The language an animal would use to communicate animalistic concepts is based on vocalizations such as growls, grunts, whines, hisses and roars as well as the animal's body language. Most everyone knows that a growling dog with bared teeth or a hissing cat with flat ears means they are not in the mood for tea and polite conversation.
The goal of this post is be used as a guide for the use of the animal language, animal RP and to create a useful glossary of animal emotes followed by the basic emotion or concept it would be trying to express. Some examples:
*the wolf lowers its head as it eyes you, baring its fangs and growling low* "Stay away!"
*the cat purrs while its ears are scratched* "Joy..."
*the panther flattens his ears and growls while displaying its white fangs, its tail flicking anxiously* "Stay away!"
*the cat arches its back while turning to its side, its back fur standing on end* "I'm really big and scary! Stay away!"
*the dog wags his tail* "Happy!"
*the boar snuffles the ground* "Food..."
*the cat rubs against your shins* "I like you..."
*the cat rubs against your shins* "Pet me..."
*the cat rubs against your shins* "Feed me..."
*the cat rubs against your shins* "I'm a cat, this is what I do... just go with it..."
Ok... maaaaaaybe not that last one... but the idea should be clear enough.
If you have more emotes based on animal concepts and emotions, please feel free to share them below. I will add a second post immediately following this initial post and try to compile any additions as well as by animal. Thanks for the help and cooperation!
If you disagree with this post in anyway then feel free to RP as you see fit. This post is for those who want to use its information as a guideline for their RP and to expand it, not to endlessly debate why your animal can use the animal language beyond their simple concepts, like a badger being able to say in his badger animal language, "Hi, Bill, how are the wife and kids? Oh, by the way, I love that new blue cloak you're wearing!"
If you feel the need to debate this, then, according to forum rules, please make another post to do so. If you'd like to share a link to the debate thread, then that is acceptable to post it here.
Thanks!
Now comes the part where I post related references from D&D Sourcebooks. Any questions regarding them, please feel free to ask. A special note about the underlined, bold and italicized entries. It might seem to contradict themselves. Animals are only considered to be magical beasts for the purposes of certain mechanics within the game. Otherwise, they are just animals.
search reference: dolittleANIMALS
This chapter provides statistics and basic information for many common kinds of mundane animals. These creatures generally operate on instinct, driven by simple needs such as food and reproduction. Most animals, even predators, do not attack unless they or their young are threatened.
Animals are not capable of detailed reasoning, although with the Handle Animal skill it is possible to tame an animal and teach it to perform certain tricks.
Some herbivorous animals do not normally use their natural weapons to attack. As such, their natural weapons are treated as secondary attacks. The animal’s attack and damage entries note this fact, with an explanatory footnote.
Animal Traits: An animal possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).
—Intelligence score of 1 or 2 (no creature with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher can be an animal).
—Low-light vision.
—Alignment: Always neutral. Animals are not governed by a human sense of morality.
—Treasure: None. Animals never possess treasure.
Animal: An animal is a living, nonhuman creature, usually a vertebrate with no magical abilities and no innate capacity for language or culture. Animals have average combat ability, average hit points, and average saving throws. If your creature ever lived on Earth, and it’s not an insect of some kind, it’s probably an animal.
ANIMAL COMPANIONS
Druids can begin play with animal companions, which are something like cohorts, and rangers can gain them during their careers. Use the following rules of thumb to adjudicate situations that may arise when characters have animal companions.
While the class descriptions in the Player’s Handbook list the animals available as companions, those lists assume the character spends most of her time in the animals’ home territory and treats them well. If she spends most of her time at sea, in cities, or otherwise in places that the animals don’t like, her animals are likely to desert. Remember, these creatures are loyal friends but not pets or servants. They won’t remain loyal if being the character’s friend becomes too onerous.
The animal is still an animal. It’s not a magical beast, as a familiar or a paladin’s mount is. While it may have learned some tricks, it’s still no more intelligent than any other animal of its kind, and it retains all its bestial instincts. Unlike intelligent followers or cohorts, animals can’t follow complex instructions, such as “Attack the gnoll with the wand.” A character can give a simple verbal command, such as “Attack” or “Come,” as a free action, provided such a command is among the tricks the animal has learned. A more complex instruction, such as telling an animal to attack and pointing out a specific target, is a standard action. Animals are ill-equipped to handle unusual situations, such as combats with invisible opponents, and they typically hesitate to attack weird and unnatural creatures, such as beholders and oozes.
