With the "/v" function, there are a few questions that arise:
1. Should Animal Companions talk? 2. Which Familiars should talk? (A wisp has no mouth)
This is something that, while not vital, bugs me, so i want to know if there are actual guidelines.
Companions ability to talk.
Look at their intelligence, it is 'usually' a good indicator of if they should talk or not.
For animal companions, none should talk I believe.
For familiars, Imps.. I am sure. The others not so much- Mephits, eye-ball and Deep Dragon, I believe so.
Animal companions not at all. They are just an animal the ranger/druid formed a special bond with. Nothing better then a regular boar or deep.. thing.
Ah, so then how do we, IC react when a spider starts chatting away? (Is my new avvy allowed? I didn't put THAT much blood in it. )
I've never seen anybody have their pet rothe or spider talk, but if the case comes up I'd just ignore it. If you want you can kindly tell the player that spiders can't talk in the setting. I'd also let a DM know so we can check out what's down.
As stated, animal companions can not talk. They are actual animals.
As for wizard familiars, if the creature can talk, it can talk. For example, a raven couldn't speak, but an imp could.
As for being polymorphed or wildshaped yourself, if the creature is physically capable of talking normally (such as a troll), then you can speak while in that form. A bear could grunt and growl, a spider would make no verbal sound, and so on.
If you're unsure about whether a certain monster can speak or not, you can always check www.d20srd.org, or ask a DM.
Ravens, as wizard's familiars, can be taught to speak one language their master knows.
Spiders can sort of chitter, too.
Halfbrood Ravens, as wizard's familiars, can be taught to speak one language their master knows.
but would they say anything but 'nevermore'?
by the by, someone had an eye-ball familiar and was rp'ing it in a way that seemed pretty cool by projecting thoughts. it may not be anything special but it freaked the hell out of me, as i hadn't come across one before. forget who it was, but certainly kudos to them.