Do all animal companions know how to flank with allies?

[Doug Hahn]

I suspect the answer is "no"; I have players in PFS asking where exactly the rules say so and I cannot find it, so I have been letting their companions flank anyhow (I tend to rule in the player’s favor when I’m not sure about something).

From what I have read, “flanking" is not a support action available for any companions in the CRB. There are no tricks in PF2 like the flank trick in 1e. Flanking is not a basic action, so the rule that "most animals know the Leap, Seek, Stand, Stride, and Strike basic actions" doesn't apply.

Either all companions always know how to tactically flank and can be commanded to do so (e.g. "flank with the Merisiel"), or none know how to flank because there is no Basic Action that says they can.

What is the correct ruling here for a rules-strict table?

[ofMars]

flanking isn't an "action" at all, outside the dromaeosaur's support ability which treats it as in any space within 10 feet for the purpose of flanking. Though this support action explicitly does state it only benefits your attacks and not your allies, there's no reason not to count an animal companion as an ally for the purposes of flanking if it's in the appropriate space. You don't have to tell an animal to "flank," you tell it to stride and if it's in a flanking position, the enemy is flat footed as normal.
The cat animal companion even gets 1d4 precision vs flat footed opponents, and flanking is the primary means of getting this damage.

[Tender Tendrils]

Most carnivores understand how to position themselves to better kill things instinctually, and an animal companion has you training it extensively so probably knows how to do that stuff.

Animals are not mindless constructs that don't know how to position themselves.

Wolves, big cats and raptors in particular do the flanking thing in the wild when they hunt in packs.

[Doug Hahn]

@ofMars:

Perhaps my question wasn't clear.

I am not asking whether an animal companion counts as a flanking buddy, but about the whether the animal companion can set up the flank.

For example, Merisiel and Valeros are each standing on the near side of an ogre and have just ended their turns.

Lini then commands her animal companion: "flank with Merisiel." Flanking with the rogue is more optimal, after all.

Droogami, her leopard companion, then double moves around to the far side of the ogre, eating an attack of opportunity in the process, ending in the correct diagonal in order to set up a flank with the rogue.

@Tender:

That's a good argument from a flavor perspective (although in 1e there are pack animals and none of them know how to flank with humanoids unless they have the trick); I was hoping for something more concrete as this is mostly for PFS (although I do home game stuff too).

[Laran]

P249 CRB "Most animals understand only the
simplest instructions, so you might be able to instruct
your animal to move to a certain square but not dictate
a specific path to get there..."

Thus, you might be able to tell it to go into a flanking square but it will not do it on its own nor will it move to retain flanking

The benefit of the animal companion is that you do not need to use a check since it is loyal to you, it is not that it is super smart

[Doug Hahn]

That is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you Laran!

[ofMars]

Also, the bit on page 249 is referring to commanded animals. Commanding an animal takes an action and the animal gets its turn with the GM making decisions and presumably rolling any relevant checks the animal needs to make to attack; animal companions are minions that act on YOUR turn rather than their own. The "Command Animal" action of the nature skill is a different set of rules than the action it takes to give a minion 2 actions on your turn.

I agree it wouldn't move to retain flanking on its own, but because it's a minion, you'd just use your command action to get it to do so. Animals that are their own creature would be the same, I suppose, but as per the nature skill, it would be a 1-1 action expense and the animal would take those actions on its turn rather than yours.

[Luke Styer]

Doug Hahn wrote:

Lini then commands her animal companion: "flank with Merisiel." Flanking with the rogue is more optimal, after all.

Droogami, her leopard companion, then double moves around to the far side of the ogre, eating an attack of opportunity in the process, ending in the correct diagonal in order to set up a flank with the rogue.

I’m not sure I understand what the issue is. If Lini wants Groofami to flank with Merisiel, Lini has the action with which to give the command, and Droogami has sufficient movement to get there, Droogami will get into flanking. I don’t see what it matters whether that’s because Droogami understands the command “flank” (which doesn’t seem like such a huge stretch to me — real world animals can be highly trained and Animal Companions are at least a little bit fantastical) or because Lini picks the flanking square and Droogami goes.

People keep saying Droogami won’t act to maintain or reestablish flanking on her own, but that’s not necessarily because she doesn’t know how to flank so much as because she has the minion trait and so generally won’t act of her own volition.

[Filthy Lucre]

Doug Hahn wrote:

I suspect the answer is "no"; I have players in PFS asking where exactly the rules say so and I cannot find it, so I have been letting their companions flank anyhow (I tend to rule in the player’s favor when I’m not sure about something).

From what I have read, “flanking" is not a support action available for any companions in the CRB. There are no tricks in PF2 like the flank trick in 1e. Flanking is not a basic action, so the rule that "most animals know the Leap, Seek, Stand, Stride, and Strike basic actions" doesn't apply.

Either all companions always know how to tactically flank and can be commanded to do so (e.g. "flank with the Merisiel"), or none know how to flank because there is no Basic Action that says they can.

What is the correct ruling here for a rules-strict table?

I think you might be over thinking this - the player gets to say exactly where their animal companion goes when it takes the stride action. So, just from a game perspective, the animal companion is going to make smarter tactical movements than they normally would simply because Pathfinder is a game and the PC has been so empowered.