Players' Guide - Recommended Languages (spoilers)

[Paul Zagieboylo]

In the Players' Guide for Kingmaker, it recommends Aklo and Iruxi as suggested languages for players to take. As far as I can tell, these two languages are not used at all, anywhere; not a single NPC in the entire adventure speaks either. Necril is pretty marginal too, useful only against Vordekai and his minions. Two of my players fell for these lies before I realized enough to stop them. Am I missing something critical, or should I ask my players to retroactively change these, hopefully to something more useful?

[Rysky]

Aklo is the language for weird things and evil fey, which there are plenty in Kingmaker, and Iruxi aka Lizardfolk are also in there.

[Paul Zagieboylo]

All right, I missed the fact that most of the evil fey speak Aklo. Still, almost everything in this book that speaks Aklo also speaks Sylvan, so if the PCs are worried about communicating with something, Sylvan is the way to go.

The only iruxi I can find in the entire book are in the village on the Isle of the Lizard King, which I guess I had also missed. They also all speak Draconic, although I'm not totally sure why.

But thanks, you've convinced me enough that I won't bother making my players change it. I'll give them a scroll of comprehend language or something so they can understand Garuum, whom they'll trip over relatively soon here, although they won't actually be able to talk with him because comprehend language is only one-way at 2nd rank. That might be even more fun to make them roleplay!

[James Jacobs]

When I prepare this section of any Player's Guide, I'll search the ENTIRE adventure document for all of the languages and rank them according to the times they come up in a spreadsheet so I can make recommendations. If a specific language is particularly important but doesn't show up much, it'll get ranked higher.

I included iruxi specifically for that island of them; that settlement can play out VERY differently if you can talk to the dwellers there.

Aklo in particular plays out pretty significantly in one of the new chapters of the adventure path near the end.

Creatures that speak multiple languages get ALL of their languages pinged, because I can't predict which of those your group might favor.

In the end, YOU as the GM are the best voice of advice for your group. If you feel that, say, suggesting Necril is a lie, let your players know that it's not actually a great choice, but then when they DO encounter areas in the adventure where it would have been helpful to speak Necril, you run the risk of your players thinking you tricked them!

[Paul Zagieboylo]

I suspected that's how the Players' Guide was constructed, and that seems like a perfectly reasonable way to do it. Fortunately none of my players picked Necril (because, you know, undead), and the one who picked Iruxi (a very language-dependent bard) will appreciate the Lizard King plotline when it comes up. I had just managed to flip past that when I was looking the first time!

[SpaceDrake]

Also, with a campaign like KM, it's also not *that* hard to slip in some extra encounters or situations where a specific language might come up; there are a fair few iruxi living in the Stolen Lands, and it can be handy to speak with all the ones that might come up!