[3.5] Druid / Wild Empathy Help

[Sayren-Hai]

Hi All

I apologise in advance if there is already a thread regarding this.
In an upcoming game I'm creating a 10th level Druid, just so I fully understand my class. I will be having a Tiger as my animal companion. How does it work in the rules to gain an additional animal following me via Wild Empathy? It wont receive my bonuses from Animal Companion will it however?

[Khedrac]

Wild Empathy is diplomacy for animals (and magical beasts) - thus it does not gain you an extra follower (that would be like the feat Leadership).

What Wild Empathy allows you is to calm down and get past guard animals (and beasts) or calm down a panicking animal so that you could communicate with it (via Speak with Animals or similar).

It does not affect the Handle Animal DCs you need to get your animal companion to do tricks.
If you buy a trained animal (so not your companion but in addition, e.g. a riding dog) it does not change the training time required or the handle animal DCs for this either.

[Sayren-Hai]

So if for example I come across a wild brown bear in the wild whilst adventuring.
I can wild empathy it so it doesn't attack us, but can I then use Handle Animal to train it to become a "follower" so to speak? So I'd train it to follow and attack?

[Ellrin]

So if for example I come across a wild brown bear in the wild whilst adventuring.
I can wild empathy it so it doesn't attack us, but can I then use Handle Animal to train it to become a "follower" so to speak? So I'd train it to follow and attack?

It's been a while since I read the exact wording, but I believe it somewhere in core it states that you can only domesticate wild animals while they're still infants.

Magically, you could charm or dominate animal, or you could cast awaken and use a diplomacy check to see if you can convince it to follow you of its own free will, but it'll still be an NPC with its own agenda.

[mattie_p]

Wild Empathy acts like a diplomacy check to improve the attitude of an animal. So whatever you can do with diplomacy, you can do with Wild Empathy - just with a different target.


The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly.

There is your starting point. From there, it is a DC of 40 to turn a wild animal helpful, and a DC 30 for a domestic animal to turn helpful. The reason we want helpful is the following:


Will take risks to help you. Possible actions include: Protect, back up, heal, aid

[Person_Man]

Just speaking from personal experience here and not RAW, few DMs will just "give" you extra Animal Companions. They'll let you use Wild Empathy to bypass an encounter, and maybe to be Helpful for a particular combat. But they're not going to have them follow you around for long, unless it's really a succubus or evil druid in disguise.

Having said that, its still a fairly useful ability, which can be used on Animals AND low Int Magical Beasts. Unicorn Horn soulmeld (Totemist) boosts Wild Empathy + Move Silently by 2 + (2*essentia invested), and 1 level of the Beast Heart Adept (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20070209a&page=4) prestige class lets you use Wild Empathy on Magical Beasts regardless of their Intelligence.

[Ellrin]

There is your starting point. From there, it is a DC of 40 to turn a wild animal helpful, and a DC 30 for a domestic animal to turn helpful. The reason we want helpful is the following:

Even if you can get its attitude to helpful, that doesn't allow you to communicate with it (you need speak with animals or some similar effect) in order to instruct it. Even if you can communicate, it only has animal intelligence, so it can't understand if you start giving it complex orders, and helpful NPCs still won't follow you (at least, not very far) if you can't communicate the importance of it to them. If it's wild, I don't think you can train it, so you can't get it to follow you via tricks; though you could use it to gain a domesticated animal without having to buy it, I suppose. The issue there is that somebody else probably alrady owns it, so you'd have all the usual consequences for stealing.

[mattie_p]

Even if you can get its attitude to helpful, that doesn't allow you to communicate with it (you need speak with animals or some similar effect) in order to instruct it. Even if you can communicate, it only has animal intelligence, so it can't understand if you start giving it complex orders, and helpful NPCs still won't follow you (at least, not very far) if you can't communicate the importance of it to them. If it's wild, I don't think you can train it, so you can't get it to follow you via tricks; though you could use it to gain a domesticated animal without having to buy it, I suppose. The issue there is that somebody else probably alrady owns it, so you'd have all the usual consequences for stealing.

Handle Animal to the rescue. DC 25 to push an animal.


“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.


DC 25 is not difficult to accomplish. It is a full round action, so may not be the best use of time in combat, but it can be done.

[Fouredged Sword]

Yes you can do this, but the best use of the abilities of many animals lies outside combat.

Take guarding the camp at night. An own makes a great guard at night for low levels, and a full round action to push it to preform the "guard" trick is something you can take 20 on before you go to sleep.
+14 listen and +14 spot and low light vision are more than most sentries at 1-5th level.

After a few levels go track down a giant owl and train it. Better low light vision and you can ride it.

Get some nearby wolves to help your party scout track, get an eagle to search for the goblin camp, a wild deer or bison can help haul your loot back to town.

Animals are tools for a druid. Use them to solve your problems.

[Gavinfoxx]

If you want another animal following you around, get these feats:

Wild Cohort
Initiate of Nature


Those are feats that will, one way or another, get you an animal following you around each, for three animals total.

[Deaxsa]

If you want another animal following you around, get these feats:

Wild Cohort
Initiate of Nature


Those are feats that will, one way or another, get you an animal following you around each, for three animals total.

mind letting us know were those feats came from? i'm curious and don't want to look stuff up all the time. (which i'm about to do anyways, but still)

[Gavinfoxx]

online wizards article, pgtf, respectively.