I understand that for normal animals this is necessary, but what about the animals linked to the player? All the rules I see say Handle becomes a free action and Push becomes a move action, but it is never said if the player still has to roll to command their animal companion.
[RPG] Do Druids have to roll for “Handle Animal” to “Handle” or “Push” their Animal Companion
animal-companionsdnd-3.5edruid
Related Solutions
Gaining an animal companion wasn't a thing druids could do any better than any other class in 2nd Edition, at least not without using kits* and other options from non-core books.† (This was more the province of 2e rangers, who acquired animal companions instead of human followers at higher levels.)
To get an animal companion in 2e as a druid you had to do it the hard way, by roleplaying out the relationship with the animal and taking the risks inherent in dealing with wild beasts (which are somewhat easier to mitigate as a druid). This is much like how you get ahead in every other aspect of the game though: you play it out and reap the rewards of your efforts, rather than have things just kind of happen as you level up. Pursuing goals in that way is definitely an adjustment coming from later editions, but it's satisfying.
Gaining an animal companion in the 2e style of game rules, then, is just like making friends with any other NPC, except for the communication challenge. Do things that will make them like and trust you, and don't do things that will make them dislike you. Animal friendship is a useful spell for getting past the initial hurdle of making that first connection. Animal Lore is useful to understand animals' behaviour so you can act appropriately. Insist that your DM uses Reaction rolls, so that not every beast you meet is automagically hostile to you; when you meet a friendly animal, build that connection to try to make it lasting.
Once you have befriended an animal enough that it now considers you a friend and companion, Animal Training can help to teach your new friend tricks and skills, but with the caveat that the skill as written only works on one type of animal, chosen when you take the skill, so it's unlikely to be useful for whatever kind if animal you've befriended. Animal Handling won't be useful unless you have befriended some sort of pack animal; I suppose meeting a friendly feral donkey is a possibility, but I wouldn't choose skills based on that chance.
Finally, realise that an animal companion is a friend who has chosen to accompany you as an equal. They will only fight if it makes sense for them to fight, so they're not the disposable muscle that some players and DMs treat them as in later editions. Because of this, don't overlook the helpfulness of having small friends in high places – an owl that spots an ambush is as useful, if not more so, than a wolf who might only die if they tried to protect their friend from a couple of bandits.
* The Beastfriend druid kit from The Complete Druid's Handbook gives a druid bonuses to Reaction rolls with animals, but still doesn't have a "and now you have an animal companion" mechanic. It simply states that Beastfriends tend to befriend animals and accumulate friends and pets, and even that is put firmly in the domain of roleplaying it out.
† The "2.5e" book Player’s Option: Skills & Powers offered elves an optional racial feature that gives a bonded animal companion. It also included a kit, the Animal Master, that included a bonded animal companion.
The Rules
The rules don't address this in much detail. Strictly speaking, the animal is an independent, intelligent creature and should have its own initiative. That means it's going to act on its own in the absence of a Handle Animal command. The DM gets to determine what that means.
As you noted, this is no problem if you get to go before the animal does. If the animal goes first, it can be annoying.
Why That Sucks
Most games I've played in (including the one I'm DMing right now) don't handle it that way. I find that players find the extra initiatives confusing, get unhappy when the DM has the animal do something before the player can react, and so on. You've got what is essentially a powerful class feature that you can command, except in this edge case at the start of combat where sometimes you can command it and sometimes you can't.
The people I play with love consistency, and that edge case is inconsistent.
Solving It
We solved that annoyance in two ways:
- Tell the DM a "default" command that you're giving the companion while you're not in combat. As it's a free action you can just keep doing it while you're wandering around town/the dungeon/whatever and have it continuously in effect. Normal ones are Heel (The animal follows you closely, even to places where it normally wouldn’t go) and Defend (The animal defends you (or is ready to defend you if no threat is present), even without any command being given). Which one depends on if you want the animal to attack something automatically if you get attacked, or to just follow and wait for your command. This removes the inconsistency, as at least the DM now knows that 6 seconds ago you told the animal to Heel in the last round, and it should probably keep doing that until you get a chance to react.
- House Rule - Animal Companions always start on the same initiative as their PC. Not strictly necessary, but as it makes things simple and consistent, the people I play with like it.
Related Topic
- [RPG] How to a land-based Druid have a Shark (or aquatic) animal companion
- [RPG] Would the Ranger be overpowered if their Animal Companion kept attacking once ordered
- [RPG] How does adding another animal companion affect combat
- [RPG] Does a Beast Master Ranger’s animal companion gain more actions when its master becomes incapacitated
- [RPG] What actions can animal companions take
Best Answer
Yep
You do still have to roll. The important detail is that you get a +4 circumstance bonus to Handle Animal checks with your companion, and you only need to get a 10 (12 if the animal is wounded) to use tricks your animal knows.
That means you only need +7 in the ability between skill ranks and Charisma, and it becomes impossible to fail for tricks your animal knows (remember that a 1 is not an automatic failure on a skill check). For your animal companion, a handle is a free action, so it doesn't take any time from your character to do it.
For pushing it's a lot harder to make it a guaranteed success, but as you get bonus tricks for your animal companion it tends to come up pretty rarely in my experience. If you do have to do it, it's a move action for your companion, so you can do it and still cast a spell or attack something in a round.