Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zander" data-source="post: 6603796" data-attributes="member: 1364">No, it isn't. I often disagree with him, but not this time. You would have to explain how and why during your life before becoming a wizard, you chose to learn a language which hardly anyone else on your plane speaks instead of learning one that lots of creatures speak just in case, at some point in the future, you were able to summon elementals and had to talk with them. You do have a language in common with your dog. It's probably English. For sure, it's mostly unidirectional (it understands you; you don't understand it) and its understanding is limited to a few words/gestures, but it does understand. If you're in doubt, try telling it to sit in a language it hasn't heard before like Mandarin or Hindi without the tone/gesture you normally use in English and see if it sits.  Even among real world humans, gestures aren't universal. In the West, for example, if you want to beckon someone, you do it with the arm upwards, and if you want to indicate yourself, you touch your chest with several fingers. In Japan where I used to live, you beckon with the arm down and do a kind of sweeping motion mostly at the wrist, and to indicate oneself you point at the tip of your nose with your index finger. If different gestures exist within a single species (humans) on one plane of existence where lots of communication is possible via the internet, travel etc, imagine the differences between vastly different species (an elf and a fire elemental) from different planes that hardly ever communicate.True, and most of the time you probably would. However, if you wanted the elemental(s) to understand what other party members were saying such as warnings or instructions, you would want to cast tongues on them. A DM would be justified in ruling that interpreting for your elementals takes time and maybe even actions. No. it isn't. There's nothing in that that indicates they automatically understand you. If you cast message spell, the person you're communicating with doesn't automatically understand you. Spells that involve verbal communication don't translate as well except for those that are designed for that purpose such as tongues.</blockquote>

Verification