General Prestige Class : Worldspeaker
By Patrick Younts and Jeff Quick, Dragon #311
In the mind of the worldspeaker, "the walls have ears" goes from cliche to credo. An experienced worldspeaker can talk to nearly anything and wring forgotten information from inanimate objects that others would not have thought capable of remembering.
Worldspeakers know that everything has a story. As they learn more about the world around them, they learn to speak successively subtler and more magical languages in an attempt to retrieve the stories hidden in every creature or object. When they reach the pinnacle of their class, they can talk to nearly any living thing, from dragon to slug, to the elements that make up the world, and even the bodies of the dead.
Worldspeakers don't often call attention to themselves as separate or distinct from whatever their base classes might be. Most find it easier to carry on their conversations without meddling from outsiders who have poorer communication skills. Keeping their abilities a secret also allows them to maintain an aura of mystery and superior knowledge. A few worldspeakers, however, flaunt their abilities. These few usually travel with powerful friends, since someone with secrets to hide is usually someone willing to do unpleasant things to keep them hidden.
Bards are the undeniable masters of the worldspeaker class, and few learn the class's secrets without doing at least a little time on the lute. This is not due to any elitism on a bard's part. Rather, the worldspeaker's dedication to obscure, even supernatural linguistics is so great that only those who make an intense study of language can begin to learn the ways.
Requirements
To qualify to become a Worldspeaker, a character must fulfill all the following criteria:
- Skills: Concentration 8 ranks, Decipher Script 8 ranks, Knowledge (history) 4 ranks, Knowledge (nature) 4 ranks
- Special: Must be able to speak, read, and write three languages that are not on the racial list of bonus languages.
Class Skills
The worldspeaker's class skills are Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Handle Animal, Knowledge (any), Listen, Perform, Search, Sense Motive, Speak Language, and Spellcraft.
Skill Points at Each Level: 6 + Int modifier.
Class Features
All the following are class features of the worldspeaker prestige class.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A worldspeaker gains no additional proficiency with any weapons or armor.
Bardic Knowledge: If the character already has the bardic knowledge ability, his worldspeaker levels stack with the levels of any other classes that grant him that ability for the purpose of determining the bonus.
Bardic Music: If the character already has the bardic music ability, her worldspeaker levels stack with the levels of any other classes that grant her that ability for the purpose of determining abilities, duration, and so on.
Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each worldspeaker level, the character gains new bard spells per day and spells known as if she had also gained a level in the bard class.
Tongues (Sp): Once per day, a worldspeaker may speak as though under the effect of a tongues spell as cast by a 6th-level sorcerer.
Animal Speech (Sp): At 2nd level, the worldspeaker has learned the speech of animals. At will he may speak as though under the effect of a speak with animals spell cast by a 5th-level druid.
Plant Speech (Sp): At 3rd level, the worldspeaker has learned the speech of the plant kingdom. Three times per day, he may speak to plants as though under the effect of a speak with plants spell cast by a 5th-level druid.
Bardic Knowledge Bonus (Ex): Since a worldspeaker has so many opportunities to talk to unusual creatures, at 3rd level he gains a +2 bonus to bardic knowledge checks if he already has or gains the ability to make them.
Mineral Speech (Sp): At 4th level, if the worldspeaker speaks Terran, he may speak with stones once per day as if under the effect of a stone tell spell cast by an 11th-level druid. As the sturdiest, most consistent of the four elements, this ability is separate from elemental speech below.
Elemental Speech (Sp): Once per day at 4th-level, the worldspeaker may speak to one of the following elemental materials: air, fire, or water. She must speak the appropriate elemental language to do so (Auran, Ignan, or Aquan respectively). The duration of element speech is 1 minute.
All three elements are notoriously difficult conversationalists. A worldspeaker must succeed at a DC 20 Concentration check to focus and pull meaningful information out of the jumble of language an element conveys. As with stone tell, an element's perspective, perception, and knowledge might prevent the element from providing the details a worldspeaker is looking for (as determined by the DM).
Air is the most difficult element to talk to, as its ephemeral nature does not lend itself to collecting or retaining information. A worldspeaker can not speak intelligibly with air moving faster than a light wind. Within a half-mile radius, air can communicate the presence, approximate number, and size of breathing creatures of Small or greater size as well as the presence of objects of Gargantuan size or larger that air can reach. It cannot communicate information about anything underwater or underground where air cannot penetrate. Air can reliably forecast natural weather one day in advance.
Fire is often short-lived, and like air, has relatively little to tell. Fire can communicate how long it has been burning, and simple facts about anyone who lit the fire, passed within its light radius, or was burned by it. The fire can also reveal its fuel source.
Still bodies of water can relate facts about who or what has been in or drunk from them, as well as revealing the contents of their depths. Running water is too mobile to tell much useful information, although a worldspeaker can learn who stepped through or drank from the water upstream within the last 3d10 minutes, and can learn about a stream of water's source (its distance and any unusual facts about it). Precipitation and bodies of water with tides are overwhelming communicators. Information is so large and dispersed that it barely resembles speech. Water this dispersed can only relate the presence of creatures or objects that are Gargantuan size or larger within a two mile radius that the water touches.
Grave Speech (Sp): At 5th level, worldspeakers learn the mystic arts of drawing information out of corpses. Once per day, a worldspeaker may talk to a corpse as if under the effect of a speak with dead spell cast by a 15th-level cleric.
| Worldspeaker | Hit Die: d6 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | BAB | Fort | Ref | Will | Special | Spells per Day |
| 1st | +0 | +2 | +2 | +2 | Bardic knowledge, bardic music, tongues | +1 level of bard class |
| 2nd | +1 | +3 | +3 | +3 | Animal speech | +1 level of bard class |
| 3rd | +2 | +3 | +3 | +3 | Bardic knowledge bonus, plant speech | +1 level of bard class |
| 4th | +3 | +4 | +4 | +4 | Elemental speech, mineral speech | +1 level of bard class |
| 5th | +3 | +5 | +4 | +4 | Grave speech | +1 level of bard class |
Source: Dragon #311