Left to its own judgment, an animal follows a character and attacks creatures that attack her (or that attack the animal itself). To do more than that, it needs to learn tricks as described under the Handle Animal skill, page 74 of the Player’s Handbook
Wild Shape (Su): A druid loses her ability to speak while in animal form because she is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but she can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as her new form. (The normal sound a wild parrot makes is a squawk, so changing to this form does not permit speech.)
Wild Empathy (Ex): A druid can use body language, vocalizations, and demeanor to improve the attitude of an animal (such as a bear or a monitor lizard). This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person (see Chapter 4: Skills). The druid rolls 1d20 and adds her druid level and her Charisma modifier to determine the wild empathy check result. The typical domestic animal has a starting attitude of indifferent, while wild animals are usually unfriendly.
To use wild empathy, the druid and the animal must be able to study each other, which means that they must be within 30 feet of one another under normal conditions. Generally, influencing an animal in this way takes 1 minute but, as with influencing people, it might take more or less time.
A druid can also use this ability to influence a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2 (such as a basilisk or a girallon), but she takes a –4 penalty on the check.
A druid’s animal companion is different from a normal animal of its kind in many ways. The companion is treated as a magical beast, not an animal, for the purpose of all effects that depend on its type (though it retains an animal’s HD, base attack bonus, saves, skill points, and feats). It is superior to a normal animal of its kind and has special powers, as described below.
Class Bonus Natural Str/Dex Bonus Level HD Armor Adj. Adj. Tricks Special 1st– 2nd +0 +0 +0 1 Link, share spells 3rd– 5th +2 +2 +1 2 Evasion 6th– 8th +4 +4 +2 3 Devotion 9th–11th +6 +6 +3 4 Multiattack 12th–14th +8 +8 +4 5 15th–17th +10 +10 +5 6 Improved evasion 18th–20th +12 +12 +6 7Animal Companion Basics: Use the base statistics for a creature of the companion’s kind, as given in the Monster Manual, but make the following changes.
Class Level: The character’s druid level. The druid’s class levels stack with levels of any other classes that are entitled to an animal companion (such as the ranger) such for the purpose of determining the companion’s abilities and the alternative lists available to the character.
Bonus HD: Extra eight-sided (d8) Hit Dice, each of which gains a Constitution modifier, as normal. Remember that extra Hit Dice improve the animal companion’s base attack and base save bonuses. An animal companion’s base attack bonus is the same as that of a druid of a level equal to the animal’s HD. An animal companion has good Fortitude and Reflex saves (treat it as a character whose level equals the animal’s HD). An animal companion gains additional skill points and feats for bonusHD as normal for advancing a monster’s Hit Dice (see the Monster Manual).
Bonus Tricks: The value given in this column is the total number of “bonus” tricks that the animal knows in addition to any that the druid might choose to teach it (see the Handle Animal skill, page 74). These bonus tricks don’t require any training time or Handle Animal checks, and they don’t count against the normal limit of tricks known by the animal. The druid selects these bonus tricks, and once selected, they can’t be changed.
Link (Ex): A druid can handle her animal companion as a free action, or push it as a move action, even if she doesn’t have any ranks in the Handle Animal skill. The druid gains a +4 circumstance bonus on all wild empathy checks and Handle Animal checks made regarding an animal companion.
Share Spells (Ex): At the druid’s option, she may have any spell (but not any spell-like ability) she casts upon herself also affect her animal companion. The animal companion must be within 5 feet of her at the time of casting to receive the benefit. If the spell or effect has a duration other than instantaneous, it stops affecting the animal companion if the companion moves farther than 5 feet away and will not affect the animal again, even if it returns to the druid before the duration expires. Additionally, the druid may cast a spell with a target of “You” on her animal companion (as a touch range spell) instead of on herself. A druid and her animal companion can share spells even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the companion’s type (animal).
Devotion (Ex): An animal companion’s devotion to its master is so complete that it gains a +4 morale bonus on Will saves against enchantment spells and effects.
Some good stuff about animal tricks and some general information about training:
1) http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20070109a
2) http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20070116a
3) http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20070130a
4) http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20070206av
