Learning a Language

Comprehension Checks

A creature which has some experience with a language, but is not fluent in the language, can make an Intelligence check to attempt to understand what is written or being said in a language that it only partially understands.

Spoken Comprehension Difficulty

DC Description 5 The conversation is deliberately careful and slow. 10 Normal conversation. 15 Fast, accented, or obscure conversation. 20 Ancient dialects or multiple simultaneous speakers.

Written Comprehension Difficulty

DC Description 5 Clear and common runes for short messages. 10 Normal writing. 15 Sloppy, error-prone, or obscure writing. 20 Ancient dialects, rare, or complex writing.

Language Fluency

Instead of simply being fluent in a language or not being fluent, proficiency in language is split into 6 levels as shown on the graph below (ref).

Language Fluency

Fluency Description Comprehension Checks 0 Language not known. Cannot make checks. 1 Novice speaker. -15 Penalty 2 Limited speaker. -10 Penalty 3 Familiar speaker. -5 Penalty 4 Experienced speaker. No Penalty. 5 Fluent speaker. Automatically succeed.

Training a Language

Over the course of several weeks of focused lessons or continual exposure, such as living in a settlement where this is the dominant language, a character may begin to partially understand a language.

Gaining 1 fluency level in an unknown language takes a number of weeks equal to the level gained.

Having explicit language lessons from a tutor as well as common exposure allows you to reduce the time taken to gain a fluency level by half. To learn an exotic language takes twice the normal amount of time as a standard language.

Optional: Illiteracy and Illinguancy

If you wish to allow characters to be able to read/write a language without being able to understand it or vice versa, then divide the total time required to gain a fluency level in half for only learning to read/write or speak it.

Denoting Fluency:

An elf with limited understanding of draconic and gnomish could denote their language proficiencies with the following notation:



Common, Elvish, Draconic (3), Gnomish (2)