Have a question regarding the figurines of wondrous power. It says the stats from the monster manual should be used for the figurines in living form. It also says that the living form understands the users language. Here is the question, if the stats say that the figurine has a Intelligence of 2, does it still understand the whole language of the user and can carry out complex commands based on that understanding. Or is it limited by it's intelligence of 2 as to what commands can be carried out. Obviously, if it has a higher intelligence it can carry out complex commands, but we are looking specifically at animal intelligence of 2.
I'd say that it's safe to assume that the fact that a dog can understand your language doesn't immediately allow it to carry philosophical discussions with you, but it depends on the DM, really.
There are no significant mechanical impediments to the kinds of actions one can carry out when suffering from a low intelligence (other than the respective penalty on skills), but given that, as per the Player's Handbook (page 177), Intelligence is relevant to logic, education, deductive reasoning, and memory.
Safe to say, a beast with intelligence 2 won't be able to deduct unspoken meaning to your commands, or apply logic or education to what you're asking. You're down for specific, step-to-step instructions for complex commands, thus. And that's when you run into the memory problem.
Personally, I'd portray the figurine creatures as particularly well-trained representatives of their species. A horse can be told to come when you whistle. A dog can be on the lookout for unknown people, or people with cloaks, or people holding swords, but "suspicious people" will likely default to "unknown people" for even the most trained dog.
Player in Grimm’s game here. First, yes we are aware of rule 1.
A bit of a mischaracterization. I’m of the opinion that per the item text “It understands your languages” then it understands what I say to it, whatever I say to it. Sort of like the magic of the item acts like a universal translator that takes the sound I make and places the meanings into the head of the beast. “Take (group member) to (the cleric)” for example.
I consider understanding my words and performing the action to be separate things. My dm gave an example of a spoken command “fly up to that window, break the bars, stealthily steal the amulet of awesomeness, and bring it to me”... to which I respond that the Int 2 beast will understand me because the magic does the heavy lifting, but the Int 2 beast is not going to be able to take that and perform the action.
My dm thinks the figurine’s magic is limited to granting understanding of only 5 words due to the Int 2... because that’s what it says about NON magical beasts in the beastmaster section of the ranger rules.
edit: and that’s the big thing. With just 5 words for the griffin I only get something like: Attack, Stop, Fetch (pointing), Up, Down.
As long as this isn't happening during the game, I see no flaw in some constructive discussion. Your DM has final say, as usual, but there's no issue in hearing all sides of the argument, is there? :p
Personally, I see no reason to limit the amount of language the beast can parse, as long as it doesn't affect its actual comprehension - which should be dictated by its intelligence. Even thought it understands all your words, your griffin won't be picking up accounting. However, it should be able to boil down to its own level of understanding whatever you throw at it that it has at least passing familiarity with.
Something like "My friends and I will be going for a while. Keep an eye on the house while I'm gone, okay?" would be understood as "master and his friends leaving, guard the house until he returns".
Which would mean it should be able to do any simple, single action within its personal context.
I'd be lax with things like that as long as they're not abused. They can sow the seeds for excellent character interactions. Do I even need to reference Guenhwyvar?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Have a question regarding the figurines of wondrous power. It says the stats from the monster manual should be used for the figurines in living form. It also says that the living form understands the users language. Here is the question, if the stats say that the figurine has a Intelligence of 2, does it still understand the whole language of the user and can carry out complex commands based on that understanding. Or is it limited by it's intelligence of 2 as to what commands can be carried out. Obviously, if it has a higher intelligence it can carry out complex commands, but we are looking specifically at animal intelligence of 2.
I'd say that it's safe to assume that the fact that a dog can understand your language doesn't immediately allow it to carry philosophical discussions with you, but it depends on the DM, really.
There are no significant mechanical impediments to the kinds of actions one can carry out when suffering from a low intelligence (other than the respective penalty on skills), but given that, as per the Player's Handbook (page 177), Intelligence is relevant to logic, education, deductive reasoning, and memory.
Safe to say, a beast with intelligence 2 won't be able to deduct unspoken meaning to your commands, or apply logic or education to what you're asking. You're down for specific, step-to-step instructions for complex commands, thus. And that's when you run into the memory problem.
Personally, I'd portray the figurine creatures as particularly well-trained representatives of their species. A horse can be told to come when you whistle. A dog can be on the lookout for unknown people, or people with cloaks, or people holding swords, but "suspicious people" will likely default to "unknown people" for even the most trained dog.
Player in Grimm’s game here. First, yes we are aware of rule 1.
A bit of a mischaracterization. I’m of the opinion that per the item text “It understands your languages” then it understands what I say to it, whatever I say to it. Sort of like the magic of the item acts like a universal translator that takes the sound I make and places the meanings into the head of the beast. “Take (group member) to (the cleric)” for example.
I consider understanding my words and performing the action to be separate things. My dm gave an example of a spoken command “fly up to that window, break the bars, stealthily steal the amulet of awesomeness, and bring it to me”... to which I respond that the Int 2 beast will understand me because the magic does the heavy lifting, but the Int 2 beast is not going to be able to take that and perform the action.
My dm thinks the figurine’s magic is limited to granting understanding of only 5 words due to the Int 2... because that’s what it says about NON magical beasts in the beastmaster section of the ranger rules.
edit: and that’s the big thing. With just 5 words for the griffin I only get something like: Attack, Stop, Fetch (pointing), Up, Down.
As long as this isn't happening during the game, I see no flaw in some constructive discussion. Your DM has final say, as usual, but there's no issue in hearing all sides of the argument, is there? :p
Personally, I see no reason to limit the amount of language the beast can parse, as long as it doesn't affect its actual comprehension - which should be dictated by its intelligence. Even thought it understands all your words, your griffin won't be picking up accounting. However, it should be able to boil down to its own level of understanding whatever you throw at it that it has at least passing familiarity with.
Something like "My friends and I will be going for a while. Keep an eye on the house while I'm gone, okay?" would be understood as "master and his friends leaving, guard the house until he returns".
Which would mean it should be able to do any simple, single action within its personal context.
I'd be lax with things like that as long as they're not abused. They can sow the seeds for excellent character interactions. Do I even need to reference Guenhwyvar?