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The ranger's Favored Enemy feature description says:

When you gain this feature, you also learn one language of your choice that is spoken by your favored enemies, if they speak one at all

I am confused. What language options does the PHB give you to choose from?

Are you supposed to choose a respective language from the Languages table (PHB, p. 123)? Or can you pick any language that at least one type of your favored enemies speaks?

For instance, for Fey, do you have to pick Sylvan, or can you choose the Blink Dog language (since Blink Dogs are fey), Aquan or Giant (Sea Hags are fey too), Elvish (since Dryads speak Elvish), etc.?

On the one hand, Aquan/Giant/Elvish are definitely languages "spoken by your favored enemies". On the other hand, the Languages table specifies Fey as the "typical speakers" of the Sylvan language. Also, the latter doesn't work well with the "language of your choice" part, turning the "choice" into a moot point.

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    \$\begingroup\$ (By contrast, the Revised Ranger's version of the feature says: "When you gain this feature, you also learn one language of your choice, typically one spoken by your favored enemy or creatures associated with it. However, you are free to pick any language you wish to learn.") \$\endgroup\$
    – V2Blast
    Jul 9, 2018 at 20:03

2 Answers 2

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You gain any one language that any of your favored enemies speak.

When you gain this feature, you also learn one language of your choice that is spoken by your favored enemies, if they speak one at all.

Breaking this down:

  • You gain one language.
  • It is a language of your choice. You get to pick.
  • Its only constraint is that it must be spoken by your favored enemies.

It does not say that you must gain the most common language of your favored enemies. In fact, that would contradict the rule that you get a choice.

Nor can it reasonably be interpreted to be a language that all your favored enemies speak. Many creatures speak only one unique language that is not shared by any others of their type.

Nor does any rule say it has to be a standard language listed in the Player's Handbook.

Therefore, you pick a language that is normally spoken by any creature within your category of favored enemies. If you take Favored Enemy: Monstrosity, you could take Umber Hulk language, although you will not often find it useful, and would be recommended to take the most common language possible.

Obviously, there's some DM judgement here. For example, the bandit entry says it can speak any language, but it's up to your DM what language the bandits of his world speak (probably not an ancient language like Auran, for example). The couatl speaks all languages, but obviously you cannot learn all languages just because you hunt couatl. And just as the favored enemy rules suggest that a ranger should take favored enemies of creatures they have actually encountered, it would be most logical for them to learn the languages of creatures they have encountered. The DM might also impose his own rules about what languages you can and cannot choose.

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    \$\begingroup\$ The couatl would imply, however, that someone with favored enemy (celestials) could choose any language—if the couatls speak all of them, the ranger presumably therefore gets to choose any one of them. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    Jul 9, 2018 at 20:01
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    \$\begingroup\$ I mentioned the couatl edge-case in my answer. While technically all languages are spoken by the couatl, it's an unusual case that the DM would probably disallow. I'd be interested to hear Jeremy Crawford's rules-as-written answer. \$\endgroup\$ Jul 9, 2018 at 20:58
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    \$\begingroup\$ @QuadraticWizard it appears Crawford agrees with you. May be worth adding to your answer. \$\endgroup\$ Aug 19, 2018 at 16:02
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Any language spoken by an enemy of the chosen type (including nonstandard languages)

As written, the line is sort of vague:

When you gain this feature, you also learn one language of your choice that is spoken by your favored enemies, if they speak one at all.

It's not necessarily clear whether it has to be a language spoken by all enemies of the chosen type, or whether a language spoken by any one creature of that type is a valid choice. I suspect none of the creature types have every single monster of that type speaking the language, so the latter seems like a more reasonable interpretation.


Fellow RPG.SE contributor David Coffron asked lead rules designer Jeremy Crawford this question on Twitter, and Crawford answered:

Favored Enemy language choice (can it be any language a fey speaks like can I chose blink dog?)

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If you want another example, Winter Wolf for monstrosity favored enemy or Giant Eagle for beast favored enemy.

Those are indeed languages spoken by members of those creature types. Those languages are legitimate choices for Favored Enemy.

According to this unofficial ruling, you can pick from any of the languages listed under your favored enemies' "Languages" in their statblocks. This seems to be a logical interpretation of the rule.

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