Wednesday Knights Blog

1^st Edition languages (50+): Beholder, Brownie, Bugbear, Centaur, Couatl (?), Djinni,Dragon (black, blue, brass, bronze, copper, gold, green, red, silver, white), Drow Silent Language (?), Dryad, Dwarf, Elf (common, sea elf), Giant (cloud, fire, frost, hill, stone, storm), Gnoll, Gnome, Goblin, Halfling (Hobbit), Hobgoblin, Ixitxachitl, Ki-rin, Kobold,Lammasu, Lizardman, Giant Lynx, Merman, Mind Flayer, Minotaur, Naga (guardian, spirit, water), Nixie, Nymph, Ogre, Ogre Mage, Orc, Peryton, Pixie, Sahuagin, Styr, Shedu, Sphinx (andro, Crio, Gyno, Hieraco), Sprite, Sylph, Titan, Treant, Triton, Troglodyte.

Greyhawk languages: (Ancient) Baklunish, Flan, Old Oeridian, Suloise, Amedi, Cold Tongue, Keoish, Lendorian, Nyrondese, Olman, Ordai, Rasol, Touv, Ulagha & Velondi. Semi-restricted languages at character creation time: Rhopan, Druidic, Ferral, Lendorian Elven & Ur-Flan.

In a Greyhawk 1^st edition campaign, you had 19 Greyhawk languages, 50+ languages from the monster manual, 9 alignment languages plus the common tongue. When you add in additional languages from other sources, we can probably get that number up to 100. One of my favorite 1^st edition classes to play was the bard. Not only were you a jack of all trades – part fighter, part thief, part druid with musical skills both mundane and magical. The bard also got bonus languages. You were generally free to choose obscure languages that would rarely if ever come into play. But in the rare instances that you had an obscure language and it came into play it rocked!

Languages were mostly unchanged in 2^nd edition. In third edition, the languages were greatly reduced. Now in 4^th edition, the languages have been reduced to 10 choices. By using a few feats, you can have access to all languages.

When I started playing, it annoyed me that we kept coming into contact with encounters and we couldn’t communicate effectively. As a beginning gamer, how would I know I might need o speak bugbear or hill giant. I was straight off the farm. At higher levels, we got access to spells that could help bridge the language barrier (tongues, comprehend languages) or possibly a magic item (helm of comprehending languages and reading magic). The interesting thing is it forces you to roleplay situations which exist in the real world. I’m not talking about taking an adventuring group into the jungles of South America and running into amazon warriors. I run into language issues at the local super market. Donde puedo encuentre los tomates?

In a fantasy world, I find it hard to believe that a high elf would have as robust of a vocabulary for describing deep sea environments as would an aquatic elf. Likewise, I would expect a frost giant to have dozens of words to describe various types and extremes of cold. A fire giant might just have a few words to describe cold (chilly, cold, frozen).

As a player, we fought Mind Flayers that had a Tome of Understanding written in Mind Flayer. If you didn’t happen to be the bard who already could read mind flayer, you other choices were to be a thief and risk using decipher script, learn a new language or come up with a way to permanently use ‘comprehend languages’. This was a creative way to make the players work a bit harder to use the tome (which in 1^st edition was a very power item to come across). There was also a short sword giant slayer we encountered that spoke 3 giant languages (hill, stone, frost) and the common tongue. This is one of my favorite magic items. My 19^th level ranger would have a hard time choosing between his longsword +3 vorpal blade (which has had some nice upgrades since he first acquired it) or his short sword +2 giant slayer which speaks more languages than he does.

I think the over simplification of the language system is a result of trying to create a pen and paper gaming system that is mechanically too much like World of Warcraft and places more emphasis on combat than roleplaying. If this trend continues, 5^th edition won’t have languages – just like the 80’s video games (Wizardry, Ultima, Bard’s Tale, et al).