Quote Originally Posted by Wooloo View Post
Hello!

A brief foreword:
I like weirdness in RPG games. I'm not criticizing, I just want to get a better understanding on the design choices that led to the situation below. Also, I want hints to better use it in my game. Thanks in advance!

Here's the thing:
I was shuffling thought the Monster Manual looking at stats and I noticed something that I found odd.
Some of the animals in the appendix section have their own language.

First, I noticed the Giant Eagle. And I found it really cool. Ok, these are majestic, inteligent giant eagles. They communicate, they have their language. Cool.

Then..
The Blink Dog also has its own language. And I thought.. Alright, it's like this magical dog.. Ok, that's fair.

And then... The Winter Wolf has its very own language as well.. And that's when things begin to get a little odd, in my opinion. But maybe there's some reason behind it. Maybe it's a legacy thing, paying homage to an old timey classic adventure with a really interesting wolf NPC? Who knows where things come from, right? Let the winter wolves have their way.

But then...!! Believe it or not... The Giant Elk has it's own language. Yes, a Giant Elk language exists. For some reason, Sylvan is not enough for the Elk! He needs his own grammar and vocabulary. That's very weird from a game design point of view, in my opinion. Because, being honest, how often does your party actually run into giant elks? In the odd chance that they do, wouldn't the party's druid feel cheated by failing to understand this creature?

I guess my point is.. Why is there a Giant Elk language?
What purpose does it serve?
Also, can a PC learn this language? If so, have you ever had a character that speaks Giant Elk?

Sorry if I wasted your time with this post. Thanks for any advice!

Spoiler: page references
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Page References:
Giant Eagle, pg.324
Blink Dog, pg.318
Winter Wolf, pg.340
Giant Elk, pg.325

There is no game design reason for them to exist, but there is no reason for them to not exist. It's arbitrary weirdness.

Also a way to have taking sapient, animals which are still hard to communicate with.

Also, just to confirm: don't Blink Dogs also speak Sylvain?