Our DM accidently gave us a magic item that does this at will... My Druid is very happy

Since this is basically permanent, I'd like to imagine that there are occasional wild animals that had this cast on them and now just go around like any other animal but can talk. They now have to deal with likely being the only sapient version of their species. Imagine being the only human who can speak, and every other human has the brain of a squirrel. That could go a lot of different ways. 

Yeah it's a spell called "Lobotomy"

Wizards can use wish to awaken an animal in one action. Take that as you will

Couldn't this technically be used on dead things so long as they are plants or beasts? Dead things don't have intelligence scores afaik, and the spell doesn't specifically state the target needs to be alive (Still very new to dnd mechanics, so I don't know if there's other stuff that would mean that wouldn't work, but rules as written it looks like it could based on what I know so far)

Quote from Rich_the_Recalcitrant >>

I would think a lot of Awakened creatures would end up resenting their awakener. Imagine you're a dog, and suddenly you're smart. You can't really relate to other dogs, but in a lot of ways you can't relate to other intelligent creatures either. Would an Awakened dog want to be intimate with dumb dogs? Would other intelligent creatures want to be intimate with it? It's now smart enough to get bored, but it doesn't have hands to help it do anything interesting. And it has crappy eyesight. A freaking plant gets better manipulative limbs when it's Awakened than the poor dog. Awakening another dog friend for it could solve some of these problems, but not all. I can imagine the dog speaking to its Awakener. "You had to go and make me smart. Now I'm bored all the time. My form stinks for an intelligent creature. I can't manipulate anything well. Way to go, jerk."

Why would they stop thinking like their original species, though? Yes they're smarter than their kin, but it's not like they suddenly start thinking about office jobs and stock investments instead of the fun of chasing after a rabbit. And they'd still be able to communicate with their own species like they always did, with body language etc.

You'd always be short handed...

Charm monster. In the old edition, the duration was based on int, and it was so stupid, the duration was permanent. We actually had a player who had one as a pet. He knew he couldn't keep it, but he was allowed to succeed because... He was genius. Everyone but him ran away, and it rolled a 2 on it's saving throw.

Quote from idhaiftu >>

Couldn't this technically be used on dead things so long as they are plants or beasts? Dead things don't have intelligence scores afaik, and the spell doesn't specifically state the target needs to be alive (Still very new to dnd mechanics, so I don't know if there's other stuff that would mean that wouldn't work, but rules as written it looks like it could based on what I know so far)

 
Pretty sure dead things are considered objects, but that may be subject to change with One D&D.

Bear Necessities?

probably a wish spell

Quote from Furujiru >>

Awaken is the most horrifying spell in DnD when you think about the implications and consequences it has.

Now hear me out: .... What does an INT of 10 imply? The ability to reason which in turn leads to recognition which in turn leads to morality.

So now you have taken a creature that up to this point has lived its entire life purely by instinctual impulses and you're suddenly forcing it to recognise itself, its place in the universe and the consequences of its being and actions. It now knows of history, the concept of hypotheticals and the idea of its own mortality. You're burdening it with knowledge far beyond anything it has ever experienced while simultaneously isolating it because it is now more than a beast yet always less than a man. It would be maddening.

All communication with it would also befall the curse of knowledge. The curse of knowledge is a cognitive bias that occurs when an individual, who is communicating with other individuals, assumes they have the background knowledge to understand. You're giving a beast an INT of 10 but not an education. Unless magically teaching it a language also immediately bestows an understanding of the (greater) meaning behind words and concepts, which we must assume it does because otherwise it would not "speak" the language. So now you have an animal that knows the meaning of things like crime, justice, taxes and the like despite never having experienced said things.

 Intelligence does not equal knowledge or experience. They become self aware, but that does not mean it suddenly understands its place in the universe or the consequences of its actions unless they are taught those things. A human child is Int 10, but it doesn't suddenly know all the things it learns from experience and teaching what it knows as an adult. It can speak but just because I can speak english does not mean I magically understand all the words and their meanings. But I do have the ability to learn them. I would assume once it learns the language it would have some basic concepts and attachment to words. But I would also assume it is like a toddler child with basic concepts / understandings but then has to learn like every other child. Int 10 just gives you an idea of the ceiling of that learning, but the floor is still the same.