Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Arkhandus" data-source="post: 1244372" data-attributes="member: 13966">Here's how I'm planning to handle languages in my next campaign...... Languages: Remove the Speak Language skill and replace with aspecial Language mechanic. Any class that normally has SpeakLanguage as a class skill may spend skill points at any of thoseclass levels for a like number of anguage Points. For any classlevel which does not have Speak Language as a class skill, thecharacter may spend skill points for half as many LanguagePoints. Language Points must be spent as soon as they aregained. Each Language Point is spent on either Verbal LanguageMastery or Written Language Mastery, and each time a particularlanguage must be chosen.  Each character would begin withVerbal Language Mastery 3 in each of their racial automaticlanguages, and Verbal Language Mastery 2 in each of their1st-level bonus languages for high Intelligence. Any class orability that would normally grant a new language known insteadgrants either Verbal Language Mastery 3 or Written LanguageMastery 3 with that language (character's choice). At 1st-level,if the character would have been literate under the normal rules(either from a racial benefit, class benefit, or skill point expenditure),they instead begin with Written Language Mastery in each 1st-level racial automatic language and each 1st-level bonus languagefrom high Intelligence, equal to their Verbal Language Mastery inthat language. Gaining either Verbal or Written Language Mastery otherwisewith any given language requires the expenditure of LanguagePoints. However, a character may have fractional or incompletepoints of Language Mastery with any language, but thesefractional or incomplete points do not count when determininghow much Mastery the character has in the language. It generallycosts 1 Language Point to gain 1 point of Verbal or WrittenLanguage Mastery in a particular language, but rare or nearly-forgotten languages cost twice as many Language Points perMastery point. The cost is reduced by half for languages whichare fairly similar (DM's judgement) to those the character alreadyhas Language Mastery 3 or better with, of the appropriate type.This all assumes the character can learn from one or more teacherswith at least the desired amount of Mastery, of the appropriate type. Without a teacher, the character needs some other significantsource or sources to learn the language from, such as an extensiveseries of tablets or scrolls, or a couple of varied books, or one largetome. Also, without a teacher, the character cannot gain any VerbalLanguage Mastery for the language unless they have a verbal sourceto study, and cannot gain any Written Language Mastery with thelanguage unless they have a written source to study. The cost inLanguage Points to learn any language without a teacher is doubled(if the language is also rare or nearly-forgotten, remember that twodoublings is a tripling). The table below is a general guideline for how fluent a characteris in any given language. A character may know a few words,phrases, and such that are more complex than indicated by theirfluency, but only at the DM's discretion, and such exceptions arelikely just words and phrases related to the character's interestsor profession. No particular Verbal Language Mastery may gobeyond Mastery 5, and the same goes for Written LanguageMastery. In general, if any character or NPC interacts withanother character or NPC of higher Language Mastery (Verbalor Written, as appropriate to the type of interaction), the onewith lower Language Mastery will likely suffer a penalty on anysocial interaction checks regarding the individual of higherLanguage Mastery. Typically, the penalty will be around -2 perpoint of difference in Language Mastery. [CODE][i][size=2][i][size=1]Language  Degree Of[/size][/i][i][size=1]Mastery      Fluency[/size][/i][/i][size=1][b]1[/b]      Poor grasp of alphabet (if Written Mastery),[/size][size=1]      can barely [/size][size=1]understand/convey simple concepts[/size][size=1]      only, poor [/size][size=1]script/pronunciation, rough/heavy[/size][size=1]      accent if not a native.[/size] [size=1][b]2[/b]      Knows alphabet (if Written Mastery), can[/size][size=1]      understand/convey [/size][size=1]simple concepts, can barely[/size][size=1]      understand/convey common [/size][size=1]concepts, decent[/size][size=1]      script/pronunciation, moderate accent i[/size][size=1]f not[/size][size=1]      a native.[/size] [size=1][b]3[/b]      Knows alphabet (if Written Mastery), can[/size][size=1]      understand/convey [/size][size=1]simple and common concepts,[/size][size=1]      can barely understand/convey [/size][size=1]complex/uncommon[/size][size=1]      concepts, average script/pronunciation, [/size][size=1]slight[/size][size=1]      accent if not a native.[/size] [size=1][b]4[/b]      Knows alphabet (if Written Mastery), can[/size][size=1]      understand/convey [/size][size=1]most concepts, can barely[/size][size=1]      understand/convey obscure/rare [/size][size=1]concepts, good[/size][size=1]      script/pronunciation.[/size] [size=1][b]5[/b]      Perfect fluency (of the appropriate sort, be it[/size][size=1]      Written Mastery [/size][size=1]or Verbal Mastery).[/size][/size][/CODE]</blockquote>

Verification