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5e Homebrew

Languages

* Modified: *

The standard Racial languages are removed along with Race. Instead, there are languages for each Culture which, in turn, are derived from “root” languages connected to the various Ancestries and ancestral realms. Those sharing a root language can get by with communicating most ideas that are not tied to culture or cultural artifacts, even though the cultural dialects are different. Subtleties such as wordplay or poetry, however, will often be lost without a shared dialect, as could language describing a particular region, its inhabitants, or its history.

Mechanically, this means Disadvantage may apply to a skill check involving communication without a shared dialect. Examples include Persuasion, Deception, Investigation, History, or Performance. The new Cosmopolitan Feat can help to mitigate in these situations.

Root Languages

  • Primal (Prime Material Plane) - this is essentially the Common tongue of the world
  • Fey (Feywild)
  • Beast Speech (Beastlands)
  • Perennial (Perennial Realm)
  • Elemental (Elemental Planes)
  • Planar (Outer Planes)

Dialects

  • There exists a dialect for every Culture.
  • Each of these dialects will be given a name by either the Player or DM, usually the name of the Culture. For example, rather than saying, “My character speaks Warrior-Merchant (Primal) dialect of the Barony of Blackskye,” they would instead say, “My character speaks Blackskye(Primal)“.

Starting Languages

All Player Characters start knowing two languages:

  • All PCs know their Culture(Primal) dialect. Even if the Culture is primarily of an other-than-Human Ancestry, they will have their own way to speak the “common tongue” of the world colored by their culture. NPCs of the culture may or may not speak a Primal version/dialect of their Cultural language.
  • Characters with only Human may choose an additional Cultural Dialect(Primal), likely a nearby Culture.
  • Characters with only Feyborn Ancestry know the Cultural Dialect(Fey) of their Culture.
  • Characters with only Beast Kin Ancestry know the Cultural Dialect(Beast Speech) of their Culture.
  • Characters with only Plant Kin Ancestry know the Cultural Dialect(Perennial) of their Culture.
  • Characters with only Elemental Kin Ancestry know the Cultural Dialect(Elemental) of their Culture.
  • Characters with only Scion Ancestry know the Cultural Dialect(Planar) of their Culture.
  • Characters with only Dragonborn Ancestry know the Dragon(Primal) dialect.
  • Characters with more than one Ancestry choose one of the Cultural Dialect(Root) languages of one of their Ancestries (likely that which is dominant).
  • Cultures/languages known to the PCs in my home game.