Charm animals at a certain "rate"?

[Dimirag]

I think the "first" thing is due to the Saving Throw, so the cleric decides in which order the animal are to be affected (if he is affecting more tan one animal.

[-1warrior]

Yeah, that's the way I read it.

[lars_alexander]

No saving throws are allowed for either normal, or giant-sized animals.

[Dimirag]

I just re-read the spell, it says the caster chooses what animals are to be affected first on a mixed group.
So, if the caster encounters 4 wolves, 2 giant wolves and 1 bear he chooses the order in which they are affected thus expending his allowed HD.

[Togo Galthus]

Yes, that's probably it, Dimirag and lars_alexander: Since the spell caster do not know how many HD a given animal has, he must declare which animal he/she is charming first, and if he has more HD to charm after that, he/she declares which to charm next, and so on. Thank you, that must be it.

[Dimirag]

The caster selects all animals of a type, all wolves, all giant wolves, etc. then he charms an amount up to his allowed HD, remaining HD are lost or those that are outside of his HD amount are unaffected.

So, if the caster encounters 5 wolves he targets them all and depending on his level he could charm some or all of them.
But if he encounter a mixed group like wolves and bears he select which group is affected as above, but if he has more HD to spare it is lost, he can't use them on the remaining group. So, in that sense, there is no "second" affected animals.

[Togo Galthus]

That would make sense, Dimirag, but I'm not convinced that interpretation is supported by the description of the spell:

The caster may decide which individual animals out of a mixed group are to be affected first ...

It's not "to be affected, period", but "to be affected first".

PS. Before someone gets annoyed: we're just having a friendly discussion about how to interpret the rules, here -- I know it is not that important.

[Dimirag]

It says individual animalS, so its a group of animals not just one animal after another, then it says that any excess HD are lost, which means that once you select an animal group the remaining group are safe from the spell and will require another spell to be affected.

A think the "first" can be omitted unless its used for a grammatical reason.

New question: Can the caster target different animals inside a mixed group? Or is he limited to one species per spell use?

[SmootRK]

It says individual animalS, so its a group of animals not just one animal after another, then it says that any excess HD are lost, which means that once you select an animal group the remaining group are safe from the spell and will require another spell to be affected.

A think the "first" can be omitted unless its used for a grammatical reason.

New question: Can the caster target different animals inside a mixed group? Or is he limited to one species per spell use?

For things like charm, I would let the caster choose recipients or the hierarchy of which ones he might like to affect. But I will not be sharing the exact HD and such of the targets... for him to guess if he has a good set of targets.

[-1warrior]

Yes, never give the players to much information.