Hi all
So in our last session, during a heated combat, the bad guys threw the artifact the PC's were after through an opening and planned to close the door to prevent the PC's from grabbing it.
The ranger, on her initiative, decided to send her wolf, using Fetch, to grab the artifact and bring it back to her, all in the same round. A debate ensued.
The description is:
Fetch (DC 15): The animal goes and gets something. If you do not point out a specific item, the animal fetches a random object.The dry interpretation would be that yes, this is exactly what happens. The player argued that this is the point of the trick. I resisted because I felt a bit disappointed that my plan to make the fight more interesting was derailed so easily... by a simple Handle Animal trick. It felt too powerful to me. But by the end I had to concede to the player because I couldn't find any evidence to the contrary.
But I want to be clear about this, and about Handle Animal in general, going forward:
- With Fetch, can an animal companion run, grab an object, and come back (while sticking to the speed limitation, of course), all in the same turn?
- does the animal act on the ranger's initiative because the ranger gives the command?
- what then happens to the initiative of the animal companion? Does it get to act again in the same round? We cancelled its turn during the round once it was commanded to fetch. But this was just on instinct.
- when an animal grabs an object, is it a free action? (it's a move action for any other PC). That's how we played it, anyway.Thanks!
Animal companions have their own initiative, but many GMs hand-wave this and have the companion act on the PC's initiative to simplify things.
Picking up an item is a move action that provokes an attack of opportunity as per the CRB.
The wording of the command is pretty ambiguous, but I think we all know what fetch means. I'd argue that the item is dropped at the PC's feet, personally (which would require a move action on the PC's part to pick up the item), but it's pretty open to interpretation.
My opinion on how it should've gone:
- PC commands the animal companion to fetch the item and rolls a handle animal check.
- If the handle animal check was successful, the animal companion moves towards the item on its initiative using a move, a double move, or a run depending on how far away the item is and the environment.
- Once the animal companion arrives at the item, it would have to spend a move action to pick it up.
- Once the animal companion has the item in its possession, it would return to the PC and drop the item in the PC's square
- The PC picks the item up as a move action that provokes.
Succesfuly using Handle Animal to command an animal to Fetch only means that it understood the command and will try to execute it. It doesn't mean that it will be able to do it in the time that it takes to give the command.
So after the wolf receives the command, it needs to use its own actions to do what is required - if it can do it during the same turn that's good, if not, then it will continue to follow the command unless interupted.
Let's look at this from the point of consistency -- How did the Bad Guy go about throwing the object out of the door?
-- Did he have possession of the object at the start of his turn, or did he need to pick it up?
-- If he had to pick up the object, was he close to it at the beginning of his turn or did he have to move?
-- Did he move close to the doorway in order to throw the object through, or could he throw it from where he stood?
-- Did he have to open the door in order to throw the item through it?
In other words, if your NPCs were hampered by the action-intensive activity of picking up an object, walking, and throwing the object (which should take two rounds) then your PCs should probably be hampered by trying to move, pick up an object, and move again. If they were not, then your PCs should not. Consistency is king.
The only feats that does the splitting your move thing is Shot on the Run and Spring Attack, both of which involve making an attack in the middle of the move.
There are specific rules about attacks, without those feats they have to be made either before or after a move.
That isn't necessarily true of all other actions though. Can you move and take another move equivalent action (drinking a potion) at the same time?
I'd don't believe the rules directly address whether non-attack actions can be performed during move action. Other examples where it would matter would be moving some distance, opening a door, and continuing to move or throwing a switch while you move past it.
Personally, I believe that nothing requires move equivalent actions to take place before or after a move is complete.