Hello, I have a question about Bonded Animal from Remaster Player Core.
A helpful animal is easier to direct, as described on page 242.If your bonded animal is level –1, it gains the minion trait (page 301), allowing you to command it more efficiently. The maximum
level of creature that can be your minion increases to 3 if you’re a master in Nature and to 11 if you’re legendary.
1/Is it possible to have an animal with a level above the character ? So, you can make a check to command an animal for 3 actions ?
2/ If it's a minion with level -1, does the minon have a level + 3 if the character is master in Nature or level + 11 if the character is legendary in nature ?
A minion has only 2 actions and 0 reactions per turn, though certain conditions (such as slowed or quickened) or abilities might give them a reaction that they can use.
Must the character still a check to command an animal for a minion ?
Thanks for your future answer.
I'm not seeing a creature level restriction on the basic Bonded Animal. It would just be difficult to succeed at the Nature check for higher level creatures.
The level of creature that will become a minion is a bit misleading because of the syntax. We are used to 'Level -1' meaning a relative level because of the Building Encounters rules. But that isn't what it means in this case. When it says that "if your bonded animal is level -1, it gains the minion trait", it means specifically a level -1 creature. So one of these. You wouldn't get a level 2 creature as a minion if your character is level 3.
At higher skill proficiency, the level increases. You can get a minion of level 3 at Master proficiency, and a level 11 creature at Legendary.
So, you can make a check to command an animal for 3 actions ?
Yes.
If an animal knows an
activity, such as a horse’s Gallop, you can Command the
Animal to perform the activity, but you must spend as many
actions on Command an Animal as the activity’s number of
actions. You can also spend multiple actions to Command the
Animal to perform that number of basic actions on its next
turn; for instance, you could spend 3 actions to Command
an Animal to Stride three times or to Stride twice and then
make a Strike.
So, normally Command an Animal is one action and the animal does one action. (Minion upgrades this to not need a check and you spend one action to have the Minion do two actions - but you can only do it once per turn)
If the animal knows an activity, you can do one Command an Animal check and spend the same number of actions as the activity to have the animal do that activity.
Also, if you are giving multiple commands on one round, you can do one Command an Animal check and give those multiple commands - but you are still transferring actions 1-to-1.
Does the minion version actually use the command an animal skill action or is it its own thing?
Also if they are actually separate can you use the minion version to get 2 for 1 then use the command animal skill action on a minion to get additional 1 for 1?
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I think we need better guidance for animal companions (and generally minions with a mind) out of combat. Or heck, even in combat. I could see this feat being fun at higher levels if you can command an animal to go make a ruckus somewhere else, but the whole resorting to protecting themselves or their own instincts thing is pretty vague. Do they stick to their master's heel if not commanded? Do they attack things which are attacking them? How far do they run away?
Part of me feels like animal companions would work better if they mostly just Support Benefit abilities rather than a bespoke token on the map that makes strikes. The minion rules are fine enough for summons but but create too many weird corner cases for beasts with any degree of intelligence or independence.
Does the minion version actually use the command an animal skill action or is it its own thing?
Most Minions, such as Familiars and summoned creatures, have the ability to be commanded for one action with the unnamed 'Command Minion' action. It doesn't need a skill check.
A Bonded Animal that has the Minion trait appears to still be using that as well.
Animal Companions (and Animal Companions specifically) use the Command an Animal action, but it is overridden to do the same thing - spend one action, gain two, no skill check.
Also if they are actually separate can you use the minion version to get 2 for 1 then use the command animal skill action on a minion to get additional 1 for 1?
I don't see any reason why you couldn't also spend actions on Command an Animal for a Minion animal. Or even for a Minion non-animal such as a Plant Familiar. As long as you don't exceed the 3 action maximum for any one minion.
This is probably treading into houserule territory though.
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Wow, what a feat! If the bonded animal doesn't become a minion because of the level restriction, the feat does absolutely and utterly nothing. Because 'bond' doesn't give any mechanical advantage at all.
It means that the animal will be part of your character sheet and under the control of you as a player rather than continuing to be an NPC under the control of the GM.
No, if you want an animal to assist you in combat you still need to get an Animal Companion. Not a Bonded Animal.
Does the minion version actually use the command an animal skill action or is it its own thing?Most Minions, such as Familiars and summoned creatures, have the ability to be commanded for one action with the unnamed 'Command Minion' action. It doesn't need a skill check.
A Bonded Animal that has the Minion trait appears to still be using that as well.
Animal Companions (and Animal Companions specifically) use the Command an Animal action, but it is overridden to do the same thing - spend one action, gain two, no skill check.
