I understand that the linguistics skill can only get you one language per level, and that players can learn appropriate new languages as the campaign unfolds.
However, what are generally useful languages to have? Here's a list of them, in case that will help aid discussion.
http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/skills/linguistics.html#_learn-a-languag e
I'd imagine I should skip the common races and the purely elemental languages. I don't have any opinion on the devil, demon, and angel stuff.
Aklo, mock the tarrasque as he eats you.
Dwarven, Elven, and Draconic are the big three that most magic writing is in. My characters tend to learn the languages of their friends first, then enemies as the game progresses. Orc, Goblin, and Giant are also commonly used ones.
Honestly,
There's no good answer for this without knowing your GM, your world, and your party makeup. For example, elemental or celestial or infernal might be good choices if you have an oracle in your group who has the Tongues limitation. Drow might be a good choice if you're going to be in the underground a lot, but lousy if you're going to be on ships.
Having said that, draconic is usually a good one to know (a lot of races use it). Sylvan is another good one (lots of wilderness creatures use it, and all Fey creatures).
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This is something that really, really depends on the campaign.
If we consider Golarion, if you spend a lot of time in Garund, then Osiriani and Gnoll, and then Ancient Osiriani and Polyglot, will get you far. Elemental tongues can earn you friends among genies, and so they're a better choice there than in, say, Cheliax.
In a generic campaign, Draconic is a good choice. Although Orc and Goblin seem like good choices, that depends in how much you want to speak with them; very little of import is written in Orc or Goblin.
Much like choosing favored enemies, it's a good idea to speak with the GM about good choices for languages. And remember that languages will help you speaking with creatures that speak that language, are worth speaking to, and don't speak Common. That's a group that's few and far between.
See compaign themes and pick something from likely enemies and/or likely allies (Or major NPCs around).
In Rise of the Rune Lords for example the GM may tell you that locals speak mostly Varisian, so common (Taldan) will probably make you look like foreigner (if you don't have this language for free as local common). Goblins are the most common critters around and Shaonti tribesmen occasionally prowl the wildreness and come for trade when they don't keep to the highlands, so Goblin and Shaonti might also be a good choice. Finally, the place is riddled with Thassilonian ruins, so learning that language is a good choice for any student of history.
Elemental and planar languages can usually be left for later learning, as this kind of foes is not encountered on lower levels, unless they are somhow part of the compaign (Infernal might be a good choice fo anything happening in Cheliax, which is known for extensive dealings with hell).
Learning one of these is also a good choice if you plan to do a lot of summoning, since celestial badgers might not know common for example.
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Aklo, Undercommon, Sylvan, Draconic, Giant and Goblin are all races used by a fair number of races. Aquan can also prove useful if you are in a sea-faring campaign or coastal region, as several intelligent aquatic races speak / understand it.
Something like Ancient Osirioni, Azlanti, etc. would be for the archaelogist or scholar, and would be more useful for exploring ruins than actually talking to anyone.
Celestial, Abyssal and Infernal tend to be spoken by creatures that have native truespeech or telepathy, and could talk to you anyway, so they're kind of pointless. (And, unlike 3.0/3.5 D&D, celestial and fiendish creatures don't speak or understand celestial, etc. so there's no reason to take it as a summoner / conjurer sort. The templated critters don't understand it, and the larger stuff mostly has telepathy / truespeech anyway.) If you are intending on planar binding / ally-ing with outsiders, you may want to speak their language anyway, particularly in the case of devils and contracts, where understanding the language exactly could be kinda important...
Similarly, if you're a Qadiri and planning on calling on some genies, speaking the appropriate elemental language to them might be worth a bonus on a diplomacy check.
In my experience, no matter what language you choose, it's the wrong one that will never be used, ever.
In my experience, no matter what language you choose, it's the wrong one that will never be used, ever.
Sames, unless your a rogue or bard with an Int of 16+ you have a better use for that skill point.
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In my experience, no matter what language you choose, it's the wrong one that will never be used, ever.
Then your GMs aren't doing their job. A good GM should find ways to incorporate ALL of the skills and abilities of their players into the campaign. Maybe not into every adventure, but if you have a player who speaks a wide variety of esoteric languages for RP reasons, let them benefit from that every now and then. Adventure Paths as written are, for the most part, suggestions. A good GM can substitute monsters, skill checks, etc without anyone knowing unless they read the original AP.
In my experience, no matter what language you choose, it's the wrong one that will never be used, ever.Sames, unless your a rogue or bard with an Int of 16+ you have a better use for that skill point.
The thing about linguistics is that it can't be used untrained. I find it's often worth putting a point into* so you at least have a chance to figure out that mysterious language, even if you don't read it. The extra language is just a bonus.
*Unless you're playing a really skill-starved character.
Celestial, Abyssal and Infernal tend to be spoken by creatures that have native truespeech or telepathy, and could talk to you anyway, so they're kind of pointless.
Unless you need to read them.
Depends on your GM. the most useful languages are common and elven based on my experiences though.
For flavour purposes, I always have a character speak the language of their homeland (especially if the character is human) right from the get-go. If that language is different from the one(s) commonly spoken in whatever part of the world where the campaign takes place, I'll also grab that language as soon as I can. It definitely wasn't optimal for my skill-starved Shoanti cleric to put a point in Linguistics at first level so I could grab both the Shoanti language and the human language of the campaign's setting (Land of the Linnorn Kings, the name of the language escapes me at the moment), but I don't regret the decision. If nothing else, it means I can curse out my party members in a language they might not understand. xD
I had a character who, because of a high Int score and bonus racial languages, who started the game speaking seven languages. She also had an 8 Cha score. I figured that, for someone fluent in so many languages, it made sense that there would be varying degrees of fluency. To play off the low Cha, I "dumped" Common; while the character could read, write and speak the language, she had a more limited vocabulary, due to having not used the language as much as others.
Personally, I think languages can be a good way to expand on the flavour and history of a character.
*Bumping*
Because I know there is new languages since this was posted. And was wondering if there is a list with every language on it. I looked at D20pfsrd but I didn't see the different Human languages.
The Inner Sea World Guide has a list of all the regional and ancient languages in Golarion, but I don't know of a complete list.
Really there is no single answer to this question. it really all depends on where you are adventuring, and what the major races are in that area.
Things to remember...
1) If you have an Oracle with the tongues curse, by all means...take his language.
2) It is extremely helpful to have everyone in the party be able to speak and understand an extremely obscure language that they can communicate with in combat.