I'm about to start Kingmaker with my table and I want to have something in place for them to hunt for profit (it's bound to come up) and train animals. After studying the Core Rulebook and the dozens of posts rehearsing Handle Animal and Survival, I've come up with some rules to supplement. I'd appreciate critique.
Training: First, we need to clarify the difference between training a wild animal and getting an animal companion. Animal companions come from class abilities for certain classes. Animal companions are an extension of the character, they share an empathic link. That is why druids and rangers control their companions and why their companions go on their turn.
It is possible for a non-druid/ranger to tame or train an animal, though. The rulebook says that you can rear a wild animal from infancy with a Handle Animal check DC 15 + HD of the animal. But say you want to domesticate a wild animal, but you don't want to rear an animal from infancy? In this campaign, I'm going to allow that. You'll just have a much higher DC for adult wild animals (DC 20 + HD for mundane animals, DC 25 + 2xHD for magical animals), it may be less trainable than if you had raised it from infancy (one fewer trick learned per intelligence score), and you'll first have to calm it down enough that it won't try to eat you in the process (either with Wild Empathy as a class trait or Animal Affinity as a feat).
Hunting: You will come across wild animals that you may want to dress, skin, and eat, or you may decide to take time to go hunting. In either case, the actual kill will be handled just like any combat. If you're hunting, tracking the animal will be a survival check, per the rule book.
Once the animal is down, dressing and skinning will be another survival check (DC 15 + HD of the animal). If you are wanting to save the hide for trading or selling, you will need salt for this purpose; if you want to make leather out of it, that would be a craft (leatherworking) check.
