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In the current playtest document there are 10 common languages, 9 human ethnic languages besides common, 11 uncommon languages (why is Gnoll uncommon but not Sylvan or Undercommon?) and one super-secret-decoder-ring language. This does not even account for dead/ancient languages like Azlanti and Ancient-Osiriani.
In first edition a character got a number of bonus languages equal to their intelligence modifier and learning a new language only required the expenditure of a skill point on linguistics. Despite this parties I played in occasionally ran into languages we would have to decipher via magic or other means. This happening now and then made for an interesting RP situation where the characters scrambled to decipher writing/communicate with foreign language speakers.
In the playtest rules characters with an intelligence greater than 14 gain a single extra language. To add more languages you have to expend skill feats. I feel that this is going to lead to a lot less opportunities for characters to verbally solve encounters which is too bad because now the always available “violent option” will much more often be the only remaining one for the party to choose.
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I'd concur; languages are now incredibly prohibitive to learn, and keeping pace with the number of languages a linguist can learn in PF1 requires the investment of literally all of your skill feats. The number of languages you can learn at 1st level is incredibly prohibitive, and there are exactly two options for gaining more languages at 1st level: have 14 intelligence, or spend a human ancestry feat on it. There should be more flexibility in this regard. Especially with some languages gated off as being uncommon, I don't see why language needs to be so exclusive.
The problem they have is that the smallest unit of PC building in PF2 is the Feat. In PF1 it was the Skill Point. So in PF1, 1 skp = 1 language. How many languages should a feat be? More than 1 could be seen as weird (I want to learn Orcish, but the DVD comes with Varisian as a bonus feature).
So you could, I guess, have a scaling skill feat like Linguist which gives you a language at 1st and every 3 levels thereafter (4, 7, etc).
IMHO, 1 skp=1 language in PF1 was too easy. Should have been something like 1=basic understanding, 2=everyday, 3=proficient, with a feat to reduce that.
My Tengu character got of cheap. :P
2 languages for one skill point. :D
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Personally, I think every Rank in Society should get you a bonus language. And that the Extra Languages Feat should upgrade at different levels of Proficiency to be more impressive (2 at Trained, 4 at Expert, the ability to learn new languages in a day or so at Master, free tongues at Legendary).
That'd make most characters able to pick up a language or four and really dedicated people could be really good at languages indeed.
And importantly, it'd minimise the number of occasions where players would want to interact with the NPCs but... can't.
Languages are one of those things that I don't want to be a major problem in game. SF games where a translator in your ear are available have a definite edge here IMO.
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The problem they have is that the smallest unit of PC building in PF2 is the Feat. In PF1 it was the Skill Point. So in PF1, 1 skp = 1 language. How many languages should a feat be? More than 1 could be seen as weird (I want to learn Orcish, but the DVD comes with Varisian as a bonus feature).
So you could, I guess, have a scaling skill feat like Linguist which gives you a language at 1st and every 3 levels thereafter (4, 7, etc).
IMHO, 1 skp=1 language in PF1 was too easy. Should have been something like 1=basic understanding, 2=everyday, 3=proficient, with a feat to reduce that.
Giving an number of bonus languages equal to a player's intelligence bonus would be a good start. But I like the idea of a scaling feat as well. I think if you burn a feat on it, you should get a new language every other level.