What tricks are actually relevant to teach an animal companion? It seems they can already do most, if not all of them anyway.
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For animal companions tricks they do know the handle animal check is 10 or 12, and is a free action. For tricks they don't know the handle animal check is 25, and is a move action. Even if you increase the animals int you still have to make the handle animal check to get them to perform the trick. For PFSP, and normal play with out a house rule. Their have been multiple threads and FAQ on this. You can't get around not needing handle animal.
So with out any tricks they can only do what your DM lets them do. With known tricks they can do with the player wants them to do. With in reason. They are well trained animals.
For tricks you should really look at as basic.
Attack: Allows them to attacks humanoids and animals.
Attack(2): Allows them to attacks any thing including supernatural beginnings and undead.
Heal: Lets them follow you in heal. Next to or Behind you. They can't be trained to lead the way. It's one of my biggest things in PFSP.
Me all to many times in PFSP: No your animal companion can not lead the party. He can heal behind, or next to you if he knows the trick. If not he will be some where I feel like. As they are trained animals, and will do what you have trained them for.
That actually makes sense, and makes me realize I've never played in an unbroken game where someone had an animal companion. They (PC's and DM's) have always just treated them as secondary PC's in any game I've played.
Heal: Lets them follow you in heal. Next to or Behind you. They can't be trained to lead the way. It's one of my biggest things in PFSP.
The seek/search commands will do that.
I think the guard trick should put them in front of you if you are travelling
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Heal: Lets them follow you in heal. Next to or Behind you. They can't be trained to lead the way. It's one of my biggest things in PFSP.The seek/search commands will do that.
They must have some thing their looking for. They will look for it as long as they have a way to find it. If your following behind a tracking, seeking, or searching animal your at the DMs discretion where it wants to look. They don't know where the character wants them to. They go where they think something will be.
Guard just lets them attack something if your attacked. It can move in between you and the threat. However they can't travel their as that's not what guard teaches the animals.
My dog is a trail dog who follows me on long hikes. I have not found a way to let him go in front and get the right trail. Unless I let him go in front and chose the direction we are going at that time. I understand the limitations of what animals can be trained to do. And what you do when you train animals to do various jobs. Along with the selection of dog for training. That's why I have a problem with the way most DM's handle animal companions. Yes this is a fantasy setting however animal companions are normal animals.
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No. They are magical beast, and they have a base Int 6.
A familiar is an animal chosen by a spellcaster to aid him in his study of magic. It retains the appearance, Hit Dice, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, skills, and feats of the normal animal it once was, but is now a magical beast for the purpose of effects that depend on its type. Only a normal, unmodified animal may become a familiar. An animal companion cannot also function as a familiar.
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Okay, that makes a bit of sense. And yet casters don't get the ability to actually speak with their familiar till level 5. How then do you tell it to do something before then? And despite increased Int, wouldn't they still act like the animal they started as?
Well, unless you've got a Figment archtype familiar. In which case it never was an animal :)
Just becoming a magical beast I don't think would overwrite animal instincts and behaviors. Increased Int would let it understand what you want, but wouldn't it still have a mind of it's own?
They're smart enough to figure things out, and you can use gestures/pantomime,
like talking to an intelligent human who doesn't know the same language.
The empathic link has also got to help some too as well.
But sure, you aren't going to communicate perfectly easily until level 5.
I guess you can use Handle Animal Tricks, but you don't get any bonus ones.
Mostly using gestures and stuff will suffice, and not having high expectations.
(sneak into the office, pick up the GREEN key NOT the ORANGE key, and if you get caught, gnaw on a chair or something and pretend to be mundane! got it!?)=NO
But I guess it's assumed they know when they have been transferred the charge of touch spell,
so can figure when you point to somebody that you mean for them to deliver the spell at that target etc.
And if you can't communicate, well at least you get a bonus just from having them around.