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I can't remember exactly the name, but I heard of a language used by gods, wich is understandable by every sentient being. It directly form the concept in the auditor's mind (thus, you can adress everybody at the same time, even if they're from different origins/species/etc).

It can not be learned and is reserved to superior entity to communicate with mortals (so it's probably not the Celestial)


Now, let's say for story's sake, that a mortal does know it (for GM-ing reasons). Does the ability to speak God's language grant him the ability to understand other sentients beings, speaking differents language?

First, I would say no, as the mortal doesn't know other languages. But how do gods understand their followers in that case? Heavy use of "Comprehend Languages" spell?

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From my knowledge there is no such language. Angels have this ability, but the languages they speak (Celestian and a few others) are just ordinary languages with no special properties. It's a supernatural ability of theirs which gives them a cheat mode:

In both games that ability takes the following form:

All angels can speak with any creature that has a language, as though using a tongues spell (caster level equal to angel’s Hit Dice). This ability is always active.

The Tongues spell this ability refers to is also identical in both games (D&D 3.x Tongues and Pathfinder Tongues):

This spell grants the creature touched the ability to speak and understand the language of any intelligent creature (snip)

So: there's no cheat-mode language for mortals to learn. They just need to have Tongues. If they're using that spell, they follow its rules and can understand and speak other languages.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ From my reading of the Tongues spell (3.5), it actually grants no ability to understand languages - just to speak them. \$\endgroup\$
    – Weckar E.
    Commented Jun 13, 2016 at 12:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ @WeckarE. D&D 3.5e and Pathfinder both say you can understand the language -- at least by the SRD links. Is there a book that doesn't include the "understanding" part? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 13, 2016 at 13:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ You confused me. I did some research, turns out I have a really early printing of the players handbook. It does not include anything about understanding. Apologies. \$\endgroup\$
    – Weckar E.
    Commented Jun 13, 2016 at 22:28
  • \$\begingroup\$ @doppelgreener You haven't mentioned 4e, which does explicitly have the "when gods and angels speak celestial, everyone understands it as their own language" thing. \$\endgroup\$
    – GMJoe
    Commented Jun 14, 2016 at 1:40
  • \$\begingroup\$ @GMJoe I guess I'll mention it as a thing they could've heard of. Thanks, that didn't occur to me. \$\endgroup\$ Commented Jun 14, 2016 at 2:03

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