Perk: [Animal] Friend

[Anders]

Would one level of the Animal Friend Talent, restricted to one species only, be a viable Perk?

[Culture20]

I don't have books with me, but how many of the skills covered in Animal Friend Talent require specialization? Does that make the talent more or less valuable (and thus a specialized perk more or less comparatively valuable)?

[weso12]

Well Animal friend is a five point talent, and the limitation One Species is -80% on the speak with animals ability so I'd allow it.

[evileeyore]

I though the "[Animal] Friend Perk" was about getting Animal Empathy for that one species?


[EDIT]
Never mind, I was thinking of the "Good With [Animal] Perk".
[/EDIT]

[Bruno]

Seems legit. "Cattle Friend", "Housecat Friend", "Wolf Friend" - stylish. Well, Cattle Friend might not come up so often in play in many games, but it's also only a perk.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by Culture20

I don't have books with me, but how many of the skills covered in Animal Friend Talent require specialization? Does that make the talent more or less valuable (and thus a specialized perk more or less comparatively valuable)?

Animal Handling has a "sliding scale" of specialization, the more intelligent the animal, the narrower the spec.
Falconry should specialize by Bird species (whether you use Hawks, Eagles, some other exotic predatory avian), but at current the skill only covers using Hawks as hunting birds.
Packing - No specialty.
Riding - By mount type, ie: Equines, Camels, Dragons, etc.
Teamster - By mount type, ie: Equines, Camels, Dragons, etc.
Veterinary - Optional specialization.



However.... one is exceedingly unlikely to ever get use out of all 6 skills, so on that basis alone I'm pretty much okay with the [Animal] Friend Perk.

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by Culture20

I don't have books with me, but how many of the skills covered in Animal Friend Talent require specialization? Does that make the talent more or less valuable (and thus a specialized perk more or less comparatively valuable)?

Why would it? If you get a +1 bonus when dealing with dogs, that doesn't mean you need to have to have a Vetrinary specialization, it just means you don't get the bonus when you're working on a horse.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Anders

Would one level of the Animal Friend Talent, restricted to one species only, be a viable Perk?

I've done so in the past. It's basically lifting the Specialized modifier from Speak with Animals and applying it to Animal Friend.

[simply Nathan]

There's already a Perk version of Animal Empathy limited similarly, so why not?

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

Animal Handling has a "sliding scale" of specialization, the more intelligent the animal, the narrower the spec.
Falconry should specialize by Bird species (whether you use Hawks, Eagles, some other exotic predatory avian), but at current the skill only covers using Hawks as hunting birds.
Packing - No specialty.
Riding - By mount type, ie: Equines, Camels, Dragons, etc.
Teamster - By mount type, ie: Equines, Camels, Dragons, etc.
Veterinary - Optional specialization.



However.... one is exceedingly unlikely to ever get use out of all 6 skills, so on that basis alone I'm pretty much okay with the [Animal] Friend Perk.

Depends on the animal. 'Horse Friend' would work for five of those six, 'Hawk Friend' for three (unless you have a very small glider-cart to fix a team of hawks to, or have Growth/Shrinking powers, et cetra, in which case all six are possible), and 'Cat Friend' would only cover two (again, unless you can change your or the cat's size, in which case you can use five of them).

'Dog Friend' would potentially be good for four without the addition of special powers or unusual sizes: Animal Handling, Packing, Teamster, and Veterinary.

In general, though, I'd say it works as a leveled Perk, and I'll try to remember it, in case it's ever useful in a game (I'm imagining a wizard with a rather limited spell-list and a level or two of the Hawk Friend Perk, now).