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<blockquote data-quote="Afrodyte" data-source="post: 1710048" data-attributes="member: 8713">I don't know of any specific OGL rules for treating languages as real skills, but I can give you my take on it.First of all, I had to determine what each level of competence was and how many skill ranks fit each one.&nbsp; Keep in mind that this is not balanced for epic level play.&nbsp; Taking a cue from a method I used for another skill-rank based system, I decided on the following categories: untrained (0 ranks), novice (1-5 ranks), seasoned (6-10 ranks), expert (11-15 ranks), master (16-20 ranks), and legend (21-25 ranks).Your automatic languages (aka native languages) are given by race as in the PHB.&nbsp; You can also choose your bonus languages as per the PHB.&nbsp; A character starts out with 10 ranks in his native languages and 4 ranks in the bonus languages he chooses.&nbsp; Everything else needs to be purchased with additional skill points.&nbsp; If you want a less potent version, make characters pay for the points spent on language skills anyway and still limit what they can take as starting characters.&nbsp; The 10 ranks in a character's native languages does go against the skill rank cap based on level, but I consider languages a special case. With 10 ranks, you have native fluency and can communicate effectively in daily situations that native speakers of the language would face.&nbsp; More ranks would be for those whose language skills go beyond those of laymen speakers of the language such as: politicians, poets, storytellers, and educators.&nbsp; The 4 ranks given to bonus languages allows for basic understanding, perhaps enough to let you understand what's being said in trade or in bland, generic conversations (&quot;How do you do?&nbsp; Today is Thursday.&nbsp; The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain.&quot;).Alternatively, you can keep the skill rank cap but give a hefty bonus for native speakers (say, +3 to +5) and a smaller bonus for the bonus languages (+1 or +2).&nbsp; You could also base these bonuses on race, so non-humans would get a smaller bonus to Common than humans, and races and creatures with similar languages gain heftier bonuses with those languages than do those whose languages are vastly different.&nbsp; This would be based on the alphabet used, since I reckon that languages with similar sounds and grammatical structures would use similar systems of writing.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Afrodyte, post: 1710048, member: 8713"] I don't know of any specific OGL rules for treating languages as real skills, but I can give you my take on it. First of all, I had to determine what each level of competence was and how many skill ranks fit each one. Keep in mind that this is not balanced for epic level play. Taking a cue from a method I used for another skill-rank based system, I decided on the following categories: untrained (0 ranks), novice (1-5 ranks), seasoned (6-10 ranks), expert (11-15 ranks), master (16-20 ranks), and legend (21-25 ranks). Your automatic languages (aka native languages) are given by race as in the PHB. You can also choose your bonus languages as per the PHB. A character starts out with 10 ranks in his native languages and 4 ranks in the bonus languages he chooses. Everything else needs to be purchased with additional skill points. If you want a less potent version, make characters pay for the points spent on language skills anyway and still limit what they can take as starting characters. The 10 ranks in a character's native languages does go against the skill rank cap based on level, but I consider languages a special case. With 10 ranks, you have native fluency and can communicate effectively in daily situations that native speakers of the language would face. More ranks would be for those whose language skills go beyond those of laymen speakers of the language such as: politicians, poets, storytellers, and educators. The 4 ranks given to bonus languages allows for basic understanding, perhaps enough to let you understand what's being said in trade or in bland, generic conversations ("How do you do? Today is Thursday. The rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain."). Alternatively, you can keep the skill rank cap but give a hefty bonus for native speakers (say, +3 to +5) and a smaller bonus for the bonus languages (+1 or +2). You could also base these bonuses on race, so non-humans would get a smaller bonus to Common than humans, and races and creatures with similar languages gain heftier bonuses with those languages than do those whose languages are vastly different. This would be based on the alphabet used, since I reckon that languages with similar sounds and grammatical structures would use similar systems of writing. [/QUOTE]

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