Results 1 to 10 of 10
-
2024-02-22, 04:09 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2024
- Location
- Washington
Could Magic mouth be used as a one-to-one translator?
Assuming one had the time and the resources, is it feasible that you could create a magic auto-translator? For instance, the trigger being a word in draconic and the message is the corresponding word in common with instructions to only respond after a few moments. I'd image it would be a crude translation with no room for nuance, and the many Magic mouths would have to be cleverly cast. Maybe on thin strips of paper as a sort of magic book the players could find?
-
2024-02-22, 04:32 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- May 2017
- Gender
Re: Could Magic mouth be used as a one-to-one translator?
Theoretically, yes, but the translation would be really, really bad. Translation nearly always relies on some form of context to give meaning to the words (some languages more than others), and this method would completely miss out on that. If you've ever used google translate or similar to translate between two more obscure languages you probably have already seen what I mean.
See this TV tropes page for lots of examples of the kind of results you'd likely get: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...iotTranslationJasnah avatar by Zea Mays
-
2024-02-22, 08:27 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2017
Re: Could Magic mouth be used as a one-to-one translator?
Magic Mouth is a 2nd level spell that costs 10gp per casting.
Comprehend Language is a 1rst level spell.
You'd be better off with a Comprehend Language spell and a phonetic dictionary for the language if you wish to speak back.
Also true.
I doubt anyone wants to pay 1000gp in component alone just to have 100 words being literally translated without any understanding of the context or grammar.Last edited by Unoriginal; 2024-02-22 at 08:29 AM.
-
2024-02-22, 10:22 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2013
- Location
- Utah
- Gender
Re: Could Magic mouth be used as a one-to-one translator?
You'd need a magic mouth for every word, wouldn't you? Number of words depends on the language, but 100,000 words is a decent estimate of the number of words for a language. If you cut that in half to eliminate less likely words, that's 50,000 magic mouths. For one language to another. Repeat that for each additional language to be translated.
Campaigning in my home brewed world for the since spring of 2020 - started a campaign journal to keep track of what is going on a few levels in. It starts here: https://www.worldanvil.com/w/the-ter...report-article
Created an interactive character sheet for sidekicks on Google Sheets - automatic calculations, drop down menus for sidekick type, hopefully everything necessary to run a sidekick: https://tinyurl.com/y6rnyuyc
-
2024-02-22, 10:40 AM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Feb 2017
-
2024-02-22, 03:30 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2015
- Location
- New Zealand
- Gender
Re: Could Magic mouth be used as a one-to-one translator?
The big reason why this won't work is that languages don't have one-word-to-one-word translations. You need the entire sentence.
For example, you can't translate just the word "the" from Engligh to French. You need to know the following words to be able to determine if it is "le" (masculine) or "la" (feminine).
Also, words don't have just one meaning.
How would you translate the word "bark"? Is it the outside of a tree or the noise a dog makes?
-
2024-02-22, 03:54 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Mar 2020
- Location
- Texas
- Gender
Re: Could Magic mouth be used as a one-to-one translator?
Not to mention some languages don't even have some words. Russian doesn't do "the", "a", or "an" at all and also completely ignores the present tense of "to be". So to say "I am at the store" in Russian, you say "Ya v magazinye" (I at store). You still get the general point, but it's not a 1-to-1 translation anymore.
I really need a new avatar.Nah, I'm good.
-
2024-02-22, 04:35 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Jul 2008
- Location
- Sweden
- Gender
Re: Could Magic mouth be used as a one-to-one translator?
Wouldn't it be cheaper to craft a helmet of comprehend languages?
Black text is for sarcasm, also sincerity. You'll just have to read between the lines and infer from context like an animal
-
2024-02-22, 05:12 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Oct 2021
-
2024-02-22, 06:22 PM (ISO 8601)
- Join Date
- Nov 2016
Re: Could Magic mouth be used as a one-to-one translator?
It could, but as people pointed out, Comprehend Language would do the same thing, and be a lot cheaper. That said, I have an even better spell. Two better spells in fact:
Tongues and Hallow.
Comprehend Language has the issue of being a Self spell. So you can't give it to two separate beings. Tongues lasts an Hour, isn't Concentration, has a range of Touch, and allows you to fully understand and speak any language.
Hallow is even better. Given the system you proposed, I assume you'd be using this in some kind of base or building. As such, Hallow does everything you want and more. Its a single 5th level spell, lasts until dispelled, has a 1k cost, and you can use it to provide Tongues to everyone within the Hallowed area. And if you're worried about it excluding things like Undead or Celestials, you can just exclude them from the negative aspects of the spell. Far cheaper than trying to spend who knows how much on crafting Fantasy Google Translate.Last edited by sithlordnergal; 2024-02-22 at 06:23 PM.
Never let the fluff of a class define the personality of a character. Let Clerics be Atheist, let Barbarians be cowardly or calm, let Druids hate nature, and let Wizards know nothing about the arcane
Fun Fact: A monk in armor loses Martial Arts, Unarmored Defense, and Unarmored Movement, but keep all of their other abilities, including subclass features, and Stunning Strike works with melee weapon attacks. Make a Monk in Fullplate with a Greatsword >=D