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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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 ...
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Are Imps incapable of speech or is my DM messing with me?
So, I am new to DnD and have been having a conversation with my DM about restrictions she is putting on my Warlock (pact of the chain), such as limiting my short rests to only one per day to restrict ...
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I deciphered the meaning of a cryptic language out-of-game: should my character know what the meaning is?
I have just started my first D&D 5e campaign, and have encountered a seemingly mind-controlled bandit who keeps writing the same thing over and over on the wall. Our DM wrote out what it looks ...
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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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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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How to have a realistic set of languages without making adventuring prohibitively difficult?
"Do you speak Common?" "Of course I do! Everyone speaks Common..."
My group is starting a somewhat experimental campaign. We're using a setting that is neither canon (e.g. described in a book) nor ...
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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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Does Comprehend Languages let you understand secret languages?
We came to a point where one of my teammates cast Comprehend languages, but I still spoke in Druidic (actually just for the lolz, but it still raised the question):
Does Comprehend languages allow ...
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How can I conveniently roleplay my character switching languages while speaking?
Two PCs of our party, one of them mine, are speakers of a language that's not very common in the setting - a handy way to obfuscate communications when in risk of being overheard. What easy, immersive ...
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Can Thieves' Cant be used across languages?
In this question, it is established that Thieves' Cant is more of an encoding system built on top of a language than a language in its own right.
According to the Basic Rules, Thieves' Cant is:
...a ...
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Is language tied to statistics, ability scores, and/or skill proficiencies according to the rules?
While reading this answer to whether or not a druid knows the languages of his/her chosen form, I began to wonder, "What is a language exactly?" Please allow me to walk you through my thought process. ...
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Except for PC Rogues, who else knows thieves’ cant?
The Thieves’ Cant feature lets you hide a message in a conversation, providing the person you are talking to also knows thieves’ cant:
During your rogue training you learned thieves’ cant, a secret ...
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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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Why do most dwarven city names in the Forgotten Realms have a suffix of -bar?
I am running a 5e campaign based in the Silver Marches of Faerun of the Forgotten Realms universe. I noticed that some of the cities in and around the Silver Marches area have a suffix of -bar, and I ...
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Does Comprehend Languages allow one to understand Thieves' Cant?
Would someone under the effects of comprehend languages understand Thieves' Cant? Specifically, would they understand the meaning of what the person was saying and not just the words?
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Can the Actor feat allow a character to effectively speak a language they don't know?
I have a player in my game I'll call "Joe" running a Bard I'll call "Hansel."
Hansel has the Actor feat, and does not speak Orc. Hansel listened to an Orc for 1 minute a few adventures ago, a 2nd PC ...
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What the heck is the luraic language?
Our party is currently playing through Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (no spoilers, please!) and we're nearing the end of the campaign. The other night our party was discussing a teaching exchange of ...
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How to roleplay languages that none of the player characters know?
Imagine a Dwarf meets an Elf. Both speak common, but the Elf doesn't speak Dwarven and the Dwarf doesn't speak Elvish. The Elf is in a bad mood and decides to speak to the Dwarf only in Elvish instead ...
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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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How do you pronounce “svirfneblin”?
In a campaign I'm writing, an aged sage sends my party to the Underdark to aid Deep Gnomes against a Drow takeover. The group that will be playing this has read R.A Salvatore's books and knows both ...
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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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How many languages is it possible to learn?
If I want to roleplay an interpreter, is there a max number of languages I can learn? Standard human, plan to get 18 INT.
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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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How do you customise swearing to a setting?
Good fantasy books often have 'custom' swearing, and they help provide a more realistic view of the world the campaign takes place in. For instance, in a book where metals are key to magic, a common ...
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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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How does it affect the game if not everything speaks Common?
Going through the bestiary DBs, you find that of the monsters that speak a language, almost all speak Common as well. (Or have some form of telepathy or truespeech.)
From the data my friend gathered,...
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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 does Drow Speech sound like?
