Why does this still only last 10 minutes? What is so broken about 3 int NPCs (most of the time) that this can't even last an hour? We homebrew it's a non ritual, but lasts 8 hours.

Quote from Zanther_11 >>

Why does this still only last 10 minutes? What is so broken about 3 int NPCs (most of the time) that this can't even last an hour? We homebrew it's a non ritual, but lasts 8 hours.

That is why the core rules said that in the end everything is DM discretion. It is better to not force it on everyone, every animal speaking means you will have to make up and remember lore for that many more creatures. Not all DMs wish to go to such trouble, and most of them do not have an AI to do all the work.

From a player POV, you may feel you get punished for role-play if it costs a spell slot for something so mundane, especially when RAW says otherwise (some classes can cast rituals without needing a spell slot).

I agree with the concept of your idea, but I would instead make it possible to cast the spell at base level as a ritual for the classes that have the ability to do so. Then allow classes to remove the 10-min time mark of a ritual if they choose to lose a l1 spell slot. Finally, give a longer duration by sacrificing higher level slots (effectively allowing you to up cast the spell). That would achieve the same results as what you seemed to be going for without doing something potentially seen as a nerf to several classes/players.

Out of curiosity, how would this nerf other classes? Things like totem barbarian would just either be able to cast at will or make it last 24 hours. Unless you mean nerfing classes RELATIVE to other classes, like Eldritch invocation beast speech is not as comparably useful since it's not as astronomically better than the normal spell.

Edit: Wording