How to communicate with summoned monsters?

[SangoProduction]

I read a guide that said summoned creatures for their senses. Fiendish and Celestial solve the intelligence issue (making the spider even more terrifying), but not neccesarily the communication one.

I assume there's one because the spell itself says "if you can communicate..."

1) Is it possible to just tell it to sit by you, and if it senses something, it does some maneuver to alert you?

2) Are there any exceptions?

[Bullet06320]

if you speak the same language, its real easy
telepathy works too

[KillianHawkeye]

Anything with an Intelligence of 3 or higher should understand at least one language. Maybe that's celestial for a Celestial Creature, or infernal or abyssal for a Fiendish Creature, or one of the four elemental languages for Elementals, but otherwise it's probably just common. Anything with an Intelligence of 12 or higher probably knows common in addition to its native language.

There is typically an assumed minimum level of communication possible with summoned creatures even if you don't share a common language, allowing you to at least direct them to attack or defend a particular target, but for complex or abstract tasks you really need to be able to converse properly.

[Darrin]

Most summoned creatures have the Celestial or Fiendish template, which automatically sets the Int score to at least 3. Anything with Int 3 understands Common by RAW. So without going into the various planar languages, you can pretty much speak to and be understood by almost everything on the summon monster lists already without doing anything particularly fancy.

There are at least two murky areas of the RAW, however:

1) The rules do not state if there's any particular Int score where intelligible speech is possible, or if there is any sort of physiological capacity that allows speech. Does a celestial badger have the vocal chords/tongue/palate structure to make intelligible human speech? To a certain extent, this is something of a "fluff" question, but will probably need a DM ruling.

2) Druids are Snot-Outta-Luck, because the summon nature's ally line does not increase the summoned creature's Int to 3. By RAW, the animals summonable via SNA can't understand any language, much less Common. By RAW, if a druid wanted an SNA creature to do something specific, he would need to use a speak with animals spell or Handle Animal to "push" an animal with a particular trick, which requires a full round action. However, I don't know of any DMs that insist on that level of bloodymindedness, and most just assume SNA works just like SM for the purposes of directing summoned creatures as it speeds play and is likely how SNA was intended to work.

[ZeroiaSD]

For many tasks, pointing and hand gestures will do! Or snarls and other simple noises.

You don't have to be as complex as language. Point, make claw motion and aggressive noise, even an int 1 shouldn't have trouble figuring it out.

[Necroticplague]

I read a guide that said summoned creatures for their senses. Fiendish and Celestial solve the intelligence issue (making the spider even more terrifying), but not neccesarily the communication one.

I assume there's one because the spell itself says "if you can communicate..."

1) Is it possible to just tell it to sit by you, and if it senses something, it does some maneuver to alert you?

2) Are there any exceptions?
Communication doesn't have to be two-way. RAW, everything with INT 3 or more (of which all Summon Monster creatures are) understands common. Even if they can't speak it, they understand it.

1. Yes, that seems pretty reasonable. After all, if you could tell someone "keep an eye out. If you see something, tell me", it's not really much of a leap to "keep an eye out. if you see anything, make a hissing noise"

2.Exceptions to what?

[KillianHawkeye]

Anything with Int 3 understands Common by RAW.

That is actually not true. Far from it, in fact!

PCs all know Common by RAW (because they're the PCs), but NPCs don't always get that luxury. What the rules actually state is that any creature with at least 3 Intelligence speaks or at least understands a language, and you have to look at the individual racial or monstrous descriptions to see what languages they freely get.

Compare:

Speaks Common
"Araneas speak Common and Sylvan." ~ Int 14
"Azers are dwarflike beings native to the Elemental Plane of Fire. They wear kilts of brass, bronze, or copper, and speak Ignan and Common." ~ Int 12
"Behirs speak Common." ~ Int 7
"Bugbears speak Goblin and Common." ~ Int 10

Doesn't speak Common
"Aboleths speak their own language, as well as Undercommon and Aquan." ~ Int 15
"Achaierais speak Infernal." ~ Int 11
"Arrowhawks speak Auran, but they are not usually talkative creatures." ~ Int 10
"Athachs speak a crude dialect of Giant." ~ Int 7
"Barghests speak Goblin, Worg, and Infernal." ~ Int 14
"Belkers speak Auran." ~ Int 6

And that is just from the A's and B's in the Monster Manual. I'll leave checking the rest of the alphabet as an exercise for the reader, but the pattern does continue.

Even the standard playable races are not 100% fluent in Common.

"Dwarves speak Dwarven. Most who travel outside dwarven lands (as traders, mercenaries, or adventurers) know the Common tongue, while warriors in the dwarven cities usually learn Goblin to better interrogate and spy on those evil denizens of the deep caves."

"Elves speak Elven, and most also know Common and Sylvan."

"Gnomes speak their own language, Gnome. Most gnomes who travel outside gnome lands (as traders, tinkers, or adventurers) know Common, while warriors in gnome settlements usually learn Goblin."

"Halflings speak Halfling and Common."



So dispel any illusions you might have about everyone being able to speak Common. If that were actually true, there'd be no need for any other languages to even exist.

[Jack_Simth]

That is actually not true. Far from it, in fact!

PCs all know Common by RAW (because they're the PCs), but NPCs don't always get that luxury. What the rules actually state is that any creature with at least 3 Intelligence speaks or at least understands a language, and you have to look at the individual racial or monstrous descriptions to see what languages they freely get.More specifically (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/intro.htm#abilities):
A creature can speak all the languages mentioned in its description, plus one additional language per point of Intelligence bonus. Any creature with an Intelligence score of 3 or higher understands at least one language (Common, unless noted otherwise). (emphasis added)

So if you use Summon Monster V (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/summonMonsterV.htm) to get an Air Elemental (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/elemental.htm), then you need to know Auran to communicate clearly with it, because "Air elementals speak Auran," and no other languages are listed. Unless you planned for talking to it (learned Auran, have Tongues, telepathy, or some such), you're probably stuck with "It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability" inherited from Summon Monster I (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/summonMonsterI.htm).

A Fiendish (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/fiendishCreature.htm) Dire Ape (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/direApe.htm), on the other hand, has no language listed directly in the entry (a normal Dire Ape only has an Int of 2, and the Fiendish template raises the Int to 3 without specifying a language). Nothing is "noted otherwise", and it has an Int of 3, so it understands Common, and so you can insist it put on the tutu and dance (unless you don't speak Common, of course).