[ACT 3 SPOILERS] Boo+Speak With Animals

[Orion Invictus]

I can't understand a single word Boo says despite having Speak With Animals cast. Is that normal?

[Farsha]

Boo is not a normal animal, he's a miniature giant space hamster.
You speak animal not inter-dimensional alien.

Also it's by design, it's a joke... or is it?

[Yaldabaoth]

Boo is immune to all magical and physical effects.

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by Farsha:

Boo is not a normal animal, he's a miniature giant space hamster.
You speak animal not inter-dimensional alien.

Also it's by design, it's a joke... or is it?

That's fair.

Originally posted by Yaldabaoth:

Boo is immune to all magical and physical effects.

I very much doubt that, but alright.

[Lani]

Boo's telepathic, which may also hamper your spell.
He doesn't talk to just anyone.

Youtube short with some canon lore by some random dude in a baseball cap:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/b33ntwgdkX8

[Calculus]

Originally posted by Farsha:

Boo is not a normal animal, he's a miniature giant space hamster.
You speak animal not inter-dimensional alien.

Also it's by design, it's a joke... or is it?

I don't think he is... more likely he is someone who shapeshifted into a hamster...
Laezel mentions there are no miniature space hamsters

[Grumpy]

Originally posted by Calculus:

Originally posted by Farsha:

Boo is not a normal animal, he's a miniature giant space hamster.
You speak animal not inter-dimensional alien.

Also it's by design, it's a joke... or is it?

I don't think he is... more likely he is someone who shapeshifted into a hamster...
Laezel mentions there are no miniature space hamsters

If you met a certain ox, you would know we can talk to shapeshifters. Btw your character can ask Minsc why you can't understand Boo even though you speak with animals, great dialogues.

[Calculus]

Originally posted by Grumpy:

Originally posted by Calculus:

I don't think he is... more likely he is someone who shapeshifted into a hamster...
Laezel mentions there are no miniature space hamsters

If you met a certain ox, you would know we can talk to shapeshifters. Btw your character can ask Minsc why you can't understand Boo even though you speak with animals, great dialogues.

But what if shapeshifters don't want to talk with you.
There is also another example of an animal which you can't understand if you don't speak directly with it in act 2

[Farsha]

Originally posted by Calculus:

I don't think he is... more likely he is someone who shapeshifted into a hamster...
Laezel mentions there are no miniature space hamsters

It's a meme, nobody knows if he's just a hamster or really a higher being from different reality.
And Lea'zel is far from scholar on space hamsters, she's very young an inexperienced.
In Druid Grove there is whole book in miniature space hamsters by Volo. (on a bench next to Volo and the Bear)
Nobody knows if Boo is what Minsc says he is or just a rodent and that is the joke.
And the joke is 20+years old now, we'll never know the truth.
And it does not matter, Minsc believes in Boo and that is all he needs.
https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Boo

[A'my]

Giant space hamsters have been a thing since the original Spelljammer, basically the outer space setting of this universe. Boo was added in BG1 as a reference to those, and it's now gone full circle to them being seen as a reference to Boo. Miniature ones do have canon reasons to exist, Lae'zel just doesn't know about them, but Minsc and Boo's communication has always been an enigma either way.

[Calculus]

Originally posted by Farsha:

Originally posted by Calculus:

I don't think he is... more likely he is someone who shapeshifted into a hamster...
Laezel mentions there are no miniature space hamsters

It's a meme, nobody knows if he's just a hamster or really a higher being from different reality.
And Lea'zel is far from scholar on space hamsters, she's very young an inexperienced.
In Druid Grove there is whole book in miniature space hamsters by Volo. (on a bench next to Volo and the Bear)
Nobody knows if Boo is what Minsc says he is or just a rodent and that is the joke.
And the joke is 20+years old now, we'll never know the truth.
And it does not matter, Minsc believes in Boo and that is all he needs.
https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Boo

Don't tell me you would believe in anything that volo wrote...

[Orion Invictus]

Originally posted by Calculus:

Originally posted by Farsha:

It's a meme, nobody knows if he's just a hamster or really a higher being from different reality.
And Lea'zel is far from scholar on space hamsters, she's very young an inexperienced.
In Druid Grove there is whole book in miniature space hamsters by Volo. (on a bench next to Volo and the Bear)
Nobody knows if Boo is what Minsc says he is or just a rodent and that is the joke.
And the joke is 20+years old now, we'll never know the truth.
And it does not matter, Minsc believes in Boo and that is all he needs.
https://baldursgate.fandom.com/wiki/Boo

Don't tell me you would believe in anything that volo wrote...

What, you didn't see the dragon?

[Runic Tunic]

Originally posted by Calculus:

Originally posted by Farsha:

Boo is not a normal animal, he's a miniature giant space hamster.
You speak animal not inter-dimensional alien.

Also it's by design, it's a joke... or is it?

I don't think he is... more likely he is someone who shapeshifted into a hamster...
Laezel mentions there are no miniature space hamsters

Funny enough, it's pretty much confirmed canon in Spelljammer (and by proxy 5e) that normal hamsters don't even exist and never have, and they're actually all miniature giant space hamsters in hiding, apparently. I think Lae'zel questioning their existence is more ot play into the joke than to be taken as a reliable source.


Fun trivia aside, miniature giant space hamsters are labelled as monstrosities, which explains why "speak with animals" doesn't work. So either Boo is a normal hamster and doesn't want to talk to us, or he's probably a miniature giant space hamster.