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An odd situation has come up around Animal Companions, and I was wondering if you all could tell me if my reading of the rules is correct for PFS play.
I'm playing a sylvan sorcerer with a Handle Animal of +9, +13 for my AC. (Currently. I will keep pumping it higher until I can reliably make in-combat Pushes. My badger is remarkably stubborn in combat, especially while raging.) I always play with my partner, Saro the ranger. When she hits level 4, and gets an AC of her own, she will be worse at handling it than I will. (Yes, she dumped Charisma.) I realize that in PFS the AC will automatically appear with max tricks and bonus tricks learned, but that's just the basics. My questions are:
1) Can I use my Handle Animal roll to train her AC in new tricks for her, between scenarios? That way, when Spot gets that extra point of Int, and can learn more tricks, I can train him in one trick after each scenario. Otherwise, it could take forever for Spot to learn to Track or Flank. Also, if Spot ever falls in battle and needs to be replaced by Spot II, (with ONLY bonus tricks pre-trained) it would be a huge time-saver.
2) If so, can I train Spot to Serve her own ranger buddy, so that Saro the ranger can use MY Handle Animal bonuses to command her own AC?
Serve (DC 15): An animal with this trick willingly takes orders from a creature you designate. If the creature you tell the animal to serve knows what tricks the animal has, it can instruct the animal to perform these tricks using your Handle Animal bonus on the check instead of its own. The animal treats the designated ally as friendly.
I'm sure this would only work while I was at the same table, but we always play together,and it would be both practical and hilarious for RP reasons. ("Attack, Spot!" cries the ranger. *Spot checks with the sorcerer, who gives him a thumbs-up*)
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) I realize that in PFS the AC will automatically appear with max tricks and bonus tricks learned, but that's just the basics.I thought ACs appeared with JUST the bonus trick and you had to train the other tricks after games.
Only if you are replacing an AC.
If its the first iteration of the AC, they come fully loaded.
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The PFS Guide (p. 19) says "You can teach any animal a trick..." so for the original question, I think that works. Your friend's AC is an animal, and you can teach any animal. Serve allows you to designate a creature to obey at your Handle Animal skill, and this creature could be your friend.
However, note that because Saro gets a +4 to Handle Animal to handle her own AC, her bonus might not be so different from your bonus to handle someone else's AC. As long as the ranger has max ranks in Handle Animal she's looking at a +11-Cha at level 4. Even with 7 Cha, a +9 is generally sufficient to handle an animal in combat (even if they're injured you succeed on a 3) or to teach any trick if you have a Training Harness and take 10.
Note also that since Serve allows a second character to instruct an animal to perform tricks it knows, Saro can't use your modifier to push her AC - which is probably the biggest challenge.