(FR) Cosmopolitan Feat

[jeffh]

Re: The DM speaks

Thank you I do like the idea. Even though it was someone elses that play in my game that suggested it.

I understand the use of the feat and I like it, but would you allow all knowledge skills or Profession skills to be made Cosmopolitan? Or does this allow the Profession and Knowledge skill to be considered all in one.

Different Knowledges and Professions are different skills and you would have to take Cosmo for each one seperately. As someone else pointed out, the feat Educated allows you to get around this for Knowledge; there is no way I know of to do this for Profession or for that matter Craft, nor do I see any need for one.

Speak Language is one skill, not a family of related skills, so I don't see any problem with allowing this player do do what he wishes. (The same applies to Perform, another skill that works a bit differently from others and that people sometimes think of as working like Craft, Pro and Knowledge). The +2 will indeed be wasted in the case of Speak Language. Personally I'd let him take an extra language to make up for it, but that would strictly be a house rule as there is nothing in the description which suggests this. Allowing two feels like a bit much to me, but realistically speaking it won't actually cause any problems if you do allow it.

Polyglot seems to be strictly inferior to Cosmo for this purpose, except for the bit where if you go strictly by the book, Cosmo can't be taken later in your career (I assume Polyglot can - I don't have the book it's from - but personally I allow Cosmo to be as well). For a first level character, let him take Cosmo instead so he won't have to worry about alphabets.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

fyi, jeffh, Polglot is an epic level feat that requires an Int of 25 and 5 known languages

 

[jeffh]

fyi, jeffh, Polglot is an epic level feat that requires an Int of 25 and 5 known languages

Not the one that was referred to earlier in the thread, which is a non-Epic feat from the Kalamar player's book. If you read the rest of the thread you'll find that the epic one has already been mentioned and that it was made quite clear that it's different from the one being discussed.

 

[Mr Fidgit]

Polyglot is from the Kalamar Player's Guide

yup, you're right. my mistake

 

[green slime]

I disagree with the comment that languages are not important in standard 3e... It is up to the DM.

Players often find themselves fighting uncivilized humanoids, creatures with little or no contact with human society.

Those Kobold and Lizardmen hordes aren't going to be very familiar with common, so how are you going to negotiate a peace settlement? In the heat of a battle, when the Goblin priest shouts at a lackey to do something, how do you know if the lackey is ignoring him and running away, or dashing off to get the army from over the other side of the hill? The priest is hardly going to tell the lackey in common.

Even 7th-8th level characters can't afford to constantly have tongues and comprehend languages memorised in order to read captured enemy documents, interrogate prisoners, issue demands.

Then there are all those language-dependant spells...

 

[Taloras]

Good thing about knowing languages the rest of the party doesnt.....i can insult the enemies and my friends dont have a clue what i just said.

Tell an orc in Orcish..."Your mother was an elf!"
see how quickly they attack you when your friends are in ambush.

 

[jetan]

...giving me 7 languages. And the character is only 19 years old (im 19, can barely speak English, let alone more than that...)

As a sanity check for DMs, in many European countries, this is fairly common. While I speak a single language with a smattering of a few others, I have *several* young European cousins that speak 5-7 languages.