# How to play a mute character



## wlmartin (Jul 15, 2011)

I have a character that I am keen to create a build for but intend to Roleplay him as follows

: Does not talk to people

I can play him as a snob that is adventuring to prove things to his family but will not talk to those without wealth or station

I can play him instead as some kind of Monk or other spiritual class that has a reason to be silent.

I can play him as someone who has no pyshical ability to talk (not from intelligence but more from missing a tongue or no vocal cords)

I do however see the major game playing problem of a character that doesnt speak. The only way I could consider getting around that would be telepathy and a way for either a direct telepathic conversation or to talk telepathicaly through another object / creature.

Shardmind : Talk telepathicaly
Psion : Talk telepathicaly
Ranger (with beast) : Talk through the beast (unsure how that would work)
Shaman : Talk through spirit companion

I don't want to create a new class or race just for the purpose of being able to remain silent but will do so if I can't think of another course of action.


It is just playing someone with no ability to talk, something that you take for granted in D&D is quite a nice twist on Roleplaying.

Anyone got any ideas?


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## fba827 (Jul 15, 2011)

I have to say, based on the possibilities you wrote up above, the snob approach seems the most unique and fun (to me anyway -- i may have to steal it for a PC of my own sometime).

My reasoning is this:
The monk idea is pretty much what i've seen countless times before except it was loss of sight or some other basic sense.
Similarly with the person physically unable to speak - it is just a twist on not having one of the other senses, and i've seen the blind pc and the deaf pc before.
But the snob approach isn't someone who lost one of his senses or speech, it is instead someone who chooses not to speak in certain situations, so it leaves an opening to have some variety in future scenarios such as you can have a political meeting where you get a chance to be a bit more talk-y than you have the rest of the campaign, and then you have the question of what can a fellow PC to do earn 'status' in your eyes and eventually have you talk to him/her, and so on.

as to how to handle it game mechanics wise, you could ..........
a) not go the telepathy route and instead always give a simple hand gesture with a look of disgust for yes/no/go/clean this up and then leave the rest up to the consequence of not choosing to speak and yet giving them looks of disgust if not doing what you want them to (like trained servants should!)

b) you could take shardmind (or be a PC from some really exotic culture) and could justify your roleplay choice as a cultural difference for the unique race/culture. which in turn could make telepathy and easily justified alternative

ranger/shaman don't seem like classes that are right for a snob approach unless you're able to take a little creative reflavoring of the class.. for instance, what if the shaman is simply a type of caster (and not necessarily as nature oriented as implied) and that the spirit companion is a ghost servant/guardian that you command to protect you and do stuff for you and so on (I did something similar once but it was for a one-shot, but it worked out well).  Thus you could talk to the spirit companion, and the other PCs can overhear  (technically i don't think your spirit companion can talk, but your DM may be willing to house rule  something such that your spirit companion can relay messages/instructions that you give him to give to other PCs).

in any case, sounds fun.


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## Nullzone (Jul 15, 2011)

If you take any route that limits your ability to communicate at the table, make absolutely sure that the other players are okay with it first, or are prepared to simply be swept aside in all conversations.


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## hipnotode (Jul 15, 2011)

i once rolled a human monk/wizard who had a raven familiar who spoke for him.


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## whiteheadw (Jul 15, 2011)

Drow sign language or variant could be fun to use.
WTW


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## DracoSuave (Jul 15, 2011)

Playing a mute character is an interesting roleplaying challenge.

However, I don't think it means much if you're telepathic and just not speaking.  That's not really mute.

One solution is to communicate through another PC through sign language.  Basically pass them notes to read for you.  If you can find a PC willing to be your accomplice with a tied backstory, this can actually prove to be very rewarding roleplay and provide some good party cohesion.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 15, 2011)

There is a line in the Charlie Hunter song "Desert Way" about a man who carried a jagged stone in his mouth to learn how to be silent...

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPLVVbS1tsQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player]‪Desert Way‬‏ - YouTube[/ame]

The snobberry angle is cool.

So might a simple linguistic barrier.


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## Ryujin (Jul 15, 2011)

There's a feat called "Elan Heritage", that gives you telepathic communication with a range of 5. It also changes origin to Immortal and gives a damage reduction power. 

Were it me then I think that I'd play him as a genetic mute (inherited inability to speak), with limited telepathy, who's a snob who sees himself as being above 'less evolved' creatures, who communicate by making noise. He might deign to communicate with the party, on rare occasion, as lesser creatures who have proven themselves to at least be useful.


