D&D General Talking Animals

[James Gasik]

Earlier this year I ran a 2e adventure where you encounter a talking giant owl. I saw no reason to change this, despite the fact that giant owls in 5e do, not, generally speak. None of my players acted like it was anything strange (though one was convinced it was a Druid in beast form, lol).

 

[Sword of Spirit]

Just yesterday I was looking up ways the reincarnate spell has worked throughout the editions, since I'd like to make my own tables for it if it ever comes up. In some editions the options included regular animals right alongside humanoids and some more monstrous options.

I think you could take some animal statblocks, use the awaken spell for guidance, and whip up a character race that is balanced against others while still having all the features from the MM and close hp. Of course, that only works well for certain animals and there are a lot more it doesn't work for.

I'd allow an awakened animal to learn to cast spells. It might be hard to do when you are just shapechanged, but when you were born in that body and have been granted speech, no reason you couldn't figure out how to make functional somatic components and manipulate materials just like dragons and other non-humanoid casters.

In the Feywild awakened plants and animals are common (and although I didnt see it written anywhere, I assume they arise spontaneously there, rather than that there are a bunch druids running around on casting sprees).

 

[I'm A Banana]

The Beastlands and the gate-town of Faunel are canonically lousy with talking animals -- former mortals, now divine beasts of wild freedom. No construction necessary, they just dwell in the wilds, and are happy there.

I'd typically embrace a talking animal PC. Might be some weird corner cases we'd need to smooth over, but Red XIII is a viable character archetype at my tables, hahaha.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

Ever been owned by a bird?

Consider some of the larger parrots: IRL many are capable of speech, some function at about the level of a two-year old, and tend to have the attitude of a much larger creature (think dinobirb).
Also, they have two backward facing toes, and the beak gets used like a hand (the upper and lower beak can be moved independantly).

Add an awaken spell, and decide how many "naughty words" your feathered fiend knew before being awakened. [PIKE IT, BERK!] Then go watch some of the videos posted online of wild cockatoos in Australia and their antics (opening garbage cans, etc...)

Plenty of role playing options.
Swinging upside down from a chandelier while singing bawdy songs? Why not?

 

[jasper]

So you mean talking animals not as animals but as playable races? Plenty of examples of this, we have bunnies, cats, fish, turtles... Use these as a comparison and have a Dog if you want, but you really need hands.

most of those are humanoid. Aka stand on two feet. I think the OP wants more Mr. Ed.

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

most of those are humanoid. Aka stand on two feet. I think the OP wants more Mr. Ed.

Yes, and given some of the replies I'm not the only one with an interest.

 

[tetrasodium]

Talking Animals (TA) are as much a part of fantasy as Dwarves, Elves, and others. Arguably they are more a part of it, since there are stories of talking animals dating about as far back as records go. Now, it could be argue that species such as the Haregone, Kenku, and similar fit the role while also allowing them to do things like wear armor and manipulate weapons and such.

However, I was wondering if anyone had ever tried actual TA--that is, animals that pretty much stick to regular animal anatomy with the exception of being able to talk. Even more, I was wondering how folks might see that working given the aforementioned anatomical issues. How to keep a TA close enough to be animal while not going too humanoid and still being able to participate in an adventure successfully? Scooby Doo Paws? Some variation of mage hand? Them being able to do weird stuff because they're aware enough of their own anatomy to try things regular animals wouldn't even think to try?

Not specifically talking "animals" I ran a 3.x game where the basic premise was that the world was screwed and a bunch of dragon hatchlings decided to take on the role of adventures to fix it since the humans and such couldn't/wouldn't/failed. Needless to say the humanoid races reacted to a band of dragons with class levels much like you would expect (fear horror panic etc).

The PCs started as hatchlings and advanced their dragon form by picking up the draconic/monster feats while leveling their class. All social interactions needed to be filtered through a cross class skill (name forgotten, wisdom based maybe?), draconic urges or something, before even getting to any social check... That duo did a great job of ensuring that the gaggle of wyrmlings were appropriately savage as one would expect a dragon to be or terrible at diplomacy often enough that players would often have fun leaning into the alien role of a dragon from the start since good wis/good cha isn't exactly a combo any of them had.

The PCs were literal dragon hatchlings from the mm complete with LA to buy off with no humanoid armor/weapon allowances given , monster/draconic feats and sometimes magic items acting to enhance those were used as appropriate.

 

[bedir than]

It's a marketing miss that D&D hasn't done a Narnia bit yet.
When I think of that "What would D&D Universes Beyond be?" thread talking animals and Narnia are near the top of my list.

Plus, what a great way to undercut round two of the satanic panic

 

[zarionofarabel]

Ever been owned by a bird?

I've got one sitting on my shoulder as I write this. An African Grey Parrot to be precise. The studies done by Irene Pepperberg and her associates puts my boy's intellect about equivalent to a six year old human toddler, and his emotional temperament about the same as a two year old. He displays all the hallmarks of both sentience and sapience, speaks in sentences, and understands existential subjects (he understands three distinct "time periods" labeled by him as; outside (short/minutes); shopping (medium/hour or two); work (long/8+ hours).

 

[Indagare Nogitsune]

It's a marketing miss that D&D hasn't done a Narnia bit yet.
When I think of that "What would D&D Universes Beyond be?" thread talking animals and Narnia are near the top of my list.

Plus, what a great way to undercut round two of the satanic panic

I mean, there's absolutely no reason not to do something based on Narnia which is about as potluck a fantasy as one's likely to get this side of Sir Terry Pratchett.