Speak with Animals

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

We kind of mesh together a whole bunch of rules, but mostly we play 2E AD&D.
One of the characters, though, is from the D&D Rules, the Mystic(we didn't
have monk rules handy for AD&D Monks, so we used those). One of the
abilities they gain is the ability to Speak With Animals at will(at 6th
level).

I've always run animals that are spoken to as if they have what I would
consider "animal motivations". Sometimes my players will ask like "we find
an animal and ask it if they have seen anyone walking through here", and
they are usually disappointed with the results, which tend to be "how the
hell should I know, I've just been eating grass and such." Basically, how
do YOU guys use animals that are spoken to in a way that is both useful to
the characters AND still true to a creature of animal intelligence?

The only thing that I came up with(and it's a stretch, if you ask me) is
directing riderless warhorses to attack specific or general targets. I was
thinking that if we were in combat, and all of a sudden some bowmen appear
from hiding, as an example, the mystic could "yell" to the horses to trample
the bowmen and disrupt their attacks. That's about the best I've got.

So, how do your characters use speaking with animals to their advantage?

--
Jeff Goslin - MCSD - www.goslin.info
It's not a god complex when you're always right

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Jeff Goslin wrote:
> We kind of mesh together a whole bunch of rules, but mostly we play 2E AD&D.
> One of the characters, though, is from the D&D Rules, the Mystic(we didn't
> have monk rules handy for AD&D Monks, so we used those). One of the
> abilities they gain is the ability to Speak With Animals at will(at 6th
> level).
>
> I've always run animals that are spoken to as if they have what I would
> consider "animal motivations". Sometimes my players will ask like "we find
> an animal and ask it if they have seen anyone walking through here", and
> they are usually disappointed with the results, which tend to be "how the
> hell should I know, I've just been eating grass and such." Basically, how
> do YOU guys use animals that are spoken to in a way that is both useful to
> the characters AND still true to a creature of animal intelligence?

To adress your example:
Especially grass eating animals are usually *very* aware of their
surroundings, because other animals would eat them otherwise.
Try to walk past a hare without getting noticed some time...

So my hare would answer the question:
"Walffed frough? Yeff, one of you biff two-leffers fome timef affo.
I hafd to run for my liffe."

This could haffe, sorry, had been anything from goblin to giant.

LL

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Jeff Goslin wrote:
> We kind of mesh together a whole bunch of rules, but mostly we play 2E AD&D.
> One of the characters, though, is from the D&D Rules, the Mystic(we didn't
> have monk rules handy for AD&D Monks, so we used those). One of the
> abilities they gain is the ability to Speak With Animals at will(at 6th
> level).
>
> I've always run animals that are spoken to as if they have what I would
> consider "animal motivations". Sometimes my players will ask like "we find
> an animal and ask it if they have seen anyone walking through here", and
> they are usually disappointed with the results, which tend to be "how the
> hell should I know, I've just been eating grass and such." Basically, how
> do YOU guys use animals that are spoken to in a way that is both useful to
> the characters AND still true to a creature of animal intelligence?

Animals are stupid compared to humans (as you assuredly know), but that
doesn't
mean they can't have human-like motivations. Anyone who's owned pets
can probably
fill in numerous stories of behavior eerily like people they know. My
dog, for instance,
is very jealous of my girlfriend's dog getting attention. If I pet her
dog, my dog comes over
and shoves her muzzle under my hand, trying to push my hand onto herself
instead. However,
the reverse is not true, and her dog doesn't care at all when I'm
petting my dog. This is
similar enough to the human emotion of jealousy that you could probably
play it straight
out.

> The only thing that I came up with(and it's a stretch, if you ask me) is
> directing riderless warhorses to attack specific or general targets. I was
> thinking that if we were in combat, and all of a sudden some bowmen appear
> from hiding, as an example, the mystic could "yell" to the horses to trample
> the bowmen and disrupt their attacks. That's about the best I've got.

What's wrong with that? I mean, there's not a lot more a horse can do
without
hands. I suppose, being Large, they could be useful for bull rush
attacks against
a shield wall or something.

> So, how do your characters use speaking with animals to their advantage?

Interestingly enough, one of the players has a character who just found
a ring of animal
friendship but no one in the party has a "Speak With Animals" spell.
It'll be funny when
they do charm an animal but can't command it.

"The dire lion comes over and rubs against your leg. She seems to be
purring..."

"I point to the enemy and tell it to attack."

"She licks your finger. It feels like sandpaper got run over it. She's
still purring and now
she's rubbing her face against yours. Her breath smells like rotten
meat..."

Etc.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Jeff Goslin wrote:
>
> I've always run animals that are spoken to as if they have what I would
> consider "animal motivations". Sometimes my players will ask like "we
> find an animal and ask it if they have seen anyone walking through
> here", and they are usually disappointed with the results, which tend to
> be "how the hell should I know, I've just been eating grass and such."

