Earliest way to know any language, on demand?

[Piggy Knowles]

I'm working on a build stub for a build that, among other things, is exceedingly language dependent, and I'm running into the mild stumbling block of language barriers at low levels. By the mid levels I can pretty much always have tongues and similar effects active, but it makes me wonder... what ways are there, below ECL 5, to always be able to communicate with any creature no matter what?

[Medic!]

Off the top of my head, the Saint template grants Tongues for +2 LA.

Someone undoubtedly has an easier/better solution though.

[Slipperychicken]

Delivering a "secret" message via Bluff isn't language-dependent. Just make sure you can reliably hit DC 20 Bluff (like +10 modifier and Take 10). Very crude, but workable.

Since you don't buy ranks for Speak Language, it may or may not have a maximum number of points you can put into it. If there is no maximum (or your DM lets you exceed the cap because it's pretty reasonable), then just blow most of your starting skillpoints on it, splurge on all the languages which matter.


Every creature with Int 3 speaks Common... not sure where the problem's coming from.

[TaiLiu]

Hm.

Be a Bard and take the Precocious Apprentice feat. Choose Tongues as your spell of choice; Bards obtain Tongues as a second level spell.

Tongues at level one! :smallcool:

[Story]

If you have high int, you start with several already, plus you have skill points to buy a lot more. Each language only costs one skillpoint if you can get it as a class skill (or use Able Learner).

Of course if you want to hit all the really obscure languages like Aboleth, that will still take you several levels of skillpoints.

[nedz]

Warlock 1 gets 1 Least invocation, options include

All Seeing Eyes gets you Comprehend Languages
Call of the Beast gets you Speak with Animals

No Tongues though.

[rot42]

The Shedu Crown soulmeld grants 100' telepathy at level two ... if you are an Incarnate and you feat in a Totemist soulmeld. Requires interpretation. The Soulspeaker Circlet unambiguously grants the ability to understand and speak a few languages, but then the word "Soulborn" might appear on your character sheet.

The vestige Agares gives you the language of anyone nearby, but is a fourth level vestige.

The psionic power Mindlink explicitly avoids any language barrier. A continuous item would be 3,000, but the Hidden Talent feat or a dorje might tide you over long enough.

[Piggy Knowles]

Hmm... For my purposes, Bluff and the like won't really work. The character is focused on "Words of Power," and crunch-wise that's translating into a lot of language-dependent, mind-affecting abilities. The mind-affecting is limiting enough; I don't want to also run into not being able to communicate, too. (Also, not being able to communicate goes against against the fluff of the character pretty hard.)

Anyways, I was thinking of a two level dip in Incarnate anyhow - Shape Soulmeld for Soulspeaker Circlet should do the trick! Thanks!

[Spuddles]

Power word pain is language dependent? Or are you just trying to tell a funny joke?

[Jack_Simth]

Power word pain is language dependent? Or are you just trying to tell a funny joke?
I suspect it's more along the lines of things like Suggestion, Charm Person, and Dominate Person.

[Spuddles]

I suspect it's more along the lines of things like Suggestion, Charm Person, and Dominate Person.

Yeah I was thinking tasha's hideous laughter.

Human could pretty much buy all the languages if bard at first.

[nedz]

Mirage Mullah, from Sand, can get you Tongues at will if you have 19+ Cha — but its LA+3 and you are stuck in one oasis. :smallamused:
You do get Cha +6 and Int +2 — isn't there some trick with location dependant abilities/templates ?

The Saint template has been mentioned, but there is also Sanctified — LA +2 from BoED.

Hound Archon — Outsider from MM — LA +5 :smallfrown:

There are a couple of PrCs — but you don't get those before 5th.

Is there not some item that can do this ?
A Helm of Comprehend Languages and Read Magic from the DMG will let you understand them, it doesn't work the other way however. It is only 5,200 gp though.

[Acanous]

Mirage Mullah, from Sand, can get you Tongues at will if you have 19+ Cha — but its LA+3 and you are stuck in one oasis. :smallamused:
You do get Cha +6 and Int +2 — isn't there some trick with location dependant abilities/templates ?

The Saint template has been mentioned, but there is also Sanctified — LA +2 from BoED.

Hound Archon — Outsider from MM — LA +5 :smallfrown:

There are a couple of PrCs — but you don't get those before 5th.

Is there not some item that can do this ?
A Helm of Comprehend Languages and Read Magic from the DMG will let you understand them, it doesn't work the other way however. It is only 5,200 gp though.

The trick you are thinking of is Acorn of Far Travel. I believe it can be found in Dragon Compendium and Spell Compendium.

[nedz]

The trick you are thinking of is Acorn of Far Travel. I believe it can be found in Dragon Compendium and Spell Compendium.

Yes — that's the thing.
It's not in SpC, MiC perhaps ?

[Piggy Knowles]

Acorn of Far Travel is from one of the Far Corners of the World online series, you won't find it in any book.

The working build right now is Bard 3/Incarnate 2/Emissary of Barachiel 10/Evangelist 5. Between diplomacy, Doomspeak, calling, conversion, the great orator abilities, Enthrall, Lesser Geas, Suggestion, etc., I've got quite a few language-dependent abilities. But I should also have a decent intelligence, so I'll pick up a bunch with Speak Language, and try to fit in Shape Soulmeld (Soulspeaker Circlet) so that I can toss a couple of points of essentia to learn any others.

By the way, I never noticed just how good Soulspeaker Circlet was. I've always only paid attention to the throat bind, and considered it a crappier Shedu Crown. But the crown bind is fantastic! It essentially means that, as a swift action, I can invest a point of essentia to learn any language I will ever need to speak.

[Venger]

don't forget voice of the city (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)

the smatterings feat from RoD will also let you speak any language after a mere few days

wanderer's diplomacy is also useful for faking speak language.

a mindbender dip via any trick to boost an arcane CL (spell thematics, etc) can get you into mindbender earlier than 5.

hellbred also get telepathy if you didnt' want to pick a class with mindbender's weird prereq skills

wand of comprehend languages is never a bad idea, and is pretty cheap.