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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How to use Firbolg's Speech of Beast and Leaf in game
In monster manual and Volo's Guide to Monsters there is a firbolg race with following racial trait:
Speech of Beast and Leaf. You have the ability to communicate in a limited manner with Beasts, ...
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How would you deal with an (actual) etymology that makes no sense in-game?
In mythical worlds (such as, but not limited to, D&D) languages are a thing.
People often speak two or more of them.
Yet, for the sake of simplicity, players and DMs tend to speak and play in ...
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Can Thieves' Cant be understood without a level in Rogue?
The Player's Basic Rules and Player's Handbook describe the Thieves' Cant class feature as:
... a secret mix of dialect, jargon and code allows you to hide messages in seemingly normal conversation. ...
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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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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 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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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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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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Where to get fonts for fictional ancient languages? [closed]
I'm starting a Mage: The Awakening chronicle and I would like to present my players with messages and letters occasionally written in ancient scripts (fictional ones, i.e. Lemurean, Atlantean and ...
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What's the difference between a monster that can't speak and a monster that doesn't speak?
In their languages section of stats for some monsters, the wording sometimes says "can't speak" and sometimes says "doesn't speak."
What functional difference is there between these two wordings?
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Why aren't the languages Auran/Aquan/Ignan/Terran listed as choices in the PHB?
It seems to indicate that Primordial is actually the language of elementals in 5E, but the Monster Manual seems to suggest otherwise by listing Auran as the language of Air Elementals, Aquan for Water ...
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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 Circle of the Shepherd druid in Wild Shape still communicate with beasts using the Speech of the Woods feature?
The Circle of the Shepherd druid has the Speech of the Woods feature (XGtE, p. 23):
You learn to speak, read, and write Sylvan. In addition, beasts can understand your speech, and you gain the ...
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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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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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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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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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Does using the Speak with Animals spell with the ghostwise halfling's Silent Speech trait allow speaking telepathically to animals?
(My question was inspired by this question: Can the Ghostwise Halfling's Silent Speech be used to telepathically intimidate using growls?)
The ghostwise halfling, a halfling subrace in the Sword ...
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How can one establish communication with intelligent creatures lacking language?
The ice toad (Frostburn 140-1) is a magical beast with an Intelligence score of 6 yet no language. Beyond being conceptually annoying and making me feel bad for the handful of aberrant genius ice ...
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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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How can we make overcoming a language problem interesting?
I am currently involved in a game of Fate Accelerated, and one of our goals is learning the system and experimenting with it. In this game, two characters may have a language barrier to overcome. One ...
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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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What PC races do not speak Common?
In 5e, seemingly all races know "Common and [at least 1 other language]" for their languages.
Are there player races or subraces published by Wizards of the Coast, either officially or in UA, that do ...
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If a Ranger chooses "fey" as their Favored Enemy, what languages can they choose from?
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 ...
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What are the official languages available to players?
The D&D 5th Edition Player's Handbook lists some languages on page 123, giving players with characters who can choose a language a number of choices.
There are other sources of player-choosable ...
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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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Can I use the cryptography skill to learn new languages?
I am wondering if i can reasonably use the cryptography skill in GURPS to attempt to learn a foreign language?
An example would be my character only speaks english but discovers a book in french.
It ...
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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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Does knowing Primordial mean you understand all the different languages of elementals?
I'm wondering if knowing the language Primordial means that you understand all different languages of elementals?
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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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Are overlapping language proficiencies wasted?
When creating a character, if you would receive the same skill/tool proficiency from multiple sources, you get to choose another skill/tool proficiency instead of having it go to waste.
Does the same ...
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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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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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What is the script for the Aarakocra language?
I have been unable to find this anywhere and was curious about it. I've found the relationship between all other languages and which script, if any, they have. The Aarakocra language seems to have a ...
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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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Is there a spell or magic item that allows a character to speak Orcish?
I have a player at my table that wants to use the spells disguise self and comprehend languages to pass herself off as an Orc so she can walk through a vast war encampment, which sounds great to me.
...
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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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What does a Kenku's speech sound like?
Introduced in Volo's Guide to Monsters, Kenku can only speak by imitating sounds they've heard — they're unable to speak with their own voices (p. 110):
Although unable to speak in their own voices,...
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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 are the most commonly encountered languages of Golarion?
Pathfinder campaign starting soon, I'm playing a human arcanist with high intelligence, which lets me take a bunch of languages.
So far I have Common (automatic), Thassilonian (from Scholar of the ...
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What's the deal with alignment languages?
In early D&D, there was the concept of an "alignment language."
The original "little brown book" D&D says only:
Law, Chaos and Neutrality also have common languages spoken by each ...
