[RPG] Can a Monk “turn off” the Tongue of the Sun and Moon feature

class-featurednd-5elanguagesmonk

The description of the monk's Tongue of the Sun and Moon feature states:

Starting at 13th level, you learn to touch the ki of other minds so
that you understand all spoken languages. Moreover, any creature that
can understand a language can understand what you say.

While the ability is useful in social situations, it can occasionally be detrimental. For example, communicating tactics in Common while fighting Duergar (who only speak Dwarvish and Undercommon) is a situation where the Monk would prefer not to be understood.

Is a Monk capable of "turning off" the Tongue of the Sun and Moon class feature?

Best Answer

Yes

When you 'learn to do' something that doesn't mean that you are forced to do it. The ability makes it clear that you are merging your ki to translate the message, and just because you know how to do that doesn't mean you are forced to do that.

The whole point of ki is control of one's self.

Generally beneficial abilities like this have absolute wording, most likely (IMHO) because the number of situations where it isn't beneficial is limited and the designers didn't think about them. Going purely RAW without putting any thought into the how or why isn't how the game is intended to be played.

1 . The DM describes the environment.

2 . The players describe what they want to do.

3 . The DM narrates the results of the adventurers' actions.

There is no 2 1/2 "The DM rigidly translates every word on the page."