Linguistics - The Skill 5e Forgot
L
anguages are a living thing. They evolve,
mutate, mix and diverge.
People fluent in multiple languages find it
easier to learn or pickup words in new
languages.
Some languages share a common alphabet,
vocabulary, syntax, grammar.
Spending a short time surrounded by people who speak a
forgein tongue, will allow most people to acquire some basic
understanding of the language, and, this knowledge will be
perishable quickly if not practiced.
Nothing of this is covered in the standard D&D 5e
Languages rules and while there is the Comprehend
Languages spell (PHB 224), handling multi-lingual
encounters / events without it - often feels too binary (you
either know or don't know the language).
Why do you need it?
Because you feel that without magical means, PCs can
attempt to gain partial understanding of languages they might
not know or have picked up at character creation / levelling
up.
And because you welcome a more non-binary (success/fail)
approach to handling conversations and correspondence in
your campaign
The Party camps out in a large empty cave, after
noticing one cave wall is riddled with strange
markings / runes...
DM: "On a closer look, the strange markings on
the wall appear to be some text paragraph in some
unfamiliar alphabet."
PC: "Before I go to sleep, I will spend an hour or
two studying it by the campfire light, taking notes
of my research (I have ink pen and parchment)"
DM: "Cool. Make a Linguistics roll with
advantage (for the time taken and the fact you are
writing it down)"
PC: "Errr... I don't have Linguistics on my
character sheet"
Rolling for Linguistics?
Ability modifier (Wisdom)
+
Proficiency modifier (see below)
+
Expertise modifier (see below)
Ability Modifier
WIS, not INT. Why?
It has been my experience, traveling the world, that street
urchins and beggars of zero education but lots of street-
smarts and common sense - speak a plethora of languages
(basically all the tongues of the tourists that visit there) - way
more than most academia established professors (for the
most part). For me, that means languages is more Wisdom
based than Intelligence.
I can see arguments to the other side - at the end of the day,
go with what seems right to your campaign.
Proficiency Modifier
Chances are, none of your party PCs is proficient in this, as
they didn't know it was an option to choose. But they can gain
proficiency in it when they level up and get a chance to take
another skill proficiency. PCs proficient in linguistics, have an
above average knack / knowhow / background experience
with studying multiple, foreign languages.
You might consider giving this proficiency for "free" to one
or more PCs, if it seems to be "right up their alley" with their
background / character design.
Expertise Modifier
A person who speaks several languages, find it easier to learn
more new languages. Again, this is something from my
experience and I want this represented in the game. For
every known language, except their native one, a PC gets +1
to their Linguistics roll.
+1 per known language -1
Example: A Dwarf/Rogue PC speaking Common, Dwarf,
Undercommon, and Thieve's Cant - would get a +4 (+5 for
total languages, -1 for their native Dwarf tongue).
And yes, I would include Thieves Cant, Druidic and
everything you consider to be a "real language" in your
campaign world.
Setting Linguistics DCs
As always, setting the DC is mostly about gauging the right
difficulty level. Contextual modifiers apply here as usual of
course (how much time is spent? are there interruptions?
visibility / audability optimal or subpar?). In addition to these,
try to consider modifiers based on the source language's
familiarity / foreignness to the languages the PC already
knows.
Example: So a PC who speaks Sylvan but not Elvish, might
benefit a modifier bonus when attempting to decipher an
Elvish text, as, in our campaign, Elvish is derived from
Sylvan.
Oral vs. written Linguistics
While a written text is usually there to be examined
thoroughly and carefully, it offers no clues as to intonation,
context, sarcasm, emotion,etc...
On the other hand, being present in a conversation (seeing
and hearing), does offer a whole lot more context. Even heard
only phrases may betray intonation, urgency, fear, etc.
Convestions, though, are heard / perceived only once - and
then go into the realm of memory.
Considering the above, it is my feeling that neither should
be easier / harder to decipher using Linguistic rolls. Once
more, this will usually be determined contextually, at the
session, at the given encounter.
An insight roll (At disadvantage) might be a better way to
gauge emotions (fear, urgency, etc.) of someone crying in the
dark in an unknown language, than a Linguistics roll.
Eavesdropping on a bugbear hunting pack w/o knowing
Bugbear, however, may be a good case for a Linguistics roll.
Variant: Open Linguistics Rolls
The open roll is a riff on some older D&D edition mechanic (I
don't recall which now), that may apply to many proficiency /
skill checks, but I will describe how to use it with Linguistics.
The PC rolls his D20 and adds their modifier as usual, but
instead of overcoming a DC, they count "successes", where
each success is worth 5. This basically means:
1d20 + all modifiers / 5 rounded down.
The more successes netted, the better understanding of the
text heard / read.
Result Successes DM Interpretation / Ruling
1-4 0 Total failure - nothing perceived /
understood
5-9 1 Mostly failed, some minor hint or
revelation (here's a vowel)
10- 2 Near success. PC gain 25%-50%
14 understanding of the text
15- 3 Partial Success. PC gains 50%-75%
19 understanding of the text
20- 4 Success. PC gains 75%-90%
24 understanding of the text
25+ 5+ Complete success. PC gain 90%-100%
understanding of the text
Note: a natural 20 is just a 20 in an open roll. no auto-
success
Linguistics and Cyphers
Often times in a D&D adventure, thep players will encounter
unfamiliar texts as puzzle handouts - the idea being the
players have to use their own brains to decypher the text,
rather than just have their PCs roll for everything. You can
decide to augment these puzzles with Linguistics checks,
especially if the players are having a hard time. A good roll
may provide some vowels, letters, or reveal a specific word.
Other Notes
There are a lot more ways you can expand and extend
languages and linguistics in your gameworld, if this adds a
value to you and your players
Consider creating a basic "ancestry tree" for your
campaign's languages
Spend some time pondering:
which languages came first?
which languages derive from which?
Consider how much slang and local dialects your
campaign's main languages has?
Consider unique words in your world, that might permeate
several languages. For instance, decide that the word
Dragon / Drake is used in all languages similarly (sort of
like we use the word "internet" in most languages in our
world)
Consider crafting a list of common greetings, farewells,
swear words and exclamations. Some words (dor instance
"mofo") become so well known they transcend language
and may be used uttered or recognized in many tongues...
Comprehend Languages
This spell, let's the caster full knowledge of any language they
see or hear (written texts require touch range).
Using Linguistics in a party where members have access to
this spell should not be problematic. Keep using the spell as
is - meaning no Linguistics rolls are required when dealing
with languages while under the spell effect. Linguistics
should come into play whenever you deal with languages
without arcane or divine power.
Art Credits
Photo 1: "Distracted Bard" by HolyVarus
Photo 2: "The Alchemist" by Rodrigo Ramos