This may sound dumb, but I can't find it anywhere. I think it's equal to your INT modifier, is that true? That seems like an awful lot.
It may be mentioned elsewhere, but it is definitely listed at the beginning of character creation where it discusses the ability scores, specifically under Intelligence:
"The number of bonus languages your character knows at the start of the game. These are in addition to any starting racial languages and Common. If you have a penalty, you can still read and speak your racial languages unless your Intelligence is lower than 3."
Ability Scores Scroll down to Int and it's what DeathlessOne quoted. Although, sometimes it's listed in the Class as well, such as Wizard/Druid.
It is Common + Racial/Class Language(s) + Int Mod.
You can also start the game with an additional language by putting 1 rank in Linguistics.
Bonus languages equal to starting Int Mod isn't really very much. Most PCs don't start with an Int more than 12, and even Alchemists, Investigators and Magi probably won't beat 16. IMC, there's only one PC with more than 12.
In many countries on Earth, speaking more than one language is normal. I learned 5 at school, if you include Latin and Greek.
Slight derail; but do you gain languages retroactively the same way you gain skill points when your Int mod goes up? I don't think so, but I honestly can't recall.
yes, you also gain a language each time you spend a point in linguistics.
Bonus languages equal to starting Int Mod isn't really very much. Most PCs don't start with an Int more than 12, and even Alchemists, Investigators and Magi probably won't beat 16. IMC, there's only one PC with more than 12.
In many countries on Earth, speaking more than one language is normal. I learned 5 at school, if you include Latin and Greek.
Wizards in my group have a INT of 20 typically. but YMMV
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Languages in the real world are - different than in a PFS.
I have a friend who has two (adopted) Chinese daughters - neither of them speak Chinese (one only speaks English, the other maybe some Spanish?). Most people can tell at a glance what their ethnicity is (at least they can tell they are east Asian), but no one speaks to them in Chinese (at least not more than once or twice).
I have worked with a man who was half Russian and half Polish.... and could speak English and a little Spanish - but no Russian or Polish.
My wife speaks fluent Brazilian Portuguese (and American English) - but her parents are from Colorado and Mississippi. (She grew up in Brazil though...) Fluent in Portuguese means she can often understand someone who speaks Spanish...
I could easily see a PC who is a Qadiran half-orc who speaks Common and Kellish and not a word of Orc.... for that matter I could believe in a Talden Half-Elf that spoke only Common and nothing else....
Joke time!
What do you call a PC who speaks three languages?
answer:
What do you all a PC who speaks two languages?
answer:
What do you call a PC who speaks only one language?
answer:
I think the starting languages are fine. As others have said, the only classes that are likely to get more than one bonus language at level 1 ate likely INT-based classes, and most of them spend a lot of time with books.
Another thing is that Paizo doesn' really do "half-learned" languages. You either speak/read them fluently or not at all. This is just because the system isn't great at handling these subtleties. Wizards, Magi etc arr probably learning Draconoc/Infernal/Sylvan/etc in order to read ancient magic tomes, not to speak it at the pub. It'd be more like how academics learn latin or ancient greek ... except as I stated the game doesn't handle that very well.
As I said, even a 20 INT Wizard is only going to know ~7 languages at level 1. That's perfectly doable. Where it gets weird is learning languages as you level up. It's not hard to fluently speak upwards of 20 languages by level 10 - for perspective the head translator for the UN speaks 12 languages.
This may sound dumb, but I can't find it anywhere. I think it's equal to your INT modifier, is that true? That seems like an awful lot.
I have to wonder if there was some confusion between your INT modifier and your INT score. The INT modifier isn't usually very many languages in my opinion.
A "half-learned" language could be thought of as whenever you fail your Linguistics d20 roll. If you roll a 1 on Linguistics and you accidentally translate a sign that says "Beware the Dire Octopus, for it is always hungry and thinks you taste good with ketchup" as "The Dire Octopus will be nice to you if you feed it Salmon", then this failed roll can represent your *snoozing in class* on the day when the teacher explained the subtle differences between ketchup/salmon and hungry/feed.
And there are all kinds of languages that have similarly spelled words that if mistranslated or mispronounced can be catastrophic. When I was stationed in Japan, the first Japanese words I learned were the difference between Kawaī and Kowai. One means Cute, and the other means Scary, and when you're going out to meet girls, mispronouncing Kawaī as Kowai after you've had a few drinks can result in you going home by yourself.
Another thing is that Paizo doesn' really do "half-learned" languages. You either speak/read them fluently or not at all. This is just because the system isn't great at handling these subtleties. Wizards, Magi etc arr probably learning Draconoc/Infernal/Sylvan/etc in order to read ancient magic tomes, not to speak it at the pub. It'd be more like how academics learn latin or ancient greek ... except as I stated the game doesn't handle that very well.
