What's the minimum it takes to get a flank out of Handle Animal?

[bean illus]

I was reading a post about alternative uses for move actions. Many were magic, or obscure. But one i noticed for its mundane availability was Handle Animal.

Having rangered, I'm familiar with my trained companion attacking, ...

But what about a character without Handle Animal pushing some animal he just picked up? Just some average schmoe?
How to consistently hit a 22? At what level? 10? Lower?

+2 base cha, +4 cha enh, 8 skill ranks = 14 ranks

Obviously there's Skill Focus, but feats are expensive. Is it possible to make an item? What would it cost with ...

+3 skill focus
+2 masterwork tool

What item is that? A hat? A whistle? It needs to be continuous, and hands free. It would be nice if slotless, but i don't see any justification. Is a whistle an amulet?
What about adding the price to the charisma item? Cape of the Master Huntsman (+2, +4, +6), or something like that.

If 10th level Schmoe had that, he could 'always' push an animal he just met into flanking for him, on a 4 or better?

And what are these definitions of flanked?

If the opponent is unaware of the ally (say invisible), is it flanked?
If the ally is unaware of the opponent, is the opponent flanked?
If the ally has no intent to attack, is the opponent flanked?
If the ally is invisible and has no intent to attack, is the opponent flanked?


The goal is to trade Scmoe's move action for a flanking bonus. It's not about a character optimized for handle animal.

[Segev]

And what are these definitions of flanked?

If the opponent is unaware of the ally (say invisible), is it flanked?
If the ally is unaware of the opponent, is the opponent flanked?
If the ally has no intent to attack, is the opponent flanked?
If the ally is invisible and has no intent to attack, is the opponent flanked?
To my knowledge, the flanking rules don't care about the target's awareness of either flanker. Perhaps they should, but the rules choose not to mess with deciding what to do if the target just ignores one flanker and focuses solely on the other. Therefore, as long as the flanking buddy is a hostile figure in combat terms, the guy is flanked. You ask about "no intent to attack," though: that depends on whether "no intent to attack" means he counts as an enemy or not. If he doesn't count as an enemy, no, he's not flanking the target.


The goal is to trade Scmoe's move action for a flanking bonus. It's not about a character optimized for handle animal.Best option would actually be to train your animal to attack so you don't have to push it. All you really need is your animal buddy to be aggressive enough to stay in a fight rather than run.

[Crake]

But what about a character without Handle Animal pushing some animal he just picked up? Just some average schmoe?
How to consistently hit a 22? At what level? 10? Lower?

Well, firstly, pushing an animal is DC25, not 20, plus 2 for if the animal is injured, so 27 is what you should be looking at. As a further note though, pushing a normal animal is a full-round action, it's only a move action for animal companions.