D&D General Odd Speak with Dead Question

[TiQuinn]

If he’s thinking of using it “in the future” why not just allow his character to also be thinking about that usage and allow him to create his own spell. Given a reasonable amount of time and research (and gaining another level to learn a new spell), he can create his own unique spell similar to “speak with objects.”

Yeah, this is the best route. Rather than futz around with the existing spells, create a new one designed for the purpose.

 

[DEFCON 1]

This does give rise to the question, why does the game have those rules at all?

Because for 99% of the time they are going to be useful and much easier to adjudicate than improvising everything. But that doesn't mean you should ever be beholden to them.

Improvising or making up a ruling for one thing DOES NOT mean we therefore should just do it for everything. And it is ridiculous every time someone tries to make a counter-argument that pretty much insinuates that. It's like, can (general) you not come up with a better argument against the idea that just going to the ultimate other extreme? Is that the best you can do? If that's the only argument (general) you have... then to me it pretty much proves my point.

The opposite of 'all' isn't 'none', it is 'some'. If you aren't going to use ALL the rules, it doesn't therefore mean you have no choice but to use NONE of the rules... you can just use SOME of them.