World of Warcraft®

Broll Bearmantle has no dialogue whilst in his animal forms and as far as I'm aware the only incidents where a druid speaks coherrant lingo in one of his/her forms is during in-game quest lines, and more often than not the quests aren't entirely serious.

I don't really roleplay anymore but I'm still passionate about the lore. I might not be 100% correct, but I thought my input would be useful. :L

I don't want to make a new thread for this question, so I'll ask it here.

Moonkin form. Does it make sense? And if it does, is it just for Night Elves?

I personally, would have to say that Druids should be allowed to have the ability to be able to speak in animal form. Azeroth is a place full of magic, fantasy and myths. From Dragons, Elves, flying carpets, Motorbikes, demons and And them pesky little Gnomes, things.
Anyways, I really can't see the presence of the odd talking cat or bird, causes any trouble apart from the occassional raised eyebrow.
I suppose we could actually cast a vote on it?

Vote: Aye!

08/05/2012 11:51Posted by Mattiaus

I personally, would have to say that Druids should be allowed to have the ability to be able to speak in animal form. Azeroth is a place full of magic, fantasy and myths. From Dragons, Elves, flying carpets, Motorbikes, demons and And them pesky little Gnomes, things.

In that regard Krothar should be able to change his body shape at will, be it into a dragon or an icecream cone. Because it's magic.

05/05/2012 23:16Posted by Mattiaus

Aslan the Lion does it.

Case closed.

08/05/2012 12:56Posted by Krothar

In that regard Krothar should be able to change his body shape at will, be it into a dragon or an icecream cone. Because it's magic.

There's actually a book in Dalaran about how more exotic polymorphs got outlawed/scrapped or something. No ice cream though.

The real question is would the Ice-Cream-Cone-Form be able to talk?

09/05/2012 19:41Posted by Zeccadory

The real question is would the Ice-Cream-Cone-Form be able to talk?

Not only talk but shoot strawberry flavoured sauce from it's mouth.

My wife's called Strawberry, and she doesn't half shoot off at the mouth!

I personally, would have to say that Druids should be allowed to have the ability to be able to speak in animal form. Azeroth is a place full of magic, fantasy and myths. From Dragons, Elves, flying carpets, Motorbikes, demons and And them pesky little Gnomes, things.
Anyways, I really can't see the presence of the odd talking cat or bird, causes any trouble apart from the occassional raised eyebrow.
I suppose we could actually cast a vote on it?

Vote: Aye!

That is a point. If they are able to shapeshift then why not bring their vocal chords too? it would make sense.

also... I VOTE FOR ICE CREAM FORM! New tree of life ftw? heals with the power of awesomeness?

If they can or can't, it's always good to act like you don't understand them either way, being an ignorant Hick and all that.

You either say, yeah, they can talk in their cat form. Or you say no, and you feed the evidence for Cat form having it's own [cat] language. Me, i'd prefer just a cat speaking common or elvish myself.

I'm against druids talking in any kind of form other than their humanoid form, been so for years.. I can't personally take a person seriously if they talk as a cat, bear and what not.. Azeroth might be a place of magic and all, but I personally prefer to keep some measure of realism in my RP.

And as for the whole being able to interact with NPCs while being shapeshifted.. You still growl and all that while fighting, so to me it is nothing more than convenience for the player..

This is of course just my two cents, but everyone have their own preferences of course.

I vehemently oppose any animals talking. The way I see the act of shapeshifting, various things about the druid's mind and body are changed. Let's take Cat, for instance.

As well as the obvious changes of body (which I'll explain later) there's also the added....Catiness overlayed onto the mind of the druid; all the extra information they have to deal with, the instinct prodding them at the back of the mind- this is why it's dangerous to stay in an Animal Form for too long. Because you start to think you're a Cat. You go Feral. Whether the Druid-in-Cat will be able to coherently talk in this state of mind is debatable.

The physical changes are also very important. This argument of 'Just bring over the vocal chords,' to me sounds very silly. Language and human speech is just as much about mouth shape and how we use our tongues to form sounds. The sound of 'L,' for example involves touching the roof of your mouth with your tongue and basically flicking it past your teeth. When you are a Cat, and have an -entirely different- Tongue and Mouth/jaw/Palate you may well not be able to form the sounds required to speak at all.

Aside from that; I think it's FAR better roleplay to, if you are in your animal form, react to things and try and communicate (if you must) as an animal. Body Language is fun; flick your ears, look at things, snort, sniff, growl if you must. There's a lot of things Animals do to communicate what they're thinking.

Most of all, remember this; druids don't take their animal forms lightly. They're not for fun. They're functional and, in some respects, dangerous. So don't be wandering around Bars and Purring at people.

What Dannelor said.
The feral forms of druids are not toys. From the bear form quest and the barrow den mission in warcraftIII, it should be clear that there can be a layer to it where you merge with the spirit of the bear to be in bear form.
These limitations and consequences opens up for a lot of RP.

Opposed to just running around going "mewmew, haha I'm a cat. purr."

Animals cannot talk in the usual sense, as their vocal chords are different from us. Druids shapeshifts into animals with the same anatomy, thus they cannot talk.
... If that makes any sense.
Of course, this is World of Warcraft. There are supposed to be some unsual things. But druids speaking in different forms simply feels wrong in my opinion.
Besides, it can be interesting trying to communicate through other ways than speaking while shapeshifted.

personally played druid which did not talk ... on the other hand ... there was damn dragon size of the Titanic and guy who led countless thousands of undead ... why would someone shun a druid who speaks in feral form...

Dannelor's got it right.
And even if we do disregard all the lore and pretend that animal forms are completely safe, easy, and you can magically talk... Why would you?

I can understand a Gilnean druid doing it, since humans are short-lived and stupid, but... What in the world would a wise, millenia-old Night Elf druid with thousands of years of training benefit from sitting around as a cat in a tavern? PURRING? I don't understand.

13/05/2012 08:39Posted by Amadea

on the other hand ... there was damn dragon size of the Titanic and guy who led countless thousands of undead ... why would someone shun a druid who speaks in feral form...

Because one thing being okayed in the setting doesn't necessarily mean the other is.

You also don't generally come across huge dragons or a guy followed by an army of zombies trying to talk to you in Rp.

13/05/2012 12:42Posted by Miern

And even if we do disregard all the lore and pretend that animal forms are completely safe, easy, and you can magically talk... Why would you?

The lore technically says they're capable of it. There's also two Npcs in animal forms talking to one another in Hyjal because they're in the middle of a fight - if they shifted out to go 'yo man dodge this' that could waste vital seconds. Will agree that just walking around as a talking cat in the city because no reason is daft though, it'll scare the locals or something.

The lore technically says they're capable of it. There's also two Npcs in animal forms talking to one another in Hyjal because they're in the middle of a fight - if they shifted out to go 'yo man dodge this' that could waste vital seconds.

I'm inclined to lean towards the 'game mechanics don't always accurately represent lore' argument, here, based on Dannelor's nailhead-hitting post.