Questions tagged [languages]
For questions relating to setting-specific use of language in RPGs. Questions about real-world languages should be tagged with the specific language instead (e.g. [french]).
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Is there a way to speak with vermin (spiders specifically)?
Is there a method in any first or second party source, be it a spell, item, feat, class feature or what have you, that grants the ability to speak with vermin (spiders specifically)? I understand ...
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Can I create a creature with a high Charisma score even if it can't speak?
I am planning to create a monster which should charm the players, but this creature doesn't talk (I am planning to create a gold golem, which should incentivize greed and lust). I wonder if high ...
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Is my character who worships Gruumsh more likely to speak Infernal, Celestial, or Abyssal?
I'm making a half-orc cleric that worships Gruumsh, and the half-orc knows how to speak the language that Gruumsh speaks(besides Common/Orc). Would he speak Celestial, or Infernal/Abyssal?
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For the purpose of the Comprehend Languages spell, does beast speak (i.e. the language spoken by birds) count as a language?
I got into an argument with somebody regarding whether or not an incomprehensible language spoken by an animal (or monstrosity, as we argued) counts as a language for the Comprehend Languages spell.
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Can a creature that can't understand any languages understand the languages of a creature that can't speak if it is polymorphed?
An earlier question about a creature that can't speak(a displacer beast) got me thinking: what if the creature was polymorphed into a creature that could understand languages but couldn't speak, such ...
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Can Charm Monster be used to prevent a non-speaking creature from attacking the rest of the party?
Looking at the Charm Monster spell, given that many monsters do not have a spoken language, the term "friendly to you" can be confusing. For example, my bard once charmed a Roc as it swept ...
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How to respectfully roleplay sign-language without knowing it?
In my exploration based 5e game the group are about to enter an area where the local population (known as Forestfolk) communicate largely through sign language. I want to roleplay this effectively ...
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What's the most common language shared by those who don't speak Common?
Finding the most common language is easy1, the number is written at the top of the Monsters section.
Finding the second most common2 is also not hard, you just click through the list of languages, and ...
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Can a player character understand the Giant Owl language when using abilities that allow communication with beasts?
Does the speak with animals spell (Basic Rules, pg. 277) or the circle of shepherds druid subclass feature speech of the woods (XGtE, pg. 23) let a player understand Giant Owl the language?
I'm sure a ...
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Balancing Command while taking into account languages
The Command spell says:
You speak a one-word command to a creature you can see within range. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or follow the command on its next turn. The spell has no ...
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Can a Druid understand language while Wild Shaped?
Many of the threads on this focus on speaking. Other threads focus on understanding/speaking new languages that the Beast knows but the character does not know. I'm not interested in these questions.
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Translating in-game between player characters without breaking the game's rhythm
(I struggled to find a "decent" title that encapsulates the issue at hand, so if you have a title idea that fits the question better, I'll gladly take it over the current one)
I recently had ...
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What languages can a Professor Orb have?
Is a professor orb restricted in any way regarding the language choices it can have? For instance, can a professor orb know Modron or Vegypygmy as languages?
Additionally, is it possible to possess ...
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Do humans start off with 1/3rd the languages of Other Races?
A character begins play speaking and reading Common, her racial tongue
(if any), and the language of her home planet (if any).
Common
Racial language: the human racial language is Common
Language of ...
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Can a Kenku that becomes a Hexblood speak normally?
The Kenku race's Languages trait states:
Languages. You can read and write Common and Auran, but you can speak only by using your Mimicry trait.
The features of the Hexblood lineage state:
...
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How would "Broken Fangs" be spoken in the Tabaxi language, or how can I make that up properly?
I want to have "Broken Fangs" be the name of a group of Tabaxis in D&D, and I'd like to know how that would be spoken in their language.
However, I'm not sure where to find that ...
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How does the "Dark Speech" granted by the Book of Vile Darkness artifact interact with spells like Magic Mouth and Programmed Illusion?
The Book of Vile Darkness (DMG, p. 222) is an artifact with numerous properties, one of which is listed as "Dark Speech":
While you carry the Book of Vile Darkness and are attuned to it, ...
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Literacy rate of Rokugani
Rokugan is a setting taking heavy influence from the '80s and '90s perception of medieval Japan (through a north-American lens) and strewing in influences from other East-Asian countries, creating the ...
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Can a Homunculus Servant speak? [duplicate]
Homunculus Servant's stat block reads:
Languages understands the languages you speak
It doesn't seem like it can actually talk back, though, because of the verb "understands" being used ...
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How do you pronounce "Mhurren"?
It's listed as a male half-orc name in 5e PHB.
The question review process is telling me this question is "subjective and... likely to be closed", but the "similar question's list" ...
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Why do all D&D languages use an alphabet system with the same number of letters as English? [closed]
Pretty straightforward question, in a world of elves, dragons, and dwarves, how come they all use an alphabet system with direct equivalence to English? Did all races base their writing system off of ...
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Can a familiar translate for the owner?
For example, a sprite knows Elvish and Sylvan. Assuming the owner does not speak these languages themselves, would the sprite be able to translate for the owner? What about the pseudodragon which ...
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What would the Aarakocra language sound like?
I've been looking for this for a while, and I've only been able to find what the script would look like, and not what it would actually sound like. I know it's not directly necessary, but I would like ...
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Communicate with Conjured Animals in Wild Shape
Can a Circle of the Moon Druid in Wild Shape issue commands to creatures summoned with Conjure Animals?
The accepted answer to this question:
Communicating with Conjured Creatures
suggests that the ...
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How does telepathy with mute creatures work
Suppose player "Apple" has telepathy, and tries to communicate with creature "Bagel," whose stat block explicitly says "understands Common but can't speak."