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## wlmartin (Jul 15, 2011)

DracoSuave said:


> Playing a mute character is an interesting roleplaying challenge.
> 
> However, I don't think it means much if you're telepathic and just not speaking.  That's not really mute.
> 
> One solution is to communicate through another PC through sign language.  Basically pass them notes to read for you.  If you can find a PC willing to be your accomplice with a tied backstory, this can actually prove to be very rewarding roleplay and provide some good party cohesion.




First, It wont let me +1 you as I must have done it recently, so let me just say +1 on the above

You are 100% right, Telepathic whilst avoiding physical mutism does cheat based on what my core motivation is, which is to not talk (they would hear me talk in their heads)

I do like the other ideas posted about having someone speak for me.
The reason I got the idea in my head is from watching an Episode of Babylon 5, watching the Gaaim talking in their Breen-Stylie suits and it translated for them... the idea that the Gaaim COULD learn the language but chose not to is an interesting idea.

I think I need to determine what sub-set of this mutism I want to follow

a) Selective mutism, acts like a snob and either refuses to learn the language (knows only his race language, not common) or refuses to speak to people not worth it.
b) Natural mutism, either through injury or born with. I would need to figure out a clever way to talk to people as the NEED to talk will be there but the ABILITY to talk would be unavailable.

I think roleplaying the first option is far too CE for my liking. And since we arent ALLOWED to be CE , doing my impression of Edwin, the Red Wizard of Thay from Baldurs Gate probably wont cut it with my fellow players.

I do think that the natural mutism would work. I would have to ignore the idea of shardmind, as whilst they a naturaly mute - since their telepathy bypasses the need for it I wouldnt be playing a disadvantage, i would just be playing a Shardmind!

So... now I am torn between 2 things

1 : Having someone to talk for me
2 : Having a way to communicate non-verbally

If I want someone to talk to me, I am going to have to rely on semaphore, sign language or some kind of visual rather than aural cues and mannerisms. I suppose this is doable but considering that I would still need to SPEAK to the players IRL, telling them that I am waving my hands around and you understand that as "I will flank them from this position" seems a bit redundant.. cute for the first session but massivly annoying after.

However if I can find something to talk through, that would mean I would just be saying things like "Salvon's blue magic says - I, Flank, here"

So narrowing that down further I am torn between the method to do this.

1 : Shaman, spirit guide is linked telepathicaly to the Shaman and talks for him
2 : Beastmaster who has 2 creatures, a talking bird and the normal attacking animal. The bird talks for him (just like a pirates parrot!)
3 : A device that talks for me
4 : An NPC that accompanies me everywhere and talks on my behalf using telepathy (Just like Tok, the servitor from the Babylon 5 episode where Ivanovva has fake sex with the Diplomat from the new civilization). He is unwilling to attack and during battle will hide. He can die and would basically be a (enter my level here) minion for combat purposes but does not fight. Should he die, I will no doubt find another hireling who will do so for me... there must be some kind of ritual I can perform that allows me to impart a pyshic link between me and this other person.... perhaps in instances where I am without the servitor, I can perform the ritual to become linked to another PC

I do like this last one, to make it seem like I am losing something for the value of having a servant walk around with me (even if he wouldnt fight for me, others may see it as some kind of special treatment... why can't "I" have a lacky!) --- to make it seem fair, I would sacrifice 10% of my gold to pay for his services, it is assumed that he levels as I do or is replaced with a new servitor of higher level each time I level... so although 10% of my gold at 1st-2nd level is not much, at 20th it may seem like a fortune but the trade off is that I have a stronger minion to accompany me.

I suppose some advantages of this, considering he won't fight may be that occasionaly he will be attacked by monsters and this distraction could be seen as unfair, so the gold penalty seems a good counter



*I am conflicted and could use some further suggestions?!?!*


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## Wednesday Boy (Jul 18, 2011)

I love the mute character idea and it can be an interesting roleplaying challenge as long as you go into it with the proper expectations and your party is on board and helps promote the idea.

I've played two mute characters one was an L5R samurai whose backstory had them consciously choosing to be mute (out of frustration because my own verbal blunders got two previous characters killed) and the other was an R2 unit. And I've played in another SW game with a gamorrean PC.

I should first caveat that if you want to play a mute character, you should go into it full bore and not give yourself an out. To echo DS:



DracoSuave said:


> Playing a mute character is an interesting roleplaying challenge.
> 
> However, I don't think it means much if you're telepathic and just not speaking. That's not really mute.




That's not to say that playing a telepathic character who never speaks aloud isn't cool but I presume you're making your character mute for a roleplaying challenge. If you create a perpetual work around for being mute (telepathy, device/animal who talks for you) you ruin that roleplaying experience.

