Allow Monks to Lore Understand Secret Languages

[Nevrus]

So! This digs in to one of my favorite and most flavorful monk abilities, Tongue of the Sun and Moon.

In the lore/tabletop, Tongue of the Sun and Moon allows for monks to understand all words regardless of the language, and to be understood by all creatures regardless of the language they speak.

That's completely overpowered in an information-scarcity loving environment like Arelith, so it's been reduced to a bonus to lore checking languages. That's fine.

However, I think it would be a reeeeeal neat RP cookie if at some level beyond the realm of dip - 10, 20, or 28 - monks could start understanding 'secret' languages that otherwise couldn't be lore-checked, such as Animal, Sign Language, and Thieves' Cant. The idea behind the ability is that the monk isn't necessarily comprehending the words themselves, but pseudo-telepathically understanding the meaning that is attempting to be conveyed.

I think this power should also apply to otherwise intelligent beings turning into animals and attempting to speak complex thoughts through animal sounds and body language, because they're 'thinking' real hard about what they're saying.

This would obviously not allow the monk to speak these languages; that's the Loremaster's territory. Just have a chance with a normal lore check to understand what's being said.

Why only monks, and not Bards and Loremasters? Because they assemble knowledge of communication to figure it out, whereas monks perform mystical feats of ki in order to do so.

This also should only apply to players- no interrogating NPC animals for information, because they're not intelligent enough.

Thanks for reading!