Languages for Celestial Animals?

[Ninja-to]

My Monster Summoning PC's are trying to communicate with the Celestials they summon. None of them speaks Celestial, and the only creatures they summon have the base intelligence of 3 (which is the minimum for a Celestial creature, regardless of the animal summoned).

So, in the Monster Manual it says that all the monsters with an intelligence score of at least 3 can understand a language, and it's Common, unless otherwise noted. There is nothing describing what Celestial template creatures know (Except for angels etc), and I'd assume that creatures from other planes would *first* understand their native language: Celestials know Celestial etc, Demons/Devils Abyssal/Infernal or whatever.

This seem right? An intelligence bonus for a creature might provide another language, but I think Outsiders aren't going to bother with Common unless stated in their description. They'd more likely take their bonus languages from other planes. What does everyone else think? I consider 'Common' a Prime Material language.

 

[dcollins]

I agree that the intention is for Celestials to understand Celestial (it's really named after them, after all). If you look under "Speak Language" skill the definition of Celestial is that it's spoken by "Good outsiders".

However, you'll see a lot of narrow interpreters who will maintain that they only understand Common.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Are they actually summoning Celestials (as in, Archons and Solars and the like), or are they summoning Magical Beasts (as in, Celestial-template Badgers and whatnot)?

Celestial is the language spoken by Archons and Solars and Planetars and Eladrins, etc.

Common is the language understood by most summoned Magical Beasts from any plane of existance.

Dcollins would like you to believe that, because something is spoken by the Angels, it's understood by something that happens to live nearby. Unfortunately for him, he has no rules standing to base this claim on - especially when you consider that most Angels have the ability to speak to anything, regardless of what language it speaks, and that his reasoning breaks down as soon as you consider fiendish creatures.

 

[Hypersmurf]

So, in the Monster Manual it says that all the monsters with an intelligence score of at least 3 can understand a language, and it's Common, unless otherwise noted. There is nothing describing what Celestial template creatures know (Except for angels etc)...

There you go, then.

It's not 'otherwise noted'. You've answered your own question.

-Hyp.

 

[dcollins]

Except under the "Speak Language" skill definition.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Except under the "Speak Language" skill definition.

Which doesn't mention "Magical Beasts" at all.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Except under the "Speak Language" skill definition.

The Speak Language skill description says that Celestials speak Celestial. Celestials are defined as 'good outsiders' - see the Angel and Archon descriptions in the Monster Manual.

A Celestial Wolverine is not a Celestial. It's a Magical Beast.

-Hyp.

 

[Thanee]

What does everyone else think?

I let them understand Celestial but not Common in my game.

Bye
Thanee

 

[ThirdWizard]

If they had named them Holy and Unholy, this wouldn't even come up.

 

[Thanee]

Well, they are summoned from other planes, which most probably are home to Celestials.

It just makes sense, that they understand the predominating language of those planes, which is Celestial, the language of the Celestials, and not Common.

Bye
Thanee