ACG FAQ Hunter's animal companion using Skirmisher Tricks?


Rules Questions

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

2 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

Hi everyone.

In the Hunter's Animal Companion class feature, the following is laid out:

Quote:
A hunter may teach her companion hunter's tricks from the skirmisher ranger archetype instead of standard tricks.

1) What is the DC to push an animal to use this trick (for handle animal purposes)? This is very powerful--by not using a slot to train an animal with a trick, all a player character has to do is succeed at the handle animal check to push it to perform ANY trick in the list. This almost feels spontaneous-caster-like (with a full spell list known) in terms of power. At least there's a skill check to pass in order to have this work.

2) How many times per day can these tricks be used? I sincerely believe they should be based on the Hunter's level and stats, but your mileage may vary--perhaps it's the animal's Hit Dice with its wisdom penalty/bonuses that count.

Perhaps, just like regular tricks, these effects are unlimited? Damn! If that were to be so, these tricks become really powerful. Imagine moving twice as a move action while keeping your stealth bonuses with Chameleon Step; using any "Attack" power as a free action before every natural attack (perhaps even STACKING THEM ALL for EVERY ATTACK: if I hit, the target gets -2 penalty to its attacks, is shakened for 1d4 rounds and entangled, moves at half speed... and if I miss I can re-roll the attack with a -5 to get another chance to inflict those conditions!)

When you stop and think about it, there ought to be a limit.

3) In order to read the ablities properly... Which words are replaced by which words in this context? For instance "The ranger may" would become "the animal companion may" to allow stuff like Tangling Attacks, Aiding Attacks or Rattling Strike. If this were to be, then what happens with stuff like Bolster Companion, Sic 'Em and Heel? Obviously if I was writing them I would take the book-space to specifically write out "the Hunter may use the command animal companion as a immediate action" in order to have the companion benefit from X-Y-Z.

4) There are some tricks which obviously don't work with animal companions, so they should not be part of the possibilities: Ranger's Counsel, Hateful Attack and Cunning Pantomime come to mind.

I think that overall there should have been an extra few paragraphs to clearly state how this ability works, much like how there's a list of slayer talents or pages of shaman spirit abilities: by phrasing them correctly in their own defined section, they would have worked without having to resort to a ton of interpretation, an upcoming errata or DM fiat.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

fortunately we had some answers for this 3 months ago here

Grand Lodge

It's been spoiled that the errata will probably be that the limit is "the animal companion's HD plus half its wis mod".

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

Chess Pwn wrote:
fortunately we had some answers for this 3 months ago here

Thanks.

While this is partially useful, it's not the whole answer. I got the number of uses from that page, which is good. Any idea about Handle Animal DCs, or how the tricks should be worded/read/used?


Handle animal is to get your animal companion to use tricks, as defined under handle animal.

You can not 'push' an animal companion to do skirmisher tricks.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

EvilMinion wrote:

Handle animal is to get your animal companion to use tricks, as defined under handle animal.

You can not 'push' an animal companion to do skirmisher tricks.

Excellent, thanks for specifying that.


why can't you push your animal companion to do a trick which your class would allow you to train it to use? (I don't know the rule you are citing to claim that it is that simple to say you can't)

generally you can push an animal to do any trick you can train it to use - but this is the first time (as far as I know) that a new set of specialized tricks have been applied to animal companions

I'm also very curious about a detailed explanation of how the tricks should be used (i.e. some of them are less than clear in how they can/should be applied - especially ones that require immediate actions)

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

Rycaut wrote:


I'm also very curious about a detailed explanation of how the tricks should be used (i.e. some of them are less than clear in how they can/should be applied - especially ones that require immediate actions)

In essence, this is why I created the thread. I also question the wording of the ability--since it's the animal companion, not the hunter, who uses these tricks. If they worded it as "replace all instances of 'ranger' with 'hunter' in the skirmisher descriptions" then it would make more sense.


But then the hunter, not her animal companion would be taking the tricks (presumably either as a bonus or as an alternative to feats?) - but if the animal companion is taking them as "tricks" (which animal companions get a number of both regular and bonus tricks for being animal companions - then it is still unclear how many of the tricks should work.

- i.e. any trick that requires an immediate action does the animal companion use that trick automatically w/o any action by the hunter?

It is a very cool and potentially really powerful part of the class - it is a shame that it is buried in a small part of a bigger section and is so poorly documented as to the intention. Done well it really cements the Hunter as among the strongest classes in terms of having a companion.

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