How do you speak with a Pegasus?

[Mars Ultor]

I'm having a problem in figuring out if a Paladin can communicate with his special mount pegasus. Speak with Animals doesn't work because a pegasus is a Magic Beast, not an animal. The description of the pegasus includes the text "Pegasi cannot speak, but they understand Common." Which implies that Tongues won't work either as "Tongues does not enable the subject to speak with creatures who don't speak."

Tongues is a little confusing to me in that horses and bees can't speak but Speak with Animals makes a conversation with those animals possible, but Tongues specifies it doesn't work on creatures who don't speak. Horses and bees don't speak, does Tongues work on them? (And is "don't speak" different from "cannot speak"?)

What would make it possible for a Paladin to speak to his pegasus mount and have the mount answer back in an intelligible way?

[Jervis]

I'm having a problem in figuring out if a Paladin can communicate with his special mount pegasus. Speak with Animals doesn't work because a pegasus is a Magic Beast, not an animal. The description of the pegasus includes the text "Pegasi cannot speak, but they understand Common." Which implies that Tongues won't work either as "Tongues does not enable the subject to speak with creatures who don't speak."

Tongues is a little confusing to me in that horses and bees can't speak but Speak with Animals makes a conversation with those animals possible, but Tongues specifies it doesn't work on creatures who don't speak. Horses and bees don't speak, does Tongues work on them? (And is "don't speak" different from "cannot speak"?)

What would make it possible for a Paladin to speak to his pegasus mount and have the mount answer back in an intelligible way?

Step 1, Polymorph into a dog

Step 2, give your Pegasus speak with animals

Step 3, profit

[Zanos]

Pearl of Speech?

[Jervis]

Pearl of Speech?
Problem is that the Pegasus would need to speak the command word. At least I think that’s how it works. I remember I had to work around that with a Tibbit character who had a collection of several of them, he had all of them with command words in Feline so he could use them in cat form

[tyckspoon]

Problem is that the Pegasus would need to speak the command word. At least I think that’s how it works. I remember I had to work around that with a Tibbit character who had a collection of several of them, he had all of them with command words in Feline so he could use them in cat form

The command word is used to remove the Pearl and for activating its Command spell - the actual relevant part of it (applying it to a creature to grant it speech capability) just requires placing it in the subject's mouth and has no special action or trigger associated with it.

[Troacctid]

Use sign language, Morse code, or another form of nonverbal communication.

[Athan Artilliam]

One hoofbeat for yes, two for no.

[Tzardok]

Tongues is a little confusing to me in that horses and bees can't speak but Speak with Animals makes a conversation with those animals possible, but Tongues specifies it doesn't work on creatures who don't speak. Horses and bees don't speak, does Tongues work on them? (And is "don't speak" different from "cannot speak"?)


Speak with Animals imparts an ability in the animal that it usually doesn't have, so Tongues doesn't work on them. If Tongues would allow you to talk to animals because Speak with Animals allows you to communicate with them, it would logically also allow you to speak with plants (Speak with Plants), with corpses (Speak with Dead) or with rocks (Telling Stones). That would be silly. :smalltongue:

[tyckspoon]

Speak with Animals imparts an ability in the animal that it usually doesn't have, so Tongues doesn't work on them. If Tongues would allow you to talk to animals because Speak with Animals allows you to communicate with them, it would logically also allow you to speak with plants (Speak with Plants), with corpses (Speak with Dead) or with rocks (Telling Stones). That would be silly. :smalltongue:

..although as intelligent creatures, Pegasi should have at least one language, and they are at least partially social creatures so presumably have a means of communicating with another pegasus. Casting Tongues on yourself may permit you to understand the pegasus' normal mode of communication, however it would talk to another member of its own species.

[El Dorado]

Pegasi understand Common. Does that mean they can read/write it?

[Particle_Man]

Read yes. Write would be tricky.

[Pezzo]

irl horses can nod and shake their heads, or bite, kick and trample you to death. I'd give the pegasi the same abilities.
Also in an episode of "community" iirc the dm lets the PCs speak with a pegasus

[Athan Artilliam]

irl horses can nod and shake their heads, or bite, kick and trample you to death. I'd give the pegasi the same abilities.
Also in an episode of "community" iirc the dm lets the PCs speak with a pegasus

Idk if we should use media's poor representation of the hobby for rulings...

[Bavarian itP]

media's poor representation of the hobby

Except that everyone who actually watched the episode agrees it's the best representation ever.

[Particle_Man]

Maybe they are actually mute. Is there some source material about silent pegasi that would have inspired such an idea?

[Maat Mons]

You could buy it a Medallion of Thought Projection.

[Tzardok]

Maybe they are actually mute. Is there some source material about silent pegasi that would have inspired such an idea?

Yes, the original Pegasus. He was a horse. A winged horse with divine ancestry, but still a horse. Horses can't talk.

[SpyOne]

What would make it possible for a Paladin to speak to his pegasus mount and have the mount answer back in an intelligible way?
To be clear, the second part there is the only part that is any kind of problem. As pegasi understand Common, if the Paladin speaks in Common the pegasus will understand.