While I agree with you that animals have low Intelligence and animal
motivations - every animal on the planet, just about, is either predator or
prey, and in a D&D world even predators are prey. Animals don't ignore people
walking by, you know? How many wild animals are likely to keep eating grass
unconcerned when people come through the area? It's only domesticated animals
that don't at least startle when they see humans (and in a D&D world, other
humanoids).

What you *can't* ask an animal is anything about which they have no experience.
You can't ask if it was a wizard, a thief, or a warrior; you can't ask if they
were armed and armoured; you could maybe ask if their skin was green but not if
they were an orc or a human.

--
Christopher Adams - Sydney, Australia
The geek with roots in Hell!
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/mhacdebhandia/prestigeclasslist.html
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/mhacdebhandia/templatelist.html

Who do you blame when your kid is a - brat?
Pampered and spoiled like a Siamese - cat?
Blaming the kids is a lie and a - shame!
You know exactly who's - to - blame:
The mother and the father!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

I tend to assume that the Speak with Animals spell/ability causes two
effects. Firstly, it gives you and the animal the ability to
understand each other. Secondly, it gives the animal a lesser version
of Awaken that makes them smart enough to talk to, at least while you
are talking to them. Otherwise, like you said, it's kind of useless.
I've considered making a Lesser Sw/A spell/ability that allows the
understanding without the heightened intelligence, but it would be a
very minor ability, 0-level for druids/rangers, and 1st or 2nd for
bards.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

"Christopher Adams" <mhacdebhandia@yahoo.invalid> wrote in message
news:NEQLe.85104$oJ.70694@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> While I agree with you that animals have low Intelligence and animal
> motivations - every animal on the planet, just about, is either predator
or
> prey, and in a D&D world even predators are prey. Animals don't ignore
people
> walking by, you know? How many wild animals are likely to keep eating
grass
> unconcerned when people come through the area? It's only domesticated
animals
> that don't at least startle when they see humans (and in a D&D world,
other
> humanoids).

Yes, I know what you mean, but the one thing that most animals do when they
even SENSE other creatures that are foreign to them is move away(except for
the very top predatory animals), often before even seeing them. I guess
when I said the whole "I was munching on grass" bit, what I meant was "I run
away from EVERYTHING, so I didn't see a damn thing." Sorry for the lack of
clarity.

I guess I'm just looking for a decent way for characters to use an ability
like talking to animals when most wild animals do their very best to spend
as much time as possible AWAY from humans and humanoids, and the ones you DO
manage to get close enough to are likely to be dumb as a box of rocks. "mmm
grass... mmm grass... WHAT WAS THAT??!!?!?!*look around nervously for 5
minutes*... mmm grass mmm grass... WHAT WAS THAT!!?!?! etc"

--
Jeff Goslin - MCSD - www.goslin.info
It's not a god complex when you're always right

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

"Some Guy" <someguy@thedoor.gov> wrote in message
news:ZYOLe.681$uO2.340@fed1read07...
> Animals are stupid compared to humans (as you assuredly know), but that
> doesn't
> mean they can't have human-like motivations. Anyone who's owned pets
> can probably
> fill in numerous stories of behavior eerily like people they know. My
> dog, for instance,
> is very jealous of my girlfriend's dog getting attention. If I pet her
> dog, my dog comes over
> and shoves her muzzle under my hand, trying to push my hand onto herself
> instead. However,
> the reverse is not true, and her dog doesn't care at all when I'm
> petting my dog. This is
> similar enough to the human emotion of jealousy that you could probably
> play it straight
> out.

Having emotions is obviously not outside of the realm of possibility(I'm
VERY familiar with the dog jealousy thing, our one dog barks incessantly at
the other, because the one wants the bone the other has, even when she has a
bone between her paws). The emotions are simple, however, and brought on by
easily understood and recognized stimuli. One has a bone and the other
wants it. One is eating and the other wants to eat. One is getting petted
and the other wants attention, etc etc. Our dogs get what I call "Radar
Ears" whenever the cupboard holding the treats is opened(talk about a
Pavlovian response!). They want food.

The problem I'm having, internally, with a "speak with animals" type of
ability is that the motivations of animals are EXTREMELY simple, in
comparison to humans(as a general rule, highly socialized creatures aside,
eg apes etc). They mostly involve desired rewards(food, playtime, items to
chew on, etc) and what could be considered first tier needs(shelter, water,
food, sleep). When you're talking about simple creatures with simple
motivations, their perceptions of the world are likewise going to be simple,
and therefore mostly useless to a group of adventurers, unless the
adventurers happen to be tracking something that the animal they run into
would consider food, which is likely to make the adventurers on the menu as
well. So... yeah...

If you know of any adventurer uses of animals(even specific animals) that
involves the ability to converse with them, I'd really like to hear it. I
want to run my guys into an NPC with this ability and have him use animals
in a variety of non-conventional ways, to give the mystic ideas on what he
can do as well. So, if your guys talked to an owl and had it kill the
carrier pigeon flying over head, let me know. Anything like that would be
cool.

--
Jeff Goslin - MCSD - www.goslin.info
It's not a god complex when you're always right