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What started out as what I thought was going to be a simple question has been warped into something way too confusing. I've been scouring the archives of these boards for similar discussions and have found more questions than I thought I'd ever need answers for.
1) My original question came about was when I was trying to stat up a Cavalier. I saw in the description of the mount that a cavalier's mount, "is considered combat trained." Ok, before anybody rolls their eyes, yes, I know combat training does not confer automatic armor proficiency. Jason Bulmahn's FAQ entry about Handle Animal on the CRB FAQ answers that clearly and I've never given it a second thought. My question was, do the 6 tricks that compose the Combat Training special purpose (attack, come, defend, down, guard, heel) take up the mount's 6 "trick slots" for having an Int of 2, or is it in addition to these slots?
2) The horse animal companion is CRAZY full of confusion for people. We all know that animal companions use animal companion stats, not their Bestiary versions. There are some things that seem to sneak in, though. For instance, it isn't mentioned whether or not animal companions receive the racial modifiers to skills their normal kin get, like if wolf animal companions receive the +4 to Survival when tracking by scent. Examples from other books, though, (for instance, the giant frog animal companion the Big Bad druid has at the end of the We Be Goblins! free module) DO have these racial modifiers factored into their skills. So going back to the horse, people seem to be under the impression that when the animal companion horse hits 4th level, it somehow gets to treat both its bite AND its hooves as primary attacks because of it being combat trained, thus nullifying its docile ability. The problem though:
- The animal companion horse doesn't even have the docile trait, because...
- The animal companion horse is built more like a heavy horse because it has a bite attack (normal horses only have 2 hoof attacks).
Because of this bite attack, which is a primary, its hooves are ALWAYS counted as secondary. Its only when you have one type of natural attack do secondaries suddenly work like primaries (like, say, the normal bestiary horse, which only has hoof attacks, which would normally be primary but because of its docile ability doesn't as a special case). I realize this isn't really a question, but it was an observation I wanted to point out since it seems so many people see it another way (and they could be right, and I encourage anyone who believes they are to let me know just how terribly wrong I am, please). So here's an actual question. A druid with a horse animal companion gets combat training as its 4th level adjustment. Does this mean that the 6 tricks that compose the combat training special purpose immediately override any of the tricks the druid spent the last 3 levels teaching the bloody thing?
*whew*
TL;DR version
1) As it gets it automatically, do the 6 tricks that compose the Combat Training special purpose (attack, come, defend, down, guard, heel) take up the cavalier's mount's 6 "trick slots" for having an Int of 2, or is it in addition to these slots.
2) A druid with a horse animal companion gets combat training as its 4th level adjustment. Does this mean that the 6 tricks that compose the combat training special purpose immediately override any of the tricks the druid spent the last 3 levels teaching the bloody thing?
*Hopefully my text vomit doesn't scare any would be answerers off*
Man, the mount rules are screwy.
Anyways, here's what I'd say.
The cav horse comes combat trained, and that takes up the 6 starting tricks. Reasoning: It'd be silly otherwise.
The animal companion horse loses its tricks at level 4, and is replaced with the combat training ones. Reasoning:
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.