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Naroon Shimmerflow
Learned Scribe
Norway
104 Posts |
 Posted - 04 Aug 2010 : 20:03:06
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I had a discussion with one of my players regarding how this spell works.
obviously the spell ables you to speak additional languages. Can I cast this spell and just speak and understand any language i want to? Or do I have to actually speak with a another person who speak the language I want to speak and understand?
Can I use this spell to learn myself or other players another language without actually having a person who speaks the language by my side?
here is the situation. The party found a ring of invisibility, the command word was in dwarven. can the mage use the tongues spell to speak the word and learn it to the second party member?
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Good dice rolls, beats good tactics anytime[/size=1] |
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Kentinal
Great Reader
4686 Posts |
Posted - 04 Aug 2010 : 22:20:33
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Tongues allows the caster to speak to people within 60 foot even though does not know the language. So yes you need to speak to another person. The spell clearly can be used as a teaching tool. The PC speaking to the [foo) might indeed have time to translate the language into common. There certainly might be a side effect of remembering at least some words. The spell should be considered more of translator then a way to learn a new language.
The mage likely could use read magic or another identification spell to learn the command word. The mage does not need to be able to speak dwarven to use a command word, a command word only has to be known. That command word clearly can be told to other(s). |
"Small beings can have small wisdom," the dragon said. "And small wise beings are better than small fools. Listen: Wisdom is caring for afterwards."
"Caring for afterwards ...? Ker repeated this without understanding.
"After action, afterwards," the dragon said. "Choose the afterwards first, then the action. Fools choose action first."
"Judgement" copyright 2003 by Elizabeth Moon |
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
729 Posts |
Posted - 04 Aug 2010 : 22:30:47
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Here's my take on it.
Tongues works for speech alone. The caster can communicate in up to one language per three experience levels, and this language can be chosen at will by the caster, regardless of whether the caster had ever heard the language before.
Now, when you say that the command word is in dwarven, do you mean in dwarish script (Dethek Runes) or in a regular alphabet, but transcribing a dwarvish word? If the the latter, I would think that no spell is required - as long as the caster is capable of interpreting the signs, he might be capable of pronouncing the word, although I would rule that a tongues spell would allow him to pronounce the word perfectly, like a native speaker, and not make any mistake (although it would not be necessary). On that basis, he could instruct another character - that character would not understand the meaning of the word, but would just mimic what the caster had said. You might want to require an Int check, or something similar for the "student" to be able to perfectly mimic the pronunciation of a word that he does not know the meaning of.
If it is simply a matter of the script being dwarvish (the word might be dwarvish or in another language), I wouldf say that the tongues spell does not help, as it helps to speak and understand written language, but does not aid in reading unknown scripts. To read the unknown script,I would use the comprehend languages spell. Again, combined with the tongues spell cast on or by the same caster, it would automatically yield perfect pronunciation by the caster.
That's my take on it, anyway. |
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Naroon Shimmerflow
Learned Scribe
Norway
104 Posts |
Posted - 06 Aug 2010 : 12:58:19
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| Thx a lot for your help guys :) |
Good dice rolls, beats good tactics anytime[/size=1] |
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a question about the spell Tongues ad&d 2 ed
