Labyrinths & Liontaurs
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Notes

Handle Animal

Key Ability: Chr | Trained Only: Yes | Armor Check Penalty: No

You are trained at working with animals, and can teach them tricks, get them to follow your simple commands, or even domesticate them.

Check: The DC depends on what you are trying to do.

TaskHandle Animal DC
Handle an animal10
“Push” an animal25
Teach an animal a trick15 or 20*
Train an animal for a general purpose15 or 20*
Rear a wild animal15 + HD of animal
* See the specific trick or purpose below.

Handle an Animal: This task involves commanding an animal to perform a task or trick that it knows. If the animal is wounded or has taken any nonlethal damage or ability score damage, the DC increases by 2. If your check succeeds, the animal performs the task or trick on its next action.

Push” an Animal: To push an animal means to get it to perform a task or trick that it doesn't know but is physically capable of performing. This category also covers making an animal perform a forced march or forcing it to hustle for more than 1 hour between sleep cycles. If the animal is wounded or has taken any nonlethal damage or ability score damage, the DC increases by 2. If your check succeeds, the animal performs the task or trick on its next action.

Teach an Animal a Trick: You can teach an animal a specific trick with 1 week of work and a successful Handle Animal check against the indicated DC. An animal with an Intelligence score of 1 can learn a maximum of three tricks, while an animal with an Intelligence score of 2 can learn a maximum of six tricks. Possible tricks (and their associated DCs) include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following.

  • Work (DC 15): The animal pulls or pushes a medium or heavy load.
  • Train an Animal for a General Purpose: Rather than teaching an animal individual tricks, you can simply train it for a general purpose. Essentially, an animal's purpose represents a preselected set of known tricks that fit into a common scheme, such as guarding or heavy labor. The animal must meet all the normal prerequisites for all tricks included in the training package. If the package includes more than three tricks, the animal must have an Intelligence score of 2 or higher.

    An animal can be trained for only one general purpose, though if the creature is capable of learning additional tricks (above and beyond those included in its general purpose), it may do so. Training an animal for a purpose requires fewer checks than teaching individual tricks does, but no less time.

    Rear a Wild Animal: To rear an animal means to raise a wild creature from infancy so that it becomes domesticated. You can rear a number of creatures at the same time equal to three plus your odd (cilumn A) Charisma bonus .

    A successfully domesticated animal can be taught tricks at the same time it's being raised, or it can be taught as a domesticated animal later.

    Action: Varies. Handling an animal is a move action, while “pushing” an animal is a full-round action. (A druid or ranger can handle an wild or tame companion as a free action or push it as a move action.) For tasks with specific time frames noted above, you must spend half this time (at the rate of 3 hours per day per animal being handled) working toward completion of the task before you attempt the Handle Animal check. If the check fails, your attempt to teach, rear, or train the animal fails and you need not complete the teaching, rearing, or training time. If the check succeeds, you must invest the remainder of the time to complete the teaching, rearing, or training. If the time is interrupted or the task is not followed through to completion, the attempt to teach, rear, or train the animal automatically fails.

    Try Again: Yes, except for rearing an animal.

    Special: You can use this skill on a creature with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2 that is not an animal, but the DC of any such check increases by 5. Such creatures have the same limit on tricks known as animals do.

    Any character with a wild or tame companion gains a +4 circumstance bonus on Handle Animal checks involving the companion.

    In addition, wild and tame companions know one or more bonus tricks, which don't count against the normal limit on tricks known and don't require any training time or Handle Animal checks to teach.

    Half-orcs gain a +3 racial bonus on Handle Animal checks.

    Untrained: If you have no ranks in Handle Animal, you can use a Charisma check to handle and push domestic animals, but you can't teach, rear, or train animals. A druid or ranger with no ranks in Handle Animal can use a Charisma check to handle and push a companion, but can't teach, rear, or train other nondomestic animals.