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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Vraille Darkfang" data-source="post: 2202610" data-attributes="member: 16989">Mechanically;I make Speak Language a serperate skill (Int Based).  When you put points in Speak Language your total rank goes up as well.  I basically said a DC 5 check to understand normal speech in your same tongue, DC 10 (or more) for complicated, flowery speech (as as legal terminology).  You may also make a speak language check to identify a written/spoken phrase in a language realted to your own (French to Latin).  THe DC can vary from DC 15 (very similar) to DC 25 (very different).  Local accents and slang can impose a modifier to the check. You can't make a check for a language not related to your own (Celestial & Infernal are good examples in my campaign world), nor can you make a check when reading in an alphabet you are not familiar with (i.e. my midwestern but trying to read kongi (sp?), Asian characters).THis allows me, the DM to simply say: "Look on your sheet & make me a DC Blank check."  For my own world I know which languages are related to which, so I can keep it all straight in my head.  For my games I often reward players who invest in languages by throwing obscure clues in the game whcih can aid the party if the can read it. (Read Languages is a spell rarely 'at hand' ready to be cast in my games).My game world:First, I made Languages pretty static.  They'll find the off-beat fragment from a dead language now & again, but most of the time it will simply be in an archaic from of an existing language (modifiying the Speak Language DC roll).  I do keep Elven & Draconic really stable, little linguistic change as both races are really long lived & thus chage occurs more slowly.I have, however, changed how common works.  Ther are several 'commons' based on where you are from.  If you are from the far coast of the Idle Sea your Common will be "Giant, minotaurian", if you are from most of the rest of the main continent, your common will be Auld Condorian (named for the colonizing empire that once dominated the area).  Of you are from the Condorian itself your Common will be Infernal (as the Empire just threw off the yolk of several centruies of Infernal Rule & were forced to learn the lingo or die.   Those from the Underdark have Necris (aka, undercommon) named for the Lich Lords who dominate vaste tracts of the ways beneath.</blockquote>

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