When an animal companion first starts out, it only knows one trick. Does this mean that if I don't choose something like heel for the first bonus trick than I must attempt to "Push" my companion? Since this is likely to fail at a low level, won't this cause my companion to be abandoned or slow down my party because they are waiting on me to try to get my companion to stay with us? I don't understand how I can even begin to control my companion when I am so limited. Am I missing something?
[RPG] How to effectively control a fresh animal companion in a way that doesn’t slow down the party
animal-companionsdnd-3.5edruid
Related Solutions
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.
That is a lot of questions, actually.
Fly
PFSRD on the matter:
You generally need only make a Fly check when you are attempting a complex maneuver. Without making a check, a flying creature can remain flying at the end of its turn so long as it moves a distance greater than half its speed.
The complex maneuver table there lists the actions possible (fly slowly, hover, turn sharply, ascend steeply). Less drastic maneuvers should be generally possible without a check. Please also note, that it gets a modifier to the Fly check from its maneuverability and size.
The Wingover feat allows it to turn 180 degrees for free once per turn, as opposed to expending movement and making a Fly check.
Attack
Talons are claws on the bird's feet. They are accessible when it is airborne; they are even accessible when it is standing on the ground (jumping a bit with a bit of help from wings).
It can attack 3 times if it takes a Full attack action; it is possible maintain an airborne position in that case with a successful Fly check to hover (since Fly checks do not consume an action). Please note that this method is not dependant on Wingover feat.
Without the Multiattack it does get a -5 modifier to all secondary attacks. Which attack is primary or secondary depends on the attack type, and is indicated in the Universal Monster Rules for Natural Attacks. Bite, claw, gore, slam, sting and talon attacks are always primary. Other attacks can be primary if a creature doesn't have any of the aforementioned types. Primary attacks use the full Str modifier to damage (or 1.5x if the creature only has a single natural attack, or for special cases), secondary attacks get only 0.5x Str to damage, and are made at a -5 modifier (or -2 with the Multiattack feat).
For the Roc, all listed attacks are primary and get full Str to damage. The Multiattack feat has no effect since it only affects secondary attacks.
Tricks
Simple movement does not trigger a Fly check; a steep ascend and a sharp turn, on the other hand, does.
The attack of opportunity is triggered by many things, but in relation to movement it is triggered when someone leaves a threatened square. So if it initially was not in anyone's reach, an optimal movement to flanking position probably won't trigger any AoO's, since it will only enter a threatened space.
Maintaining a flanking position, given the opponent does not move, is a matter of a Fly check to hover (or standing on the ground), so no AoO's here.
Best Answer
It’s rare for a druid to ever have to push their animal companion. They receive many bonuses to Handle Animal, and it’s usually assumed that the druid has had a lot of time with the animal companion, plenty in which to teach it many tricks.
Total Tricks: not just 1
An animal companion starts out with one bonus trick, over an above however many that animal could be taught if it weren’t an animal companion. See Bonus Tricks:
and Handle Animal:
So your animal companion actually knows four or seven tricks, depending on its intelligence.
Link: Handle Animal bonuses for your animal companion
Furthermore, druids receive considerable bonuses for handling their animal companion:
Note that if you are riding your mount, you probably aren’t using your move action for anything: your mount is doing the moving, after all. Thus, using your move action to push your animal companion won’t slow you down unless you fail. DC 25 is pretty high at 1st level, even with the +4, but in a few levels it will be pretty easy. And you should not have to push your animal companion often at all.
Training: you usually take-10
Between that, the four ranks you should have, you easily have a +8 bonus to Handle Animal at first level. Maybe +7 or even +6 if you dumped Charisma, but then you might also have +9 or +10 if you invested in it. Anyway, +5 is sufficient to take-10 for training many tricks, and +10 will get you any of them. Since you do not need to use Handle Animal for bonus tricks, you can use the bonus trick to get one of the DC 20 tricks (e.g. Attack or Defend), and get DC 15 tricks for the ones you actually train the animal in.
By level 3 or so you should be up to +10, and thus able to take-10 on any trick training you want to do.
Backstory: this is usually where training happens
Note that most druids start the game with an animal companion, rather than acquire one during play. Usually they have been with the animal companion for quite some time when the game starts, and therefore have had time to train the animal companion in all of their tricks. They may even have had time to train without taking 10, since you can keep trying Handle Animal checks until you succeed (each failure takes half as long as successful training for the trick).
Thus, training should not, in most cases, slow down the party. However, your backstory or the nature of the game may prevent that; talk to your DM about it.