A familiar can understand any language the master can. It has a baseline 6 Int. It can therefore understand commands the master gives it. "Little kitten, go scout the tunnel ahead but do so quietly and stay out of sight." That's something a first level cat familiar is capable of.
If the spellcaster has the Message cantrip handy they can give further commands on the fly. The one thing that CAN'T happen til 5th level is the familiar can't answer back unless they are an animal that gets speech.
My players have found ways around this.
- Ask your familiar yes/no questions and devise a signal for "yes" and "no"
- Use taps for numbers or simple Morse code
- Have the animal scratch/paw at the dirt for writing
Consider that the animal at 1st level has a 6 Int. Not amazing by any stretch they are slightly less intelligent than some PC barbarians. They understand Common and any other language you do. Just 'cuz the only RAW communication is emotional flashes until 5th level doesn't mean they're incapable of communication, just that they can't verbalize it.
If a monkey IRL can be taught to sign, an owl with the base reasoning skills of a 3rd grader can nod their head to yes/no questions.
I seem to remember that anything with a 3 int knows at least one language automatically, and unless stated otherwise that language defaults to common. I can't seem to find the rules text for this though.
If I remember correctly, the familiar should be capable of understanding questions and orders(a 1st level wizard's familiar has an int of 6 - about that of a child), and can communicate using physical movement (e.g. nodding or shaking its head). It won't allow for detailed reports, but it should be enough to work out: how many people are in that room the cat familiar peeked into, does the cat recognise any of them, what is their race, do they look like bad guys etc.
The empathic link should help with this - it is likely that if a question asked relates to something important the wizard will get a sense of urgency or similar from the familiar and will therefore know to probe further in that direction.
It's a tricky matter and will depend largely on how your GM views Intelligence. Even the basest familiar starts with an intelligence of 6, which is several orders of magnitude smarter than even the best trained mundane animal; perhaps akin to a child of middling years. If dogs can be trained to understand voice commands, I think it's only fair to assume that an Int 6 familiar can understand far more of a master's intent. I'd say it's a given that familiars understand most of their master's plain spoken instructions (perhaps with a bit of pantomine thrown in for good measure) about as well as a six or seven year old might. "Go to that window over there to see if there's anyone there then come back to me. Be careful and try to stay hidden. Okay?" is well within even a dumb familiar's ability to understand. Keep in mind also that a familiar automatically shares a master's skill ranks so, if the master has learned languages through the Linguistics skill, so has the familiar; so the question of it being able to understand spoken language (even if it cannot yet speak them) becomes moot.
As for communicating back what it's seen, the animal can answer yes or no questions easily enough with a nod or shake of its head while numbers can be tapped out. It can recognize things familiar to it, remember details and then answer questions about them, again, about as well as a child could. Race, gender, clothing worn, weapons and armor, number of people, activities of those assembled are all within their ability to conceptualize; it just might take awhile to get the information out of them with a series of yes or no questions. If the familiar knows some languages through the Linguistics skill, then I suppose you could employ something like a Ouija board for it to spell out answers.
My 2¢. YMMV.
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I just played with a guy with an empathic familiar, and he and the GM did a really good job with the empathy. Stuff like:
GM: "When he goes down this hall, he sends you strong feelings of danger."
Player: "Danger up ahead--we should probably pre-buff."
GM: "He looks around the next corner, and you get feelings of confusion."
Player: "Something's up there, not sure what"
And my favorite
GM: "As soon as you enter this area, you get Alarm! Fear! Alarm!"
Player: "I hold him up to the north--"
"AHHHHHH!"
"And the East"
"AGHHHHH!"
"And towards the we--"
"AGHHHHH"
"Guys, I think we need to get out of here--"
Sorry; not every language. That's a 3.5 thing I think. No, what I should've said is that familiars know 1 language the master knows by virtue of Int greater than 2. If however the master has invested in Linguistics the familiar can use their ranks in said skill (unless it's taken an archetype that modifies/removes this ability) and would therefore understand additional languages. So:
At level 1 a half-elf witch summons up an owl familiar. She has 1 rank in Linguistics so the owl can understand both elf and common. By the time she hits 5th level the witch has invested 2 more ranks so the owl has 4 languages.
This is why I tell my players who take a familiar and intend to use it for scouting: take Comprehend Languages. Put it on a scroll or 2 and just keep it handy til 5th level. There will be that one time that you're trying to get intel so you send your familiar in to spy (Tiny fliers have a +8 size bonus off the bat for Stealth) and with this spell it will understand every word being said.
When it returns having it answer yes/no questions about the conversation, being able to tap or sign some of the detail or mime it back to you can be frustrating, but also very helpful.
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My opinion on familiars as scouts is simple. The act of scouting is kind of ho-hum, day to day monotony. The familiar's feelings are going to be essentially non-existent. The moment they find something of value to the familiar, the feeling will go to joy or elation, but that 'value' is based on the creatures natural instinct. For example, a pile of carrion that your dog can roll in will cause elation to the dog, but you would probably have a different reaction.
Skills modify what makes your familiar happy. A rank or two of appraise will let the familiar be excited if it finds a mountain of gold. Without the ranks, it probable doesn't care. It isn't like there is an underground familiar marketplace where they spend coin, after all.
When it comes to encountering hostiles, I assume that most every familiar on the planet is a brazen coward, and will flee as safely as possible, at maximum speed, to its owner. In which case, the emotion would be fear.
I don't think I would allow meaningful exact communication regarding the exact nature of the threat.
If however the master has invested in Linguistics the familiar can use their ranks in said skill (unless it's taken an archetype that modifies/removes this ability) and would therefore understand additional languages.
I beg to differ:
Whenever you put a rank into this skill, you learn to speak and read a new language.
Familiars never put ranks in a skill, they just get to use their master's.
Sorry V-dawg, our interpretations differ. As this isn't a Rules thread I'll say to each their own.
As far as communication goes the familiar can at least understand a language based on their Int. I would disagree with ELS that basic familiars are slaves to instincts. They are Magical Beasts, not Animals, and also have at least a 6 Int. The empathy is a link, not a one-way communication; the master exerts some influence over the familiar too. Add to that the master's words are understood by the familiar and the wizard/witch/whatever could simply tell the familiar "ignore the scent markings of rats and stray piles of carrion you spot along the way. Scout ahead to the edge of your vision, then return and report."