My three mute experiences taught me that for a mute character to work well the major expectations you need to accept is that your character will not be a social character and you will only be able to convey minimal ideas. When I played my samurai I would use rudimentary sign language to communicate to the other PCs. If a mob was getting out of hand and someone was in trouble, I'd respond whistle to get the attention of the party, point urgently towards the trouble, and lead the way. On the other hand when that situation happened in our SW game the gamorrean tried to pantomime the cause of how the mob started to get out of hand and what he tried to do to quell it. That resulted in the RPG devolving into a game of charades and caused frustration for everyone. 

Another expectation is that your character should be dynamic. Since your character's personality and demeanor can't be vocalized, you need to display that through descriptions of your demeanor and what your character is doing while others speak. And you should be willing to "move the conversation forward" by being more proactive. Since your character cannot contribute to lengthy discussions, you often have to be ready to act in order to get your point across to the others. Note that I'm not advocating being reckless or an instigator, but often you can contribute to a deliberation by physically doing something.

And lastly it's good to have buy-in from the other players. Personally I don't think it requires very much effort on the part of the other players, nor does a mute character interfere with the fun of the other players. But it helps to have the other PCs play off of the mute character to help promote the character concept. My R2 unit character flopped as a mute character because some of the other PCs spoke binary (droid) and wanted to speak normally together (circumventing the purpose of playing an R2 unit). Likewise, the R2 unit didn't have an established owner so there was no PC to riff with by speaking for the droid at times.

Sorry for the long post but hopefully there's some useful advice in there!


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## mneme (Jul 19, 2011)

I think, frankly, that all of "I'm mute (for whatever reason; the player we had who played up the mute thing actually had taken a vow of silence in-game), and communicate only via gestures", "I'm mute and communicate via a slate (which can be epic if the player actually uses a slate and has to get people to pause if they want them to listen)", "I'm mute (or only speak a language nobody else speaks), but my hireling/familiar/animal companion can talk for me", and even "I'm mute, but communicate via telepathy" are interesting roleplaying challenges of varying levels.

The only one that's kinda a cheat is "I'm mute, but communicate all the time via telepathy" -- that's actually a fun roleplaying choice, but isn't really mute; it does mean you're limited to the frequency of telepathic messages and maybe the willingness of your allies to accept telepathic contact; if an ally refuses to let you into their head, it becomes more fun.  And some telepathy is LOS -- this means that darkness and blindness might be a big issue for you.

Other than that, even if you're able to communicate via a slate, an NPC, or even a companion, the feel and the nature of communication changes.  There's a big difference between you talking and an associated NPC talking, and situations will come up where the NPC talking instead of you is a real hindrance.

Telepathic options: (note that telepathy 5 is full telepathy within LOE (not LOS)) within Heroic:

Shardmind: telepathy 5
Kalishtar: telepathy 5
Ardent: At will telepathy ,but you have to attack the target (but not necessarily hit them).
Telepathic Psion: Per-encounter two-way telepathy within LOS with a 25 word limit (each way).
Far Thought feat: Daily telepathy 5 within LOS for 5 minutes.
Elan Heritage feat: (requires Humanoid, you become Immortal) telepathy 5
Linked Spirit feat: (requires Shardmind and shaman; your telepathy can use your spirit as an origin as well as you).
Command Circlet Item: (level 5 Head, Requires Living Construct--Shardmind or warforged): gain Telepathy 20 LOS.


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## Ryujin (Jul 19, 2011)

mneme said:


> I think, frankly, that all of "I'm mute (for whatever reason; the player we had who played up the mute thing actually had taken a vow of silence in-game), and communicate only via gestures", "I'm mute and communicate via a slate (which can be epic if the player actually uses a slate and has to get people to pause if they want them to listen)", "I'm mute (or only speak a language nobody else speaks), but my hireling/familiar/animal companion can talk for me", and even "I'm mute, but communicate via telepathy" are interesting roleplaying challenges of varying levels.
> 
> The only one that's kinda a cheat is "I'm mute, but communicate all the time via telepathy" -- that's actually a fun roleplaying choice, but isn't really mute; it does mean you're limited to the frequency of telepathic messages and maybe the willingness of your allies to accept telepathic contact; if an ally refuses to let you into their head, it becomes more fun.
> 
> Other than that, even if you're able to communicate via a slate, an NPC, or even a companion, the feel and the nature of communication changes.  There's a big difference between you talking and an associated NPC talking, and situations will come up where the NPC talking instead of you is a real hindrance.




One thing about the "telepathy cheat", is that the easiest mechanical way to obtain it has a range of a mere 5 squares. That, alone, makes it a pretty limited form of communication.


