My players in the Skull and Shackles adventure path have come into the possession of a Ring of Charm Animal - not a spoiler, as I don't recall if I put it there myself. When I threw a sea creature at them to combat while sailing, they used the ring effectively and charmed the monster into their alliance. Is there a way to change an animal's type to something that ISN'T Animal? I know by adding any undead template turns the creature Undead, but that can get old pretty quick. Any advice would be helpful.
Disclaimer: I didn't think this needed to be posted in the Adventure Path board since this is specific to a situation that could reasonably be encountered elsewhere, not only while sailing.
Are you letting the animals save?
Will is frequently the achilles heel of the animal type, but a DC11 save shouldn't be too much of a problem in the long run.
Are they planning to use it throughout an island, or are they trying to keep it permanently?
If it just when they are on an island...then fine, that is generally what the spell is meant to do.
If they are trying to take it with them, then some interpretations might force the issue against the limits of charm spells. Remember, they have to make an opposed CHA check in order to "convince it to do anything it wouldn't ordinarily do". For many animals, leaving their territory is a rather big task, which might bring up the check.
Anyway, even if they handle animal up some pets, it is generally not too huge of a problem...usually. It is the classic necromancer problem- they can only get creatures as strong as you throw at them. Since these aren't animal companions, they don't scale. And eventually, when it comes to creatures that actually MATTER... at all... well...DC 11 will saves don't go too far.
If you are actually worried, then try to limit the animals you throw at them by changing up the AP a bit. Throw some skeletons and such instead of the random bear (or whatever). I'm not entirely familiar with the content of the AP, but it shouldn't be too hard of a switch most of the time.
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You mean a ring of Animal friendship?
There is a chain of connections, but check charm person.
Charm Person
School enchantment (charm) [mind-affecting]; Level bard 1, sorcerer/wizard 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Target one humanoid creature
Duration 1 hour/level
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yesThis charm makes a humanoid creature regard you as its trusted friend and ally (treat the target's attitude as friendly). If the creature is currently being threatened or attacked by you or your allies, however, it receives a +5 bonus on its saving throw.
The spell does not enable you to control the charmed person as if it were an automaton, but it perceives your words and actions in the most favorable way. You can try to give the subject orders, but you must win an opposed Charisma check to convince it to do anything it wouldn't ordinarily do. (Retries are not allowed.) An affected creature never obeys suicidal or obviously harmful orders, but it might be convinced that something very dangerous is worth doing. Any act by you or your apparent allies that threatens the charmed person breaks the spell. You must speak the person's language to communicate your commands, or else be good at pantomiming.
First, range is short, with a CL of 3 for the ring, it is 35'. So the one using the ring should be fairly close to the target.
Then DC 11. Most animals have a 12 wisdom, so at least a 50% chance to save.
Third: the animal is friendly with the user of the ring only. Not with his ship, friends, crew and so on. So the giant octopus you just charmed(+7 will save, you were lucky) will have no problem about taking out for dinner a few of your crew members.
If the creature is threatened by some of your group (again, the crew members that don't like to be eaten), it get a +5 to his save.
If you charm it and get across your desire that it leave your ship alone (speak with animals or handle animals) and you pass the charisma check you now have a friend that will:
- wander away to search for food if you don't keep it feed;
- will act as this kind of animal protecting his puppies, pack mates or mate if you are threatened. If it is part of a species that don't care about any of the above the GM get to decide how it act based on the specie behavior unless commanded in some way (again, speak with animals or handle animals).
All that can work fine with trained combat dogs, but for the level at which you keep a 10.800 p item the ring is little more than a toy.
BTW, the charm effect last only 3 hours and using it again on the animal while charmed will require a new save (I doubt that even with speak with animals you will be able to transmit the idea of "purposely fail your saving throw" to an untrained animal).
And a successful save will make it realize it has been attacked:
"Succeeding on a Saving Throw: A creature that successfully saves against a spell that has no obvious physical effects feels a hostile force or a tingle, but cannot deduce the exact nature of the attack. Likewise, if a creature's saving throw succeeds against a targeted spell, you sense that the spell has failed. You do not sense when creatures succeed on saves against effect and area spells."
that is enough to roll a new ST against the previous charm at least (RAW it will break it).
Really, it is a bauble.