| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Just keep in mind that without additional magic, the normal animals probably don’t have much to say. Imagine a language that only has 20 words.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
They'd be able to do whatever an unintelligent animal of their kind could do with respect to communicating with other animals, of their own kind or otherwise.
I would say they dont at all remain capable of such.
Why?
Familiars.
If you take the familiars as an example, they remain animals of their kind, but quite literally require their master to reach lvl 7 before they can "Speak with animals of its kind".
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It depends on how you define “Speak”. While animals use noises to communication I don’t think they really communicate the way humans do. Probably they would be able to convey the equivalent to a single word. They would be able to warn others of danger, but not what the danger was. Abstract concepts would also be beyond their capability.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It will vary a lot depending on how social the type of animal is.
Most social animals should have “words” for food, danger and mate. Most mammals should have a word for mother. And almost everything else may just be a word for “stuff”.
There is no indication that animals have a language to speak, without magic getting involved.You’re joking right? Literally everything we know about animals says the noises they make are their methods of communicating with each other. Rattlesnakes make a rattle sound to alert predators that they are deadly. Wolves howl to alert the pack to potential prey. Hundreds of types of animals make unique noises to attract a mate. Do I need to keep going?
They may not be able to differentiate between a bunny and a rat with noises, but they can communicate with each other.
All living things are able to communicate with other living things that are the same species, even plants can communicate with each other. That being said it's a far cry from speaking. Don't believe me?
You know humans can communicate with other humans even when they don't share a common language. If you meet someone who doesn't speak your language you can gesture and make noises and can probably communicate basic ideas with that person. But it won't be anywhere near the level of communication you are able to accomplish if you actually spoke the same language as the other person.
|
There is no indication that animals have a language to speak, without magic getting involved.You’re joking right? Literally everything we know about animals says the noises they make are their methods of communicating with each other. Rattlesnakes make a rattle sound to alert predators that they are deadly. Wolves howl to alert the pack to potential prey. Hundreds of types of animals make unique noises to attract a mate. Do I need to keep going?
They may not be able to differentiate between a bunny and a rat with noises, but they can communicate with each other.
There is a world of difference between being able to put across simple things like alarm or mating calls and having the ability to communicate or having a language. There is still debate as to whether the really high levels of intelligence, the chimpanzees and dolphins, can express things to each other, let alone down at the lower levels.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Just keep in mind that without additional magic, the normal animals probably don’t have much to say. Imagine a language that only has 20 words.
Reminds me of Groot..
^Except that Groot's language has only 3 words (with a rarely-used option to swap 2 of them out for 2 other words).
They can probably communicate with members of their own species in the same way that they did before becoming able to speak, but I doubt it would be what we call conversation. It would be like an adult trying to communicate with a child who hasn't yet learned to speak more than a handful of words. Anyone who has ever attempted to figure out what it is that a two year old is so excited about knows how frustrating that kind of communication can be.
Pretty much every animal communicates, in ways that are analogous to the ways we communicate. Animals have been shown to reason and communicate non-concrete ideas. The complexity of language/communication is the most obvious thing here, and when you bring whalesongs into this.....
The rules don't reflect reality, duh. The question may not either. What does communication mean to you? What information are you considering is being conveyed. Is the Speak with Animals ability bringing in spiritual contact with species specific animal spirit guides to allow abstract and complex communication that the individual animal may not even be capable of thinking?
^You can extend that WELL beyond 1st and 2nd grade, into professional age . . . .
Given that we play our games in a FANTASY world, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that animals can communicate with each other in varied and interesting ways, in their own private language. This is really up to the DM to adjudicate and decide what he wants to have happen.
So, the only real answer is "ask your DM".
It seems reasonable to me to -at the very least- allow intelligent animals to communicate with other animals "of their own kind". And since an intelligent animal is going to get skill points at some time, why couldn't he spend points in linguistics to get other "kind" languages?
AFAIK, Pathfinder has never specified what intelligent animals can or cannot do in this regard. So I suspect there is no RAW answer.