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## Unwise (Jul 19, 2011)

I play in a single player campaign and am looking at running two or maybe three characters at once. As such, having one who is mute can actually make the game flow more easily.

In my case, the guy in question 'knows too much' about something. He holds an epic secret. Vecna in his role as the 'keeper of secrets' has made sure that the guy will never communicate it properly. This could take the form of an oath made to save himself and his family, or a magical geas he is under and a physical incapacity to communicate that particular information.

I like the idea of the guy seemingly doing random and odd things, acting off information nobody else knows. For instance, they meet a local lord and this guy assassinates him when the others though the lord was good. He steals a seemingly worthless holy symbol from an obscure shrine, but won't tell anyone why etc.

Another mute character I have toyed with is a warforged who simply does not have a mouth, or has a beastial mouth incapable of making humanoid sounds. The character concept I am going for with this guy is that he is a 'Chinese' warforged, a terracotta warrior made by an ancient emperor. The emperor had no reason to make functional mouths on the terracotta warriors, they just have an unshifting mask of a face (I am leaning towards the cool samurai mask look). I just like the idea of a pottery golem as a warforged, seems to make more sense to me than the normal ones, I can never get my head around what they are made from.


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 19, 2011)

Too bad this is 4Ed.

In 3.5Ed, I might make a mute Sorcerer using Black Bolt as my model- possibly as a full-on martial arcanist...

Take Infernal Heritage & Infernal Sorcerer Shout, possibly Silent Spell and Arcane Strike...and never speak, because to do so is to _destroy._

AFAIK, nothing like that exists in 4Ed...though I don't know that the mechanics of 4Ed require things like verbal components.


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## pathfinderq1 (Jul 19, 2011)

I've played a mute character for a live-combat LARP (a fighter bodyguard to a friend's cleric), and had a lot of fun with it.  Many of the tricks could be used for tabletop as well: first of all, you can 'talk' around the table to tell people or the GM what you are physically doing- that helps a lot with keeping things clear.  I used a bunch of pre-printed cards for things I needed to express often (my name, where I was from, and common words: thank you, (get a) healer, I challenge you, that sort of thing), as well as writing implements for anything I didn't have pre-written.  Some epic fun was involved in situations where I had to interact with (in-game) illiterate or very talkative people, or where I figured out a puzzle before otehrs and had to get theri attention and write out the answers under time pressure.  I also carried a small whistle to get people's attention in chaotic situations, and used a lot of simple hand signals.  It was a blast most of the time...


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## Hyatt (Jul 19, 2011)

True story:  Some years ago, I had a player in my game who was a dwarven mute.  Whenever he wanted to communicate, he would write what he wanted to say in Dwarven, and another party member (also a dwarf) would translate it into Common for the rest of the party.

Hilarity eventually ensued when the 2nd player decided to start mistranslating everything the mute was writing down.  Imagine the most juvenile self-deprecating things one could say, and, ummm, yeah, you get the idea.  My players still chuckle over it years later.


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## occam (Jul 19, 2011)

Another option: a mute wizard with _ghost sound_. I think it's a little unclear if you can produce words without speaking them yourself, but at the very least you can use it for entertaining accompaniment to your pantomime.


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## Evilhalfling (Jul 20, 2011)

wow no one said : this is a bad idea?

I will be the first: This is a bad idea. 

As either a player or DM I would find this annoying, and a hindrance to RP and party unity.  Few characters I have played would be friends with someone who would not talk to them.  And as others have mentioned it will distance you from a big part of the game. 

The telepathy/talking beast/NPC servant idea would fix most of the problems, but would inevitably get killed.  A familiar might work better as you expect them to die, and bringing them back is only a short rest away. 

If you must play this special snowflake, try it as a guest appearance for 2-3 sessions, and have a second, more party friendly character ready to go.


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## wlmartin (Jul 20, 2011)

Evilhalfling said:


> wow no one said : this is a bad idea?
> 
> I will be the first: This is a bad idea.
> 
> ...




Boooooooo!!!  j/k 

It is hard to get some originality into a D&D game.
If you have fleshed out every build and there are things you just need to do to make the game feel more vital, this is up there!

