New languages

[Intrope]

I don't recall wild shape stating that Druids LOSE their ability to speak normaly. I could be wrong though.
I'll look it up eventually.

A druid loses her ability to speak while in animal form because she is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but she can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as her new form.

There you go.

And I've had fun communicating while in wild shape before: including 'explaining' a plan to another character, while I was a giant snake. By gesturing with 1 arm (as if my arm was the snake...) Good Times!

 

[CleverNickName]

There you go.

And I've had fun communicating while in wild shape before: including 'explaining' a plan to another character, while I was a giant snake.

Parseltongue!

 

[WayneLigon]

When I was stating up a druid some time ago, I was struck by something:
The druids, an organization with their own (spoken) language, whose members spent a lot of time in forms without speach, had apparently never bothered to develop a sign language for use while wildshaped. Wierd, no?

Well, they spend time in forms without hands, either
I usually said the Druidic was something you could speak while Wildshaped, since it consisted of various sounds that almost anything could make. It was a pretty simple language, all told.

 

[ruleslawyer]

Isn't this why they have speak with animals on their spell list?

 

[Henrix]

I think that druids ought to get an ability on par with what gnomes got in playtest, according to the latest podcast.

 

[Lord Xtheth]

There you go.

And I've had fun communicating while in wild shape before: including 'explaining' a plan to another character, while I was a giant snake. By gesturing with 1 arm (as if my arm was the snake...) Good Times!

So much for me relying on my own memory for rules.

It's not entirely my fault though. No one in any of my groups for the past... ? ... well ever since 3.0 came out, no one I know has ever played a druid. I don't know why though. I managed to read their rules. Their a pretty kick ass class.

 

[Intrope]

Well, they spend time in forms without hands, either
I usually said the Druidic was something you could speak while Wildshaped, since it consisted of various sounds that almost anything could make. It was a pretty simple language, all told.

I guess they could devise a morse code like language, based on shimmying back and forth; fast and slow shimmys for dots and dashes? I'd say that just about anything with a physical body could do *that*. Even if they'd look really silly...

 

[Kraydak]

I guess they could devise a morse code like language, based on shimmying back and forth; fast and slow shimmys for dots and dashes? I'd say that just about anything with a physical body could do *that*. Even if they'd look really silly...

Most animal forms allow for a lot more expressiveness than *that* (snakes might be out of luck...). If *you* were going to spend a lot of adventuring time in animal form, wouldn't you try to develop a means of communication that didn't cost spell slots? It might not allow for philosophical discussion, but adventuring/hunting type communication should be doable.

 

[Intrope]

Most animal forms allow for a lot more expressiveness than *that* (snakes might be out of luck...). If *you* were going to spend a lot of adventuring time in animal form, wouldn't you try to develop a means of communication that didn't cost spell slots? It might not allow for philosophical discussion, but adventuring/hunting type communication should be doable.

Well sure: but if you want a language a Druid can 'speak' in any wildshaped form, it's got to be pretty simple (hence my suggestion!).