D&D General Why can Giant Eagles, Giant Elk, and Giant Owls speak?

[doctorbadwolf]

What's really rude is that the Giant Raven, an unarguably more intelligent bird, can't speak

The coolest animals get no respect.

The hyena's bite does the least possible amount of damage for a bite from a medium creature. It's absurd.

I genuinely want to rewrite all of the beasts for 5e.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Yeah, as others have mentioned, it's a combination of legends and Tolkien. But perhaps a giant talking bird comes from another source

 

[Dioltach]

Actually the normal-sized versions can also speak, but they rarely do because they're too shy. The giant versions have much more confidence. When the Giant Elk talks, no-one interrupts.

 

[jasper]

The existence of talking animals makes it easier to ask for directions when your party is lost in the woods.

Don't trust those rabbits you get stuck in briar patch.

 

[DND_Reborn]

What I don't understand is why don't they speak Giant???

 

[Dioltach]

What I don't understand is why don't they speak Giant???

I always imagine that Giant sounds much like Whale in Finding Nemo.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I agree with those saying that it might be because of their big brains, but I also think it has a bit of magic to do with it. Like, Tarrasques probably have huge brains, but they're not smart, don't speak, and so on.

The Tarrasque probably has a very small brain, at least in proportion to the rest of its body. Much like a t-rex;

You have to balance proportionality of the brain with the rest of its body. Consider a blue whale;

The whale has a much larger brain than a human, and blue whales are quite intelligent for mammals. However, most people would admit that humans are smarter than whales.

If the giant owl maintains the same proportional size of its brain to that of the rest of its body, it shouldn't attain intelligence exponentially higher than a normal owl. So yes, there must be some element of magic involved with how it can speak its own language and understand several others.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

That said, having your own language doesn't necessarily make you that intelligent. In fact, bumblebees are considered to have their own language (they dance to communicate, much like how sign language functions for the deaf), but bees are not extremely intelligent as individuals.

In addition, many animals are able to understand certain words in languages not their own; chiefly, pets like your dog! Border collies can understand more than 1,000 words in English, when trained. Your dog can also learn a lot of words on its own without really any training; it will know it's own name for example.

That said, responding to a word in another language isn't the same as really understanding what it means; if I call my dog's name Spot, does my dog really know that it is Spot? Or does it just know to respond to the word Spot?

TLDR: Language itself does not equal high individual intelligence.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The Tarrasque probably has a very small brain, at least in proportion to the rest of its body. Much like a t-rex;

View attachment 123898

You have to balance proportionality of the brain with the rest of its body. Consider a blue whale;

View attachment 123899

The whale has a much larger brain than a human, and blue whales are quite intelligent for mammals. However, most people would admit that humans are smarter than whales.

If the giant owl maintains the same proportional size of its brain to that of the rest of its body, it shouldn't attain intelligence exponentially higher than a normal owl. So yes, there must be some element of magic involved with how it can speak its own language and understand several others.

That's a good point, and well made.

 

[LordEntrails]

Language itself does not equal high individual intelligence.

I've met some of those individuals!