D&D 5E Which favored enemy and languages for Rime of Frostmaiden?

[auburn2]

I am going to play a half elf Ranger for Rime of frostmaiden. I get two or three languages (one from background, one from half elf and potentially one from favored enemy)

I don't really want any spoilers, but what would be good choices for this adventure?

By the way the Ranger is the PHB type, so the favored enemy is about wisdom checks and recalling information, not about combat.

 

[Savage Wombat]

Honestly, I don't think it matters. No one language or creature is going to dominate the adventure in any particular way.

 

[Charlaquin]

I haven’t read or played the adventure, so my opinions are both spoiler free and also just kind of blind conjecture. But, I would think Dwarven and Giant might be good languages to have (IIRC there’s a dwarf clan of some import in the Ten Towns area, and Goliaths seem like they might be relevant in such a wintery, survivaly campaign.) Maybe Goblin or Orc because those are fairly common enemies? Frankly though, anyone the writers consider worth interacting with will almost certainly speak Common, so the value in languages is really more in being able to communicate with your party in a language others won’t understand than in being able to understand others.

As for a favored enemy, maybe Aberrations? Frostmaiden is supposed to have Cronenbergish elements, right?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There aren't actually that many Aberrations in RotFM. You might try giants, but really it doesn't matter. You may as well make your ranger a fisherman and select knucklehead trout as your favoured enemy for all the good it will do you.

As already pointed out, pretty much anyone you would want to speak to speaks Common. You might get a little mileage out of Dwarvish, Goblin, Kobold or Giant.

 

[Flamestrike]

Beats

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Yeah, hate on these guys:

 

[DND_Reborn]

I am going to play a half elf Ranger up a character for Rime of frostmaiden. I get two or three languages (one from background, one from half elf and potentially one from favored enemy)

I don't really want any spoilers, but what would be good choices for this adventure?

By the way the Ranger is the PHB type, so the favored enemy is about wisdom checks and recalling information, not about combat.

Given the dwarven valley area and the number of dwarves in the stories, I would select Dwarven certainly. If nothing else, it shows your respect for a race you will likely meet at some point.

Giant is also a good choice IMO.

For a possible third language I would recommend Draconic or Infernal.

 

[bedir than]

Unless you have a DM that really, really focuses on languages to the point where it is impossible for your party to communicate with people language choices are probably useless. Pick your languages because that makes sense for the story you want your character to embrace and as a symbol for the understanding of the culture of those languages.

That extra heavy lean into culture is something I'm doing in my campaign and world. There is a lingua franca that exists due to the multi-generational influence of a trade-empire/church that is the sole source of healing throughout the continent of play.

Every other language (and history) is replaced by Culture. Doing so expands not just the story for your character, it also makes your characters and sessions more believable.

I outlined my vision for eliminating language and replacing with culture on my blog.

 

[Charlaquin]

Unless you have a DM that really, really focuses on languages to the point where it is impossible for your party to communicate with people language choices are probably useless.

Bah. If everyone in the party can speak in the same, relatively obscure language, you can talk to each other in it without being understood. That’s not quite Rary’s Tepathic Bond good, but it’s nothing to sneeze at.

Other than that, you might be able to talk your DM into giving you advantage on a social check for using the native language of someone you’re speaking with, but that’s about the extent of its usefulness.

 

[Shiroiken]

I outlined my vision for eliminating language and replacing with culture on my blog.

As someone who was a huge fan of "Cultural Lore" from the playtest, I find this idea really interesting. I'd probably keep History as an actual skill though, just like keeping Performance, if you use the XGtE option of overlapping Skills & Tools (or Lores in this case). I probably wouldn't allow simply changes from languages to other skills though, since skills over overall far more useful than languages, even in games where the DM tries to make languages important.