Post/Author/DateTime	Post
doublel 11-26-04, 03:57 PM	Should the comprehend languages spell be able to decipher Xendrik glyphs? Bythe rules it seems yes but that seems too easy given the mystery there's supposed to be around xendrik and makes Glyphbooks and the Decipher script skill pretty pointless. Any arguments why it shouldn't work? Or if I say Xendrik glyphs are a special case but want to mollify my players by allowing comprehend langauages give them a bonus on decipher script what would be reasonable +2, +4?
Gurv 11-26-04, 04:14 PM	I had thought of that myself. In a world with so many people who can cast comprehend language, why would this be such an issue? I haven't had it become an issue yet, so if there is an official answer, I still have time to use it. But I have another idea in mind if nothing official is forthcoming. In the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (highly recommended), there is a language known as High D'Haran that gives the main characters no end of trouble. See, unlike modern languages, many words and phrases in High D'Haran have more than once meaning, depending on how they are used. The language is such that you can actually have a single phrase mean two things, and have both of them be the correct one! This, combined with the fact that most of what the characters are trying to translate is infuratingly infailable prophecy, is part of what makes the series one of the best fantasy writing around. In my game, Xen'drik runes will be something like that. If you have a symbol that can mean Red, Angry, and Blood, then using a comprehend language spell isn't going to get you the whole way (although a bonus to Decipher Script checks does seem reasonable). You have to know more about it than that, because you have to understand how the words are strung together to know what each word mean.
polt 11-26-04, 05:05 PM	Well, i removed Tongues and Comprehend Languages from my game, since i don't like em :P They just ruin the DM: "the scrolls i written in an ancient and exotic langua..." PC1: "Oh, i can just use Comprehend Language, yay!"
EvilDrPuma 11-26-04, 10:31 PM	The text of comprehend languages says that the spell only allows the caster to comprehend the literal meaning of a speech or text, so it's possible that if the ancient form of Giant that the Xen'drik glyphs represent had multiple semantic layers, the spell would be limited (I like that idea, so I'm glad to see the spell description could be interpreted to make it work). It's also true that comprehend languages doesn't translate magical writing. The Xen'drik giants were supposedly potent spellcasters, so their writing might conceivably be an innately magical script on at least one semantic level, thus defeating the spell. Read magic might also have problems with such a script, allowing the caster to read only on the "magical level" of meaning, which might come out as nonsense if the writer was actually producing a mundane text.
doublel 11-29-04, 09:12 AM	I think what i'll do (inspired by a enworld story hour) is say that this example of xendrik scrypt at least has been encrypted, so all comprehend languages will give you is an apparently random set of letters. the players can then have a go IRL at deciphering the code or make a decipher script check.