Ring of Eloquence: Applies to written/reading as well as spoken languages?

[Sutehp]

I just starting playing Pathfinder Society about a month ago and I'm still learning the ins and outs of the d20 system. For now though, I've just been doing research on playing my Lvl 8 Swashbuckler and I just came across a Youtube video claiming that a Ring of Eloquence with Ancient Azlanti, Thassilonian, Abyssal and Tien is ideal for Society Play. My question is: does this apply to written languages as well as spoken? The power gives the wearer the power "to speak and understand" four additional languages of the players choice. If dead languages like Ancient Azlanti and Thassilonian are going to be found mostly in written form in old tombs (as opposed to spoken), doesn't it make sense for the ring to be able to decipher written languages as well as spoken?

Has this question ever come up in any errata? There's no explanation of this at d20pfsrd under the Ring of Eloquence entry.

[Particle_Man]

My 2 cents:

Pathfinder seems to distinguish "understand" from "read" in this spell:

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/comprehend-languages/

So it seems that "understand" only applies to spoken languages, paired iwth "speak", while "read" applies to written languages, paired with "write".

[Sutehp]

I'm not so sure about that, Particle. The base spell for the creation of Ring of Eloquence is comprehend languages, which specifically does allow both reading and speaking of languages the user does not himself know. If the base spell does allow the reading of languages, why wouldn't a magic item based on that same spell allow it?

Then again, the Ring specifically allows you to speak an unknown language and understand it when it's spoken to you (while silent on being able to read it), while the spell allows you to read and understand an unknown language when spoken to you but specifically without being able to speak or write it! UGH!

It's almost as bad as the "up a level; down a level" controversy! The powers of a magical item using comprehend languages and the spell of comprehend languages itself don't match. Seriously, this sh!t needs to be errata'ed. Did no one pick up on this before now?

But the fact that the ring has written on it the alphabets of the languages it translates seems to at least imply that it also applies to reading/writing as well. After all, why bother with that detail if the wearer can't understand the writing on the ring? In order to know which languages the ring translates, there has to be some sort of indicator on the ring itself. (It's not like there's gonna be a receipt, after all.) So once the wearer puts on the ring, he can look at the writing on the ring and then go "Oh! NOW I get it! This ring translates (*insert any four languages here*)!" If it were otherwise, how would anyone know which four languages the ring translated? The only other alternative in that case would be to identify the ring's magic every time the ring changed hands (no pun intended). After all, anyone who could read the alphabets written on the ring without wearing it first would already know how to speak and read those languages, so the ring would be useless to him.

[Firebug]

Pretty sure for Society play that you are limited to exactly the languages mentioned in the item (ie Common, Dwarven, Elven, and Gnome or the set of Giant, Goblin, Orc, and Undercommon). You are not allowed to modify items at all.

[Florian]

It's almost as bad as the "up a level; down a level" controversy! The powers of a magical item using comprehend languages and the spell of comprehend languages itself don't match. Seriously, this sh!t needs to be errata'ed. Did no one pick up on this before now?

The spells are only there for thematic reasons. There's no direct connection between spell and item, unless the item directly casts the spell as part of using it (which is not the case here).

[Sutehp]

Pretty sure for Society play that you are limited to exactly the languages mentioned in the item (ie Common, Dwarven, Elven, and Gnome or the set of Giant, Goblin, Orc, and Undercommon). You are not allowed to modify items at all.

Ooh, good catch. I'll have to look this up and see if there really are Society-only-legal language sets. It might be moot in any case; I may just suck it up and get a Ring of Protection instead. After all, you can never have too much AC.

[Geddy2112]

I would agree that reading and understanding are different, as some abilities are explicitly verbal, namely truespeech/truespeak and the tongues spell. Truespeech is explicitly called out to only apply to spoken words, as is tongues.

As particle said, comp languages calls this out specifically "The spell enables you to understand or read an unknown language, not speak or write it." Pairing understand with speak, read with write. The ring of eloquence does not mention reading anywhere in the description. In the tongues (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/t/tongues) spell, it also says understand but does not mention reading or writing the language either.

[Sutehp]

Just to double-check as I'm new to the d20 system: a character can have only 1 slot for rings? I'm using PCGen to help me out with completing my character sheets, and if I'm reading it right, a character is only allowed to wear 1 ring. I could be wrong, though. Is it 1 or 2 rings?

[Geddy2112]

Just to double-check as I'm new to the d20 system: a character can have only 1 slot for rings? I'm using PCGen to help me out with completing my character sheets, and if I'm reading it right, a character is only allowed to wear 1 ring. I could be wrong, though. Is it 1 or 2 rings?

You can benefit from two magic rings. You can technically wear as many rings as you want, but you can only benefit from the magic of two rings at a time.

[Sutehp]

You can benefit from two magic rings. You can technically wear as many rings as you want, but you can only benefit from the magic of two rings at a time.

And two rings of the same type can't stack, can they?

[Geddy2112]

And two rings of the same type can't stack, can they?

Correct. No bonuses of the same type stack with the exception of dodge bonuses and some bonuses that specifically stack. Generally, identical effects would not stack either.

Certain rings could stack, such as two rings of eloquence with a different set of languages each. It would grant understanding and speech of all eight, but it would not grant a +4 comp bonus or reduce the deafened spell failure below 10%.