruins). To make it match the rest of the traits in the APG it would need to be "Select one of the following skills: Ride, Survival, or Handle Animal. You gain a +1 trait bonus on that skill, and it is always a class skill for you."

Since Ride and Handle Animal are both pretty circumstantial skills, I might even make it "You gain a +1 trait bonus on Ride and Handle Animal checks, and one of these skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you." After all, the hounds or falcon are the ones doing the hunting and tracking, not the nobleman!


Here's another example based on the APG.

Falconer
You are trained in teaching birds of prey how to hunt. You gain a +2 trait bonus on Handle Animal checks related to birds.

You can repeat this with dogs or any other creature. The trait bonus can be increased to a +2 because it only increases a specific aspect of the skill.

You could perhaps do a +2 to Survival if your using a specific terrain type.


Huntsman

Social

Whether as a noble participating for sport, or as a villager helping sustain your community, you have spent time honing your skills as a hunter and working with tracking animals. Select one of the following skills: Ride, Survival, or Handle Animal. You gain a +1 trait bonus on that skill, and it is always a class skill for you.

Yeah I like that,

Ogres ones are also pretty good too, might whip up some variants.


I should edit. In the cases above the skill would still be treated as a class skill.


Falcons and Hounds.

Social

You are trained in teaching birds of prey how to hunt, or hounds to track your prey. You gain a +2 trait bonus on Handle Animal checks related to birds or canines (your choice); Handle Animal is always a class skill for you.

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