I am playing in a world where the government employs many bards to act as diplomat / emissaries / spies. In this capacity they journey from town to town delivering messages, and collecting messages to be delivered to other government officials. While on their journeys they take the pulse of the population to make sure what they hear from the government is consistent with what is being experienced by the common folk.
I was fleshing out the list of spells for a level 7 bard and decided he should have a spell "Speak with Animals", which he would use if he happened on a murder or similar catastrophe where there were no human witnesses. The other player I was working with thought this sounded very strange. What do y'all think of this spell choice for a fellow that travels around like this?
I know it isn't on the typical Bard spell list, but Speak with Dead is probably more suitable for your purposes, since most animals have poor memory and not much intelligence. While it would not be the best combat spell for Magical Secrets, it would be very fitting if the Bards in your world are also detectives or intelligence agents. All that said, Speak with Animals isn't a terrible choice by any means; it's just more situational than Speak with Dead.
Makes sense to me. Animals are less helpful than “speak with dead” for solving murders, but more helpful for other kinds of spying. Situational, sure, but sounds pretty flavorful to me.
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I am playing in a world where the government employs many bards to act as diplomat / emissaries / spies. In this capacity they journey from town to town delivering messages, and collecting messages to be delivered to other government officials. While on their journeys they take the pulse of the population to make sure what they hear from the government is consistent with what is being experienced by the common folk.
I was fleshing out the list of spells for a level 7 bard and decided he should have a spell "Speak with Animals", which he would use if he happened on a murder or similar catastrophe where there were no human witnesses. The other player I was working with thought this sounded very strange. What do y'all think of this spell choice for a fellow that travels around like this?
I know it isn't on the typical Bard spell list, but Speak with Dead is probably more suitable for your purposes, since most animals have poor memory and not much intelligence. While it would not be the best combat spell for Magical Secrets, it would be very fitting if the Bards in your world are also detectives or intelligence agents. All that said, Speak with Animals isn't a terrible choice by any means; it's just more situational than Speak with Dead.
Makes sense to me. Animals are less helpful than “speak with dead” for solving murders, but more helpful for other kinds of spying. Situational, sure, but sounds pretty flavorful to me.