Animal Handling

This skill represents your ability to train animals to perform a variety of tasks, including doing labour, accepting riders, tracking and attacking. It is also used to determine if you can get a trained animal to perform a task, ride an animal, or calm a wild animal or unfamiliar domestic animal. 

COMMAND AN ANIMAL ⬤ ◌ ◌ 

You issue an order to an animal. Spend 1 Action to attempt an Animal Handling check against the animal's Resolve Defence. You automatically fail if the animal is hostile or unfriendly to you. The GM might adjust the DC if the animal has a good attitude toward you, you suggest a course of action it was predisposed toward, or you offer it a treat.

Most animals know the Brawl, Drop Prone, Leap, Seek, Stand, and Move basic actions. If an animal knows a multi-action activity, such as a horse's Gallop, you can Command the Animal to perform the activity, but you must spend as many actions on Command an Animal as the activity's number of actions. The animal does what you commanded as its first action on its next turn.

Issuing commands to an animal doesn’t always go smoothly. An animal is an independent creature with limited intelligence. Most animals understand only the simplest instructions, so you might be able to instruct your animal to move to a certain square but not dictate a specific path to get there, or command it to attack a certain creature but not to make its attack nonlethal. The GM decides the specifics of the action your animal uses.

The animal does what you commanded as soon as it can, usually as its first action on its next turn. If you successfully commanded it multiple times, it does what you said in order. It forgets all commands beyond what it can accomplish on its turn. If multiple people command the same animal, the GM determines how the animal reacts. The GM might also make the DC higher if someone has already tried to Command the Animal that round.

HANDLE ANIMAL ⬤ ⬤ ⬤ 

You can attempt to improve the initial attitude of an animal, much like using the Diplomacy skill on sapient creatures. 

Spend at least 3 Actions engaging in soothing actions, calming an animal down and making them temporarily agreeable to make an Animal Handling check against the Resolve Defence of one target, modified by any circumstances the GM sees fit. Good impressions (or bad impressions, on a critical failure) last for only the current scene unless the GM decides otherwise.

RIDE ⬤ ◌ ◌ 

Typical riding actions, including saddling, mounting, riding, and dismounting. don't require checks. Mounting or dismounting an animal is a move action. Some tasks, such as those undertaken in combat or other extreme circumstances, require checks. In addition, attempting trick riding or asking the animal to perform an unusual technique also requires a check.

• Fight: If you wish to attack while mounted, you must spend 1 action to make a DC 10 Animal Handling check to keep the mount steady while using your hands.

• Spur Mount: You can push the mount to move faster by spending 1 action to make a DC 15 Animal Handling check. On a success, the mount's Speed increases by 1 Range for the round, but the mount becomes Fatigued if pushed for more consecutive rounds than its Constitution modifier.

• Arrest Fall: If knocked off your mount, you can use a Reaction to make a DC 15 Animal Handling check. On a success, you take no falling damage and land on your feet. On a failure, you take 1d6 bludgeoning damage and fall Prone.

• Leap: You can get your mount to leap obstacles by spending 1 action to make a DC 15 Animal Handling check. If you fail your Animal Handling check, you fall off the mount when it leaps and take the appropriate falling damage (at least 1d6 points).