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Machete
2007-09-29, 01:45 AM
Trained animals. The Handle Animal skill allows for relatively cheap animal minions with varying abilities to be at the command of a trainer yet I don't really see people mentioning this use of the skill often. I know it is like crafting in that it takes some time and produces more charcters to keep track of, but still, even a couple of powerful animals would be useful at least as meat shields wouln't they?

Maybe even some utility is available with some creativity?

Azerian Kelimon
2007-09-29, 01:50 AM
Dires, sure. Anything else is like throwing warrior orcs at balors.

Ungvar
2007-09-29, 02:24 AM
Trained animals. The Handle Animal skill allows for relatively cheap animal minions with varying abilities to be at the command of a trainer yet I don't really see people mentioning this use of the skill often. I know it is like crafting in that it takes some time and produces more charcters to keep track of, but still, even a couple of powerful animals would be useful at least as meat shields wouln't they?

Most easily available animals are going to start to be one-shotted really fast, and the DC to rear a wild animal is 15 + HD of the animal. And that's rear a wild animal from infancy. So you're going to have to keep bringing it back from the dead, or you lose all your work. It's just simpler to have the spellcaster summon some nature's allies or monsters.

OTOH, if you're going to train an animal as a tracker, or as your mount, or some other non-combat role, I'd agree, there's a lot of potential.

The_Werebear
2007-09-29, 07:30 AM
I would look into the Beastmaster prestige class in Complete Adventurer. You get multiple animal companions (Beastmaster level +3, -3, -6, -9 = Druid Level), wild empathy, a few animalistic abilities, and the very handy Speak with Animals, not to mention full BaB. All you need to get in is 8 ranks in Handle Animal, 4 in Survival, and Skill focus in Handle Animal.

Chronos
2007-09-29, 04:46 PM
I've been toying with the idea of a gnome ranger with several pet Dire Badgers. Between maxed Handle Animal, Wild Empathy, and Speak with (burrowing) Animals, they should be very well-trained, and he can give them more specific orders 1/day, if needed. It's not too powerful at high levels, but there's nothing about the idea that wouldn't work at level 1, and a few Dire Badgers would be a significant boost to a level 1 character's power.

Dire wolverines would work even better, except that they're not technically burrowing, so a gnome can't speak with them. And a regular wolverine is almost identical to a dire badger, but the badger gets better advancement.