Clerics with Animal companion and handle animal skill

[wujenta]

Hi, one of my players is playing a cleric with the animal domain and have an animal companion, after looking to the rules for handling the beast, I noticed that only Druid and Rangers can handle animals as a free action and told him that he will need a move action (or full round) to do it.

Action: Varies. Handling an animal is a move action, while “pushing” an animal is a full-round action. (A druid or ranger can handle an animal companion as a free action or push it as a move action.)

he is telling me that he have the animal companion as a Druid of his lvl -3 , so he should be able to order his animal around as a druid too, but I think that the "druid-3" is only refering to the abilities, HD, etc of the animal, it does not give him the same abilities as a druid, so... what do you think RAW is

[Howie23]

Raw, only Druids and rangers get the free action. Because the game is a rules-by-exception game system that cannot anticipate every combo, I think the RAI is that he should get the free action control.

I tend to be more conservative on this stuff than most. This one stands out for me as straightforward. That isn't to senegrate OP, just to provide context.

[Howie23]

Adding: one of the design elements of the 3.5 system, including PF, is that when things are different, make them different. When they are the same make them the same. The skill spells out for cleric and Druid AC. Use the do it the same design rule to go with the cleric AC and AC from like classes and other AC rules resources.

[Corvino]

The "Link (Ex)" ability which allows handling as a free action is in the Animal Companion rules entry, not the Druid entry. It is a characteristic of the AC, not the Player Character. Any reference to the "Druid" in the AC entry refers to the PC who has one, as they are "effectively" a Druid. So any character who gets an AC gets to handle as a free action unless specifically stated otherwise.

[wujenta]

Howie23 wrote:

Raw, only Druids and rangers get the free action. Because the game is a rules-by-exception game system that cannot anticipate every combo, I think the RAI is that he should get the free action control.

I tend to be more conservative on this stuff than most. This one stands out for me as straightforward. That isn't to senegrate OP, just to provide context.

Yeah, We played today and I let him do it as free action, but a Cleric with animal companion is a combo that its available right from the core rulebook, so I think that Cleric should nor be able to do it as only Druids and rangers have this abilitie as a special skill because of his class.

Clerics with animal domain and the feat boon companion are the same as a Druid but they have another domain to have powers, channel abilitie and (in my opinion) a better selection of spells

[wujenta]

Corvino wrote:

The "Link (Ex)" ability which allows handling as a free action is in the Animal Companion rules entry, not the Druid entry. It is a characteristic of the AC, not the Player Character. Any reference to the "Druid" in the AC entry refers to the PC who has one, as they are "effectively" a Druid. So any character who gets an AC gets to handle as a free action unless specifically stated otherwise.

Good point, didn´t see it...have to think about it, but i think that you are right