True Seeing and Nystul's Magic Aura

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ValdDrakul

First Post

• Feb 19, 2019

• #1

Does Nystul's Magic Aura get around True Seeing? The truesight portion of True Seeing says it "[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]automatically detect visual illusions and succeed on saving throws against them". But say someone cast magic aura on themself, saying they belong to the school of illusion, and then cast mirror image. Mirror image states that its defeated by a creature with truesight, but since the truesight is A) being granted by a divination spell, which magic aura can trick and B) there is no saving throw to succeed on would the creature in question be [/FONT][FONT=&quot]indistinguishable from their mirror images or would truesight still see through it all?[/FONT]

 

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Umbran

Mod Squad

Staff member

Supporter

• Feb 19, 2019

• #2

The true seeing very specifically defeats the visual illusion of mirror image. The Magic Aura is irrelevant to the Mirror Images.

So, now you have a creature with Nystul's Aura on it, saying it is illusion magic. But True Seeing doesn't tell you about schools of magic. YOu need some other spell to look for that.

If the person with True Seeing *also* has detect magic, they will get a mixed message. But with just true seeing, they don't even know the Nystul's Magic Aura is present.

 

V

ValdDrakul

First Post

• Feb 19, 2019

• #3

So how does one get around true seeing?

 

TaranTheWanderer

Legend

• Feb 19, 2019

• #4

Mind blank, I think

 

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ValdDrakul

First Post

• Feb 19, 2019

• #5

Mind blank protects the individual, but would it affects illusions they cast upon themselves?

 

Umbran

Mod Squad

Staff member

Supporter

• Feb 19, 2019

• #6

ValdDrakul said:

Mind blank protects the individual, but would it affects illusions they cast upon themselves?

Click to expand...

No, it would not. You generally don't beat true seeing.

 

jasper

Rotten DM

• Feb 19, 2019

• #7

True seeing 6th level Magic Aura 2nd. Good rule of thumb Higher level spell defeats lower unless specifics say otherwise.

 

TaranTheWanderer

Legend

• Feb 19, 2019

• #8

They changed the description of mind blank. It used to defeats any divination on the recipient. So you couldn’t scry or use clairvoyance etc. So, if you used clairvoyance on a room the mind blanked person wouldn’t show up. “Any attempt to gain information about the target.” True seeing is a divination that gains information by showing you what isn’t normally apparent so your dm might rule that it beats true sight. It’s also an 8th level spell.

 

Last edited: Feb 20, 2019

TaranTheWanderer

Legend

• Feb 19, 2019

• #9

Double-post.

I went to post something but it was stupid and they won’t me delete the post. So I deleted everything I wrote and will use this post to reiterate that mind blank defeats divination so it probably defeats true seeing. It also beats spells as powerful as wish.

 

Last edited: Feb 19, 2019

Kurotowa

Legend

• Feb 19, 2019

• #10

TaranTheWanderer said:

True seeing is a divination that gains information by showing you what isn’t normally apparent so your dm might rule that it beats true sight. It’s also an 8th level spell.

Click to expand...

Let's break down True Seeing. The 5e version does exactly three things. It lets you see into the Ethereal Plane, it lets you automatically detect secret doors concealed by magic, and you gain Truesight. Truesight is in turn defined on p185 as a special type of vision that does a number of things for you, including automatically making your save against visual illusions and perceiving the original form of a shapechanger or transformed creature.

Is True Seeing a Divination spell targeting the Mind Blanked creature? No, it buffs its own recipient. Is Truesight a Divination spell, or attempting to read the target's thoughts or emotions? No, it's a special vision type that improves your own saves against visual illusions. Does it make thematic sense for Mind Blank to empower your Illusion spells and make them impossible to detect? No, not in my opinion.

Really, the two exist along different axis. True Seeing is a counter to illusions and transformations. Mind Blank is a counter to telepathy, scrying, and mind control. They don't interact in any meaningful way.