What are the most useful languages?

[Notmousse]

I've made a big mistake. But that's a whole other thread.

I'm currently playing a multiclassed character in Living Greyhawk, and very glad that I'm Human. At 6th level I've now got 4 classes (4 levels in 'skillmonkey' and 2 in 'buttkicker'), and am the definitive skill monkey with Jack of All Trades, and now Bardic Knowledge.

I've decided to make my character a bit of a universal translator, sinking 6 of 9 skillpoints into Speak Language (the other three in Perform to activate my other Bardly powers).

I'm figuring that esoteric languages would come in handy for the times we're without a cleric, or comprehend languages scroll. Not to mention that it's a super cheesey pick up line 'You know, Abyssal is the language of one night stands.'

Anywho, what languages would you pick if you only had 6 to learn.

 

[griff_goodbeard]

Giant
Goblinoid
Draconic
Orc
Gnoll
Sylvan

 

[MongooseFamiliar]

Elven
Dwarven
Draconic

As for the rest, it depends on what you are going to run into.

Goblin, orc, giant for on-plane stuff.

Celestial, abyssal, demonic for off-plane.

Sylvan if you are going to be in the forest a lot.

That said, might it be easier to get a permanent Comprehend Languages spell?

 

[FalcWP]

Depends a bit on the setting and level, of course, but grif_goodbeard's suggestions are solid.

If there's a Ranger in your party, make sure you speak the language of his favored enemies. The DM is bound to throw them at you, so they're languages you're likely to use at one point or another.

I think that Elven, Dwarven, and other languages that the PC races use are less useful. Most of those races already speak Common by default, or have picked it as their bonus language. If they haven't, either a PC in your group who is a member of the race will speak the language, or someone else will have picked it up for various reasons.

 

[Nifft]

Depends. Is Common really all that common?

Undercommon -- if you're going, you know, down there. Or killing stuff from that area. If that area exists.

Draconic -- Language of Dragons, Lizardfolk, Kobolds and Wizards of all nations. Dragons love to hear themselves speak, so this is a good way to learn stuff and stay untoasted. Top of the list for my campaign. A good choice in a default setting game, too.

Celestial -- Language of Celestials (duh) and good priests of all nations. If you want to seem good, it's a great language with which to greet strangers.

Sylvan -- Language of Fey and some of the nicer monstrous humanoids (like Centaurs). Do you expect to see many Fey?

Abyssal and Infernal -- Two that would serve you well in my demon-haunted game. But seeing as most of the cool fiends have telepathy anyway, why bother?

Giant -- Trolls, ogres, giants. They come in large groups, and you can often reason with them. This is a good one.

Orc -- Who cares? It's an orc. Kill it.

Gnoll -- (see "orc" above)

Goblin -- Three types of goblinoids, and some DMs just love to give 'em class levels (like yours truly), so this might be a good choice. Depends on both the prevalence of goblinoids and the expectation of giving a hoot what they have to say (see "orc" above).

Dwarf and Elf -- You can pass notes that the Halfling can't read. Totally worth it.

Ignan -- DMs love fire critters more than all other critter types. Why is this? The answer is simple. It's because PCs are flammable. If you want to take an obscure language, this one will probably serve you best. Well, unless you're at sea.

So, my six choices would be:
- Celestial
- Draconic
- Dwarf
- Elf
- Giant
- Undercommon

Cheers, -- N

 

[IanB]

In a properly run Greyhawk game, Ancient Suloise, but I don't know if Living Greyhawk uses that.

 

[ShortAssassin]

I've always picked languages based on character concept and experiences. For example I just started a game where I am an Illumian Archivist (from Heroes of Horror) from a Quill cabal looking for new material and information in old crypts and ruins. As such I picked languages that are not common in Khorvaire (ex. Daelkyr) because that's what I expect to find in some of these ruins.

I think it's a bit meta-game to pick languages on their usefulness and 'what-if' factor. If you've never seen a goblin or drow, why would you pick those languages? If you expect to run into them a lot in the future then sure you'd want to prepare yourself, but I wouldn't pick them just out of the blue.

 

[Stalker0]

I'd say draconic is number 1, that one is always coming up at some point.

Undercommon is very...common is you do a lot of underground work.

Infernal and Celestial will cover a lot of your extraplanar stuff.

The other two can be whatever.

 

[lukelightning]

Ignan, Auran, Terran, Aquan.

 

[Notmousse]

Thanks guys, I now know I'll be taking a second level of Bard... Most likely my 15th level.