Speak with Animals

Speak with Animals allows the caster to converse with ordinary animals. They can offer an unusual perspective on a place: a creature knows a path, a scent, a movement or an event only as it could have perceived it itself. This is not a conversation with an omniscient narrator. Its knowledge can be valuable to the party precisely because it differs from a human account.

An animal is not compelled to help and still has its own needs and fears. Meaningful questions should therefore draw on its actual experience rather than complex human concepts it may not understand. The spell grants neither control nor automatic trust. Patient listening and comparing its answers with other clues found nearby can be important to the story.

Exact effect: The caster understands ordinary animals and can respond to them. An animal is not compelled to help and knows only what it could have perceived. Target: caster. Duration: 1 scene. Limit: once per scene. Use requires at least INT 6, the appropriate spellcasting ability and knowledge of this spell. Meeting the numerical requirements alone does not grant knowledge of the spell.