<strong>Animal Kinship</strong><br/>Kai Lords learn how to commune with nature and can readily<br/>predict the moods and intentions of animals. One well versed<br/>in the Discipline of Animal Kinship can often sense what<br/>an animal will do before it acts and may even be able to<br/>actually communicate with some creatures, albeit in a very<br/>rudimentary fashion.<br/><br/><em>Tier I: Untamed Heart</em><br/>The Kai Lord develops a growing affinity with animals and<br/>their nature. He gains the ability to use the Handle Animal<br/>skill to calm an angry or attacking animal by opposing his<br/>Handle Animal skill check with the animal’s Will saving<br/>throw. This is a standard action and the effects will last for the<br/>Kai Lord’s Charisma score in rounds.<span class="bbc_u">He also gains a bonus<br/>to all Handle Animal checks equal to his Animal Kinship<br/>level</span>.<br/><br/><em>Tier II: Voice of the Forest</em><br/>The Kai Lord may attempt to give a single order to a normal<br/>animal (not a monster). This must be a simple, one word order<br/>such as ‘stop’, ‘run’ or ‘follow’. This requires a standard<br/>action and a Handle Animal check (DC 10 + the animal’s<br/>End Dice) for success. The animal will obey the command<br/>for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the Kai Lord’s Charisma<br/>modifier (minimum 1 round).<br/><br/><em>Tier III: Primal Echo</em><br/>As a free action that can be performed once per round, the<br/>Kai Lord may study any single normal animal in order to<br/>determine what it will do in response to any single action on<br/>his part. For example, he could attempt to decide whether a<br/>barking dog will attack if he approaches it or run away. This<br/>requires a Handle Animal check (DC 10 + the animal’s End<br/>Dice) for success and does not work on monsters.<br/><br/><em>Tier IV: Beast Speech</em><br/>The Kai Lord may pick a number of broad species of animal<br/>(such as bat, bird, dog, cat or horse) equal to his Intelligence<br/>modifier (minimum one species). From this point on, the<br/>Kai Lord may communicate with any animal of the chosen<br/>types as if it were an Intelligence 3 creature. He may also<br/>‘listen in’ to such animals when they communicate with<br/>one another. This means that the Kai Lord can talk to such<br/>animals and quiz them about what they have seen and their<br/>immediate surroundings, but long conversations on the history<br/>of Sommerlund will certainly be out of the question. At all<br/>times, the Games Master should remember that animals tend<br/>to view the world in very different manner from humans and<br/>any responses an animal makes will be coloured by this.<br/><br/><em>Tier V: Aspect of the Untamed</em><br/>Once the Kai Lord has mastered the principles of Animal<br/>Kinship, he strives to increase his knowledge of the natural<br/>world and so gains an incredible understanding that few others<br/>can ever hope to attain. The Kai Lord may now either pick<br/>three more broad animal species to be able to communicate<br/>with (see Tier IV) or he may choose one monster species of<br/>Intelligence 2 or less (see the Bestiary Chapter) that he may<br/>use any Animal Kinship ability with. For example, he could<br/>use the Tier II ability to order a doomwolf to attack if he so<br/>wished. However, all skill checks related to using Animal<br/>Kinship with a monster species will have their DCs increased<br/>by +5, due to the inherent difficulty of building relationships<br/>with creatures that are not of the natural world.<br/>