Talking Animals?

[chronoplasm]

I like the cats from Lovecraft's Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.

In my setting, cats talk regularly, and they are a force to be reckoned with. The cats have a massive interplanar empire respected and feared by all.

 

[fanboy2000]

Why do folks find this idea odd? You've got the archetypal talking animal right there in the PHB - wizard familiars.

That's a good point. The reason I forgot about familiars is because, even tough wizard is my favorite class, I rarely ever talked to them. I think that was because, IIRC, familiars can only talk to their wizards.

I was the only person who used familiars because the other players, evil munchkins that they are , never wanted to risk the potential level loss if their familiar died.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

I put talking animals under the "makes perfect sense for fantasy" category. I find animals a lot more interesting than humans (and certainly more interesting than "humans with funny ears"), and they invoke a primal quality I find missing from most fantasy nowadays.

 

[Zarithar]

There are many magical beasts in the D&D universe that could already be considered "talking animals" of sorts... lycanthropes in animal form for one, creatures like unicorns for another. Even if they don't use actual speech but some form of telepathy.

I too grew up with Tolkien and Lewis, and never found the idea of talking animals to be "odd" in a fantasy setting. Some other fantasy series which feature talking animals (and there are many) include the Spellsinger series, Redwall series, and Mouseguard.

As for using them in my campaigns, I chose "sometimes". It is one of those things like intelligent talking swords which suffers if overused.

 

[Jack99]

Yeah it's kinda odd - maybe people just do not like fables?

 

[Wolfwood2]

I played a character who convinced the rest of the party that there were talking animals everywhere. Actually, though, I was just using a little magic to play a trick on them.

 

[the Jester]

Well, dnd has always had things like giant owls, giant eagles, giant lynxes, etc. that were 'talking animals'. In my campaign specifically, cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are intellectual equals to humans, dwarves et. al. and they often speak. And fey beasties, while not "animals" per se, often talk.

Now, how often do the pcs encounter these things? It varies. But maybe I'll have to use one in tonight's game, since it came up (and since the party is in the Feywild).

 

[Jhaelen]

Do parrots count?

 

[Raven Crowking]

I allow talking animal PCs......

 

[Celebrim]

Well, dnd has always had things like giant owls, giant eagles, giant lynxes, etc. that were 'talking animals'. In my campaign specifically, cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are intellectual equals to humans, dwarves et. al. and they often speak. And fey beasties, while not "animals" per se, often talk.

I wonder if there is a division not just between those who were raised on fairy tales and fables, but between those who started out in 1st edition and those who started in 3rd edition.

In 3rd edition, all animals had animal level intelligence - Int 1 or Int 2. In 1st edition, there was no such clear distinction between the intelligence of animals and those of other sorts of creatures. The smarter sorts of animals had 'low' intelligence, which was the same intelligence expected of the less intelligent sorts of demihumans. My ideas that animals would talk if they could, or do talk to members of their own kind, was firmly rooted in 1st edition (and seem generally supported by some aspects of 3rd edition despite the 'animal intelligence' distinction).

In the real world, animals display a wide range of intelligence up to and including those of 3 or 4 year old human children (with special limitations like limited literacy or numeracy).

I was never happy to say that the intelligence of spiders, cows, rats, ravens, dogs, parrots, dolphins, and chimpanzees were exactly the same. I don't see a particular reason why animals like ravens, octopi, cats, dogs, elephants, parrots, dolphins, and apes shouldn't have intelligences in the range of 3-7. Intelligence 1 should be preserved for insects, amphibians, and probably all or most fish and reptiles. Intelligence 2 should be most birds, most herbivorous mammals, and any thing but a bird or mammal that seems to show some problem solving ability (jumping spiders, some snakes, cuttlefish, etc.). Intelligence 3 should probably be most omnivore mammals and small carnivores including birds and perhaps a few smarter herbivores. Intelligence 4 should be intelligence on the range of raven, most parrots, cats and octopi. Intelligence 5 should indicate something with the intelligence of a dog, elephant, or dolphin. Animals that approach or in limited ways equal human intelligence like gray parrots, gorillas, chimpanzees should have intelligence 6. Among smarter species, there is probably room for intelligence plus or minus one, so a very smart gorilla might have intelligence 7.

I have no problem with 'talking animals' at least in a limited sense in the real world, much less fantasy.