Language is an important feature of the Dungeons and Dragons game. When assaulting an ogre stronghold, it certainly pays to know how to speak the language of the giants. When standing before an elven king, it may impress him mightily if you converse in his own native tongue. When making a deal with a devil, knowing how to read the Infernal language may just save your soul from eternal damnation.
But how many languages should one person reasonably be expected to know? It has always bothered me how easy it is for a single player character to know more languages than he has fingers to count them on. Think about it… How many times have you seen a player go down the list and pick languages randomly because his starting Intelligence suggests that he should know a specific number? How many times have you seen a language that should probably be obscure, such as Celestial or Infernal, get taken as a bonus language with no effort to justify how the character came to know such a rare dialect? Why is it that the common farmer with no education can read, but a barbarian cannot? It is my hope to offset these issues by offering an alternative way to deal with languages in the game.
As the core rules are written, any language a PC can speak, he can also read and write…except for barbarians who must pay a skill point cost for their literacy. In order to increase realism and promote equality, everyone begins without literacy and must pay a skill point cost to learn to read and write a language. Except for the rare case of dead languages, most languages are taught verbally before one learns to read and write them. Additionally, the core rules setup grants a player character a number of bonus languages equal to his Intelligence modifier during character creation. Instead of this, the player character is granted a number of bonus skill points equal to his Intelligence modifier. These skill points can only be used to increase the player character’s Speak Language skills. Note that a negative Intelligence modifier does not remove existing skill points, nor does it take away the free rank from a player character’s bonus languages (see below). For all intents and purposes, a negative Intelligence modifier counts as a score of zero.
If a player character has half a rank in a Speak Language skill, he can understand enough of what he hears to get by in a basic way. He can’t hold a decent conversation in this language, and he only understands bits and pieces of what is said, perhaps only three or four words from an entire conversation. The player character can generally make it known what he wants, but his speech will be broken and very basic. Example: When asking which way to the nearest temple, someone might end up saying “Me worship direction please?”
If a player character has a full rank in a Speak Language skill, he can speak that language in a conversational manner. He may still have a bit of an accent, but he knows the proper words and how to string them together into a cohesive sentence. Generally, he’ll speak the language as well as the next guy. Example: When asking which way to the nearest temple, someone might end up saying “Which way is the nearest temple?”
A player character with a further rank (two ranks total) in a Speak Language skill can recognize literature written in that language and can read a little bit here and there. His reading and writing skills are very limited, being perhaps on par with a second grade reading level, but given enough time, he can probably make out what the text says by sounding the letters out. Example: When reading a sign giving directions to the nearest temple, someone might end up saying: “Tuh. Tuh-ake. Take! Take tttthe llleeaf…lleeaft…lee..leaft! Take the left rrrruu…ruuude. Take the left rude? Rude…r-ude…road! Take the left road!”
With yet another rank in a Speak Language skill (which brings us up to three full ranks), the player character is able to easily read text written in the language. His comprehension of the written language is at an adult level. Example: When reading a sign giving directions to the nearest temple, someone might end up saying: “It says to take the left road half a mile into the town of Kel and go to the center of town.”
Lastly, a player character can gain one more full rank in a Speak Language skill. With four ranks in a Speak Language skill, a player character is a master of that language. He can easily and quickly read the most difficult of literature. Additionally, he can not only speak the language with no noticeable accent, but he knows enough about the language to use large, impressive words when he feels like it (note that this does not make the player character more “silver-tongued,” but the dungeon master may wish to reward a player character who has invested this many skill points by granting him the occasional synergy bonus to skills like Diplomacy, Intimidate and Bluff). Most people don’t ever achieve this level of mastery over a language, but it’s a must for spies, diplomats and certain scholars. Example: When asking which way to the nearest temple, someone might end up saying “Excuse me, kind Samaritan. I would certainly be in your debt if you were to point me in the direction of the nearest house of holy worship.”
Of course, Common and any racial languages a player character gets for free upon character creation follow slightly different rules. It must be assumed that the player character already knows these languages at a conversational level. Therefore, the player should be given one free rank in each racial language as a bonus. Still, if the character wants literacy or language mastery, he will need to devote skill points to achieve this. This follows the same rules as above, with the only exception that he begins with a full rank free.
It is worth mentioning, as well, that using this variant rule may shift the balance of leadership in some adventuring parties. In the stereotypical party, the paladin takes on the role of party front-man, using his high Charisma and Diplomacy skill to best interact with others in the name of the entire party. However, since Speak Language is a cross-class skill for all classes except the Bard, Aristocrat and possibly the Expert, it seems most likely that the party bard will have the best chance of being the party front-man in areas where the common language is not widely used.
