Special Abilities – Wilderness/Survival

Tracking

Rangers are natural trackers: (Ranger level – 1) bonus on Tracking DC rolls.

Benefit

To find tracks or to follow them for 1 mile requires a successful Tracking check. You must make another check every time the tracks become difficult to follow.

Table: Track DC
Surface DC
Very soft ground 5
Soft ground 10
Firm ground 15
Hard ground 20

You move at half your normal speed (or at your normal speed with a -5 penalty on the check, or at up to twice your normal speed with a -20 penalty on the check). The DC depends on the surface and the prevailing conditions, as given in the Track DC Table.

Very Soft Ground

Any surface (fresh snow, thick dust, wet mud) that holds deep, clear impressions of footprints.

Soft Ground

Any surface soft enough to yield to pressure, but firmer than wet mud or fresh snow, in which a creature leaves frequent but shallow footprints.

Firm Ground

Most normal outdoor surfaces (such as lawns, fields, woods, and the like) or exceptionally soft or dirty indoor surfaces (thick rugs and very dirty or dusty floors). The creature might leave some traces (broken branches or tufts of hair), but it leaves only occasional or partial footprints.

Hard Ground

Any surface that doesn’t hold footprints at all, such as bare rock or an indoor floor. Most streambeds fall into this category, since any footprints left behind are obscured or washed away. The creature leaves only traces (scuff marks or displaced pebbles).

Several modifiers may apply to the Tracking check, as given in the Modifiers table below.

If you fail a Survival check, you can retry after 1 hour (outdoors) or 10 minutes (indoors) of searching.

Normal

Without this feat, you can use the Survival skill to find tracks, but you can follow them only if the DC for the task is 10 or lower. Alternatively, you can use the Search skill to find a footprint or similar sign of a creature’s passage using the DCs given above, but you can’t use Search to follow tracks, even if someone else has already found them.

Special

This feat does not allow you to find or follow the tracks made by a subject of a pass without trace spell.

Table: Track DC Modifiers
Condition Survival DC
Modifier
  1. For a group of mixed sizes, apply only the modifier for the largest size category.
  2. Apply only the largest modifier from this category.
Every three creatures in the group being tracked -1
Size of creature or creatures being tracked1
Fine +8
Diminutive +4
Tiny +2
Small +1
Medium 0
Large -1
Huge -2
Gargantuan -4
Colossal -8
Every 24 hours since the trail was made +1
Every hour of rain since the trail was made +1
Fresh snow cover since the trail was made +10
Poor visibility2
Overcast or moonless night +6
Moonlight +3
Fog or precipitation +3
Tracked party hides trail (and moves at half speed) +5

Advanced Animal Handling

Rangers (also Druids) can relate to animals more effectively than other classes, due to their affinity to nature and wilderness and an animal’s wild brethren.

Modifiers

  • +1 per Ranger level
  • WIS modifier applies here rather than CHA (the Ranger’s bond with animals is more spiritual).
  • +2 if the Ranger has an Animal Companion of a related species (DM’s discretion).
  • A druid or ranger gains a +4 circumstance bonus on Handle Animal checks involving her animal companion. In addition, a druid’s or ranger’s animal companion knows one or more bonus tricks, which don’t count against the normal limit on tricks known and don’t require any training time or Handle Animal checks to teach.

The things a Ranger may prompt an animal to do are similar to those defined by the Handle Animal skill, but involve a deeper level of communication or empathy. Furthermore, a failed Advanced Animal Handling check may not necessarily mean the animal refuses to comply; in come cases it may simply mean diminished performance (DM’s discretion).

  • Handle an animal DC 10
  • “Push” an animal DC 25
  • Teach an animal a trick DC 15 or 20
  • Train an animal for a general purpose DC 15 or 20
  • Rear a wild animal DC 15 + HD of animal

General Purpose:

  • Combat riding DC 20
  • Hunting DC 20
  • Fighting DC 20
  • Performance DC 15
  • Guarding DC 20
  • Riding DC 15
  • Heavy labor DC 15

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. Possible tricks (and their associated DCs) include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:

  • Attack (DC 20): The animal attacks apparent enemies. You may point to a particular creature that you wish the animal to attack, and it will comply if able. Normally, an animal will attack only humanoids, monstrous humanoids, giants, or other animals. Teaching an animal to attack all creatures (including such unnatural creatures as undead and aberrations) counts as two tricks.
  • Come (DC 15): The animal comes to you, even if it normally would not do so.
  • Defend (DC 20): The animal defends you (or is ready to defend you if no threat is present), even without any command being given. Alternatively, you can command the animal to defend a specific other character.
  • Down (DC 15): The animal breaks off from combat or otherwise backs down. An animal that doesn’t know this trick continues to fight until it must flee (due to injury, a fear effect, or the like) or its opponent is defeated.
  • Fetch (DC 15): The animal goes and gets something. If you do not point out a specific item, the animal fetches some random object.
  • Guard (DC 20): The animal stays in place and prevents others from approaching.
  • Heel (DC 15): The animal follows you closely, even to places where it normally wouldn’t go.
  • Perform (DC 15): The animal performs a variety of simple tricks, such as sitting up, rolling over, roaring or barking, and so on.
  • Seek (DC 15): The animal moves into an area and looks around for anything that is obviously alive or animate.
  • Stay (DC 15): The animal stays in place, waiting for you to return. It does not challenge other creatures that come by,though it still defends itself if it needs to.
  • Track (DC 20): The animal tracks the scent presented to it. (This requires the animal to have the scent ability)
  • Work (DC 15): The animal pulls or pushes a medium or heavy load.

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.

  • Combat Riding (DC 20): An animal trained to bear a rider into combat knows the tricks attack, come, defend, down, guard, and heel. Training an animal for combat riding takes six weeks. You may also “upgrade” an animal trained for riding to one trained for combat riding by spending three weeks and making a successful DC 20 Handle Animal check. The new general purpose and tricks completely replace the animal’s previous purpose and any tricks it once knew. Warhorses and riding dogs are already trained to bear riders into combat, and they don’t require any additional training for this purpose.
  • Fighting (DC 20): An animal trained to engage in combat knows the tricks attack, down, and stay. Training an animal for fighting takes three weeks.
  • Guarding (DC 20): An animal trained to guard knows the tricks attack, defend, down, and guard. Training an animal for guarding takes four weeks.
  • Heavy Labor (DC 15): An animal trained for heavy labor knows the tricks come and work. Training an animal for heavy labor takes two weeks.
  • Hunting (DC 20): An animal trained for hunting knows the tricks attack, down, fetch, heel, seek, and track. Training an animal for hunting takes six weeks.
  • Performance (DC 15): An animal trained for performance knows the tricks come, fetch, heel, perform, and stay. Training an animal for performance takes five weeks.
  • Riding (DC 15): An animal trained to bear a rider knows the tricks come, heel, and stay. Training an animal for riding takes three weeks.

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 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.

Try Again: Yes, except for rearing an animal.

Special: You can use this skill on a creature with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2 that is not an animal, but the DC of any such check increases by 5. Such creatures have the same limit on tricks known as animals do.