Can a spellcaster cast Tongues, Speak with Animals or Speak with Plants, which each have specific duration (not concentration) and then cast Suggestion and affect a language speaker of any language (Tongues), animals (Speak with Animals), or plants (Speak with Plants)?
Considering the spell says a Creature that can see and understand you I'd say sure for the language thing via tongues and speak with animals. The issue with speak with plants is that it doesn't necessarily make the plant into a creature. A tree is just a tree, it doesn't matter if you can magically communicate with it. It's not a plant creature. I also don't know how much suggesting to a tree would gain because it is still a normal tree. That being said if it was a plant creature you might not even need to cast speak with plants depending on if it knows a shared language.
Considering the spell says a Creature that can see and understand you I'd say sure for the language thing via tongues and speak with animals. The issue with speak with plants is that it doesn't necessarily make the plant into a creature. A tree is just a tree, it doesn't matter if you can magically communicate with it. It's not a plant creature. I also don't know how much suggesting to a tree would gain because it is still a normal tree. That being said if it was a plant creature you might not even need to cast speak with plants depending on if it knows a shared language.
I get your point that a plant might not be considered a "creature" the way any beast, humanoid, or monster is, and that the spell specifically calls out "plant creature" as coming under the spell in addition to normal plants. So perhaps the Suggestion spell won't work on regular plants, even though they are animated by the spell Speak with Plants, but it would seem that a "plant creature" that was able to understand you after casting the Speak with Plants spell would in fact be subject to the effects of a Suggestion spell.
Sure. You have spent 4 spell slots and upcast suggestion or cast mass suggestion. That much effort should get rewarded by doing what it is supposed to do.
I think there is agreement that casting Tongues enables others within range to comprehend the speaker which is required for Suggestion to work on someone who doesn't understand any languages you know. There seems also agreement on Speak with Animals where for whatever reason the DM doesn't permit you to persuade a beast to perform a small favor for you by non-magical means, you can use Suggestion to magically suggest a course of action, and if it fails a save then it pursues that suggestion to the best of its ability. I'm still unsure whether a regular plant is a creature, since there is something called a plant creature which is like a treant or shambling mound I suppose. When Speak with Plants is cast on plants in the area, the plants gain limited sentience and animation, and thus do they become plant creatures?
Perhaps this is all unnecessary regarding the Speak with Plants spell since the terms of that spell seem to suggest you can get as much assistance out of the plants you animate as they can provide. Speak with Plants does say, however, that if there is a plant creature in the area you can communicate with it but you gain no magical ability to influence it. If you try to do so, since you can now communicate with it, and you fail to persuade it via ability check, it seems possible to then use Suggestion to magically persuade it to take a certain course of action while Speak with Plants is still in operation. It might come in handy if your foolhardy fighter, instead of running away from the slow moving creature, gets engulfed by a shambling mound and can't breathe. It takes a lot of damage to kill one of those things and it would take a while. They can only engulf one creature at a time. "You know, my friend you just ate isn't very nourishing as his diet is junk, so perhaps you'd like to try someone who eats organic?" she says, pointing to the paladin.
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Can a spellcaster cast Tongues, Speak with Animals or Speak with Plants, which each have specific duration (not concentration) and then cast Suggestion and affect a language speaker of any language (Tongues), animals (Speak with Animals), or plants (Speak with Plants)?
Considering the spell says a Creature that can see and understand you I'd say sure for the language thing via tongues and speak with animals. The issue with speak with plants is that it doesn't necessarily make the plant into a creature. A tree is just a tree, it doesn't matter if you can magically communicate with it. It's not a plant creature. I also don't know how much suggesting to a tree would gain because it is still a normal tree. That being said if it was a plant creature you might not even need to cast speak with plants depending on if it knows a shared language.
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I get your point that a plant might not be considered a "creature" the way any beast, humanoid, or monster is, and that the spell specifically calls out "plant creature" as coming under the spell in addition to normal plants. So perhaps the Suggestion spell won't work on regular plants, even though they are animated by the spell Speak with Plants, but it would seem that a "plant creature" that was able to understand you after casting the Speak with Plants spell would in fact be subject to the effects of a Suggestion spell.
Sure. You have spent 4 spell slots and upcast suggestion or cast mass suggestion. That much effort should get rewarded by doing what it is supposed to do.
I think there is agreement that casting Tongues enables others within range to comprehend the speaker which is required for Suggestion to work on someone who doesn't understand any languages you know. There seems also agreement on Speak with Animals where for whatever reason the DM doesn't permit you to persuade a beast to perform a small favor for you by non-magical means, you can use Suggestion to magically suggest a course of action, and if it fails a save then it pursues that suggestion to the best of its ability. I'm still unsure whether a regular plant is a creature, since there is something called a plant creature which is like a treant or shambling mound I suppose. When Speak with Plants is cast on plants in the area, the plants gain limited sentience and animation, and thus do they become plant creatures?
Perhaps this is all unnecessary regarding the Speak with Plants spell since the terms of that spell seem to suggest you can get as much assistance out of the plants you animate as they can provide. Speak with Plants does say, however, that if there is a plant creature in the area you can communicate with it but you gain no magical ability to influence it. If you try to do so, since you can now communicate with it, and you fail to persuade it via ability check, it seems possible to then use Suggestion to magically persuade it to take a certain course of action while Speak with Plants is still in operation. It might come in handy if your foolhardy fighter, instead of running away from the slow moving creature, gets engulfed by a shambling mound and can't breathe. It takes a lot of damage to kill one of those things and it would take a while. They can only engulf one creature at a time. "You know, my friend you just ate isn't very nourishing as his diet is junk, so perhaps you'd like to try someone who eats organic?" she says, pointing to the paladin.