Re: Unnatural Aura and Animals Trained for Combaat
- From: "David" <caissaintp@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2007 12:36:31 -0700
"Jeffrey Rolland" <wildstar200@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:wildstar200-C31AEE.13241724062007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hello, all!
In one of my campaigns, I'm doing the halfling-on-a-riding-dog thing
(not yet a Halfling Outrider, but I'm working on it) and our DM is going
to have us fight a Wraith in our next encounter (we're preparing for the
encounter now).
Wraiths have an Unnatural Aura, which causes all animals within 30' to
Panic and run outside of 30'. This will obviously negate mounted combat.
One very experience player (and sometimes DM) in another gaming group
stated without proof that an animal trained for combat can be made to
attack in mounted combat against a creature with an Unnatural Aura, if a
Riding check is made; the player said he didn't know the DC on the
Riding check.
Is there any truth to this? Or am I SOL on mounted combat against the
Wraith? I am a 4th level Fighter with a purchased riding dog, not a
Paladin or anything, if it makes a difference.
Ah, the joy of mounted combat and animals. This isn't a Ride check issue at
all, it's a Handle Animal issue.
Handle Animal is used to train and command animals. Animals are trained to
do tricks, and you command them to do those tricks. For example, to order
your animal to execute the attack trick (assuming you train it with that
trick), you give it a Handle Animal command as a move action to attack,
DC10. Animals will only attack natural creatures; they won't attack undead,
etc. You can train it to attack unnatural creatures, at the cost of a
second trick. Then, with a DC10, it will attack unnatural creatures. Now
that animal will attack a zombie, etc. This is in the Handle Animal skill
section.
Unnatural Aura is beyond that, and, in my thinking, isn't overcome by
training the creature with attack a second time.
Trained for Combat: There are two phrases that get tossed around a lot in
discussions about animals and mounted combat. One is Trained for War, and
the other is War Trained. They can be big issues in shared campaigns
(Living Greyhawk, for instance), because they are never clearly defined, but
your DM can easily decide what that means in his game, and it shouldn't be
an issue; it just determines what skills and resources you need, and what
the mount can do. For your dog, it deals with whether or not he is
proficient in wearing barding, whether he trips, and whether you can both
attack while mounted. The relevant rules items are the riding dog MM entry,
the MM animal entry, the Ride skill check for fighting with a warhorse, the
PHB description of riding dog, and the Handle Animal purpose Combat Riding.
Here's a package of rules that works fairly well in a home game.
1) Your fighter will want both Ride skill and Handle Animal. You'll need
Handle Animal if you want the animal to attack. You'll need Ride if you
want to attack along with the attacking animal.
2) Treat riding dog as warhorse, and treat both as war-trained and trained
for war. This will make the dog proficient with armor/barding, and will
allow the dog to trip.
3) Treat dog as trained with the Combat Riding purpose. Note, that this
uses all six trick slots that a dog with Int 2 has, and you will not also be
able to train him with the 2nd attack trick (generally called Attack Unusual
or Attack 2). If you want more than 6 tricks due to his intelligence, you'll
probably want him to be an animal companion via druid or ranger levels.
4) Moving around on the battlefield doesn't take tricks or skill checks
unless you try something unusual. You'll need to use a move action to
command the animal to attack.
5) Dog and rider move on same initiative, using the dog's speed and move
actions. I strongly suggest you do not allow the rider to take time
intensive actions (such as moving himself), in addition to the mount moving,
in a way that gives him additional distance. Avoid: Mount double moves to
here; rider fast dismounts and then charges. Allow move equivelant actions
while the mount is moving (drawing weapons, loading xbows, etc). Standard
actions are covered just fine.
6) Decide how to deal with charge re: actions. Charge is a full round
action that involves moving first, then attacking. But, attacking takes a
move action to command from the rider. My suggestion is to have the rider
make the Handle Action skill check as his move equivelant action while the
mount charges. The rider then has his standard action to attack at the end
of the charge. The charge ends with the attack unless you have Ride By
Attack. That also means that a lance attack will terminate the charge at
10' range, and the animal won't get its attack (not close enough at end of
charge). Ride By Attack changes things a bit/quite a bit.
Do some playtesting with your DM so you both feel like you understand how
things work so as not to bog down the gaming session itself. There are
issues that are bound to come up.
David
.
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- From: Jeffrey Rolland
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