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Eldpollard
2007-04-10, 04:02 PM
If you teach anyone druidic you lose your druidic status. But what if you take a level in wizard and choose a raven as your familiar, which you can teach one language you know. If you teach the raven druidic would you have to attone? Just something I've been pondering.

Stevenson
2007-04-10, 04:14 PM
Yup. That's teaching someone who isn't you the language. But I always thought that that rule was kinda hokey. How does anybody learn druidic then?

squishycube
2007-04-10, 04:16 PM
Asking makes you dumb, reading makes you wise

Druids are forbidden to teach this language to nondruids
To answer the original question: The familiar is considered a part of you for many purposes. I'd say this would count. (It makes sense to me for a druid/wizard to speak druidic to his raven companion)

Grr
2007-04-10, 04:18 PM
Obviously some druid somewhere has taught a non-druid at some point... who could have in turn taught others the language as well. A secret language no one can learn unless they're a specific class is pretty stupid.

Ranis
2007-04-10, 04:21 PM
Cast Awaken on said raven and have it take a level in Druid, now it's kosher.

Latronis
2007-04-10, 04:35 PM
Cast Awaken on said raven and have it take a level in Druid, now it's kosher.

But then you need to go find yourself a new familiar so that kinda defeats the purpose of it

Kel_Arath
2007-04-10, 04:38 PM
ooh! i know. dont "teach" it a language, but write it down and leave the book open in front of it all the time!

Kultrum
2007-04-10, 04:43 PM
hmm... well it only says can speak a language of the casters choice, it never says you teach it to them, and because this is just for neat's sake I condone the loose interpretation of the rules

Eldpollard
2007-04-10, 04:48 PM
I'd say the familiar is a part of you anyway. If a DM was to punish you for it, they would be extremely harsh.

Bag_of_Holding
2007-04-10, 04:49 PM
I remember a Dragonshard article where it briefly mentioned the language of Druidic.


Dragonshards--Druids of Khorvaire, Part One
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ebds/20051017a
Druidic is not a normal language. You don't learn Druidic in the same way that you'd study Sylvan, and even if you know it, you can't teach it to a friend any more than you could teach her to cast detect snares and pits. As you master your first level of druid, you learn many magical mysteries. You learn how to speak with animals, how to calm them, and how to hide from them. You unlock the secrets of fire. You learn to mend flesh with a touch, and how to ask the plants to entangle and trap your enemies. These are just a few of your secrets, and the Druidic tongue is another. Many druids believe that it is the first language -- the primal language of Eberron herself.

This certainly explains a lot.

Aquillion
2007-04-10, 04:51 PM
hmm... well it only says can speak a language of the casters choice, it never says you teach it to them, and because this is just for neat's sake I condone the loose interpretation of the rulesI'd go with this. I don't think you're actually teaching it anything--it has a supernatural connection to you. You get some of its attributes through this link (as expressed in the familiar bonuses to abilities and free feats), and it gets some of your abilities eventually, too (the ability to speak one of your languages), plus some other things.

UglyPanda
2007-04-10, 04:55 PM
Does this mean that you can't teach your animal companion druidic? It wouldn't be able to understand because of its intelligence of less than two, but what about the arcane hierophant's animal companion?

I always figured that druidic was a language that animals could understand. Rereading the description, I'm wondering why druids would create a secret language when they're often anti-social.

Enzario
2007-04-10, 04:55 PM
I don't see the idea of a raven speaking Druidic all that unbalancing/not good flavor. I like the idea of a wizard emissary trying to get his temperamental raven to help him translate.