How many level 1 characters does it take to have access to all languages?

Question

How many characters are needed (using any 5e published race, background and class [no feats]) so that a party can understand (read and converse) all languages in PHB, GGtR and WgtE; at level 1 without the need for spells ?

How diverse can you make the party without increasing the number of characters ?

"all published languages" is too broad and will lead to answers that become stale as more content is released. If you restrict it to PHB, DMG, Volo's and Xanathar's for example it will be a better question. — linksassin, Mar 12 '19 at 04:58
You may want to take a look at this list and make it a bit clearer which categories of languages you want to have access to. Especially whether you want to have the last category in that list. — Miniman, Mar 12 '19 at 05:01
related: How to get the most languages with the fewest level investments?, How many languages is it possible to learn?. Answers to one of these questions should be able to answer your question, at least partly; you may have to piece it together from multiple answers. Feel encouraged to answer this question yourself if you do discover the answer, to aid future readers. — PixelMaster, Mar 12 '19 at 12:23
Are you assuming that the version of languages are the same across different planes? Is the PHB's version of common the same as Ravnicas or Eberrons? — David Coffron, Mar 12 '19 at 12:52
Another useless optimization question? What is the point of this? — Destruktor, Nov 20 '19 at 16:14
@Destruktor this was asked a while back (look at when I posted it) and it was something that was brought up when my dnd group was discussing how to read an unknown/illegible book — Karan Shishoo, Nov 20 '19 at 16:19

score 9 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 12 '19 at 12:54

9

By my estimation, a 5-character party is needed:

High Elf / Druid / Sage: Common, Elvish, Druidic, +3 of player's choice

Vedalken / Knowledge Cleric / Acolyte: Common, Vedalken, +5 of player's choice(!)

Goblin / Rogue / Orzhov Representative: Common, Goblin, Thieves' Cant, +2 of player's choice

Tiefling / Storm Sorcerer / Simic Scientist: Common, Infernal, Primordial, +2 of player's choice

Deep Gnome / Ranger / Azorius Functionary: Common, Gnomish, Undercommon, +3 of player's choice

This uses races, classes and backgrounds that I collated from the Player's Handbook, Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, Volo's Guide to Monsters, Xanathar's Guide to Everything, and the Elemental Evil Player's Companion. This gives the party a total of 25 languages understood fully (reading, writing and speaking), including Thieves' Cant and Druidic, which covers (assuming no players take duplicate chosen languages) all 25 languages found in those books.

*EEPC adds the Aarakocra language and the Deep Gnome subrace.

answered Mar 12 '19 at 12:54

fluff_thorrent

507
3
9

My count is 26 of you include Thieves Cant (which mind you, isn't a language but a cipher). And that's without including EEPC – David Coffron Mar 12 '19 at 12:57
1

Okay, which one did I miss? https://puu.sh/CYQuS/0deecc8808.png – fluff_thorrent Mar 12 '19 at 12:58
Rierdan and Quori from Eberron, but now I see you didn't include them – David Coffron Mar 12 '19 at 13:00
Ah, okay. I started with "PHB, GGtR and WgtE" (VGtM and XGtE?) as per the OP. That said, without the EEPC, one could just use any other Gnome, as Aarakocra isn't included in the others. – fluff_thorrent Mar 12 '19 at 13:06

David Coffron · Answer 2 · 2019-11-20T14:32:03.973

You need 4 characters with a magic item, 5 without.

The Party

High Elf Druid (6 new languages)
- Common, Elvish, Druidic, 1 from Extra Language, 2 from background¹
Vedalken Cleric of the Knowledge Domain (6 new languages)
- Common, Vedalken, 1 from Languages, 2 from background, 2 from Blessings of Knowledge
Kalashtar Cleric of the Knowledge Domain (6 new languages)
- Common, Quori, 1 from Languages, 2 from background, 2 from Blessings of Knowledge
Changeling Cleric of the Knowledge Domain (6 new languages)
- Common, 2 from Languages, 2 from background, 2 from Blessings of Knowledge

These give the party 24 languages, which falls one short of all the languages from the sources you mention.

You could gain this language via an Ioun Stone of Language Knowledge from this adventure:

Lost Laboratory of Kwalish

You could also make one of the clerics a different class by collecting two additional of these magic items.

Without Magic Items

Otherwise, any 5th character who can learn a language not chosen by the ones I listed can fill out the party, making 5 characters.

If you want a more well-rounded party without magic items, since you need a 5th character anyway, if your 5th character is a Changeling Ranger, you can change the classes of two of the Knowledge Domain clerics to anything you like and still have enough

^{1: Use the Customizing a Background rule in the PHB and any background can get 2 languages}

The Languages

There are 25 languages within the three books you requested (Player's Handbook, Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, and Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron):

Abyssal
Celestial
Common
Deep Speech
Draconic
Druidic
Dwarvish
Elvish
Giant
Gnomish
Goblin
Halfling
Infernal
Kraul
Loxodon
Merfolk
Minotaur
Orc
Primordial
Quori
Rierdan
Sphinx
Sylvan
Undercommon
Vedalken

How many level 1 characters does it take to have access to all languages?

2 Answers2

The Party

Without Magic Items

The Languages