Speak with animals

The speak with animals spell empowers the caster to comprehend and communicate with any warm- or cold-blooded normal or giant animal that is not mindless. The caster is able to ask questions of and receive answers from the creature, although friendliness and cooperation are by no means assured. Furthermore, terseness and evasiveness are likely in basically wary and cunning creatures (the more stupid ones will instead make inane comments). If the animal is friendly or of the same general alignment as the caster, it may do some favor or service for the him or her. This spell allows conversation only with normal or giant nonfantastic creatures such as apes, bears, cats, dogs, elephants, and so on.

Note: This version of speak with animals originally appeared in the 2nd Edition Player's Handbook for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons from TSR. Its use here is for the purposes of providing context for the campaign only.