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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eamon" data-source="post: 4998936" data-attributes="member: 51942">This is exactly what I meant ;-)The issue with the availability of combat vs. non-combat templates and DM laziness is a little more subtle than just the amount of work, however.  It's also about balance:  In combat, D&D is finely balanced.  There's a real expectation that a certain level party can deal with a certain level threat regardless of party composition and threat (only an expectation, not a guarantee, of course).  This creates a frame of reference within which we can judge power.  A small power shift can still be statistically significant because the rest is fairly precisely balanced.On the other hand, out-of-combat, even if the DM has a phenomenal sense of balance and honesty, there simply is much much more inherent variability.  It's very hard to find an effect that matters significantly due to this noise - and this noise pretty much forces a DM to tailor the story somewhat to the PC's.  Not that this is bad thing, but it means that the notion of balance is entirely different in combat than out of combat - so different that you are encouraged not to mix the two.On a more specific level, linguist happens to be reproducible (even overshadowed) by items such as the Gem of Colloquy (level 2 speak+understand), Ioun Stone of Perfect Language (level 22 understand and effectively speak all languages), Reading spectacles (level 2, read any language!), Polyglot Gem (level 6, wondrous so no slot, full fluency incl. writing for one language), Stylus of the Translator (level 7, write one language).Now, maybe it's a shame that it's so cheap to be able to play universal translator, but a feat is a high price to pay compared to a set of gems of colloquy and some reading spectacles.  And if your shtik is languages, well, you probably want these items anyhow, just for even more...</blockquote>

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