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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Three_Haligonians" data-source="post: 1770357" data-attributes="member: 19546">We're a little tongue-tied <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/nervous.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":heh:" title="Nervous Laugh    :heh:" data-shortname=":heh:" /> Our question is how exactly does the Tongues spell work?  The PHB 3.5 states:"This spell grants the creature touched the ability to speak and understand the language of any intelligent creature, whether it is a racial tongue or a regional dialect.  The subject can speak only one language at a time, although it may be able to understand several languages.  Tongues does not enable a subject to speak with creature who don't speak.  The subject can make itself understood as far as its voice carries.  This spell does not predispose any creature addressed toward the subject in any way."So, if you have tongues cast on yourself, do you hear every language spoken as your own native tongue?  Or do you suddenly comprehend every language, as though you are fluent?  Also, how would common expressions be treated?  For instance, in the Races of Stone, under the language section in the Goliath chapter, various expressions are listed.  The literal translation of one is "make sure your spear shaft is straight".  More broadly it means "mind your own business, not mine".  How would a person with the Tongues spell cast on them understand this?Another example, a real-life example, is "what are you at" in Newfoundland.  English is my native tongue, but the first time someone said "what're you at?" to me, I had no idea what they were trying to say.  So, would this be considered the "regional dialect" mentioned in the spell, or something totally different?Also, if you meet say, a Demon, for the first time, and don't have any Knowledge the Planes ranks, would you know to speak to it in Abyssal before it spoke to you?One final question:  if the spell does make you just understand all languages as though you were fluent, wouldn't you, by repeated use, be able to learn the language (for example, Druidic?).Thanks,R and J from Three Haligonians</blockquote>

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