I suppose if my own DM in my weekly game had the same opinion as you, I would find massive rocks and boulders hurtling at me (and avoiding others) in the aim to kill me (yay! I have great Athletics + Acrobatics) and should he eventually snuff me out, what would you know, not a single piece of my body is left to be raised! muahahaaaa

IMO, most issues with the speed and immersion of D&D gameplay comes from less IC and more OOC play. Our own DM has recently put a mail out to the group asking us to cut down on the table talk as it is cutting into the flow of the game. We are talking during other peoples turns and I can count on one hand how many times someone as actually said something OOC in a session (it is usually "I tell Jeff the Dwarf that I am going to run over here" and not "Jeff, Im running over here")

I can see your point and perhaps it isnt something that I will end up doing... I do however think that something like this is a fun idea, perhaps something worth trying for a temporary character or for a fixed amount of time (ie muted by a spell for a session etc)


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## Wednesday Boy (Jul 20, 2011)

Evilhalfling said:


> wow no one said : this is a bad idea?
> 
> I will be the first: This is a bad idea.
> 
> As either a player or DM I would find this annoying, and a hindrance to RP and party unity. Few characters I have played would be friends with someone who would not talk to them.




I'd agree if the character was mute because of snobbery, like was mentioned above. But a PC being mute for other reasons in no way should hinder party unity or mean they're not party friendly. A mute character can be just as valuable and loyal a party member as any other party member. Did Snake-Eyes hinder G.I.Joe's unity?  Of course not.  He just wasn't as loquacious as Roadblock or Shipwreck.

In my experience as long as the GM and other players keep an open mind about a mute character and actively engage the character, it will be a perfectly harmonious game.


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## Ryujin (Jul 20, 2011)

Evilhalfling said:


> wow no one said : this is a bad idea?
> 
> I will be the first: This is a bad idea.
> 
> ...




If it's role playing, and doesn't really put out the rest of the party, then there's no such thing as 'bad.' I would argue that what I did with a character created far more potential issues, than simply being a mute. My character, a Warlock, went everywhere while wearing a Noh mask. 

Well let's see..... Gets power from some otherworldly entity and won't show his face? Instant distrust. Before our group became local rock stars, NPCs would ask me if I was some sort of criminal. Having a high CHA and being able to generate truly ridiculous Diplomacy, and Bluff numbers tended to eventually smooth things out, but we always started in the hole. 

Also didn't help that the guy, who was automatically distrusted, was the group's 'faceman.'


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## Dannyalcatraz (Jul 21, 2011)

I thought I had participated in a similar thread before:  Lo and behold!  It was one of mine!

http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-legacy-discussion/137316-man-few-words-2.html


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## MortalPlague (Jul 21, 2011)

As an alternative, perhaps he's mostly mute?  Maybe your character took a sword slash to the throat, and now he can only speak in a harsh whisper, and only then with great pain.  Or perhaps he was hanged and lived, but the rope damaged his larynx.  Then he can speak, but he only does when it's very, very important.


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## jbear (Jul 21, 2011)

occam said:


> Another option: a mute wizard with _ghost sound_. I think it's a little unclear if you can produce words without speaking them yourself, but at the very least you can use it for entertaining accompaniment to your pantomime.



This is how my swordmage/wizard communicates when he has to speak more than normal.

He has a bad stutter which he is highly embarrassed about and so avoids talking unless it is necessary. The stutter stems from a traumatic event in his past. Funnily enough when he speaks of revenging himself against the author of said traumatic event the stutter completely disappears (not that he notices that).

The stutter also lessens when he is using magic. So he has learnt that by flicking a magical coin  into the air repeatedly (predigistation) he can lessen the stutter considerably.

But, sometimes you need to get a lot of information across without wrestling with words, so he uses Ghost Sound. I have him drop his head when this happens. I think a bluff roll would be necessary to try and make it appear as though he were actually talking. Also the quality of the voice, though his, is just off. There is something haunting, wierd and unpleasant about hearing his voice this way. And it is something the character dislikes to do in extremis.

This is how I try and express my characters Charisma of 8. He's a smart guy (Int 18) with lots of good ideas. He's even fairly sensitive and wise (Wis 13). But he really struggles to get those ideas across. And when he does manage it they way they are communicated are none too convincing.

I  think it is important for you to decide as a player how much you want to be involved in the RP side of the game. A mute PC with limited or no ways to comunicate will mean a certain self-margianlisationin those areas. If you do want to participate in those areas, despite the limited ability to communicate, then you need to figure out how you are going to do that as a player first, and then translate it into how your PC manages that. 

I wanted my PCs communication to be limited to reflect a weakness in his mechanical stats. But as a player I want to be involved in everything going on in the game. What I wrote above was my solution to that.


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## falcarrion (Jul 23, 2011)

you could give the player medallions that he holds up to show the other players. Each one would have a different meaning.


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## falcarrion (Jul 23, 2011)

you could give the player medallions that he holds up to show the other players. Each one would have a different meaning.


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