Setting: RotRL, Thistletop, goblin chief's room.
Situation:
The disagreement stands so far that the gecko should not be tamable just yet. It has a dead goblin handler still on it, and the halfling doesn't know goblin to talk it down from its combat mentality. Furthermore, the halfling is not in the saddle to "lead" the gecko as well.
The player is standing by his "well I rolled a "24" to give a command. That is the extent of his roleplay.
Given the circumstances, should this be even remotely successful? Personally, I'd like to see more than just "well, I rolled a 24".
Ideas?
It takes a week to teach an animal a single trick. It should take at least that long to teach it to accept the halfling as its owner.
The language doesn't matter, though, I don't think. The gecko is just an animal, it doesn't truly have a language; it just knows to perform certain actions when it hears particular sounds. You could teach it to stay when it hears the word 'Run'.
It sounds like you just want the player to roleplay more. You're probably better off just talking about that with the player.
But does it know the 'down' trick? If not and the gecko was attacking, it is a DC 25 (27 if injured) to make it stop attacking.
Yes I would like to see more roleplay out of the player.
The player guessed that since the gecko was combat trained that it would have the "down" trick already learned. So he wanted to use it, which then goes to the argument that the oracle doesn't speak Goblin (and wasn't in the saddle). I gave the example that German guard dogs know their commands in the German language. The point was that the oracle was not in a position to give a command to the gecko.
Additionally, the oracle had just attacked the gecko (non-lethal) in the previous round. The gecko saw the halfling as a threat.
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First off, the ghecko is already a loyal companion to the chief and will keep attacking even when the chief is dead, especially if any of the PCs are still attacking it.
Second, the handle animal skill doesn't quite work like that. It's mainly for handling animals that are at least somewhat loyal to you (unless you're rearing an animal but that takes time).
There is another ability that allows you to try and diplomacize with an animal...wild empathy, and it takes minutes as if having a conversation with the animal, so not too likely in combat.
Also, the language doesn't really matter here. The commands that the goblin chief gave the ghecko could have been noises for what its worth.
Edit: You really need to have spoiler tags if you are going to talk about details of an AP.
The gecko is still an animal. It does what it is trained to do. It has no concept of who is an ally and who is an enemy. Unless it has the "exclusive" trick, anyone can make an animal do tricks with the Handle Animal skill. A combat trained gecko knows the "down" trick, so you can make the gecko stop attacking with a DC 10 Handle animal check. Without its master alive to give it a different command, it will obey whoever is handling it at the time. This is the RAW answer, but you are fully within your right to encourage more roleplay than just simply rolling a die.
I've had this idea in my head for a long time, but I've thought about making a character with a huge bonus to Handle Animal and whenever I come across a mounted enemy I would push their mount(DC 25) to do the "Throw Rider" trick. Many laughs would be had.