Suggestions, Feedback & Bug Reports (OOC) > Module Feedback and Suggestions
Extra Language Feat (for Bards)
Inti:
I would like to make a suggestion/request for adding a feat for Bards allowing them to acquire additional 1-2 languages, to enhance their cultural/literary/linguistic RP. I would suggest a per-requisite of INT14 and perhaps a minimal CHA and lore skill too.
I'm quite open as to how this could be implemented and balanced and perhaps even made available to other classes, but the main point is that entertainment, lore and communication are all part of playing a Bard and the needed focus on CHA at expense of other stats often renders them rather limited in terms of learning extra languages.
I would welcome others' thoughts on this and on whether you think introducing such a feat would have a positive effect on RP and game balance.
William Roberts:
I like this suggestion:
* I wouldn't limit it to bards.
* I would make the INT requirement less because IRL many people who are not otherwise brilliant learn multiple languages at a rudimentary level. That is, they would be able to follow the kind of conversations we have in RP, although they might not be able to read or otherwise understand anything more complex. Perhaps 13 or even lower.
* Lore seems like a good skill to tie to it. How about taking the feat grants one extra language for every 5 (or 10?) points in base Lore skill?
Arawn:
Bards have no reason to have more languages than high-INT wizards. Languages are still regulated by capacity for learning. Afraid we'll be sticking with canon.
William Roberts:
--- Quote ---Bards have no reason to have more languages than high-INT wizards
--- End quote ---
That's a pretty sweeping statement that's tersely dismissive of all contrary opinions. Inti, in fact, gave a specific reason:
--- Quote ---[E]ntertainment, lore and communication are all part of playing a Bard and the needed focus on CHA at expense of other stats often renders them rather limited in terms of learning extra languages.
--- End quote ---
You may find the reason insufficient, but it's something to address, rather than be hand-waved away.
Personally, I'm not invested in this idea at all, as I've never felt limited in my RP by the current system. If sticking to canon is the justification for denying it, that's fine. I do prefer, however, looking for ways to say "yes" to new ideas and encouraging some creativity among the player base, rather finding any reason to dismiss them out of hand.
For that matter, if wizards are equivalent to scientists and bards are equivalent to writers and poets IRL, then I think there's quite a bit of reason to believe a facility for language would accrue more to the latter.
Polyglots are not necessarily at the high end of the bell curve in intelligence at all.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7754088:
--- Quote ---Polyglot and non-polyglot Italian subjects were given tests assessing verbal (phonological) and visuo-spatial short-term and long-term memory, general intelligence, and vocabulary knowledge in their native language. Polyglots had a superior level of performance in verbal short-term memory tasks (auditory digit span and nonword repetition) and in a paired-associate learning test, which assessed the subjects' ability to acquire new (Russian) words. By contrast, the two groups had comparable performance levels in tasks assessing general intelligence, visuo-spatial short-term memory and learning, and paired-associate learning of Italian words. These findings, which are in line with neuropsychological and developmental evidence, as well as with data from normal subjects, suggest a close relationship between the capacity of phonological memory and the acquisition of foreign languages.
--- End quote ---
At the end of the day, though, I think this is a neat idea that doesn't seem hard to implement. If it breaks canon, well, I guess forget it then.
FinalHeaven:
The added functionality of the language system has been quite neat, but it's always seemed very bizarre to me this stringent idea that we cannot have a feat or something to assist in gaining additional languages for no other reason than a persistent claim that it must be based on your intelligence modifier.
I think it's pretty silly to limit the ability to learn a new language through roleplay (and then acquire it through a feat/skillpoint purchase) on a roleplay server. Potm is the only server I've been on in 10 years of NWN that does such, and it's baffled me since the language system came out.
I personally think a feat would be great, or even a skill that could represent the knowledge of languages. I wouldn't necessarily limit it to Bards though.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version