I considered getting Undercommon, but it felt like metagaming too hard for something that made little sense for my character.
I knew most of my skills would involve summoning elementals and other creatures, so my languages your character has probably heard me use are Common, Ignan, Aquan, Terran, Auran, Aklo, Undercommon. I needed them so I could communicate to my summons, and after the elements, I took Aklo since it should cover anything remotely intelligent I summon since it covers "otherworldly creatures." Undercommon was because it had the word "Common" in it, so I figured since I had grabbed all the languages I needed, I might as well go with the next "Common" language.
I think Aklo is more if you want to summon the Lovecraft ripoffs (which I hope you won't.) Celestial and Infernal/Abyssal is probably more traditional for outer planes. I think, anyway. Despite the name, there aren't very many races that can choose Undercommon, Dwarf being the only base one afaik. It's amusing how many races can learn Draconic by comparison.
I've always wondered what the "Latin" of D&D settings are.
Joined: Sep 22, 2013 Posts: 11309 Location: Asleep at the wheel
Preferred Pronoun Set: SE / squinty / squints
I always assumed Celestial and Abyssal would be angelic and demonic creatures, and not the more common stuff that I'll have access to at lower levels. As far as a Latin equivalent, I always thought of Draconic as the base language that magic and other languages broke off from, but that's just me.
I more or less assume that all good outsiders speak Celestial, and evil ones speak either Abyssal or Infernal. I could probably dive into the monster manual to confirm it, but I'm not in the mood. From a rules standpoint, I think summon monster gives the template, raising the intelligence to 3, and defaulting to common as a language, but that's not very flavorful.
Joined: Sep 22, 2013 Posts: 11309 Location: Asleep at the wheel
Preferred Pronoun Set: SE / squinty / squints
Well, the rules say:
Paizo wrote:
This spell summons an extraplanar creature (typically an outsider, elemental, or magical beast native to another plane). It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn. It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability. If you can communicate with the creature, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions. The spell conjures one of the creatures from the 1st Level list on Table 10–1. You choose which kind of creature to summon, and you can choose a different one each time you cast the spell.
A summoned monster cannot summon or otherwise conjure another creature, nor can it use any teleportation or planar travel abilities. Creatures cannot be summoned into an environment that cannot support them. Creatures summoned using this spell cannot use spells or spell-like abilities that duplicate spells with expensive material components (such as wish).
When you use a summoning spell to summon a creature with an alignment or elemental subtype, it is a spell of that type. Creatures on Table 10–1 marked with an “*” are summoned with the celestial template, if you are good, and the fiendish template, if you are evil. If you are neutral, you may choose which template to apply to the creature. Creatures marked with an “*” always have an alignment that matches yours, regardless of their usual alignment. Summoning these creatures makes the summoning spell's type match your alignment.
So, it doesn't say I get to assign languages based on templates. But since that's not much of an answer, I went ahead and went through the entire Summon Monster options and did a list of all of the ones that have any form of speech.
Spoiler
Creature Type|Language(s) Elemental (Small)|Auran, Terran, Ignan or Aquan Dretch (demon)|Abyssal (cannot speak); telepathy 100 ft. (limited to Abyssal-speaking targets) Lantern archon|Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; truespeech Elemental (Medium)|Auran, Terran, Ignan or Aquan Hell hound|Infernal (cannot speak) Hound archon|Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; truespeech Mephit (any)|Common, one appropriate elemental language (Aquan, Auran, Ignan, or Terran) Babau (demon)|Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic; telepathy 100 ft. Bearded devil|Celestial, Common, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft. Bralani azata|Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; truespeech Elemental (Large)|Auran, Terran, Ignan or Aquan Kyton|Common, Infernal Salamander|Common, Ignan Xill|Common, Infernal Elemental (Huge)|Auran, Terran, Ignan or Aquan Erinyes (devil)|Celestial, Common, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft. Invisible stalker|Auran, Common Lillend azata|Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; truespeech Shadow demon|Abyssal, Common; telepathy 100 ft. Succubus (demon)|Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Draconic; tongues, telepathy 100 ft. Bebelith|Abyssal (cannot speak); telepathy 100 ft. Bone devil|Celestial, Common, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft. Elemental (greater)|Auran, Terran, Ignan or Aquan Vrock (demon)|Abyssal, Celestial, Common; telepathy 100 ft. Barbed devil|Celestial, Common, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft. Elemental (elder)|Auran, Terran, Ignan or Aquan Hezrou (demon)|Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic; telepathy 100 ft. Astral Deva (angel)|Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; truespeech Ghaele azata|Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; truespeech Glabrezu (demon)|Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic; telepathy 100 ft. Ice devil|Celestial, Common, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft. Nalfeshnee (demon)|Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic; telepathy 100 ft. Trumpet archon|Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; truespeech
So it seems few can actually understand any commands besides elementals, demons, devils, angels and a few other miscellaneous ones. So, I shouldn't really be able to command anything besides my elementals for a while. So, Tequila, guess once I summon stuff you'll have to control them entirely unless I can ask them for things. Well, at least we now have a handy chart....
Huh, interesting. In 3.5, Celestial and Fiendish creatures had a minimum intelligence of 3, and there's some rule somewhere stating that int 3+ creatures can speak at least one language. But it seems that the templates in Pathfinder don't make the creatures smarter.
Might be a little slower on the updates for a week or two tops, but I'll still be running it. I'm getting another one for Christmas, and I'll be attempting to fix the broken one over the next few days.
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"Any time doing the right thing is funny as hell, it's probably Chaotic Good."
Also, Mown, I've noticed you mentioned the forks twice as "tunnels". To clarify, they're just paths of flattened stone within a humongous cave dome. The walls and ceiling are an indeterminable distance away, aside from the wall featuring the tunnel you came through.
I also drew a crude map, because... Because I could, I guess.
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"Any time doing the right thing is funny as hell, it's probably Chaotic Good."
Joined: Oct 30, 2013 Posts: 7305 Location: England
So somethings been bothering me. What, exactly is the current illumination in this cavern like? Is it just my Ioun Torch and Squintys bugs? I ask only because if that's the case we can all see the lights approaching in the distance right? They would stand out like a sore thumb if this place was otherwise dark.
Just wanted to check before I made an IC post.
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Welcome! I'm Garren and I'll be your designated villain for the evening.
Anyway, apologies in advance if I butcher the English language. I am venturing into uncharted territory.
No worries, your roleplay has been the most entertaining so far. I think both Garren and I are working on fleshing out how our characters really interact, where as you seem to have jumped right into your character with no hesitation. It's really well done.
When in doubt, always exaggerate your personality. My plans won't come to fruition unless I shove them in everyone's face. Even then it might not work, but such is the exciting nature of social interaction. Helps that his personality has some easy latch points. Stuff like "righteous" or "bold" has very few situations it can shine, while things like "quirky" or "scheming" is incrediby difficult to pull off well.
We'll see, I suppose. I'm looking forward to it. The biggest problem is that I don't know how to start the whole thing.
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