I was wondering about the Charm Animal spell... does a character have to speak an animal language to activate the spell, like Charm Person?
For example, Auran to charm birds...
Thanks,
DARKWYNTERS
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Charm animal is not language-dependent (neither is charm person). As Oladon said, birds don't speak Auran.
If the animals fail their saves, they regard the caster as their trusted friend and ally. In order to get them to do anything specific other than, probably, follow him around and defend/feed/care for him as they would their offspring or mates, he can use either the Handle Animal skill or other spells to convey what he wants.
Many thanks :)
Any suggestions for how NOT to let a character with the Serpentine Bloodline completely take over by casting charm spells at every combat? (FYI Serpentine Bloodline Power--"Your powers of compulsion can affect even bestial creatures. Whenever you cast a mind-affecting or language-dependent spell, it affects animals, magical beasts, and monstrous humanoids as if they were humanoids who understood your language.)
I am a brand new GM running the Serpent's Skull APG, which until now pretty much completely takes place in a jungle setting. Almost every encounter includes creatures of the types listed above. Although I am happy to reward XP for encounters that are completed via creative means, I don't necessarily want the sorcerer in the party to dismiss every possible combat by "befriending" every creature they run across (it would get old after a while).
What recommendations would you advise for making it a bit more challenging/exiting? Requiring Handle Animal to prevent the charmed creature from attacking the rest of the party? Right now the players assume that once the creature is friendly with the caster, it is automatically friendly with the entire rest of the party (as long as they stop threatening the creature). How does the creature's intelligence & ability to understand commands or prevent leashing out against the rest of the party fit in? I am open to suggestions.
This should really be posted under "Advice" as a new thread, as you aren't asking about rules.
With that said, don't change/add rules. If your players aren't being challenged by the encounters, try adding some monsters that have high(er) Will saves, or other ways of not getting charmed.
And no, your players are incorrect in their assumption that friendly toward the caster = friendly toward everyone.
--Thanks for the feedback. I'm new to the forums as well as being a newbie GM, so I'll browse the "Advice" section for suggestions also.