| 2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
I suspect that either my group was doing this incorrectly in 3.5ed or that it changed in Pathfinder. We had been adding an additional known language when Int scores increased (except by a magic-based increase).
In Pathfinder it appears to be pretty clear that your starting Int score is used to determine the number of bonus languages that you start with. Any further increases to your Int do not appear to affect the number of languages you gain.
If I am missing some obscure rule in Pathfinder that indicates that you do gain extra languages when your Int increases though, please let me know. Thanks.
The book states, under intelligence on page 16, that your intelligence modifier signifies the amount of bonus languages your character *starts* with, not how many she knows. This implies that increases don't grant you a new language, and the book doesn't state otherwise.
To my understanding, this means that you start with INT bonus languages (plus racial), and must spend skill points to gain additional ones.
If your intelligence modifier increases, then you do gain additional languages.
One of the goals in Pathfinder was to simplify the process of character creation for GMs. This is one of the reasons that skill points are changed when the intelligence modifier changes.
As well, this was indicated by Jason and James in a few other threads (I cannot remember the titles of those threads, but at least one was discussing magic items).
If your intelligence modifier increases, then you do gain additional languages.
One of the goals in Pathfinder was to simplify the process of character creation for GMs. This is one of the reasons that skill points are changed when the intelligence modifier changes.
Where is that in the core rulebook? I've looked more than once, and I can't find anything to say for or against this.
Unfortunately, there's really weak support in the text for languages going up with permanent Int bonuses. Skills has some support:
Permanent Bonuses: Ability bonuses with a duration greater than 1 day actually increase the relevant ability score after 24 hours. Modify all skills and statistics related to that ability. This might cause you to gain skill points, hit points, and other bonuses. These bonuses should be noted separately in case they are removed.
Gaining languages would qualify as "other bonuses", but there's no way to tell if this really counts, especially when the text specifically says your Intelligence modifier affects your starting languages.
You apply your character's Intelligence modifier to:
* The number of bonus languages your character knows at the start of the game.
We'll just have to wait for the FAQ or errata for an official answer |: I'm sure James/Jason probably mentioned this somewhere, but I haven't seen it. . . this thread is the only thread that pops up with the google search "pathfinder starting languages".