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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sword of Spirit" data-source="post: 6423458" data-attributes="member: 6677017">I think it's actually better to start with a fiendish raven and then make it a familiar, rather than stat with a familiar and make it fiendish, since according to 3e metaphysics a familiar is an already existing creature rather than a created or summoned being. That said, I think you are probably right that the text doesn't indicate it would gain a new language. It kind of bugs me though, since the fiendish template is a rather underwhelming addition to a familiar, and giving it an extra language would at least be something.  From what I can tell under the general template rules, since a fiendish creature is a magical beast a fiendish creature that began as an animal gains the traits of magical beasts, but keeps the features of an animal. Animals have a trait that specifies they have an Intelligence of only 1 or 2, while magical beasts (like most creatures) have no such trait. So it seems like magical beast is the standard to be working from, and if that is so, a understanding of at least one language is assumed for a magical beast with an Intelligence of 3+.Since magical beasts do not, however, have a minimum Intelligence of 3, I think the note that a fiendish creature has a minimum Int is intended to support that attribution of (im)morality to the fiendish creature--ie, to allow an evil alignment in the same way a fiend would have one.Thanks for your thoughts. I was hoping someone would find some sort of rule I missed that would say, "yes, a fiendish raven familiar speaks 2 languages!", but I guess I'll just have to talk with my friend and see if he will allow the familiar to have both Abyssal and Common for story reasons.</blockquote>

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