SOURCE: Player’s Handbook

Rating the Benefits of Linguist

Benefit #1 – 

+1 to Intelligence, to a max of 20 

Half an ASI is a common benefit for many feats. Fixed stat choice isn’t the best, and Intelligence is the least used stat among all classes, but this is still a welcome bonus. 

Benefit #2 – 

Learn three languages of your choice

Characters in 5e generally begin life knowing between two and four languages. Choosing three more can more than double the targets a character might be able to speak to. 

Benefit #3 – 

Learn to create written code ciphers. Your ciphers can only be broken by characters you have taught them to, by an Int check, or by using magic.  

The times when keeping the party’s written communication secret is essential to the plot are vanishingly niche. Also, there are multiple ways to break the cipher, with a reasonable chance of success for almost any character. This isn’t good. 

Mechanics and Requirements

Understanding How It Functions

The Linguist feat is incredibly simple. It does three things, two of which you should already understand from character generation. 

An increase to your Intelligence score

First benefit. Gain half an ASI in Intelligence. Nice and simple, though a stat bonus is incredibly handy to have for most characters. 

Learning the lingo

The second benefit of the linguist feat is learning three languages of the character’s choice. 

Some important pointers, here: 

The Player’s Handbook has no rules for learning languages, beyond what’s stated in character generation. Realistically, languages should be dependent on, and synergize with, a character’s background, build, and the campaign they are going to be playing in. 

Our advice is simple. Talk to your GM about expectations, and what is going to actually be useful in the upcoming adventure. 

Understanding languages in 5e

There are currently 8 standard languages in D&D 5e:

• Common – spoken by almost everyone. (Almost) every character speaks common by default
• Elven – Spoken by Elves
• Dwarven – Spoken by Dwarves
• Halfling – Spoken by Halflings
• Gnomish – Spoken by Gnomes
• Giant – Spoken by Giants, Ogres, plus Firbolg and Goliaths
• Goblin – Spoken by Goblins
• Orcish – Spoken by Orcs

Any of these languages automatically qualify for the Linguist feat and can be freely chosen. 

Other languages fall under the Exotic or Monstrous category. These are languages that aren’t commonly spoken among the civilized societies in 5e. 

Examples include: 

• Primordial – Four languages in one, spoken by elemental creatures and denizens of the elemental planes
• Abyssal – The language of demons, and other inhabitants of the underworld
• Draconic – Dragons. Duh. 

Most GMs shouldn’t have a problem with characters understanding and being able to speak these languages. Even so, thinking up an interesting justification can add some background and RP flavoring. 

Speaking in code

The third, final, and unique benefit of the Linguist feat is the ability to write in a secret cipher that is only known to your character, plus anyone that they have taught it to. 

So, let’s assume the party is playing a campaign thick with courtly intrigue, secret agendas, and hidden communication. Awesome. Sounds like fun. 

Someone in the party takes the Linguist feat. Probably the Wizard, or maybe an Arcane Trickster. Someone with high Intelligence, at least. 

They teach their special cipher to the party, and maybe to one or two essential contacts. All messages and communication are now hidden. This is an incredibly narrow benefit to take a feat for, and it’s probably only ever going to apply in this specific situation, but still…So far so good, right?

Wrong. 

See, the ciphers created by this feat can be broken in three ways. 

1. By a character who knows the cipher. So, the character with this feat and anyone else they teach it to. Great. This is what we want
2. By using magic to decode it. Except the feat doesn’t actually say how or why this works, and there are no current spells for decoding codes. The closest equivalent is the Warlock’s “Eyes of the Rune Keeper” ability, which allows them to read all languages. But that’s still a stretch. Maybe your GM rules things like Comprehend Languages work for this. Who knows. 
3. By taking an Intelligence check. The DC of a character creating a cipher is 10 + Int Bonus + Prof. Bonus. So, for a character that’s level 5 with this feat, the DC to crack their super secret code is 16.
   
   That’s … not high. That’s low enough that your standard guy on the street with a perfectly average 10 Int has a 25% chance of breaking it. A character with adequate preparation (Spells like Guidance, Bardic Inspiration, maybe assistance from another character, giving them advantage) will probably succeed more than they fail. 

So, a character with the Linguist feat is so good at languages they can create codes that any group of four idiots from the local tavern would be able to statistically break. Hooray? It gets worse when the enemies that might want to break your codes; the ancient lich or the 20 Int Red Dragon (y’know, the ones who can actually read) sit down to work it out. 

