Half-levels of Speak Language

[Warehouse23]

From Ye Olde SRD:

The Speak Language skill doesn’t work like other skills. Languages work as follows.

• You start at 1st level knowing one or two languages (based on your race), plus an additional number of languages equal to your starting Intelligence bonus.
• You can purchase Speak Language just like any other skill, but instead of buying a rank in it, you choose a new language that you can speak.
• You don’t make Speak Language checks. You either know a language or you don’t.
• A literate character (anyone but a barbarian who has not spent skill points to become literate) can read and write any language she speaks. Each language has an alphabet, though sometimes several spoken languages share a single alphabet.

Given these rules, how often do players in your campaigns pick up new languages? For all classes but bard, Speak Language is cross-class, suggesting that it takes at least two levels to get a full rank in the skill. How many folks really remain interested in picking up Orc or Infernal over two levels of game play? Do you house-rule some provision for knowing a langauge enough to get to the ale hall, but write a novel?

 

[Dr_Rictus]

In my experience bards occasionally pick up additional languages, other characters essentially never do so, and that seems to work just fine for everybody.

 

[Warehouse23]

It came up for me as an issue because there are so many useful language-dependent mind-affecting spells out there. My cleric was in a position to cast Command on the leader of a threatening group of orcs when it came to my sudden attention that the character did not actually speak orc. I think there would be quite a bit of interest in the spell-casting classes in learning new languages--particularly the scholarly branches of the cleric and wizard classes, for whom ancient secrets can be written in any form.

Maybe a linguist feat is in order?

 

[farscapesg1]

Well, my wizard characters almost always pick up at least a couple extra languages.

Of course, we have a house rule that for 1/2 rank you speak the language. If you assign another 1/2 rank then you are completely fluent in the language (speak and read it). This works out really well for languages that you probably won't ever need to read (abyssal, celestial, etc.) but could need to be able to speak.

 

[fenrat]

Languages

In our Forgotten Realms Campaign, I have a rogue that has taken the Multi-Lingual feat .... if I remember properly, it give a few extra languages at the start, makes Speak Language a Class skill, and gives you a bonus on Decipher Script. My rogue was born in the back of a carvan wagon and has spent his whole life travelling across the Realms and learning new languages ....... at last count, between Int bonuses and the 3 extra points you can give a skill at first level, he speals 22 languages. It makes for some interesting role-playing opportunities .... he is a well-known interpreter who is paid well for the skill and is a master of Disguise so is quite good with his Gather Inforamtion skill as well (by not only talking with many different folks, but also by just getting into disguise and listening in the right places.

 

[Rhun]

There is a fighter (yes, a fighter) in my current group of players that picks up new languages whenever he can. He is Level 12 and speaks ten languages now, if my memory serves me correctly.

 

[Len]

We have a halfling PC in our Eberron game who doesn't speak Halfling. He's a reincarnated human, and as far as I know he doesn't plan to learn Halfling. Not only does he save precious skill points, it's more fun this way.

 

[irdeggman]

There are no ranks in Speak Language so the max ranks for cross-class skill rules do not apply. It still costs 2 sp to purchase a language for most classes (which would be a rank, but they do not count). So it would not take 2 levels to buy a language.

There is also no limit to the number of ranks a character can purchase in a skill at a single time, except to the max ranks rule. So if a character went to 2nd level and had 0 previous ranks in a skill that was a class skill he could immediately obtain 5 ranks (max for 2nd level) if he had a sufficient number of skill points.

 

[Lord Pendragon]

Given these rules, how often do players in your campaigns pick up new languages? For all classes but bard, Speak Language is cross-class, suggesting that it takes at least two levels to get a full rank in the skill. How many folks really remain interested in picking up Orc or Infernal over two levels of game play? Do you house-rule some provision for knowing a langauge enough to get to the ale hall, but write a novel?

I play a paladin that spent a skill point to learn Griffon. He has a griffon mount, and since griffons don't speak common, learning Griffon allows him to speak with his fairly intelligent mount. It's sort of a Han/Chewie thing, where my paladin speaks in normal Common (which the griffon understands,) and the griffon responds in screeches and cries (which my paladin now understands.)

 

[irdeggman]

Ever since the game where our DM had some very complicated speak/write language rules (2nd ed) that ended having a couple of PCs kill another PC because they couldn't talk to each other, I've valued having the ability to communicate and almost all of my PC have several additional languages.