Bagel can't ...
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How do aquatic races write underwater?
There are lots of situations where underwater races will want to send messages to each other, write in spell books, create maps, etc.
Are there any examples out there in D&D lore (any edition, any ...
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Can Spined Devils learn Common?
Spined Devils have 11 intelligence and they don't know common. Can they learn common language from a NPC/PC?
For reference, I'm a player in this game. The DM said he remembers something like you have ...
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What is the regional language of Absalom?
This is a question specifically about Pathfinder Society (Second Edition) Characters.
If you create a Pathfinder Society Character, you get Common (Taldan) as starting language as well as access to ...
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Is a Dryad able to issue commands to a charmed creature that doesn't understand Sylvan or Elvish?
A Dryad can use Fey Charm to charm a beast or humanoid. The result is that:
The target is charmed; it cannot willingly harm the Dryad.
The target is charmed; the Dryad's social checks against it have ...
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Are bestial languages such as Giant Elk and Giant Owl written languages?
It seems that most languages are assumed to have a written component i.e. Common, Elvish, Dwarvish, etc. This general assumption should hold for any language inherited from the character's race. From ...
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Can NPCs be assumed to be able to read and write?
Dungeons and Dragons has generally always been in a medieval European setting (there are execeptions like Darksun and Ebberon) but one with magic, gods, monsters etc. In actual medieval Europe though, ...
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Can a Fathomless Warlock effectively communicate with any fully submerged creature, regardless of languages known?
The Fathomless Warlock's 6th level feature Oceanic Soul states:
You are now even more at home in the depths. You gain resistance to cold damage. In addition, when you are fully submerged, any ...
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What language do undead speak?
I really need help with creating my ranger. For my "favored enemy," I chose undead, but I don't know what language they speak (if they speak one at all). Do I just look for a single undead (...
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Can someone who fails the save against a Zone of Truth spell lie non-vocally?
The description of the zone of truth spell says:
you create a magical zone that guards against deception
But later on, it says:
On a failed save, a creature can't speak a deliberate lie while in ...
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Does a Ring of Mind Shielding affect the dream spell? [duplicate]
The party warlock recently acquired a ring of mind shielding in Tales from the Yawning Portal
The party patron is a spellcaster who is in a city distant from them. She is about to contact them via ...
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How does Primordial work with all the dialects? [duplicate]
In dnd-5e, there is a language called primordial, which is the language of the elements. The PHB says it is spoken by elementals, but most elementals actually don’t speak it. They speak “Auran”, “...
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Can Comprehend Languages understand a language similar to "Darmok and Jalad"?
This is inspired by, but I don't think duplicates, questions about artificial languages and "secret" "codes".
In crossing geekdoms, the Tamarian language comes from a Star Trek:The ...
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Does comprehend languages let you understand artificial languages?
For example, let's say some cultists created totally new language that only people inside the cult know. It doesn't use any words from any other existing language. Does this spell still let mages ...
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What is the origin of Faerûn's languages?
I'm not a D&D pro but I'm writing a thesis about how Tolkien created his languages and which was/is their following influence.
A friend of mine told me that the languages of Faerûn are inspired by ...
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Is there an alternative word to be used in place of Humanoid?
I find the term Humanoid to be (obviously) human centric, and am looking for a more generic term to use in place of it to define all intelligent creatures that exist in standard society of these ...
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What language would be appropriate for texts to be written in about Thor (Forgotten Realms)?
In our LMoP campaign, there is a Cleric whose deity is Thor. He has come across several texts that discuss Thor (myths and religious texts).
What language would those texts most likely be written in?
(...
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Can the Giant Owl language be learned with the Linguist feat?
The Giant Owl can speak the language Giant Owl:
Languages Giant Owl, [...]
Notably, this language does not appear on any of the tables of languages in any sourcebook (e.g. the Languages tables in ...
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Why are so many languages written using the Dwarvish script?
If you look at the list of Standard Languages, you'll see that most of them use Dwarvish as their script:
Common: Common
Dwarvish: Dwarvish
Elvish: Elvish
Giant: Dwarvish
Gnomish: Dwarvish
Goblin: ...
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Sharing a language vs. sharing a vocabulary vis a vis the Command spell
The Command spell reads:
You speak a one-word command to a creature you can see within range. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or follow the command on its next turn. The spell has no ...
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Does a zombie or skeleton explicitly need to have spoken in life?
The SRD claims that both the Skeleton and the Zombie have the following mastery in languages:
Languages Understands the languages it spoke in life but can't speak
I've always taken this as that the ...
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Can Dragonbait read or write Common, since he is able to understand it?
In D&D 5e, Tomb of Annihilation includes Dragonbait, a saurial. His stat block claims that he can understand Common but not speak it, due to the strange way in which saurials communicate. From ...
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Can a Monk "turn off" the Tongue of the Sun and Moon feature?
The description of the monk's Tongue of the Sun and Moon feature states:
Starting at 13th level, you learn to touch the ki of other minds so
that you understand all spoken languages. Moreover, ...
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Language proficiency per week of downtime
One of my players does not speak common as they come from a village that speaks entirely elvish. We are coming up on a couple weeks of downtime in the campaign and another one of the players wants to ...
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Where and how often do the exotic languages appear?
I've chosen the Haunted One background for my new half-orc blood hunter. I get to pick an exotic language (Abyssal, Celestial, Deep Speech, Draconic, Infernal, Primordial, Sylvan, or Undercommon), but ...
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What ways can you give a creature the capability to speak?
I am looking for ways in 5e to grant the capability of speech to a creature, ideally permanently.
To be specific, I am interested in granting an Artificer's Steel Defender and creatures like it the ...
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