Improving Animal Empathy

[derkot]

This is more feedback and discussing about animal empathy and some little suggestion.
I do not have really big experience on playing druid/ranger in efu but I am already play druid myconid some time.
But I think in current times this skills perhaps should be slightly buffed?

So here is thing which I wish to post and discuss. It is about improving life in wild and buffing skill animal empathy.
Currently animal empathy already helps very greatly to druids/rangers allowing them walk nearby hostile beasts/vermins freely when you get enough skill points. As well druid/ranger can be followed by other character or even two and if they stay close enough - they will be not attacked as well.

Other using of animal empathy - it is of course using it on hostile beasts to dominate.
Currently this thing is unchanged and after some time beast turns again hostile and without option attacks on druid/ranger or who is nearby if you was very slow to re-dominate your animal friend.

I suggest to little change it like...
I have few ideas which I wish discuss and listen from others.
First idea (and probably most bad) it is makes from them cheap version of animal companion and make them able dominate  until character rests or use command to free animal from domination.

Other idea it is make them dominated on some setted time like...
One turn per level druid?
One game hour per two or three levels druids?
But druids/rangers will know how long about their beast will be calm in this case.

Perhaps you may have better idea! Suggest it!

Why I am suggesting this? And what changes I see in this?
Here is my views.

Advantages:

• It will help avoid confusing situation when dominated animal suddenly attacks on party members/your friends or even kills you.
• It may help create some RP scene with your druid/ranger and dominated animal.
• Such little change may more improve life of druid, make it a bit easy since they have very lonely and hard life.

Disadvantages:

• 
  Currently, my druid with six levels(!) and few items on animal empathy may dominate VERY strong beasts like cave bear, gray render, deep lurker, deep lizard. This animals spawns not commonly but very strong and can be dominated if you sneak and click animal empathy in right time. It clearly will make druids/rangers very strong.
• Druids/Rangers already have tool to train beast as animal companion but they limited by levels of druid so they can't train just any beast at start. Of coruse animal companion not immortal and it cost experience to train new animal companion (what is cool feature).

So what you all think about it?
And forgive me for my bad english of some parts hard to understand from first time.

[arr]

It'd be interesting if it improved ones animal companion as the current AC system has much to be desired.  Otherwise being able to AE cave bears and use them to fight is fairly substantial as is.

[Pandip]

While I desperately wish the animal companion system was revamped to allow for some form of training, I don't necessarily think animal empathy itself needs to be touched. Before the new companion system was implemented, I think the intention was to allow for training, but it never happened and now most companions that you can  get before are just bad compared to the previous defaults.

You can take 20 on animal empathy outside of combat. I don't think rangers benefit from being "nature immune," but druids don't illicit attacks from wild animals and vermin, which means you're practically always rolling a 20 + your empathy skill unless you're trying to tame a deep lizard. Even when empathy breaks, the animal will almost never attack a druid and will therefore let them take 20 the next time they try to use the skill. In the past, druids and rangers have been notorious for dominating bears, lizards, and lurkers, and being an absolute menace to travelers because of the power of those beasts on their own.

[Hollow_Mage]

How about setting dominated animals to neutral for 2 rounds after domination ends? Maybe there could be a *growl* cue when a dominated animal is growing hostile again.

Or allowing Druids to set animals as neutral while they remain in the same area. That way, you could keep the entire pack of wolves alive, but when you move on they go back to acting like wolves. It could be a major defining separation between Ranger AE and Druid AE.

[derkot]

After some more thinking and playing more on druid I think what best what I can to suggest it is just make double duration of animal empathy.

Two rounds for each druid/ranger level.