Should undead be allowed to speak?

[Joker]

I have a evil Rat-Bastard DM. He, like, doesn't want my skeletal minion to speak even after I spent 200xp for awakening the thing and much much more for creating it's items such as a +4 mithril chain shirt of positive energy protection and items which give it turn resistance (some of which require freakin' command words to activate!).

So, can mindless undead, because they have no organs such as a tongue or lungs, not speak despite being awakened by the Awaken Undead spell from CA?

Thanks in advance

Nehrzull the Necromancer.

 

[Crothian]

I saw yes. THe undead creature is walking around with no muscles, you awakened it dispite it having no brain....sometimes realism is already gone so you just got to go with it. Why draw the line of things an undead can't do at speach like that?

 

[Lorgrom]

If the undead in question has an Intelligence above 3 then I grant them the ability to speak. So regular zombies can not speak, but a Greater Zombie (from 2nd edition) would be able to.

As for the maigc item you made. Why not talk with the DM and see if they can change it to a symatic function instead. You can always program even the dumbest of undead you created to do those kind of things. Though I would have to question if the undead in question would even understand the reason why. Would it even be able to graps that activating it would prevent something that might happen?

 

[frankthedm]

Awakened animals don't suddenly get to speak either IIRC.

BTW, Does awaken undead still leave them mindless?

 

[Crothian]

Awakened animals don't suddenly get to speak either IIRC.

"An awakened tree or animal can speak one language that you know, plus one additional language that you know per point of Intelligence bonus (if any)."

 

[frankthedm]

oops

 

[werk]

I voted maybe, because I don't think it's a blanket rule. The lack of appropriate organs doesn't stop many other things from having speech, fire elementals, treants, ghosts, lots of stuff.

So I think it comes down to the intelligence and languages given to the creature. In this case you have a skeleton (assuming regular SRD skeleton, I don't know if Skeletal Minion is a different creature)...it has no intelligence score and "has no skills" so I would not allow that skeleton to speak, he doesn't know how.

 

[Cabral]

Can you quote the spell you used to awaken it?

 

[Joker]

Can you quote the spell you used to awaken it?

Awaken Undead, 7th Level, Libris Mortis.

Basically the undead gains d6 + 4 Int, a +2 bonus on saves against Command Undead and +2 Turn resistance.

 

[Django]

I think it's inappropriate to quibble about things like 'realism' when talking about undead and the things that they can or cannot do. To put it bluntly, they are creatures of magic - and when you start fiddling about with magic, realism goes right out the window.

Skeletons walk around without any kind of muscles. Ghosts make those spooky "Booo!" noises and it can certainly be argued that they haven't got lungs.

IMC, if an undead has an intelligence of 3 or more it can speak. If it has an intelligence of 1 or 2 it can vocalize but not in any coherent language.