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Jared Rascher (He/Him)

Feb 28 • 10 tweets • 2 min read

Some thoughts on languages based on what we've seen in #OneDnD so far. Backgrounds have really added to how many languages PCs are likely to know, since language is an assumed thing that you get from backgrounds.

When you add that to classes that get a special language, you have a ton of languages that exist all over the place and probably won't do much other than remove a reason for the PCs not be able to receive information from a clue.

My general thought is, D&D actually needs to proliferate its languages rather than condense them. For example, drow used to have their own language, but in the interest of consolidation, they are now likely to speak Elven or Undercommon, with no distinct drow language.

How to make languages matter in a game is a whole long conversation, but I wanted to frame this particular discussion. What if class-related languages didn't give you the language, they gave you permission to learn a language.

For example, you could have a street urchin rogue that never learns thieves cant, but being a rogue means they can learn it with one of their language slots. You could have a self-taught hermit druid that never learns druidic, but they could if they spend a language on it.

That means that some subclasses of different classes might also let different classes horn in on access to these languages. For example, a very mystical nature magic heavy ranger subclass might grant access to learning druidic, if they spend one of the languages they know.

If you have a sneaky, criminal-leaning bard or fighter subclass, they might give you permission to learn thieves cant.

On top of all of that, in other editions or in other settings, other classes have had their own implied languages as well. There could be a scholarly language normally known primarily to wizards.

You don't NEED to speak that language to learn to be a wizard, but among the more organized, scholarly wizards in the setting, it's a language they write their journals in, etc.

If nothing else, the fact that you CAN learn a language, but may not learn that language, may be a subtle roleplaying note. It tells you if you belong to something bigger, or if you are on the outside of things.

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