Ok, in 4E with pets/companions, the owner has to spend actions to issue commands to the companion. So, certain circumstances withstanding, the druid and her companion cannot both attack in the same round. I have read about animal companions and done some web searching, but I can't find anything that speaks to this in Pathfinder.
How do pets/companions function in pathfinder? Do they and their owner get a 'turn?' Does the owner spend her actions to give them to the companion? Anything else I should generally know?
Thanks in advance
Animal companions (along with familiars, cohorts, followers, summoned monsters, and any other such thing) are separate individuals with their own actions. Your druid can use a free action (i.e. doesn't count against his actions) to tell his companion what to do, or can use a move action (I think) to "Push" his companion (i.e. perform a trick it doesn't already know), but otherwise their turns are totally unrelated. It's basically a back-up PC that you get to control, but without thumbs. (Unless it's an ape. Or a koala. Or a raccoon. Or a... nevermind.)
Druid class, Animal Companion, p52:
Link (Ex): A druid can handle her animal companion as a free action, or push it as a move action, even if she doesn’t have any ranks in the Handle Animal skill. The druid gains a +4 circumstance bonus on all wild empathy checks and Handle Animal checks made regarding an animal companion.
Druids in Pathfinder and 3.5 control their animal companion as a separate character of sorts. A druid or ranger doesn't have to use any actions to direct their animal companions.
It'd be pretty damn lame if you had to use your actions to get the animal to do stuff, if you ask me!
There might be some weird Mumbo Jumbo about the skill Handle Animal, but I'll let someone else talk about that.
Animal companions have their own actions, generally handling an animal (ordering it to do a known trick like ordering it to attack) is a move action, but for druids and rangers it's a free action when ordering their companions.
So basically both a druid and its animal companion get their full rounds worth of actions.
Thanks for the quick replies!
Yep, in most cases you can have your "pet" do what you want it to. You may want to read up on Handle Animal and the Natures Bond section of the druid for more details. Also note that if you raise it's INT then it goes up to a 3 and is even more liberal in how easy it is to command.
Hmm, I actually read the blog enrty as restricting some of the ideas floating around before (like gving it int 3 made it more or less act like a cohort). Jason basically stated that your companion stays an animal so handle animal is stille being used.
Just like to mention you do not have to repeat commands every round. You tell it to attack, the animal is going to keep attacking until the targetbis dead or until given another command.
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Ok, in 4E with pets/companions, the owner has to spend actions to issue commands to the companion. So, certain circumstances withstanding, the druid and her companion cannot both attack in the same round. I have read about animal companions and done some web searching, but I can't find anything that speaks to this in Pathfinder.
How do pets/companions function in pathfinder? Do they and their owner get a 'turn?' Does the owner spend her actions to give them to the companion? Anything else I should generally know?
Thanks in advance
This is, I think, the worst aspect of 4th edition. I don't want to start an edition war or anything, and I actually LOVE 4th edition for the most part, but having an animal companion that isn't an animal companion is just LAME.
It's actually the reason my wife never got into 4.0. She loves playing Druids/Rangers, and when I told her she and her animal couldn't coordinate attacks (Except for the Coordinated Attack Power), she was flabbergasted. As was I.
Basically, yeah, Animal Companions get their own actions in Pathfinder. Iz awesome.
Not to mention animal companions are SUPER customizable in Pathfinder :D
Not to mention animal companions are SUPER customizable in Pathfinder :D
Dinosaur Love!
Not to mention animal companions are SUPER customizable in Pathfinder :DDinosaur Love!
Ug... one of my pet peeves is the prevalence of dinosaur animal companions for druids who have no reasonable interaction with dinosaurs other than their player reading about awesome raptors in a book they bought or downloaded....
Ug... one of my pet peeves is the prevalence of dinosaur animal companions for druids who have no reasonable interaction with dinosaurs other than their player reading about awesome raptors in a book they bought or downloaded....Not to mention animal companions are SUPER customizable in Pathfinder :DDinosaur Love!
You mean like, the Bestiary? If the druid has a good enough backstory, I'd allow a dino companion. I don't see why not. I mean if his concept fits it, allow it. It doesn't break anything.