So the problem is letting the pegasus communicate TO the Paladin.

It seems that you may have found a place where the rules are incomplete. There are spells to let you communicate with things that normally aren't sentient and spells to let you communicate with sentient things that use languages that you don't understand, but apparently no spells to let you communicate with sentient magical beasts that do not speak any language.

I cannot see a significant downside to a houserule that pegasi count as animals for the purpose of thd Speak With Animals spell, but I haven't thought about it for very long. In contrast, ruling that pegasi are animals and not magical beasts for all purposes seems like it opens a can of worms.

On the otherhand, following in the tradition of famous horse companions like Silver, one could rule that after a while together the Paladin has come to understand the pegasus. Not like full conversation, but definitely "I think she's saying there's danger up ahead."

[RexDart]

A friendly neighborhood hero informs me that all you need is a helmet with the proper enchantment:


https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/001/877/941/645.png

[Troacctid]

It seems that you may have found a place where the rules are incomplete. There are spells to let you communicate with things that normally aren't sentient and spells to let you communicate with sentient things that use languages that you don't understand, but apparently no spells to let you communicate with sentient magical beasts that do not speak any language.
There's several spells that establish telepathic links, if you really want to use a spell for this. Telepathic bond is in core and can be made permanent.

[RedMage125]

Like this:
https://images.app.goo.gl/urp9mtUru1nxDZ998

[Silly Name]

To be clear, the second part there is the only part that is any kind of problem. As pegasi understand Common, if the Paladin speaks in Common the pegasus will understand.

So the problem is letting the pegasus communicate TO the Paladin.


The pegasus is smart enough it can probably communicate in some rudimentary way through body languages and actions. You're not going to be holding actual conversations with a pegasus anytime soon, but with the addendum of the Emphatic Link shared by a paladin and their mount, they can probably understand each other well enough for most things, such as the pegasus warning its rider of danger or that it has spotted something they're looking for.

[DigoDragon]

A friendly neighborhood hero informs me that all you need is a helmet with the proper enchantment:


https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/001/877/941/645.png


This post wins the internet today. XD


I was in a party where the GM allowed the paladin to give their pegasus steed a Pearl of Speech. The pegasus was intelligent enough to put the pearl on its own tongue too, so it works pretty much as advertised. The only issue we had was getting the pegasus to shut up after this event. ^^

I never thought of the helmet though. That probably works too.

[Jervis]

This post wins the internet today. XD


I was in a party where the GM allowed the paladin to give their pegasus steed a Pearl of Speech. The pegasus was intelligent enough to put the pearl on its own tongue too, so it works pretty much as advertised. The only issue we had was getting the pegasus to shut up after this event. ^^

I never thought of the helmet though. That probably works too.

Turns out that he’s a depressed former actor

[Jay R]

One hoofbeat for yes, two for no.

Less useful than you think, for a creature whose hooves are often not near enough to the ground to beat.

[Twurps]

I'm having a problem in figuring out if a Paladin can communicate with his special mount pegasus.

From the special mount special abilities: "Empathic Link (Su): ....they can communicate empathically. ...."

You get this ability right from the get go, so problem solved I guess?

[Crake]

Pegasi have 4HD base, and the minimum paladin bonus HD is +2, so even the most basic paladin pegasus mount would have 6HD. That fits perfectly for having the pegasus take shape soulmeld (Shedu Crown), and open least chakra (crown). This allows the pegasus to shape the shedu crown soulmeld and bind it to the crown chakra, which gives it a 100ft telepathy ability. The pegasus and the paladin can now communicate with one another, easy peasy.

[Jack_Simth]

Let's see....

3.5 entry (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/pegasus.htm): "Pegasi cannot speak, but they understand Common."
Pathfinder Entry (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/magical-beasts/pegasus/): "A pegasus cannot speak, but it understands Common..."

So it explicitly can't speak. But it does have the language.

So you can:
Ask it yes/no questions (to which it can nod or shake it's head).
Ask it about numbers (to which it can respond via hoof tapping).
Have it scrape words out in the dirt (no note of being illiterate, and literacy is the D&D default).

That's all before we get magic in the mix. Because, you know, Polymorph can turn it into a human for a while, which might reasonably remove the "cannot speak" limitation for the duration.

[Tzardok]

I just imagined a pegasus shaping the Pegasus Cloak soulmeld, laughed a bit and got a thought: is there a reverse totemist? A class for magical beasts that shapes humanoid-inspired soulmelds? food for thought...

[Particle_Man]

Well if you think of most beasts as neutral then maybe incarnate and soulborn would be how they branch out into non-neutral alignments often (though not always) more associated with humanoids?

[Thurbane]

Amulet of Freedom of Speech (https://web.archive.org/web/20181008022833/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/oa/20020125a) should work:


Amulet of Freedom of Speech (Item)

This amulet allows the wearer to verbally communicate despite lacking the physical ability to do so. For example, an awakened animal or plant that could not normally form words can do so while wearing this item. Note that the amulet does not impart any language ability -- the wearer must have something to say.

Caster Level: 7th; Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item; Market Price: 5,000.