Multi-Lingual
(• to •••••)
Effect: The character either has knack for languages or grew up in a culture that teaches several different tongues. In addition to the character’s native Language, the player may choose two languages for every dot in this Merit that the character speaks conversationally.
Note that the character cannot speak effortlessly in these languages. Communicating quickly or over the telephone requires an Intelligence + Wits roll, and talking about anything esoteric (including humor, politics and certainly occult matters) imposes a penalty of –1 to –3 dice. Reading the Language requires an Intelligence + Academics or Wits roll (depending on how the character learned the Language; study or immersion, respectively), and writing something coherent in the Language requires a roll of Wits + Academics or Intelligence (again, study or immersion). Even if these rolls succeed, the character’s utterances or writings obviously come from a non-native, unless the player rolls an exceptional success, in which case the character manages to sound like a native-born speaker of the Language for a few moments.
The player can spend one experience point for the character to become fluent in one of languages covered by this Merit.
Note that the character cannot speak effortlessly in these languages. Communicating quickly or over the telephone requires an Intelligence + Wits roll, and talking about anything esoteric (including humor, politics and certainly occult matters) imposes a penalty of –1 to –3 dice. Reading the Language requires an Intelligence + Academics or Wits roll (depending on how the character learned the Language; study or immersion, respectively), and writing something coherent in the Language requires a roll of Wits + Academics or Intelligence (again, study or immersion). Even if these rolls succeed, the character’s utterances or writings obviously come from a non-native, unless the player rolls an exceptional success, in which case the character manages to sound like a native-born speaker of the Language for a few moments.
The player can spend one experience point for the character to become fluent in one of languages covered by this Merit.
Note: Multi-Lingual is a cheaper to 4 dots then costs the same as the Language Merit at dot 5 (if you're spending an XP to become fluent in every language granted by the merit.)