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Can comprehend languages decypher code?
- Thread starter maggot
- Start date
Rystil Arden
First Post
Comprehend languages cannot decipher a code because the spell doesn't have any kind of intelligence to determine whether something written in cipher is encoded (particularly when the cipher seems like ordinary language). Decipher script will do it though.maggot said:
Gerion of Mercadia
First Post
Decipher Script is explicitly listed as the way to "encode and decode" by non-magical means.
Comprehend languages merely lets you read otherwise normal text if you don't actually know the language.
Comprehend languages merely lets you read otherwise normal text if you don't actually know the language.
Elethiomel
First Post
Gerion of Mercadia said:
"Encode and decode" is misleading here. A good randomly-assigned code that changes each day is only decodeable if you have the book that says which code is to be used. If the same code is used several time, or if you have access to intelligence about when codes were sent between different units and what those units did that could be considered reactions to those codes, you could decode it - it would then be much like deciphering a cipher.
Note here that a "code" is what the OP refers to as "A normal language written in code". The OPs other example is "A bo def ghiabk.", which looks very much like a substitution cipher - not a "code". Most (manual) substitution ciphers are solveable with access only to the ciphertext, so decipher script should work on it.
frankthedm
First Post
Comprehend languages chokes on any code, cant or figure of speach. It translates. It gives the meaning of the words as written.
Decypher script might do it. Definitly would fall under "intricate".
You can decipher writing in an unfamiliar language or a message written in an incomplete or archaic form. The base DC is 20 for the simplest messages, 25 for standard texts, and 30 or higher for intricate, exotic, or very old writing.
Decypher script might do it. Definitly would fall under "intricate".
You can decipher writing in an unfamiliar language or a message written in an incomplete or archaic form. The base DC is 20 for the simplest messages, 25 for standard texts, and 30 or higher for intricate, exotic, or very old writing.
Dross
Explorer
frankthedm said:
An example would be in the US/Canada/Australian/UK versions of English. The same word can have different meanings in each country, or have multiple meanings in one. And time could be a factor
Thong is both a shoe or a peice of underwear for instance.
Gay used to mean happy but has been replaced by being homosexual. Australia has an iceblock called "Golden Gaytime" so I wonder which meaning is meant in this instance?
Comprehend languages would not give the exact meaning, only context would. So even without there being a code, the exact meaning isn't obvious at all times. Given this I don't see how it could decode something that has been explicidly hidden in a code.
Elethiomel said:
We're talking about a medieval society here, aren't we? Modern understanding of cryptography is new enough that Arthur Conan Doyle could write a story in the late nineteenth century in which a villain uses a simple substitution cipher with the (apparently reasonable) expectation that his communications will be safe even if intercepted. It's doubtful that someone at the D&D level of technology would try to use something even as 'complicated' as Doyle's 'dancing men' ...
Bagpuss
Legend
Christian said:
Actually the first recorded incidence of using frequency analysis to crack codes dates from the 9th century. Al-Kindi wrote about it in A Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages. So it's hardly a modern invention, and I would have thought that in a magical society where mundane work of letter replacement could probably be done by some cantrip that they would have developed better code systems. Most likey involving a combination of magical and mundane cryptography.
