Animal Handling

You are trained at working with animals, and can teach them tricks, get them to follow your simple commands, or even domesticate them.

## Common Uses

 Push an animal
 Teach an animal a trick
 Train an animal for a general purpose
 Rear a wild animal

### Handle an Animal

This task involves commanding an animal to perform a task or trick that it knows. If the animal is wounded or has taken any nonlethal damage or ability score damage, the DC increases by 2. If your check succeeds, the animal performs the task or trick on its next action.

### Push an Animal

To push an animal means to get it to perform a task or trick that it doesn’t know but is physically capable of performing. This category also covers making an animal perform a forced march or forcing it to hustle for more than 1 hour between sleep cycles. If the animal is wounded or has taken any nonlethal damage or ability score damage, the DC increases by 2. If your check succeeds, the animal performs the task or trick on its next action.

### Teach an Animal a Trick

You can teach an animal a specific trick with one week of work and a successful Handle Animal check against the indicated DC. An animal with an Intelligence score of 1 can learn a maximum of three tricks, while an animal with an Intelligence score of 2 can learn a maximum of six tricks.

A list of Animal Tricks can be found here: Animal Tricks

#### Train an Animal for a Purpose

Rather than teaching an animal individual tricks, you can simply train it for a general purpose. Essentially, an animal’s purpose represents a preselected set of known tricks that fit into a common scheme, such as guarding or heavy labor. The animal must meet all the normal prerequisites for all tricks included in the training package. If the package includes more than three tricks, the animal must have an Intelligence score of 2.

An animal can be trained for only one general purpose, though if the creature is capable of learning additional tricks (above and beyond those included in its general purpose), it may do so. Training an animal for a purpose requires fewer checks than teaching individual tricks does, but no less time.

 Guarding
 Heavy Labor
 Hunting
 Performance

**Fighting (3 Weeks):** The animal is trained to fight enemies in combat situations. They learn Attack, Down, and Stay.

**Guarding (4 Weeks):** The animal is trained to defend allies from harm. They learn Attack, Defend, Down, and Guard.

**Heavy Labor (2 Weeks):** The animal is trained to carry heavy cargo or move heavy things. They learn Come and Work.

**Hunting (6 Weeks):** The animal is trained to track and kill/capture enemies. They learn Attack, Down, Fetch, Heel, Seek, and Track.

**Perfromance (5 Weeks):** The animal is trained to put on acts and perform for others. They learn Come, Fetch, Heel, Perform, and Stay.

### Rear a Wild Animal

To rear an animal means to raise a wild creature from infancy so that it becomes domesticated. A handler can rear as many as three creatures of the same kind at once. A successfully domesticated animal can be taught tricks at the same time it’s being raised, or it can be taught as a domesticated animal later.

**Action:** Varies. Handling an animal is a move action, while “pushing” an animal is a full-round action. (A druid or ranger can handle her animal companion as a free action or push it as a move action.) For tasks with specific time frames noted above, you must spend half this time (at the rate of 3 hours per day per animal being handled) working toward completion of the task before you attempt the Handle Animal check. If the check fails, your attempt to teach, rear, or train the animal fails and you need not complete the teaching, rearing, or training time. If the check succeeds, you must invest the remainder of the time to complete the teaching, rearing, or training. If the time is interrupted or the task is not followed through to completion, the attempt to teach, rear, or train the animal automatically fails.

## Unchained

**5 Ranks:** Creatures you have trained gain a +2 bonus on Will saves when adjacent to you.

**10 Ranks:** Creatures you have trained gain a +2 bonus on Will saves whenever you are within 30 feet and clearly visible. You can teach a trick in 1 day by increasing the DC by 20.

**15 Ranks:** You can train an animal to understand your speech (as speak with animals) with 1 week of effort and a successful DC 30 Handle Animal check. Its actions are still limited by its Intelligence. You can teach a trick in 1 day (increasing the DC by 10) or 1 hour (increasing the DC by 20).

**20 Ranks:** You can make your speech understandable to any animal for 24 hours with a successful DC 30 Handle Animal check (DC 40 for magical beasts or vermin). You can teach a trick in 1 day, 1 hour (increasing the DC by 10), or 1 minute (increasing the DC by 20).