Speak With...

[Nibbens]

Just some musing thoughts on the Speak With line of spells.

For druids, why on earth is Speak with animals a level 1 spell, while speak with plants a level 3 spell and Stone Tell a level 6 spell?

I get that each one does different things, and have different levels of effectiveness, but lets break it down:
A level 1 spell (speak with animals) does the exact same thing as speak with plants, except speak with plants has more limitations than speak with animals yet is a level 3 spell.

Offsetting this limitation is the fact that plants don't have to be captured, and plants live a long time so they could *potentially* provide more information about things over years rather than animals shorter lifespans. However, the range that plants can "observe" of their surroundings are limited.

It would seem that speak with animals is simply a better spell than speak with plants, and it's a lower level spell... What am I missing here?

Also, Stone Tell is considerably more powerful in its abilities - complete descriptions, all things touching/touched/ or concealed by the stone can be related back to you, however at a level 6, which is 3 whole levels above similar spells just seems a bit excessive.

Consider that Legend Lore is the same level with farther reaching consequences, and Commune, and Contact other plane are even a level below it. These other spells seem to far outstrip the power of Stone Tell.

Maybe I'm not seeing the links here. What am I missing?

[Âmesang]

Without delving too deeply into it (i.e., I'm too lazy to read the spell descriptions :smalltongue:), I figure it'd because animals are stupid, plants are more stupid, and rocks even more so — thus, you need progressively more powerful magic in order to unlock whatever secrets that might be hiding within the back of their "minds."

…

So how would speak with animals on a sponge work? Or should I just watch "SpongeBob SquarePants" to find out?

[Psyren]

Without delving too deeply into it (i.e., I'm too lazy to read the spell descriptions :smalltongue:), I figure it'd because animals are stupid, plants are more stupid, and rocks even more so — thus, you need progressively more powerful magic in order to unlock whatever secrets that might be hiding within the back of their "minds."

Makes sense to me.



So how would speak with animals on a sponge work? Or should I just watch "SpongeBob SquarePants" to find out?

Or amoebas/bacteria? Can you talk to a disease?

[Geddy2112]

Well, I would say it has do to with the likelihood of finding the respective target. Animals are common, but not as common as plants(in most areas). Likewise, rocks are even more common than plants(in most areas) so that is probably why.

Sure, legend lore and contact other plane are more powerful, but they are arcane. Commune requires speaking to your particular deity, hence a cleric thing. Commune is usually, but not always more powerful-you ask the same deity every time, and deities are not necessarily omniscient. The talking to nature spells are certainly more flavorful for the druid than powerful compared to hard divine or arcane magic. Just the way it is.