Animal Taming

Rangers are able to magically bond with a wild beast, forming an immediate strong friendship. However, taming animals is possible without being this specific ranger archetype with the following rule. There are two different methods to gaining an animal companion: Love & Nurture and The Whip.

There are two kinds of beasts: Domestic and Wild. Domestic beasts are creatures bred to be friendly to people, such as dogs, horses, and sheep. A wild beast is any beast that is not domesticated, such as wild hares, wolves, or bears.

A beast that does not have an unaligned alignment is too intelligent to be tamed. While you may be able to form a friendship with the beast, this is more akin to friendship with other people, and thus requires pursuasion.

In general, you can only give commands to a beast that is within 60 feet of you and can hear you.

There are two methods of taming a beast: Love & Nurture and The Whip. Love & Nurture involves forming a closing friendship with your beast, and requires the use of Wisdom (Animal Handling) checks, while The Whip involves inducing fear into the beast to follow your command, and requires the use of Charisma (Intimidation) checks. The Whip is a quicker method to bending the beast to your will, but it can never form the healthy loving relationship that Love & Nurture induces.

Love & Nurture

When you attempt to tame a beast using Love & Nurture, you form a friendship with the beast. The strength of the friendship is quantified by the beast's Loyalty score towards you. A Domestic beast starts with a Loyalty score towards all humanoids of 1, while Wild beasts start with a Loyalty score of 0.

You can attempt to increase the beast's loyalty towards you by spending one hour (which can be spent during a short rest) showing care to the beast, at the end of which you make a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check against the beast's Loyalty DC. The Loyalty DC for any beast is

15 + [5 × The Beast's CR (rounded up)].

On a success, you raise the beast's Loyalty towards you by 1. If you succeed by 5 or more, you raise it by 2. If you fail by 5 or more, you lower the beast's Loyalty towards you by 1. You can attempt to raise a specific beast's Loyalty towards you once per day. If you fail by 5 or more at least three times within a seven-day period while it has a loyalty of 6 or less, the beast's loyalty decreases to 0, and might flee from you or turn hostile. The beast's loyalty also decreased by 1 for every two days that you do not spend 1 hour showing care to the beast.