Also if they are actually separate can you use the minion version to get 2 for 1 then use the command animal skill action on a minion to get additional 1 for 1?I don't see any reason why you couldn't also spend actions on Command an Animal for a Minion animal. Or even for a Minion non-animal such as a Plant Familiar. As long as you don't exceed the 3 action maximum for any one minion.
This is probably treading into houserule territory though.
I would say no to this because Rangers have Companions cry, spend two actions to command your animal companion to give it 3 actions. This is the only way for a minion to ever get more then 2 actions.
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Wow, what a feat! If the bonded animal doesn't become a minion because of the level restriction, the feat does absolutely and utterly nothing. Because 'bond' doesn't give any mechanical advantage at all.
I think you are incorrect.
Reading the feat, and I'll admit it's badly written, I think it's implicit that once you form a bond with an animal, it becomes helpful and remains helpful until you break the bond. Gaining an always helpful animal is a benefit as a helpful animal increases the level of success of a Command Animal check by 1, so you just need to roll a success, not a critical success, to get the animal to do what you want.
Also, the feat allows you to give your bonded animal the minion trait (albeit with a level limit), which removes the need to roll a success for your Command Animal (though you still need to spend an action) and you spend 1 action to get 2 from your bonded animal minion (action economy benefit).
The feat is pretty useless if you want something to help you in combat, but I could see a bonded animal minion being useful for non-combat roles, like a reliable mount or pack animal, or as an alarm system (guard dog), or for roleplaying, like having a mongoose that can steal small items, or perhaps a monkey that can climb up a wall and attach a grappling hook.
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1/Is it possible to have an animal with a level above the character ? So, you can make a check to command an animal for 3 actions ?
As long as you don't make your bonded animal a minion, there does not seem to be any level limit.
Note though, that making an animal your bonded animal requires a Nature check, so your proficiency in the Nature skill will effectively limit the level of the animal since, presumably, higher level animals will have higher Will saves.
Secondly, availability is an issue... you're not going to typically find a Tyrannosaurus in Katapesh.
Thirdly, the creature must be friendly or helpful, so you'd need to explain to the GM how you made the Tyrannosaurus friendly.
And don't forget that as a non-minion animal, you need to make the Command An Animal checks to get it to do things, so higher level animals are harder to command... yes, your level 5 character somehow succeeded in making a level 15 Tyrannosaurus your bonded animal, but you're going to fail a lot of your Command an Animal checks.
With Bonded animal, you can have only a single animal.
What about tame animal ? Is it still legal with bonded animal feat ? Or Bonded animal replaces tame anima feats ?
Is it possible to upgrade CR (HP, Saves...) with an animal obtained by bonded animal ?
You can spend 7 days of downtime regularly interacting with a normal animal (not a companion or other special animal) that is friendly or helpful to you.
What means "normal animal" or "special animal" ?
To obtain friendly or helpful, you must have animal empathy or use a spell to change the attitude, no ?
Is it possible to tame an almiraj or bonded it ?
With train animal feat, you can :
Success The animal learns the action. If it was an action the
animal already knew, you can Command the Animal to take
that action without attempting a Nature check.
Final charge, goring charge, into the earth are the action already knew, so there aren't a Nature check to success for Command an animal, is it right ?
So if the almiraj is not a minion, it has still its reaction, no ?
I'm not entirely sure on most of this. Turning enemies from the Bestiaries into allies isn't something that the rules cover very well. Most of this is going to be a table decision more than a rule from the books.
Tame Animal is an Uncommon feat from an AP. So keep that in mind. Other than that, by RAW I don't see anything to override or conflict between the various feats. It mostly depends on how many combatants the GM wants to have to balance encounters for - that is the limiting factor IMO.
I'm not aware of any way of changing the stats of an NPC animal through any action or feat of the PCs other than converting one of them to be an Animal Companion and part of the PC's character sheet. The GM can set the stats of the NPC animal as needed through GM fiat.
A "normal animal" is one that isn't part of a PCs (or NPCs) character. So a "special animal" would be an Animal Companion, or animal trait Familiar, or animal Pet, or Beast Eidolon, or other such things.
Regarding Almiraj, this is definitely into table rulings - I don't think the Bonded Animal rules are specific enough for this. If the Almiraj isn't a Minion, then the PC is controlling it only indirectly. It is up to the GM if it decides to use any of its reactions (the PC can't as a reaction command the animal to use its reactions). To use Goring Charge, the PC would need to use a two-action Command an Animal. And for these special attacks, it would be up to the GM if the Almiraj knows the trick - or rather if the PC knows how to command the animal to do that particular combat move instead of Stride, Strike.