D20 Mechanic: Languages

Here, we're going to discuss how languages work in Trinity in the d20 System. Heavy borrowing is being performed from here.

Basics

Table L-1: Language DCs
	Normal	Trade	Common	Basic
Simple Concepts	11	12	14	15
Involved Concepts	15	16	19	20
Intricate Concepts	20	21	25	26

In essence, the Speak Language skill is ridiculously easy to abuse, allowing a character to gain rapid proficiency with a huge number of languages for no good reason. Also, because language is supposed to be something of a barrier in Trinity (hence the existence of Trade and Common - and eventually Basic - languages), we need more intricate rules to handle the situation.

Table L-1: Language DCs indicates the common DCs for language-related tasks, based upon the "class" of language involved (Normal, Trade, Common, and Basic).

Note that there is a distinction made between being able to read and write a language, and being able to speak it. And just because someone will ask - telepathy counts as speech, and is therefore tied to Speak Language. You cannot take ranks in Read/Write Language if a language has no written form.

Language Task Difficulties

What follows is a list of skills and situations and an indication of how difficult they are, linguistically.

• Bluff (Speak)
  • If the target gets a -5 or +0 modifier, this requires simple understanding of the language.
  • If the target gets a +5 or higher modifier, this requires an involved understanding of the language.
• Diplomacy (Speak)
  • Diplomacy requires simple understanding of the language.
• Forgery (Read/Write)
  • Forgery requires simple understanding of the language. If you lack this, you suffer a -4 penalty to the Forgery check.
• Knowledge (Speak)
  • If the Knowledge DC was 10 to 15, imparting this information to another creature requires them to have simple understanding of your language.
  • If the DC was 16 to 24, imparting this information requires an involved understanding.
  • If the DC was 25 or more, imparting this information requires an intricate understanding.
• Sense Motive (Read/Write/Speak)
  • This requires simple understanding of the language.

Game Modifications

When you create a character, for each language you would normally gain, you instead gain 8 skill points, which you may divide amongst any number of Read/Write Language and Speak Language skills as you like. For purposes of this rules modification, Read/Write Language and Speak Language are considered class skills.

If you take your first character level as barbarian, you instead gain 4 skill points, and are prohibited from putting these skill points into Read/Write Language.

New Skills

Huzzah for new skills!

Read/Write Language (Int/Edu) [Trained Only]

When you take this skill, choose a single language. You can read and write in that language.

Check: You can try to read or write a single language. Like Craft, this is a meta-skill, representing several skills that all behave in a similar fashion. Each language is its own skill (Read Language (Quenya) and Read Language (Druidic) are two different skills).

Inject Jargon

If you have at least 5 ranks in a Knowledge skill, you can use field-specific terminology to obfuscate your language. If you do, increase the relative language complexity (normal, trade, common, basic) or the concept complexity (simple, involved, intricate) by one step; you cannot, however, use jargon to further obfuscate intricate concepts in basic tongues.

This option is stackable; that is, for every Knowledge skill you possess with at least 5 ranks, you can increase the complexity on either axis by one step.

Take 10: Yes, always. If you have at least 2 ranks in the language, you can also take 10 in combat.

Retry: If you are attempting to read a written text, you can retry that task by rereading the document. If you are writing, however, this skill functions more similarly to Forgery in terms of retry.

Synergy

• If you have 5 or more ranks in Read/Write Language for a language, you get a +2 bonus on checks involving documents being written in that language (mostly Forgery and Profession (scribe)).
• If you have 5 or more ranks in Read/Write Language for a language, you get a +2 bonus to Speak Language checks involving this language.
• If you have 5 or more ranks in Read/Write Language for a language, you get a +2 bonus to all Read Language involving languages of the same family, and languages that use the same script.
• If you have 5 or more ranks in Read/Write Language for a language, you get a +2 bonus on Decipher Script checks made on documents that use the same script.

Speak Language (Int/Edu)

When you take this skill, choose a single language. You can speak that language.

Check: You can try to speak or understand a single language. Like Craft, this is a meta-skill, representing several skills that all behave in a similar fashion. Each language is its own skill (Speak Language (Quenya) and Speak Language (Druidic) are two different skills).

Inject Jargon

If you have at least 5 ranks in a Knowledge skill, you can use field-specific terminology to obfuscate your language. If you do, increase the relative language complexity (normal, trade, common, basic) or the concept complexity (simple, involved, intricate) by one step; you cannot, however, use jargon to further obfuscate intricate concepts in basic tongues.

This option is stackable; that is, for every Knowledge skill you possess with at least 5 ranks, you can increase the complexity on either axis by one step.

Take 10: Yes, always. If you have at least 2 ranks in the language, you can also take 10 in combat.

Retry: No. Once you have spoken, you can't take back what you've said, and the speech of another creature is difficult to understand too long after it has been uttered.

Synergy

• If you have 5 or more ranks in Speak Language for a language, you get a +2 bonus on Bluff and Diplomacy checks made when using the language.
• If you have 5 or more ranks in Speak Language, you get a +2 bonus to Read/Write Language checks made for that language.
• If you have 5 or more ranks in Speak Language, you get a +2 bonus to all Speak Language checks with languages of the same family.