Your codes are probably gonna get broken. That’s a real feels bad moment, especially considering it’s the one special thing this feat does. 

There is no sugarcoating it. This feature is bad. 

Key Stats

The Linguist feat increases a character’s intelligence score by 1, to a maximum of 20. 

In 5e, languages require no skill or investment. They’re a separate entity, which means the stat bonus is only useful for characters who use Int, and for people trying to break the ciphers that can also be created using this feat. 

Ideal Characters for Linguist

Top Classes

Rogue – Rogues love skills, and happily take the role of Face, dealing with social encounters through a combination of spare points into Charisma, and Expertise. 

The thing is, to talk to people, you need to be able to understand them. A Rogue with a background that gives languages and the Linguist feat can probably speak to almost every race in 5e, in some fashion. That’s that great utility for a build that’s doing all the person to person interaction. 

Wizard – The Wizard makes the best use of Int in 5e. There’s some play in an ultra-educated, snooty caster who loves to lord it over other people with their knowledge of language. 

There’s also an interesting interaction between the Linguist feat and your spellbook. If your GM rules that the Wizard’s spellbook can be written entirely in their cipher, it’s another layer of protection if something happens to it. 

Artificer – Languages are great for a roaming, wild inventor-type. Ciphers make all your schematics and item formulae super-impenetrable to normal people. And intelligence is the stat every Artificer needs. 

Race or Subrace Choices

Half-Elf – The ultimate generalist. Learn two languages, plus a variable bonus and the common Elven benefits. 

Variant Human – Grab Linguist from level 1, where magical speech is less available, and the feat is far more useful. 

Forest Gnome – Grab a cantrip, which is awesome, and the ability to speak to small animals and other creatures.  

Combos, Tactics, and Synergies

Complementary Feats

Magic Initiate – Learn the Comprehend Languages spell, plus a couple of cantrips, just in case you meet someone you can’t understand

Skill Expert – Learn a skill, then gain Expertise in a skill. Diplomacy is the essential talky skill in 5e, and this feat makes you the best at it. Alternative options are Deception and Intimidation. 

Spells that Synergize

Tongues – If by synergize you mean better than. The Tongues spell lets a character speak to literally anyone. 

Strategies for Maximizing Linguist Effectiveness

Learning ALL the languages

How many languages can a character learn at level 1?

Let’s say you’re playing a game where the party expects to travel the world, and wants to create a build that handles the talking for the party. How do we learn the most languages possible, as early as possible?

• Take the Half-Elf race, which starts with three languages
• Choose a background that provides two languages as part of its benefits
• Several classes also provide one or more languages: Knowledge Domain Clerics learn two. Rangers learn one. Druids learn Druidic, which is a mostly unique option unavailable anywhere else

Adding the linguist feat to this list gives us a character that knows at least 9 languages; more than enough to pick up every single standard language in 5e (8 options) plus one or two exotic choices. 

Linguist vs Magic. What wins?

Anyone with a passing knowledge of the 5e spell list knows that there are options available to solve any language problems a party might run into. Below are two spells that directly compete with the Linguist feat: 

Comprehend Languages

Available to: Bard. Sorcerer. Warlock. Wizard

Comprehend Languages lets the caster touch a creature, which then understands all language it hears, and translates any language they can see and also touch. 

The spell lasts an hour, which is plenty of time to conduct a full conversation or translate a significant chunk of text. Comprehend Languages is also only a level 1 spell, and can even be cast as a ritual so doesn’t eat your spell slots, if the party has a few minutes spare. 

Tongues

Available to: Bard. Cleric. Sorcerer. Warlock. Wizard

The Tongues spell essentially makes language learning in D&D 5e pointless. For an hour, a creature the spell has been cast on understands all spoken language, and when they speak, anything else capable of speaking a language understands them without issue. 

Put simply, a character with Tongues cast on them can have a conversation with literally anything that can speak. 

Final Thoughts on Linguist

Linguist is a feat that exists in 5e. 

But is it good? 

No. 

The feat doesn’t do enough to justify the opportunity cost. Even if magic didn’t solve the same problem with almost no investment or risk, Linguist would still be mostly bad. 

Unless you’re specifically making a build that can talk to anything without requiring magic, there’s little space for Linguist in a normal game of D&D. Great idea. Flawed execution.