Can a pertrifern familiar with the sage archetype speak? What if one of it's skill points is spent on lingusitcs?
The sage archetype doesn't do anything to the (in)ability to speak. Neither does having Linguistics; just because you understand languages doesn't mean you have the physical apparatus to speak. OTOH, petriferns are human-shaped so they can probably write (and read, of course) whatever languages they know. And at 5th level it gets Speak With Master like most other familiars.
Well, as a humaniod shaped plant can a petrifern speak? For instance, memphits are listed as humaniof and don't explicitly have the ability to speak but I believe they can.
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Well, as a humaniod shaped plant can a petrifern speak? For instance, memphits are listed as humaniof and don't explicitly have the ability to speak but I believe they can.
IMHO what matters is whether there's a Languages line in their stat block. Mephits have one, some plant creatures have one (e.g. leshies), petriferns don't have one.
Would a leaf leshy be a legal familiar choice then as an alternative?
Would a leaf leshy be a legal familiar choice then as an alternative?
A Leshy Warden druid gets one of those. They don't appear to be a legal choice for anyone else; I'm not sure why---probably either niche protection for the Leshy Warden or maybe just power level. If you're not in PFS you could try to talk your GM into allowing one anyway.
The only non-Improved animal familiars that can talk from the get-go are the raven and thrush, and those only because of real-world myth/fiction associations. I wouldn't expect there to be any widely available plant or vermin familiars that can do so.
