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 (1 Action)

You issue an order to an animal. Attempt an Animal Handling check against the animal's Resolve Check. 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.

You automatically fail if the animal is hostile or unfriendly to you. If the animal is helpful to you, increase your degree of success by one step. You might be able to Command an Animal more easily with a feat like Ride.

Most animals know the Brawl, Drop Prone, Leap, Seek, Stand, and Stride basic actions. If an animal knows an 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. You can also spend multiple actions to Command the Animal to perform that number of basic actions on its next turn; for instance, you could spend 3 actions to Command an Animal to Stride three times or to Stride twice and then Brawl.

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 (3 Actions)

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

With at least 3 Actions of engagement, during which you engage in soothing actions, you seek calm an animal down them temporarily agreeable. At the end of your turn, attempt an Animal Handling check against the Resolve Check 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 (1 Action)

Typical riding actions don't require checks. You can saddle, mount, ride, and dismount without a problem. 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.

• Guide with Knees: You can guide your mount with your knees so you can use both hands in combat. Make your Animal Handling check at the start of your turn. If you fail, you can use only one hand this round because you need to use the other to control your mount. This does not take an action.

• Stay in Saddle: You can react instantly to try to avoid falling when your mount rears or bolts unexpectedly or when you take damage. This usage does not take an action.

• Fight with a Combat-Trained Mount: If you direct your war-trained mount to attack in battle, you can still make your own attack or attacks normally. This usage is a free action.

• Cover: You can react instantly to drop down and hang alongside your mount, using it as cover. You can’t attack or cast spells while using your mount as cover. If you fail your Animal Handling check, you don’t get the cover benefit. Using this option is a free action, but recovering from this position is a basic action (no check required).

• Soft Fall: You negate damage when you fall off a mount. If you fail the Animal Handling check, you take 1d6 points of Vital damage and are prone. This usage does not take an action.

• Leap: You can get your mount to leap obstacles as part of its movement. If the Animal Handling check to make the leap succeeds, make a check using your Animal Handling modifier or the mount’s jump modifier, whichever is lower, to see how far the creature can jump. 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). This usage does not take an action but is part of the mount’s movement.

• Spur Mount: You can spur your mount to greater speed with a move action. A successful Animal Handling check increases the mount’s speed by 1  Range for 1 round but deals 1d3 points of Vitality damage to the creature. You can use this ability every round, but the mount becomes fatigued after a number of rounds equal to its Constitution score. This ability cannot be used on a fatigued mount.

• Control Mount in Battle: As a move action, you can attempt to control a light horse, pony, heavy horse, or other mount not trained for combat riding while in battle. If you fail the Animal Handling check, you can do nothing else in that round. You do not need to roll for horses or ponies trained for combat.

• Fast Mount or Dismount: You can attempt to mount or dismount from a mount of up to one size category larger than yourself as a free action, provided that you still have a move action available that round. If you fail the Animal Handling check, mounting or dismounting is a move action. You can’t use fast mount or dismount on a mount more than one size category larger than yourself.