Freldo's a smart guy, (14 Int on a Bard), and he surely could make some sense out of what
Dumb-as-a-Stump signs but I have a few concerns about this.
Reading
Stump's submission, it's clear that "
he can’t speak and he communicates with rudimentary signs". However his use of signs is nothing but exceptional - he can communicate complex (as in non-rudimentary) thoughts and ideas.
Mute characters are intresting but, IMVHO, require a lot more work on the part of the player to allow other characters to understand what he's trying to say, a simple example would be *points to his blood dripping from his wounds and makes a hurt face* (a very subjective "Heal me!"). Remember that inteligence
and dexterity would limit ones comunicating skills along with line of sight and distance.
Just prefixing "*Gestures and signs*" and saying something like "Are you going to the crypts? Erag wants me to fetch an essence" isn't exactly using rudimentary signs.
Again, in my opinion, it's tough, but if you start your character that way, you must know that developing a character that way is pretty hard. I think that Redhawk should be more conscious of this, Stump has a REAL problem with communication, you can't just pretend it doesn't exist just because game mechanics allow it. May I suggest he use whisper for more complex ideas and talk for signing?
On my part, last night I was really tired to adequately role play this, but I'll remember this and act accordingly - despite my knowledge that other characters with less Int (compared to Freldo's) will interpret Stump's signing perfectly and probably mock Freldo for not understanding the big friendly half-giant.