speaking with another's familiar

[Greenfield]

First, I stand corrected.

But I don't agree that a Familiar can understand every language its master can. Only those he spent Skill points learning.

 

[Greenfield]

I realized why I go so far off target regarding the nature of Familiars:

Familiar: A sorcerer can obtain a familiar (see below). Doing so takes 24 hours and uses up magical materials that cost 100 gp. A familiar is a magical beast that resembles a small animal and is unusually tough and intelligent. The creature serves as a companion and servant. The sorcerer chooses the kind of familiar he gets. As the sorcerer advances in level, his familiar also increases in power. If the familiar dies or is dismissed by the sorcerer, the sorcerer must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw. Failure means he loses 200 experience points per sorcerer level; success reduces the loss to one-half that amount. However, a sorcerer’s experience point total can never go below 0 as the result of a familiar’s demise or dismissal. A slain or dismissed familiar cannot be replaced for a year and day. A slain familiar can be raised from the dead just as a character can be, and it does not lose a level or a Constitution point when this happy event occurs.
A character with more than one class that grants a familiar may have only one familiar at a time.

It's the "resembles a small animal" text that gave me the idea that it wasn't, in fact, a real animal.

 

[Dingleberry]

I don't see your logic: what distinguishes racial/bonus languages from those later acquired through skill points other than that mechanic? If an elf wizard starts out speaking Elven, Common, Dwarf, Halfling, and Gnome, then spends skill points to learn Giant, then acquires a familiar, why would the familiar only understand the wizard when he speaks in Giant?

 

[Pergentile]

Logic would dictate he wouldn't. The familiar would only learn the languages the Wizard learns after they join, and the familiar would then learn the language with the Wizard.

 

[Dingo333]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the familiar and the wizard had a low level mental link

If I am not mistaken, then wouldn't the hawk or whatever be able to process the audio input it recieves through it's masters mind to translate it into something it could understand (IE. it uses it's master's languages in addition to its own)

As I said, I could be wrong, no one plays 3.5 around me and I have shelved my books for it till I find some people. But in the AD&D campaign I played in, me and the other wizard used our familiars to scout out towns before entering (his was a cat, mine was a hawk) and they reported back what they heard and saw

 

[Dingleberry]

Logic would dictate he wouldn't. The familiar would only learn the languages the Wizard learns after they join, and the familiar would then learn the language with the Wizard.

That's a clear distinction, but it doesn't make sense to me because that distinction doesn't apply to the rest of the master's skills, i.e., the familiar is not limited to leveraging the ranks the master gained only after obtaining the familiar.

For consistency, I think it has to be either (1) the familiar can understand all the languages the master speaks, or (2) the familiar can't understand any languages other than the specific things listed among the familiar abilities. But I'm certianly open to discussion.

 

[Dingleberry]

Ah, found another data point in WOTC's "Rules of the Game: Familiars" article (emphasis mine):

A familiar has an Intelligence score of at least 6, or higher if the master's level is 3rd or higher, as shown on page 53 of the Player's Handbook. The threshold for humanlike intelligence is 3 (see page 9 in the Player's Handbook), so a familiar is as smart as a person, but not necessarily as smart as a brilliant person or even an average person. A familiar's minimum Intelligence score of 6 makes it smart enough to understand at least one language, usually Common (though it doesn't gain the power of speech until the master reaches 5th level). This allows the familiar to respond to fairly elaborate commands and undertake fairly complex tasks. As rule of thumb, a 1st-level master's familiar is capable of doing anything a preadolescent human child can do. As the master's level increases, so does the familiar's ability to follow orders and perform tasks.

A familiar does not learn new languages as its Intelligence increases along with its master's level.

A familiar uses its own Intelligence score if it is higher than what its master's level allows. A familiar can benefit from spells and effects that boost Intelligence, such as the fox's cunning spell. As with any temporary Intelligence increase, the Intelligence enhancement does not give the familiar any extra skill points or languages, but the familiar uses its new, higher, Intelligence modifier for Intelligence checks and Intelligence-based skill checks.

So the familiar is smart enough to know "at least one language" but doesn't learn more just by getting smarter. There's no guidance or reasoning re: why "usually Common," though it's probably just because all of the core PC races automatically speak Common. I'd be inclined to say a familiar should at least understand the language the master usually speaks - for most PCs in most campaigns, that is "usually Common."

But that still doesn't address how/when the familiar can understand other languages the master knows.