Post/Author/DateTime	Post
mercurywyrm 03-12-04, 01:14 AM	To represent a less literate campaign world, make literacy a feat or skill that only wizards and bards and cloistered clerics get for free (decide which classes carefully). Then make literacy require another rank in know language (targeted at that language) or make them take literacy feat. Literacy You are a literate character Benifit You know how to read and write every language you can speak.
Vanigo 03-12-04, 01:49 AM	Hmm. Interesting idea, but most campaign worlds already have a large percentage of illiterate people, since most people are commoners and commoners aren't automatically literate. (At least I'm pretty sure they aren't...) Anyway, if you do decide to go with something like this, you should have it work just like the barbarian: 2 skill points for literacy in every language you speak.
Greyman 03-12-04, 03:02 AM	Only Barbarians are illiterate by the core rules.  Otherwise, if you've got an intelligence of three or greater and can speak a language, you're automatically litterate.  I've never liked that. d20 Modern, at least, has a Read/Write Language skill.  I use that - making it a class skill for Bards (but not Savage Bards), Clerics, and Wizards.  This works just like the Speak Language skill, but you don't have to speak a language to read it, nor be able to read a language to speak it. (Druids are automatically able to Read/Write Druidic, and no other character class can learn the script.) You do not need to know how to read any language to use magic scrolls.  If you can cast Read Magic (or fake it with UMD), you can use a scroll, and if you have the Scribe Scroll feat, you can write one.
Vanigo 03-12-04, 04:30 PM	Originally posted by Greyman (Druids are automatically able to Read/Write Druidic, and no other character class can learn the script.) No other core class, true, but a loremaster can take any language as a bonus language at fourth and eigth level, including druidic and other secret languages.
JohnSnow 03-12-04, 08:34 PM	Actually, for a slightly grittier feel you can make literacy (and Speak language) a skill with ranks representing fluency. You can even separate reading and writing into separate skills (which they were in medieval times). The Kingdoms of Kalamar Player's Guide from Kenzer & Company has a very nice rule set for doing this. There's lots of good crunchiness in that book. Hmmm..Kalamar + Unearthed Arcana = :drool: Me LIKEY!! :love:
Tantalus911 03-13-04, 01:26 PM	Hey, actually Loremaster can't learn Druidic, it says he/she can learn any language but a secret language, and specifically labels druidic in unable.
Vanigo 03-13-04, 02:48 PM	Originally posted by Tantalus911 Hey, actually Loremaster can't learn Druidic, it says he/she can learn any language but a secret language, and specifically labels druidic in unable. Uh, what are you talking about? The description of the ability is as follows: Bonus Languages: Loremasters, in their laborious studies, learn new languages in order to access more knowledge. A loremaster can choose any new language at 4th and 8th level. Note the complete absence of an "except for secret languages, such as druidic" clause. Not one word of this ability changed between 3.0 and 3.5, so you must be thinking of some other language-gaining ability.
Gestalt_Commoner 03-13-04, 03:07 PM	hrm mebe 4 ur gaem but in mi gaem we paly a poletecal campaan so reedng & writeng is veeri immportent! good idee thou heehee
Bifford 03-13-04, 03:13 PM	You know how to read and write every language you can speak. What about languages that use a different script? Take English and Chinese, for example.
The White Sorcerer 03-13-04, 04:20 PM	Originally posted by Bifford What about languages that use a different script? Take English and Chinese, for example. If a D&D non-barbarian character could speak English and Chinese, then he could also read/write English and Chinese, using the correct script (roma-ji for English, whateveritiscalled for Chinese).