I am about to play a Drow Rogue-Fighter and I want to roleplay my character well, and this includes doing a voice. What is the proper voice for a [charismatic] Drow [Rogue-Fighter]? I was thinking ...
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Does a gnoll speak both Gnoll and Abyssal, or is Gnoll a dialect of Abyssal?
In the Dungeons and Dragons 5e Monster Manual, the gnoll statblock lists their language as Gnoll. However, in Volo's Guide to Monsters, the section on gnolls indicates that they communicate with
...
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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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What's the easiest way for a whole party to be able to communicate with a creature that doesn't know Common?
My party befriended a Faerie Dragon who is now tagging along with us, but only one of us (a Dragonborn) is able to communicate with it. According to the MM, faerie dragons only know Draconic and ...
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How can the Starter Set's pre-made elf have 5 languages?
So I'm not sure if I'm just missing something but the premade elf in lost mine of Phandelver should only have 4 languages (two from race and two from background) but for one reason it has 5. Can ...
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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 a druid Wild-Shaped into a raven speak using the Mimicry trait?
The description of the druid's Wild Shape feature says, in part (PHB, p. 67):
You can’t cast spells, and your ability to speak or take any action that requires hands is limited to the capabilities of ...
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Elf (adjective) vs. Elvish vs. Elven
Are there rules on when to use elf (as an adjective) versus elvish versus elven in D&D?
For example, would any of the following sentences be more or less correct than the others?
"Many of them ...
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Is a shared language required to understand the thoughts of a target of Detect Thoughts?
Detect Thoughts allows you to "know the surface thoughts" of another creature. If both creatures do not share a language, will the caster be able to understand the surface thoughts of the target?
user27327
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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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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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My Ranger missed picking a "favored enemy language" when I started. Is it fair for me to pick one now that I'm in the midst of a campaign?
As someone new to D&D, when I was making my first character (a forest gnome ranger) I struggled a bit through the character creation process, following some YouTube tutorials, etc. When I was ...
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Are there any other rule mechanics that could grant Thieves' Cant?
Thieves' Cant is a class feature of Rogues in 5e.
As it is a method of communication, can it be taken as a language? If not, is it mechanically equivalent to something that can be swapped so that ...
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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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Does speaking Supernal result in communicating with everyone?
Long story cut short, I've found online that gods, angels and demons speak Supernal to convey their ideas.
"When a god or angel speaks Supernal, listeners who don’t speak Supernal understand the ...
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Can Warlock's Eyes of the Rune Keeper decipher written code?
I have a Warlock in the party, and the party came across a message on a fallen enemy. It was written in draconic, and in code.
The Eyes of the Rune Keeper allows the Warlock to read the draconic, But ...
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Can you choose a dialect of a language instead of the whole language?
PCs can speak languages. Generally, they are given Common and one other than fits their race (e.g. for a dwarf: "You can speak, read and write Common and Dwarvish", from PHB, pg. 20). There are a few ...
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Is Thieves' Cant a language?
In a recent question there was some confusion as to whether or not Thieves' Cant is a language, a class feature, or both.
Which is it?
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Can a wizard learn spells written in an unfamiliar language using the Comprehend Languages spell?
If a wizard finds a spell book in an unfamiliar language, which he can understand via the Comprehend Languages spell (but not otherwise), can he transcribe these spells in his own spell book?
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Does speaking Giant mean understanding Giant Runes (Storm King's Thunder)
Does a character that speaks giant understand/know the meaning of the Giant runes provided in Storm King's Thunder? My guess would be no - the Giant language is based off of the Dwarvish script (PHB p....
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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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What does Deep Speech look/sound like?
My character picked up the Deep Sage feat, so he can now speak, read and write Deep Speech. But I haven't been able to find any published examples of what it may look like when written or sound like ...
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Would other PCs eventually notice two rogues talking in Thieves' Cant?
I have two PCs in the party that know Thieves' Cant and they constantly talk to each other and pass secrete messages to each other via Thieves' Cant. Another player thought that because Thieves' Cant ...
