Spell Effect Question. [Comprehend Languages / Tongues]

[DJ-Ragequit]

Ok, so I'm running a homebrew campaign that spans across nearly 10,000 years. The characters have run across an old Epic level character of mine, as well as a few others that I played back in my days as a PC.

I have basically expanded upon the world that my original GM created, and crafted this long story leading from level 1, to at least level 15.

At any rate, to the meat and potatoes. I have a few ancient/dead/archaic languages that haven't been seen in so long they basically don't exist...and I like the aspect of having to use linguistics or running across some old hermit to read/learn the language rather than simply being able to wiggle their fingers and *poof* they know the language.

So my question is; How exactly is Comprehend Languages or Tongues intended to work? I understand that a PC would be able to understand/speak languages that are more common (Goblin, Gnoll, Elven, etc)... languages that are known to exist.

Would it be unfair of me, as GM, to restrict the effect of CL/Tongues to only allow comprehension of languages that are known to exist?

Thanks.

[Deadmanwalking]

It's intended to work on anything, the rules are very clear on this. it includes mystical languages and those of the gods themselves. Magical linguistic powers are all-encompassing.

Now, there are several ways around this, the most obvious being one of the languages being allegorical and full of wordplay, which would make a literal translation (which is what you get magically) well-nigh useless for discerning the author's actual intent. You need an expert on both the language and cultural context to really understand it.

Also, it's not notably common for PCs to pick up those particular spells in most games (though maybe your game is different).

Another option is, of course, to change the way the spell works in your world.

[Klebert L. Hall]

Just tell them up front that the spells won't work as usual, and you're good to go.
-Kle.