[RPG] If I wildshape into an earth elemental, what languages can I speak

pathfinder-1e

The druid class ability Wildshape says (among other things):

A druid loses her ability to speak while in animal form because she is limited to the sounds that a normal, untrained animal can make, but she can communicate normally with other animals of the same general grouping as her new form. (The normal sound a wild parrot makes is a squawk, so changing to this form does not permit speech.)

Later on, the druid gains the ability to change into Elementals, in addition to Animals… But the rules are a little unclear as to what languages the druid can speak:

  • Only Terran

  • Only the druid's own languages

  • Both the druid's languages and Terran

Elemental Body (the spell being emulated) doesn't seem to specify. Nor does the general Polymorph school.

On the one hand, there seems to be a pretty strong vibe of "you can't talk to the party while shifted."

On the other, the text refers to "animals" (elementals are outsiders), "sounds" (elementals don't "make sounds," they speak), "trained" (elementals are intelligent, and aren't "trained" in the same way an animal is, they learn new languages).

Am I missing something?

Best Answer

Whatever languages you can normally speak. Elementals can speak, so you can, too, unlike animals. There's no mention in Wild Shape or any of the elemental body spells about gaining additional languages.

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