Hi all you smart people, I need some help regarding the spell "call animal". Let's say I'm a druid and I:
1 - cast 'call animal', the animal comes and is indifferent
2 - check 'wild empathy', the disposition is improved to friendly, now I can use handle animal to 'push' him to perform tricks (attack, defend, etc)
3 - 'call animal' duration ends, what happens?:
a) the disposition is back to indifferent and the animal goes away
b) it stays friendly for 1d4 hours and then a new wild empathy check needs to be done (interpretation of Diplomacy) to improve his attitude again.
c) he stays indefinitely and can be trained (like a mount/pet)
d) something else
for reference:
- Call Animal
- Wild Empathy
- Diplomacy
- Handle Animal
"Once the spell’s duration expires, the animal acts in accordance with its attitude. Most animals will likely wander off, but a hostile predatory animal may attack, especially if it is hungry or provoked."
- from the call animal spell
i think this is a pointer. the attitude that the animal had at the end of the spell duration stay as is. but what it does may depend on a lot of factors
if it has a strong sense of home and territory .even if it is in a friendly disposition to the player it might still be 'home-sick' and decide to leave. remember it left it's home at least an hour ago (1 hour per level). what if it has a mate or offspring to take care of?
animal with less of a set home (nomadic or passing animals) might decide to stay with the player if they are in good enough attitude toward them and seem to have a good chance to eat and play. and as mentioned them with bad or violent attitude might straight up attack.
The spell keeps the animal near the caster for 1 hour per level. Other than setting the initial attitude to indifferent it does not affect the attitude of the animal. After the spell wears off the compulsion of the animal to stay near the caster is gone, but it attitude is not changed. At that point the animal would react as if it had been encountered without the spell, but anything you did to influence it would still be in effect. So once the spell is expired treat the animal as if you encountered it by chance.
One thing to keep in mind is that since the spell does not give you any influence over the animal it is still possible that it attitude could still turn hostile while the spell is running. If you put the animal in danger or order it to do something it does not like it may turn on you. This can be a real problem since the animal will not run away while the spell is in effect.
"Once the spell’s duration expires, the animal acts in accordance with its attitude"
- from the call animal spelli think this is a pointer. the attitude that the animal had at the end of the spell duration stay as is.
I tend to agree with this. If it read "initial attitude" it would clear as day that the animal goes back to what it was, as if per amnesia. But it's ambiguous enough to leave doubt.
Once the spell is expired treat the animal as if you encountered it by chance
This also makes sense to me, although I believe whatever you do to the animal to change it's attitude is "permanent", i.e., it keeps the final attitude.
I would not use the word permanent because you can still piss of the animal and its attitude can change. This can actually happen during the spell. A better phrasing would be that the attitude the animal has at the end of the spell persists until something changes it.
I would not use the word permanent because you can still piss of the animal and its attitude can change. This can actually happen during the spell. A better phrasing would be that the attitude the animal has at the end of the spell persists until something changes it.
Much better wording, yes that's exactly what I meant