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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steverooo" data-source="post: 1325464" data-attributes="member: 9410">Well, my Ranger always takes the languages of his Favored Enemies, for scouting & spying reasons.  Comprehend Languages or Tongues might work, IF you have them up when you run into something (outside of an Antimagic Zone), but casting results in a Listen check for your enemies (DC:0, at worst, -1/10' away that you are), and even whispering a command word is only DC:15.  Speaking your prey's language(s) does away with all of that, and allows the Favored Enemy bonus to Listen to actually be useful.Zarathustran's suggestion to take Gnomish as an Intra-party communication language is also a valuable idea.In one adventure, before going into an unknown area, my Elven Ranger went to the library to research any problems or dangers that we might face, there.  I pointed out that my character read Gnomish, and (since 3e Gnomes were specified as writing the best books on nature) the GM rewarded me by allowing him to find out that the area we were heading to was often bothered by lions, and gave us several tips for avoiding problems with them.  This was quite a boon, as we were all first level, and a lion would - at best - set us afoot in the wilds.If you want to make languages more useful (especially to Bards), grant a +2 Circumstance Bonus to Reaction Checks for NPC dealings with PCs who speak their Mother-Tongue to them.  Thus, a charismatic Bard (+4) who speaks the local language (+2), has some Diplomacy (+5), and five Ranks, each, of Bluff and Sense Motive (+4) can automatically shift reactions by one and a half categories, without even rolling!Also, on Decipher Script, you don't neccessarily get all the information.  You puzzle out a bit, and recognize the language, but may not understand the whole thing.  So reading the language is still important.</blockquote>

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