I liked how Shadowrun handled it. Basically language were some kind of skills with skill ranks and character's had their social skill rank capped by their language skills when dealing in a language they weren't condired native speaker. IIRC it was possible to get to a character to a high level of fluency enough that they were treated has native speaker.
I'm not sure how i'd do that in pathfinder. I'm also not sure if it would be worth the hassle.
I'm not sure how i'd do that in pathfinder. I'm also not sure if it would be worth the hassle.
Yeah, Language barriers become moot as soon as you get your first Wand of Comprehend Languages /shrug.
In many countries on Earth, speaking more than one language is normal. I learned 5 at school, if you include Latin and Greek.
Most counties on Earth = Europe… where most of the population are traveling between counties two or three times a year, and constantly exposed to two or three other languages… travel into Asia and exposure to multiple languages shrinks as the average size of a country increases, the oriental pennensula has the greatest mosh pit of languages, but isolationist policies result in most of the population knowing only one or two languages. Go to Africa and you find the majority of the continent speaks only one of three languages, with isolated civilizations that speak wildly different languages. Cross the ocean to Australia and each island speaks a different language with little to no crossover. Jump to the other side of the world to the Americas and you have a similar situation as in Asia, the larger countries have a majority population that only speaks one language, and the higher density of different smaller countries either all share a single language or simply don’t interact with each other enough for it to matter for citizens to be multilingual, and heavy similarities in languages make communication less problematic when they do interact.
If we were to look at a pathfinder game in an earth setting, then characters from Europe would almost always have ranks in linguistics. Races with alternate racial traits that grant them increased languages per rank in linguistics would be common place in Europe as well.
Yeah, Language barriers become moot as soon as you get your first Wand of Comprehend Languages /shrug.
Ugh, Don't remind me lol, that's a big pet peeve of mine. Ancient forgotten language of past era that would involve a quest around figuring a way to translate it? Nope, we can't have those. Any 1st level adept can literally translate anything.
Sure there's way around it, but still. Anyway /rant.
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Yeah, Language barriers become moot as soon as you get your first Wand of Comprehend Languages /shrug.Ugh, Don't remind me lol, that's a big pet peeve of mine. Ancient forgotten language of past era that would involve a quest around figuring a way to translate it? Nope, we can't have those. Any 1st level adept can literally translate anything.
Sure there's way around it, but still. Anyway /rant.
Easy to understand someone else, hard to BE understood.
NPC "What business does an Elf, a Man, and a Dwarf have in the Riddermark? Speak quickly!"
PC#1 "Fine, this guy wants to know why we are on his land - so we just tell him that we're chasing the Orcs..."
PC#2 "Ah - anyone here speak his language?"
PC#3 "I got Black Speech and... Orc, Dwarf and Common."
PC#2 "I can add Elf and Troll... "
PC#1 Eyeing ring of lance tips - "I think we should skip most of those.... anyone good with hand jesters? Gimli, don't say anything!"
Comp. Lang works fine for reading old inscriptions, and maybe even for eavesdropping on the orcs, but ... not so good for actual two way communication.
PC#2 "No problemo! I got this, I'll just cast Share Language on this dude, so he can speak Common too... "
PC#1 Still eyeing the ring of lance tips - "Eh - maybe not. I'm not sure how kindly his friends will take you casting a spell on him and he suddenly develops the ability to speak something he couldn't just a few minutes ago..."
The biggest need to know multiple languages in PF1 is so you may possibly affect the largest audience with language-dependent effects.
Yeah, most int based casters are going to have 18 if not 20 int at level 1.Wizards in my group have a INT of 20 typically. but YMMVBonus languages equal to starting Int Mod isn't really very much. Most PCs don't start with an Int more than 12, and even Alchemists, Investigators and Magi probably won't beat 16. IMC, there's only one PC with more than 12.
In many countries on Earth, speaking more than one language is normal. I learned 5 at school, if you include Latin and Greek.
Pure 9-casters like wizards, witches and psychics, yes. But not 4- or 6-casters who aren't so SAD. And it's pretty hard to start with a 20 (or even 18) on a 15-point buy, which is the standard the rule was written for.
Pure 9-casters like wizards, witches and psychics, yes. But not 4- or 6-casters who aren't so SAD. And it's pretty hard to start with a 20 (or even 18) on a 15-point buy, which is the standard the rule was written for.Yeah, most int based casters are going to have 18 if not 20 int at level 1.Wizards in my group have a INT of 20 typically. but YMMVBonus languages equal to starting Int Mod isn't really very much. Most PCs don't start with an Int more than 12, and even Alchemists, Investigators and Magi probably won't beat 16. IMC, there's only one PC with more than 12.
In many countries on Earth, speaking more than one language is normal. I learned 5 at school, if you include Latin and Greek.
*shudder* 15 point buy. I can't imagine getting ANY good stat spreads on 15 points. I can barely get decent ones with 20 points sometimes.