| Anime300 |
Dear Paizo:
I’m sorry if this is the wrong place for this, and especially if this is a question answered somewhere before that I just couldn't find, but I had a question regarding the ruling of a spell that we wanted an official answer for!
This question is in regards to the spell “Comprehend Languages”. A friend of mine was playing a fox in this scene that was speaking to someone else, in the average way that fox’s communicate: high pitched chitters, murrs, grekkles, barks, yips, and growls. What she was saying to the other person was, “She has more things that the biggest stash I have ever seen, she has things to spare. Sorry...I will keep clear of her, I do want to get exploded like I did that one time. It hurt alot..Rev no like that...”
Although I kinda doubt a fox could convey all of that with their limited vocalizations (my understanding is that there are as many as 28 different sounds in a fox’s repertoire so they can convey warning potential candidates or intruders or things of that nature. Because sounds say more than a 1,000 words, though, I can understand the intent.
My character has “Comprehend Languages” cast so she could understand the language and the message being conveyed. My friend says, however, she doesn’t think that would work because the language of the fox is not coming from a sentient race. She thinks my character would need to cast “Speak With Animals” because there is no intelligent language to comprehend.
Now.. My understanding from the spell description is, "You can understand the spoken words of creatures or read otherwise incomprehensible written messages.” In which the fox is definitely a creature. And it clearly has spoken words. And language is defined as, “The ability to communicate using words.”
If I were to take that spell description literally, it’s (albeit limited) language should be comprehended, even if my character cannot communicate back without “Speak With Animals.” And that’s a very intelligent sentence her fox is trying to use. So, while we could GM fiat the decision, we were actually curious now for the official ruling: Would “Comprehend Languages” work with a fox, since it is a creature and it is using sounds to convey a message? Or, are the sounds too unintelligent to be grasped by the magic despite it being understood by another in the fox’s community?
Thank you again for considering our question!
Sincerely,
Walker and Jessie.