Tien Xia characters and native languages

[BretI]

It looks to me as if the rules for languages have changed in the Seaon 8 guide.

Season 7, pg. 8 wrote:

Tian characters receive the languages Tien and Common for free.

Season 8, pg. 25 wrote:

Kitsune, Nagaji, Tengu, or Wayang: Kitsune, nagaji, tengu, and wayang characters who are from Tian Xia rather than Avistan or Garund can automatically speak both Tien and Common in addition to their racial languages.

I have a Nagaji character who is from Goka. I built her based on Advanced Race Guide, so her starting languages were Common and Draconic. Based on the Season 7 Guide, she also got the Tien language.

So, do I just get to give her Nagaji now?

If so, great. It was really strange when I hit a scenario recently where the Nagaji language was wanted and my character didn't know it.

[Jasmine Wu]

I was in hysterics when I realized that my Nagaji bodyguard couldn't speak her native tongue...

We kitsune would love clarification on this as well!

Hmm

[Muser]

By strict reading your racial language is Draconic. If you had built her based on the Dragon Empires Primer(Gazetteer?) nagaji, it would be Nagaji. I understand the confusion over the plural form in the sentence quoted, but I don't think it's supposed to grant you even more languages.

[Andy Brown]

Racial Languages for those races are different depending on which source you use for them (Dragon Empire Gazetteer includes Tien, ARG doesn't). You always get Common, and now you get Tien if your backstory makes you from Tien Xia and you're not using the Gazetteer as your source.

(I think)

[BretI]

Raising this again, along with my research. Was busy with other things and just now got back to it.

Nagaji
Advanced Race Guide: Common and Draconic, High IQ can get any human, Abyssal, Aklo, Celestial, Draconic, Giant, Infernal, Sylvan
Dragon Empires Primer: Nagaji, Tien, High IQ can get any human, Abyssal, Aklo, Celestial, Draconic, Giant, Infernal, Samsaran, Senzar, Sylvan, Tengu, Wayang
Dragon Empires Gazeteer: Same as primer.

Tengu
Advanced Race Guide: Common and Tengu, High IQ can get any language except secret languages.
Dragon Empires Primer: Tengu and Tien, High IQ can get any language except secret languages.
Dragon Empires Gazeteer: Same as primer.

Kitsune
Advanced Race Guide: Common and Sylvan, High IQ can get any human, Aklo, Celestial, Elven, Gnome, Tengu
Dragon Empires Primer: Tien, Senzar, High IQ can get any human, Aklo, Celestial, Elven, Gnome, Nagaji, Samsaran, Sylvan, Tengu, Wayang.
Dragon Empires Gazeteer: Same as primer.

If anyone wants to do it for the other races, feel free.

---

So the ARG doesn't give the Nagaji, Tien or Senzar languages. The Dragon Empires sources don't give Common or Senzar and only give Draconic or Sylvan as bonus languages. There are also a lot of languages that only the Dragon Empires books give as acceptable bonus languages.

Season 7 guide gave Common to all characters and Tien to any character from Tien Xia.

Season 8 guide, pg. 25 wrote:

Kitsune, Nagaji, Tengu, or Wayang: Kitsune, nagaji, tengu, and wayang characters who are from Tian Xia rather than Avistan or Garund can automatically speak both Tien and Common in addition to their racial languages.

So it looks like the source book used still makes a difference. In many cases, Dragon Empires source books would be better. I'm not sure how it works if a player only had one of source books when they created a character but has since gained other source books.

[Andrew Christian]

The ARG isn't going to show the Tien or Senzar languages, because those are Golarion specific languages and the ARG is not Golarion specific (and as such will not include anything Golarion). By that token, it seems that Paizo considers Nagaji a Golarion specific language as well and that in the base game, Nagaji speak Draconic as a racial language.

Season 8 guide was changed to read the way it does, so that someone who was an Elf couldn't just say, "Well I'm from Tien, so I also know Tien for free." In other words, you need to be a Tien based race and/or ethnicity to be considered Tien.