Class languages


  • ICC

    I want to know more about the rules on class languages. The wiki states that druids know druidic when they start but that thieves need to learn thieves cant.

    What I want to know is does a cleric know the clerical language of his/her deity just as druids know druidic?


  • ICC

    Okay thank you for clarification.



  • I personally think that the reasoning behnid clerics not instantly knowing their deities language is akin to real life reasoning. Catholic Preists as example, a few know how to speak and read Latin, while the rest know the common phrases and such, which I can see easily mirrored in FR, with your dwarf instantly knowing the common phrases of Mordain heard in the church, but requiring lots of study and whatnot to know it fluently.



  • From what I understand:

    Druidic is more of a class power than just a language. So much so that druids who fall can't speak it. (Note: Teaching it to non-druids is forbidden, will cause fallen tokens.)

    Other languages that classes have access to (such as Draconic, Abyssal, Infernal, Celestial, or Thieves' Cant) are like normal languages and would need to be learned as such. The bonus for the classes (cleric, wizard, rogue) in this case is that they have access to learn those languages at the start where as others do not.



  • Never really understood the language bit myself, to be honest.

    I've always thought it was probably something wise to settle right at the beginning with one's characters, but somehow, I've never got round to it.

    Leaving my poor PCs, like myself, linguistic dunces for the main.


  • ICC

    I am not sure there that is why I asked. The wiki states that a druid can speak druidic without spending any points in it (be it the INT modifier or 2
    skill points). If we assume they can do it because of their lifestyle then I
    assume that a cleric should be also able to speak the clerical language of the pantheon he follows (at least if the pantheon fits to the race and/or the alphabets are the same).

    Let me point that out to make it clearer:

    My dwarven cleric Dolinar speaks dwarven and is a cleric of Berronar Truesilver since he is a young man (raised up by clerics of Truesilver and Moradin). He never learned something else than that what the clergy teached him (means he is not multiclassed).

    The clerical language of the dwarven pantheon is Mordain which is a language based on the Dethek alphabet like dwarvish.

    I do not see why a cleric which had not another class before he became a cleric should not know the fitting language automatic like druids do. I mean folks do not get born as druids they get raised up by druids or if not so they somewhen in their life meet other druids in their live which teach them. Just like clerics…

    Further I assume that the language spoken at temples/shrines etc. amongst the clergy itself is also the deities one while speeches to the folks may be held in the racial language. And what I ask meself right now is how does a cleric ask his god for blessings? In the racial language or in his clerical language (which would make much more sense to me)?

    I hope a DM can clear this and I'am sorry to ask that much but I am not very familar with the PnP game and like to know these things.



  • I would have to say no. If a cleric, just like every other non-specified class wanted to be able to speak an extra language, you'll need intelligence modifiers. I also think that a language choice based on religion is a little different than a language choice based on lifestyle, which is what Thieves Cant and Druidic are.