anim.comp/mount/familiar question

[Kerilstrasz]

Assume ranger (or druid) with a dog(or wolf) as companion.
Assume anyone with a horse as mount.
Assume caster with a snake as familiar.

Is there a way to give to those (wolf,horse, snake etc etc) the ability to talk common? or any other language?
I m not looking for a way for me to understand them (as talk with animals spell), but a way for them to understand me and talk back (common).

I think there is a way to give animals high int etc but that's NOT what im looking for. I dont want any other fancy abilities, just for them to talk & understand me..(ok i guess with they'r low int they talk as a 4 year old child but no problem)

It could be a spell, an item, a feat..
It can come from any 3,5 source except ToB, Psionics, Mags & homebrew.

thnx all

[Deathkeeper]

Awaken, I suppose?
Also PF has a spell that makes any animal anthropomorphic but that's a bit cruel in my opinion.

[Arael666]

Awaken, I suppose?
Also PF has a spell that makes any animal anthropomorphic but that's a bit cruel in my opinion.

An awakened animal can’t serve as an animal companion, familiar, or special mount.

Why dont you just give the animal comp./mount/familiar an item enchanted with a continous effect tongues spell? It's pricey but fits exactly what you want.

Just re-read the spell, turns out you can use permanecy with it.

[Skysaber]

MIC has a Pearl of Speech that grants ability to speak/understand the language it was programmed for, for about 500gp if I recall.

RAI, I'm sure it was a translation device for people to speak foreign languages. RAW, give it to your pet and he talks/understands.

[TaiLiu]

A Pearl of Speech for each animal ought to do. It grants the user (In this case, the animal) the ability to speak one language. It's found in the Magic Item Compendium, on page 118, if I remember correctly.

Addendum: Swordsage'd!

[Kerilstrasz]

thnx a lot... i either go with the pearl or the perma tongues.. i ll see what suits me best..

just to be sure... a riding dog or a wolf have Int 2... they will be able to understand simple commands, but what about more complex things.. like:
-How many "tall ones" in the room? (tall ones=humanoids)
or
-Go town.Get help.
(assume the animal has been told on varius occasions that "tall ones" are the creatures walking on 2 feet, knows where town is, and knows that help is a "tall one" with weapon next to town's door)

On the same note.. if it can speak.. can i teach him to read too????

[dascarletm]

thnx a lot... i either go with the pearl or the perma tongues.. i ll see what suits me best..

just to be sure... a riding dog or a wolf have Int 2... they will be able to understand simple commands, but what about more complex things.. like:
-How many "tall ones" in the room? (tall ones=humanoids)
or
-Go town.Get help.
(assume the animal has been told on varius occasions that "tall ones" are the creatures walking on 2 feet, knows where town is, and knows that help is a "tall one" with weapon next to town's door)

On the same note.. if it can speak.. can i teach him to read too????

Interesting, finding a place (like town) should be easy, since many dogs are trained to do similar tasks.

For counting, I'm not sure if animals have a grasp of numbers. I don't know if int 2 supports a lot of number theory. Perhaps 1-4 they could count, but getting too high would probably just be, "a lot" or something similar.

[Jeff the Green]

Interesting, finding a place (like town) should be easy, since many dogs are trained to do similar tasks.

For counting, I'm not sure if animals have a grasp of numbers. I don't know if int 2 supports a lot of number theory. Perhaps 1-4 they could count, but getting too high would probably just be, "a lot" or something similar.

They can absolutely count to 3. Bees (which are mindless in D&D) can do that much. Robins (that is, the actual robins, not American robins, which are actually thrushes) might be able to learn to count to at least 12. Crows can definitely count to 9, maybe up to 16. Best I can come up with is most vertebrates can count to 4 (which is, incidentally, as high as humans can count instantly), while some birds and primates can count higher.

[avr]

In RL they can often distinguish general amounts even without being able to count. 'Twice as many as in the last caravan we travelled with' or similar should be fine for an animal magically gifted with speech.

[Kerilstrasz]

On the same note.. if it can speak.. can i teach him to read too????

at least read certain words, like: Danger , Temple, Sheriff etc etc

i suppose it will take a great deal of downtime... IF it can be done...

[Fouredged Sword]

Dogs have been taught to recognize letters. There is a lady who taught her dog to respond to commands written on signs and held up. The dog responded even if you changed the type set, so the theory is that the dog actually memorized the letter combination and learned the basics of telling letters apart.

This is a very limited form of reading depending on how you define reading.

But yes, getting a dog to read a few (read 1-10ish) words is not impossible IRL.

A familiar gets an int score so they can read just fine. So do special mounts.

For your animal companion, get them a headband of intellect +2. That pushes them out of animal intellect and into the area you can just tell them what to do. It would allow them to read as well, as they have int>2.