Additional Class Languages in D&D — Dump Stat Adventures

While everyone knows about the secret languages for druids (Druidic) and rogues (Thieves’ Cant), why are they the only ones to get a secret language?

What if there was a secret or unique language for bards or wizards? What if a wizard’s training conveys a knowledge that only other wizards would understand?

For example, when a database engineer talks with another database engineer, outsiders aren’t likely to understand most of what they are talking about if they are talking about their day-to-day job. In their own way, they have a secret language that I am now going to call Python (and I’m not talking about parseltongue).

So that’s what we are doing this week. We are going to go class by class and figure out what ‘secret’ language each class would talk or communicate in.

Barbarian – Runic

While there are many jokes that barbarians can’t read or that they are illiterate, I’m not going to propagate that inaccuracy. Barbarians can be very smart (and I’m not just saying that cause one is staring at me as I’m typing this out).

The origination of the word ‘barbarian’ is a derogatory term from the Ancient Greek and the word was based on a description of how they talked and that it sounded like they were just saying ‘bar bar bar’ a lot.

But saying ‘bar bar bar’ is not the secret language of Barbarians. Instead, I’m going to go with the class idea of a Barbarian, somehow who grew up outside of a city, often in dangerous lands were they often have to fight great monsters.

The barbarian’s unique language is Runic. It is a simple language often found carved on stone. It is not only a written language, but a spoken one as well.

It is a language of power and purpose. The language does not suit poetry and flowery descriptions well, but rather is used for evoking spoken oaths and binding its speaker or writer into a greater purpose.

Bard – Sheet Music

This might be the easiest one to come up with. Bards love music (and your mom), and while they may improvise their music often, they are also adept at reading and understanding music.

The bard’s unique language is Sheet Music. But this isn’t just fortes and treble clefs.

This language is more than just the notes on the sheet, as anyone can learn to read sheet music. Instead, it is those notes on the sheet but also the emotion and layer of musical magic that the bard uses in their performance that helps convey their full message.

Sheet music, for that reason, is a complicated way of communicating. Not only is it the notes that they play, but how they play them, at what tempo, at what volume, and so much more. A bard may not even realize how much of the message they are getting from the performance that is more ‘vibes’ than hard fast rules.

Which is why this language is very poetic and flowery, almost to a flaw. Direct meanings and straightforward language is not in the wheelhouse of Sheet Music and the messages one conveys can be open to interpretation, so bards must be very careful when they perform not to mislead who they are communicating with.

Cleric & Paladin – Deific

This language is actually one of dozens of different languages, all with the same name. One could consider it like regional accents, but accents so thick and obtuse that someone who doesn’t know the accent has no hope of understanding what the speaker is saying.

This language is also unique in that Clerics share this language with Paladins.

This unique language is Deific. It is the raw language of deities, with each deity having a unique ‘accent’ to how they speak it that a cleric of one faith, like to Thor, won’t be able to speak with a cleric of another faith in Deific. It is only for clerics of the same faith and deity to speak with one another. This can be especially handy when clerics are gathered from many faiths and wish to discuss amongst themselves without the others hearing them.

This language may also be called ‘speaking in tongues’ as those who do not speak Deific can hope to understand it, and it sounds incomprehensible. Some believe that deities bless their clerics and paladins with this language as it is the only way that the deity can hear and interpret prayers that their worshipers make.

Druid – Druidic

The language of nature, from the wind in the trees to the dew drops dripping off grass, this language is the primal nature itself. Druids speak druidic, and in certain editions of Dungeons & Dragons, would be unable to share this language with non-druids or have their power stripped away from them.

This makes druidic a very secretive language, and one closely guarded by druids who use it to communicate with one another, either through spoken words or hidden signs within nature.

Fighter – Duel

This unique language is not communicated through spoken word or written letters, but through strikes, parries, and stances. Fighters communicate not with words, but by what stances they choose to take during a fight, what parries they employ, and the strikes they make and or choose not to make.

It is a language only learned by those who have mastered their weapons.

For example, in The Princess Bride, more is conveyed between the Man in Black and Inigo Montoya in their fight choreography than they would ever tell each other aloud. With each change in their style, meaning and language are swapped between them.

Inigo Montoya: You’re using Bonetti’s defense against me, ah?

Man in Black: I thought it fitting, considering the rocky terrain —

Inigo Montoya: Naturally, you must expect me to attack with Capo Ferro.

Man in Black: Naturally, but I find Thibault cancels out Capo Ferro, don’t you?

Inigo Montoya: Unless the enemy has studied his Agrippa — which I have.

Monk – Ki (True Language)

The same power that grants monks their unique power and ability to understand all spoken languages (at least in 2014), is the same power that grants them their unique language. They speak the language of the mystic energy of the universe.

This language may often be called the “True Language” and everything within this language has a “True Name.” A creature’s True Name is the reverberation of its soul in the universe and is not something easy to uncover and learn. In fact, many monks spend decades meditating on this True Language and seeking out their True Name so that they might better understand themselves.

