Checks with Speak With Animals

[LordNibbler]

If my OotA paladin casts Speak With Animals, can he use the Persuasion skill instead of Animal Handling? His charisma and skill proficiency would be quite a boost!

[Finback]

If my OotA paladin casts Speak With Animals, can he use the Persuasion skill instead of Animal Handling? His charisma and skill proficiency would be quite a boost!

I have to imagine that would be the DM's decision; for me, if it were asked, I'd say no - because what can convince a human may not sway an animal. "Oh, but this would benefit so many orphans!/save the king!/end the war!"
"I literally lick my genitals clean and eat offal/sleep in a hole in a tree and vomit up bones and fur/live in a hole and eat worms."

Maybe if the animal's response to you was favourable somehow, eg you had rescued them from a trap or something, but at a general level, not really. I mean, try to convince your cat with persuasion not to claw the furniture. Even if you could speak Cat, would it *care*? But if you had a can of tuna in one hand..

[Ninja_Prawn]

I have to imagine that would be the DM's decision

It's definitely contextual. Under the influence of Speak with Animals, you enter a grey area where you're not necessarily 'handling' them; you're more on their level and whether or not you can persuade them to do something depends more on your Charisma than it does your intuitive understanding of how animals think (i.e. Wisdom).

It may be appropriate to call for a Charisma (Animal Handling) check, to represent the fact that you still need to know your way around animals to be able to phrase your wishes in a way that generates the right response.

And if you're playing some kind of crazy game where the PCs are awakened animals or fey creatures (:smallcool:), Charisma (Persuasion) seems like entirely the right check to reach for.