D&D 5E Awakened Mind

Tanaka Chris · Aug 5, 2015

Hi, provided a telepathic 'channel' has been opened. Can the target respond back? I'm basing this off the general Monster Manual text on Telepathy.
So if I have started the chat, the the other person respond?

"TELEPATHY
Telepathy is a magical ability that allows a monster to communicate mentally with another creature within a specified range. The contacted creature doesn't need to share a language with the monster to communicate in this way with it, but it must be able to understand at least one language. A creature without telepathy can receive and respond to telepathic messages but can't initiate or terminate a telepathic conversation."

Also, does Telepathy HAVE to be in my voice? Or can it be changed much like a real voice?

garnuk · Aug 5, 2015

On the basic level no. There is a higher level ability which allows the recipient to respond back telepathically.

Leatherhead · Aug 5, 2015

The Awakened Mind ability, Psychic Mind, explicitly does not need a language at all for you to communicate into their head. And quite frankly, I have never liked the "voice in your head" approach to telepathy. It's so boring, you have a direct connection to something's mind, you shouldn't be forced to use the medium of words. You should beam raw ideas, sensory input, and emotions instead.

However, it should be obvious it is coming from you, even if you aren't "talking."

For the target to respond, they need to be able to understand a language. This is one of those things I would interpret as being "The capacity to engage in the exchange of information" rather than the hard rule of "does it have a language in the stat block?" Mostly because I think it would be fun to talk to animals, even if the conversation is very limited, or grounded around the sense of smell rather than sight or hearing.

FormerlyHemlock · Aug 6, 2015

Tanaka Chris said:
Hi, provided a telepathic 'channel' has been opened. Can the target respond back? I'm basing this off the general Monster Manual text on Telepathy.
So if I have started the chat, the the other person respond?

According to RAW, yes. "Communicate with" implies bidirectionality. According to RAI and the designers, no, it's intended to be one-way. At my table I ignore RAI and make it bidirectional, because one-way communication is lame compared to Fiendlock's temp HP.

Yaarel · Aug 6, 2015

Hemlock said:
According to RAW, yes. "Communicate with" implies bidirectionality. According to RAI and the designers, no, it's intended to be one-way. At my table I ignore RAI and make it bidirectional, because one-way communication is lame compared to Fiendlock's temp HP.

I agree, the rules as written describes communication in both directions. The Telepath can both project a thought and read a thought.

In any case, a ‘telepath’ needs to be especially good at telepathy. In 4e, a serious problem with the psionic telepath was, other races and even a (Darksun) psionic wild talent, were much better at telepathy than the telepath was - and that was wrong.

Yaarel · Aug 6, 2015

To be clear, the wording of the ‘Psychic Mind’ power seems clearly bidirectional:

"
... You can communicate telepathically with any creature. ... The creature understands you even if it lacks a language. You can allow a creature to respond to you telepathically, but it must understand at least one language. ...

"

Thus during this telepathic contact, the creature can ‘understand’ the thoughts that you project. Reciprocally, the creature can ‘respond’ telepathically to you.

Clearly a two-way communication.

As written, it is mostly a good ability. Mostly it is ‘just flavor’, but it has its situational usefulness.

The only annoying part of the description is the requirement to ‘see’ - as if when the lights turn out somehow the brain stops working. Currently it says: "You can communicate telepathically with any creature you can see within 100 feet of you." This requirement of line-of-sight feels ridiculous. It is mind reading, not lip reading. A better description is the one that is used for Mind Thrust: "a creature within 120 feet of you. You must be able to perceive the creature, but you do not need to see it." This rule, a ‘perceived’ creature within 120 feet, seems a good rule of thumb for all nearby telepathic activity.

Mirtek · Aug 6, 2015

I disgaree that the wording ever way "clearly bidirectional".

In any case, the Sage Advice has dispelled any doubts and clarified it's strictly one-directional.

http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/SA_Compendium_1.01.pdf

Does the warlock’s Awakened Mind feature allow two-way telepathic communication?
The feature is intended to provide one-way communication. The warlock can use thefeature to speak telepathically to a creature, but the featuredoesn’t give that creature the ability to telepathically reply. In contrast, the telepathy ability that some monsters have (MM, 9) does make two-way communication possible

FormerlyHemlock · Aug 6, 2015

Mirtek said:
I disgaree that the wording ever way "clearly bidirectional".

In any case, the Sage Advice has dispelled any doubts and clarified it's strictly one-directional.

Yes, that's what I was referring to when I mentioned RAI in post #4. But it's too late, and I don't like RAI, so I'm retaining the rules as written. YMMV. (It's not the only Sage Advice I'm ignoring in favor of RAW either. I also ignore the ruling on Crossbow Expert letting you fire the same crossbow with both your action and bonus action, and the goofy one about Lucky turning disadvantage into double-advantage.)

BTW, you realize that when Yaarel wrote "clearly bidirectional" he was talking about a different ability, right? From the Psionics article.

Tanaka Chris · Aug 6, 2015

Cool, nice to see both sides of view on this ability. So far we've been having the rogue attempt to communicate back to me, but before I've initiated the "telepathic channel", so most people just thinks he's talking to the voices in his head. However he's playing a character that's convinced he has a GREAT DESTINY ahead so... it sorta works out.

Next aspect, can I fake a different 'mental voice'?
Perhaps with the use of the Performance or Deception check? It should obviously be something that can be resisted with an 'Insight' check or similar.

Yaarel · Aug 6, 2015

Heh.

‘Psychic Mind’ of the ‘Awakened Mind’

must not be confused with

‘Awakened Mind’ of the ‘Warlock’.

D&D 5E Awakened Mind

Tanaka Chris

First Post

garnuk

First Post

Leatherhead

Possibly a Idiot.

FormerlyHemlock

Hero

Yaarel

He-Mage

Yaarel

He-Mage

Mirtek

Hero

FormerlyHemlock

Hero

Tanaka Chris

First Post

Yaarel

He-Mage

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