All about animals

[Indagare]

So I had a few different questions on animals of all varieties.

1) Should animal intelligence be more scaled?

I mean, I know Wisdom tends to work like Intelligence for animals, but there are some pretty smart animals out there that can figure out a lot of different things (and dolphins may have their own language). So limiting their Intelligence to 2 seems a bit weird.

2) How to deal with animal PCs?

Pathfinder never went into talking animals, which is a pretty sad thing since there's tons of literature out there where there are talking animals. Certainly any parents would love a bit of help dealing with their kid wanting to play in the Lion King universe. I know there are probably third party things and maybe even extensions to help, but still...

This also could help in situations where the PCs are temporarily stuck in an animal form or where the PCs get rescued by their familiars/animal companions.

3) Animal language(s)?

While talk with animals is an interesting spell, sometimes a character like Mowgli comes along and it brings up interesting questions about non-magical ways of talking with animals. Of course, in any setting where a human and animal can communicate it rather implies the animals to have a bit more than an Int of 2 to start with, but I'm curious if anyone has ever tried to make a feat or skill or something for non-magical speaking with animals. It could be some form of animal "Common" (used largely in films where animals can talk to one another but humans can't usually understand them) to maybe species languages (all canines have one language, all felines another, all lapines a third, etc.) which would be more like Dr. Doolittle who can learn to talk with animals, but each different type of animal has its own language.

4) Should familiars and animal companions be 'scaleable'?

There's a thread similar to this, but my question is whether or not there should be more mechanics to help buff up familiars and animal companions rather than making players choose new ones. Now, obviously, animal companions/familiars aren't really supposed to be in battle to start with, but it's inevitable they will end up being at some point. I know there are a couple ways they already improve, but I was wondering if making them something more like the eidolon might make sense (especially for familiars). There could be some pretty flavorful ways of doing it; I once read of someone who had a crow or raven familiar that was slowly dying, so to save it the wizard was slowly replacing organic parts with clockwork ones, eventually turning it fully into a clockwork creature. I thought that was a great bit of story and I could easily see other folks taking similar routes if given the option.

I'd love to hear folks thoughts, opinions, and experiences.

[Vidmaster7]

I always thought dolphins and gorilla's should have a higher int.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Indagare wrote:

1) Should animal intelligence be more scaled?

The idea that there has to be a set Intelligence score below which you cannot be sapient and above which you cannot be an animal seems kind of funny to me. Then again I find associating ability scores, especially mental ones, with RP traits to be confusing (in the sense that they're way too granular for my tastes).

I would say just make up whatever limit you want: it's not going to do anything other than make a few animals better at Int-based tasks. I think the only hard thing you have to change is how many tricks various kinds of animals get.

Indagare wrote:

2) How to deal with animal PCs?

When Silver Game wanted My Little Ponies they came up with this rule:

Fingerless Rules
* Hand and ring slot magic items automatically adjust to fit, becoming anklets that otherwise function normally.
* Any worn magical foot slot items(boots, shoes, etc.) adapt to cover all four hooves.
* They may use horseshoe items, but doing so occupies the foot slot, preventing boots, shoes, and other such things.
* Ponies may wield/use items with their mouth as if their primary hand.
* Touch attacks can be made with hooves or horn. There is no mechanical benefit to this and it resolves exactly the same as a humanoid touch with a finger.
* Unarmed attacks from ponies can come in the form of teeth, slams, or hooves. They do normal damage for an unarmed adventurer of medium size and are resolved entirely as unarmed, not natural, attacks.
* Somatic components are handled with hoof and horn.

Simply make up a suitable stat block for an "animal race" then apply this.

Or you can use Noble Wild rules.

A note on magic item slots: I think if you're going to say that magic items can automatically resize themselves they you should just say they automatically adapt to fit beings of a different body shape. Just have everyone have the same types of slots in the same number (you can say it's a "chakra" thing) and forget about having to mess around with rules language every time you make some with a new shape.

Indagare wrote:

3) Animal language(s)?

I think languages should always be handled based on how often the GM wants to put the challenge of not sharing a language in front of PCs.

Indagare wrote:

4) Should familiars and animal companions be 'scaleable'?

Yes.