Hello spellcasters of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 20th episode of our first level spell series. Do you ever just wish you could understand everyone all the time! Well if that’s the case let me introduce you to comprehend languages 5e usable by the bard, sorcerer, warlock and the wizard of course through extension anyone else with their access to spell lists would also have this and it is found in the players handbook. In any case you can also check out our other 5th dnd classes Let’s get into the mechanics real quick here just we kind of give the gist of what’s we’re talking about.
Table of Contents
Mechanics
- Level: 1st
- Casting Time: 1 Action (Ritual)
- Range/Area: Self
- Components: V, S, M
- Duration: 1 Hour
- School: Divination
- Attack/Save: None
- Damage/Effect: Social
Let me ask you does comprehend languages use a spell slot? the answer is like The cast time is one action you can also ritual cast this for 10 minutes and very cool stuff so no need to really burn up a spell slot. The range is self, the duration is an impressive 1 hour. Check out the article we written on learning a language in dnd.
The effect at a glance is as followed. You understand the literal meaning of any spoken language that you hear. You also understand any written language that you see, so long as you touch the surface on which the words are written. It takes about one minute to read one page of text. The spell doesn’t decode secret messages in a text or a glyph, such as an arcane sigil, that isn’t part of a written language. So that’s fair. Also check out this does comprehend languages work on druidic.
The components it’s actually a holy trinity spell believe or not. It is somatic, material and verbal. Meaning you have to gesture with one hand. There is a material component in this case a pinch of soot and a salt and a verbal component meaning you have to speak forth an incantation. The school is unsurprisingly divination. I suppose it could also be enchantment but it is divination by 5e standards. The full description however is as followed. You may also like to read this 5e tongues vs comprehend languages.
Description
For the duration, you understand the literal meaning of any spoken language that you hear. You also understand any written language that you can see, but you must be touching the surface on which the words are written. It takes about 1 minute to read a page of text. This spell doesn’t decode secret messages in a text or a glyph, such as an arcane sigil, that isn’t part of a written language. * – (a pinch of soot and salt)
So pretty cool! There’s a little bit to unpack there though. First and foremost you understand the literal meaning of any spoken language you hear. So if there’s a lot of jargon in the language or a lot of things that are taking contextually it might be kind of hard to understand. In any case you may also like to check out our list of all dnd languages.
You essentially understand languages like a lizard person would like very simple, very kind of cut and dry very literal right! However that caveat does not apply to the written languages. So on the written languages this is up to your dm discretion i kind of get the gist of what the spells saying but this is kind of a little bit loophole so.
On the written language the only caveat is you much must be touching the surface. Meaning you can get the contextual underlay without really worrying too much about it. So i think it’s very useful, the only problem would be if it’s in a position where you can’t physically touch it and even then i would argue that mage hand would still count as physically touching and naturally this up to your DMs discretion the decoded messages thing kinda makes sense as well.
Yeah….i don’t know i play that one by ear too actually depends on your characters background whether or not they would understand parts of it. I’d have them roll a history i guess with disadvantage if it’s feasible other characters could have run across at some point in their time. In any case let’s look into some alternative uses here. Also check out this most common languages 5e.
Alternative Uses
So one that i really like is being able to ease drop on people who you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to or who wouldn’t really suspect you ease dropping on them. This would be really good for the exotic languages especially because it’d be fairly safe to assume that people would speak those openly only to members of their sect or group or race or however you want to break it down in your world.
So ease drop they’re gonna be a really good use for this and on that same kind of know we were talking about earlier about the understanding the context behind written words. If you happen to see some text or tone that’s an illegible writing and you’d really like to understand it, this spell would kind of get you there. You can also read this helm of comprehending languages dnd 5e.
Now i would caution you a little bit because what’s written in a lot of these books particularly the ones to do with it. The more chaotic kind of the fools and gods of that kind of mind altering, bending old god type deal. It would probably do you more harm than good to read it. That being said, i mean your characters whatever they would do just make sure it’s immersive right! Would you like to know about what are the dnd languages.
In case if you ask me does comprehend languages allow you to write? then i’d say probably not. Actually the Comprehend Languages allows you to read and understand spoken language, but not speak or write. Do you think this spell also applies to secret languages like druidic or thieves cant? Sadly not, why because they’re both interpretive languages. So understanding the literal meaning won’t really help you out much.
Conclusion
In any case guys, that’s about all i got for you, if you have any crazy uses or alternative uses or stories or anything like that please post them down in the comments below. I love reading them and i know everyone checking this article does as well, i’ve had some really good conversations with you guys, so keep up the good work and without further ado and thank you so much and as always happy casting. You can also read this what is the speak languages spell in d&D? (tongues 5e).