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Which languages show up most often in second edition PFS scenarios?

I'm finalizing a build of a character for Pathfinder Society play, and I'm trying to decide which choices to make for the large number of languages my character knows. I would like to see which languages show up most often (or most exclusively) in second edition PFS scenarios (without too many spoilers).

My character is a Gnome Bard with a variety of linguistic features I'd like to be able to use on friends and foes alike. I've built them with the Printer background, the Gnome Polyglot ancestry feat and the Linguist dedication taken at second level. My intelligence modifier is +1. This means I speak 16 languages in total (three from my race, one from intelligence, three from Gnome Polyglot, and nine from having the Multilingual feat three times with the Gnome Polyglot bonus).

These are languages I automatically know from my race:

  • Common (a.k.a. Taldane)
  • Fey
  • Gnomish

These languages have come up in PFS scenarios I've played (not all with this character). I expect to be taking all of these, but I might be persuaded otherwise:

  • Draconic

  • Dwarven

  • Iruxi

  • Jotun (The specific language I encountered was Ancient Cyclopean, but I'd prefer to learn living languages.)

    And three human regional languages:

  • Kaelish

  • Osiriani

  • Tien

I'd appreciate guidance on how to optimize my last six language picks from this list (or more, if I should skip any of the languages above):

  • Common languages:
    • Elven
    • Goblin
    • Halfling
    • Orcish
    • Sakvroth
  • Uncommon Languages:
    • Aklo
    • Chthonian
    • Diabolic
    • Various elemental languages (there are too many!)
  • And human regional languages:
    • Hallit
    • Mwangi
    • Shoanti
    • Skald
    • Varisian
    • Vudrani

My current picks are Elven, Goblin, Halfling, Sakvroth, Chthonian and Diabolic. I might pick up four or five of the elemental languages later if I get Society to Master and increase my Intelligence.

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I‘d like to answer with a slight frame challenge: the level of specificity you are looking for is not needed. Even if you knew the absolute occurrences of languages in all of these adventures, you still will play some, and not others - and can expect to play only a very a small sample of the total, so it will heavily depend on which ones you end up playing. So a rough idea how common certain languages are in the game might suffice here.

Also, not all languages are equally useful or important. If the creatures in question can also speak common, speaking their native language is at best a roleplaying benefit that maybe can give you some circumstance goodwill, but in most cases, you can just speak common with them. It matters much more for those that do not speak common, undercommon, draconic or one of the other widely used languages.

If you want to get an overview of how many monsters speak each language, here is a table. This may not be exactly what you are looking for, but it still can give you an idea how likely you will run into a language.

I also would value languages of monsters that are likely to be your foes a little higher, as this allows you to understand instructions they may shout to each other, or clandestinely intercept or spy on their messages to each other.

I think your choices are pretty good. I would definitely pick Aklo for the rest, not only is it one of the most commonly spoken languages, but also the one where the speakers most often do not speak common.

Looking at how common languages are overall, especially among opponents, I also would take Sakvroth (was: Undercommon), Cthonian (was: Abyssal), and maybe Diabolic (was: Infernal) and Necril. Fey (was: Sylvan) is pretty good, as there is some overlap with Elven speakers, so you kill two birds with one stone. With it, I‘d probably skip Elvish. The most common regional dialect is Mwangi, and none of its speakers speak common. I‘d ditch Halfling, Elvish if I had Fey. Orc and Goblin are not on many critters, but if the adventure has these opponents, there tend to be lots of them, and they are often used monsters. I‘d probably pick those over some if the more rarely used human dialects.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks for this answer. Sylvan appears to have been renamed in the remaster to Fey, so it's one I already have from my race. I'll see if I can stretch to get Aklo and Necril in my build without giving up too many common racial languages. I was hoping to avoid Mwangi, since I've already got Osiriani and Kelesh which are spoken in the northern and eastern parts of Garund (with a fair amount of overlap), but I do see what you mean about some creatures in the Mwangi Expanse only speaking their own regional language. \$\endgroup\$ Commented yesterday
  • \$\begingroup\$ Ah yes, thank you about Fey/Sylvan that one I had missed, updated. \$\endgroup\$ Commented 21 hours ago

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