D&D (2024) Do you understand the words coming out of my mouth? - Languages in 2024

[Remathilis]

They should only be six common languages max.

Those other common languages should be the rare ones

And the rear languages are the exotic ones.

And that fixes... what?

You still end up with oddity that a triton doesn't understand primordial or a fey wanderer doesn't know sylvan, but now you've added dragonborns who don't have access to draconic or goliaths who can't speak giant.

 

[Lanefan]

That just kicks the can. Why do humans have more pantheons? (Also, they don’t in my setting).

The implication seems to be that everyone else is less special than humans.

Humans being the key focus and most culturally-variable species is something I'm just fine with.

 

[Minigiant]

And that fixes... what?

You still end up with oddity that a triton doesn't understand primordial or a fey wanderer doesn't know sylvan, but now you've added dragonborns who don't have access to draconic or goliaths who can't speak giant.

The point is that doesn't happen.

The idea is that 95% of the humaniod population on every planes speak 1 of those 6-7 languages.

Triton is Bilingual and speaks Aquan AND Elven.
The Dragonborn all spell Common AND Dragon.

The issue is choose which 6-7 language are common.

 

[Remathilis]

Overcoming language barriers is usually a non-issue, given the existence of Comprehend Languages.

I don't think comprehend language is as omnipresent as this thread seems to think. It requires the spell be prepared by a bard, sorcerer, warlock or wizard (costing the PC a prep slot or possibly a spell known for wizard) and even if you're a wizard who casts it out of your spellbook as a ritual, it still takes 10 minutes to cast and only lasts an hour. So every hour, you're casting a 10-minute ritual and then adventuring for the remaining 50? Really? And if you don't have it constantly active, it does you no good when you overhear two demons discussing their plans in abyssal, a fey singing in sylvan, or a hostile band of goblins you are trying to negotiate with. What are you going to do, tell them to wait for 10 minutes?

And even if you do have comprehend languages prepared and either have diligently cast it every hour OR you have wasted a 1st level spell slot (or higher, if a warlock), you still can't talk back to them. You need tongues (3rd level) which also lasts an hour and isn't a ritual.

I don't see the existence of comprehend languages or tongues being the death knell of knowing languages any more than I see the existence of Invisibility/greater invisibility ending the need of the Stealth skill.

 

[lall]

If the 2024 PHB definition of Telepathy is the same as the playtest, so long as each party knows any language, they can communicate. So the Telepathic feat will be good to have in addition to Comprehend Languages and Tongues. I’ll just need to explain in my background why my fairy can no longer speak Sylvan, even though it was his primary language throughout his childhood in the Feywild. So much for the strategy of becoming an adventurer to improve one’s abilities. Will be embarrassing to visit the family as an adventurer.

 

[Remathilis]

If the 2024 PHB definition of Telepathy is the same as the playtest, so long as each party knows any language, they can communicate. So the Telepathic feat will be good to have in addition to Comprehend Languages and Tongues. I’ll just need to explain in my background why my fairy can no longer speak Sylvan, even though it was his primary language throughout his childhood in the Feywild. So much for the strategy of becoming an adventurer to improve one’s abilities. Will be embarrassing to visit the family as an adventurer.

Yeah, unfortunately it's better to skip past DuoLingo and head straight to Charles Xavier to solve your linguistical needs...

 

[Shiroiken]

Something I'm going to incorporate is based on how I currently run languages in my Greyhawk campaign. All PCs start with a "racial/cultural" language based on where they grow up, the Common trade tongue (unless they grew up in a major cultural metropolis where it would be the cultural language), and one standard language of choice. You gain/lose a number of languages equal to your Int modifier, so smarter characters can gain extra languages (including rare ones), and dumb characters have fewer ones. NPCs only get their racial/cultural language, however, so only higher Int NPCs are likely to know Common.

Most people speak their racial/cultural language, unless as a courtesy among outsiders, making eavesdropping harder for those who don't speak the local language. While I still use various "racial languages" like Elven, it's really Flanaess Elven, since elves outside of the region don't speak it. Some languages are related to each other, making it possible to crudely communicate using different, but similar languages (such as Dwarf and Giant). Additionally, proficiency in a language works as a form of Cultural Lore for those who speak it, adding proficiency on Int checks to know about them. I've found this makes languages relevant, and encourages the party to spread out their knowledge (as well as keeping Int from being everyone's dump stat).

 

[Iosue]

So an Intelligence 4 idiot knows three languages just as well as an Intelligence-18 genius?

Sigh...

Ah, I can see you have never met really stupid polyglots.

 

[lall]

Just occurred to me that there’s nothing stopping my fairy from relearning Sylvan in retirement. Something to look forward to. That assumes the rare language loss thing afflicting adventurers isn’t some sort of incurable disease/curse.

 

[Thommy H-H]

I'll just ignore the distinction between Standard and Rare languages, personally. Why is the PHB telling me what languages exist in my own setting and how widespread they are? There might be a whole nation of Infernal-speakers over on the other side of the mountains. That's up to me as the DM.

In all seriousness, I do think these are default options - the specific calling out of Sigil as the origin of Common in the table implies that the PHB assumes the default cosmology, at least. The PHB, from what I've seen, is very much a player-facing book - much more so than the 2014 version - and doesn't complicate the base rules it gives with caveats like, "but this might be totally different in your DM's world..." So I would think the DMG will contain more guidance on messing with the availability of languages and the like.