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Abashima's page

9 posts. Alias of Eric Haddock (Contributor).

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In tonight's Pathfinder playtest, a goblin seemed intent on communicating to us. So my character, a 1st-level wizard, cast comprehend languages so we could find out what was going on.

That's when I discovered that comprehend languages is one-way—making the spell effectively useless in communicating with someone verbally. Despite the spell being in full effect, we had to resort to a game of Pictionary to understand what the goblin was talking about. In short, the spell might as well not have been cast in the first place.

Here's the problem: Since it's unavoidably a personal and direct interaction with someone else, the spell should also allow speaking the language, not just hearing. You have to touch the person you're speaking with, so it's not like watching a movie and getting subtitles and it's not eavesdropping on a secret conversation—it's directly interacting with someone, and in that situation it's effectively useless not being able to speak with the person you're directly interacting with.

It's only for 10 minutes. That's not game or genre-busting. There's still a reason to take additional languages.

Corollary: The difference between speaking and not speaking with someone is not five whole levels' worth of difference. No. That's ridiculous. That means either comprehend languages just as it's written without any changes needs to go up in level to be closer to tongues or tongues needs to be a second level spell across the board.



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