While this language of ki, or True Language, can be used for evil, it requires more study than just the meditations of the multiverse and a force of will to impose one’s will on the energy of the universe. While there are some monks who are willing to impose this control on the universe by exploring the True Language and finding the True Names of all they meet, it is a dark and dangerous path that few succeed at.

Paladin & Cleric – Deific

Paladins share the language of Deific that clerics speak, though not all paladins worship a deity. Instead, they might follow a (un)holy oath that grants them their power and might.

In this situation, Paladins do not learn Deific, but rather gain a different type of language. This language is not so much spoken or written, but rather the power that resides behind their words. When they make their oath, they may speak it in common, but it radiates into the multiverse, binding their soul to the words that they speak.

Creatures who make such oaths speak in such a way that other creatures believe wholeheartedly in the power of their oath and their drive to see its fruition. This language isn’t so much for communicating every day ideas or needs, but for a paladin to invoke their holy oath and for other creatures to understand that this oath is more than just words.

Ranger – Hunter Calls

From bird calls to squirrel chitters, rangers can mimic the sounds of common animals that fill the forest they so often find themselves in. However, this unique language of theirs does not allow them to communicate with the animals. Rather they use these calls to communicate with other rangers and hunters in the area.

Often times, Rangers use these calls to help plan attacks against evil monsters that groups of rangers are hunting. When one calls with a sparrow’s caw, another answers with a chipmunk’s chitter, they know when to strike.

Rogue – Thieves’ Cant

I’ve talked extensively about Thieves’ Cant, and I don’t want to repeat too much, but the short and sweet about Thieves’ Cant is that it isn’t strictly a new language, but so much slang that it is all but incomprehensible to outsiders.

When a rogue says: “Since ya on break, how about a box-top?”; outsiders are not going to have any idea what they are talking about. This slang is difficult to parse, constantly changes as it enters the lexicon, and relies heavily on metaphors that are three or four degrees separated in weird leaps of logic.

For your edification, the above means: Since you are out of jail right now, how about you help me rob a place?

Sorcerer – Bloodline

This secret language is restricted to the blood that a sorcerer has. Instead of a sorcerer gaining a way to communicate with all other sorcerers, they gain a way of secretly communicating with those who share their bloodline.

Though, it is slightly more than that. With a look, a sorcerer can tell if someone is a sorcerer who shares their bloodline. This allows sorcerers to detect others of their bloodline in a large crowd, and why they might choose to congregate together. They have an innate understanding of each other and even feel some amount of kinship between them.

When two sorcerers share the same bloodline, it lets them communicate by just making contact with their eyes. While they can not share complex ideas with this look, they can at least share emotions, simple ideas, or basic concepts like they need help, they are seeking someone, or for the other sorcerer to act like they don’t know who they are.

While this is similar to someone being able to read another through expressions, sorcerers who share the same bloodline innately know this information by just seeing their bloodline companion.

Warlock – Pactword

This unique language is only spoken between a warlock and their patron. Not even warlocks who share the same pact with the same patron will speak the same language. Instead, this language is etched into the soul of the warlock at the moment of their pact.

When a warlock speaks to their patron, while it might sound like a common language, they are speaking Pactword. If the patron wishes for only the warlock to understand what they might say, they can disguise their use of Pactword in a common language, saying one thing in Common and their true command in Pactword. The warlock will intrinsically tell the difference, but could be so compelled as to be unable to share the true command with others.

If Pactword is written down, none but the patron or warlock can read it. The script often appears to be shifting or unstable, the words and letters often changing when not observed, or the ink flowing off the paper like blood.

Wizards – Glyphs

This language comes from the deep understanding and knowledge of the complex mathematical formulae of magic. While it can be spoken, it is much more often conveyed in a written format with runes, diagrams, equations, and ritual patterns that can convey complex spells to simple instructions.

Glyphs is a language that can be studied and mastered by anyone who wishes to crack the code of magic. It is not a hidden or secret language, but a language proudly used by those who have learned its complexity and relish in it.

Glyphs does have the small problem that your language is the formulae of magic. While it does not happen often, some apprentices first learning this complex language with hundreds or thousands of minor one-off grammar rules have accidentally turned their skin to fire or turned a house into a giant chicken. Rarely do they know how they messed up and it is an exercise in futility to figure out how to repeat it.

Artificer – Schematics

I bet you thought I forgot about you because everyone forgets about you. Don’t worry, you also get your own unique language.

Artificers speak the language of blueprints and schematics. They use this language to help them turn complex ideas and difficult concepts into hard-coded mechanics that they can better understand.

This language also includes machines and materials. They understand the physical and real, similar to the Glyph language of wizards, but focused on the hard science of reality. While this ‘reality’ can’t turn an apprentice who mispronounces a chemical reaction, it can lead to machines being built that explode, refuse to follow orders, or simply become inert.

Speak Up

Have you created unique languages for classes? Is there a language interpretation that you prefer or do you have a favorite from the ones I’ve created? Share them below!