Mindbender, telephaty,charm and ankheg...

[Aldarad]

To keep it short: I have a 3.5 camp running. One off my PC is beguiler with a singel level Mindbender. This gives him telephaty as a special ability.
1. Can he communicate with say a wolf or a dog with this? Do they have language?

Also now he has Charm Monster, when meeting an Ankheg (int 1).
He wants to first charm it, second telephactly give it instruktions like "Please dont eat my freinds, follow me, eat him etc".

I want to say NO because I dont feel Ankheg or Doggie or Wolfy to be languages, hence no telephaty. However I DO feel telephaty is a valid way to "instruct" someone, so if it was a troll say no problem. Is this correct.

Also is there anything that says something is to stupid to be charmed etc and where is the rules in the books?

thx

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

If they have no int score and are thus mindless, they are are too stupid to be charmed. If they have animal level intelligence (1 or 2), they could only follow simple commands/requests. Low humanoid-level int like 3 might also be very limited in how complex an order it can understand.

Telepathy does not work on things without a language, which means he can't command something with no languages known via telepathy. IMO, giving simple instructions should be possible, but that's not what the strict rules say.
Special Abilities :: d20srd.org
"A creature with this ability can communicate telepathically with any other creature within a certain range (specified in the creature’s entry, usually 100 feet) that has a language."

 

[jefgorbach]

As Streamofthesky pointed out, RAW limits telepathy to individuals which know a language, however I'd also point out RAW also says a creature can know 1 language per Intelligence point so while animals (ie: Int 1-2) may not SPEAK, they ARE capable of following simple commands and thus your request could be justified to the same usage/extent; modifiable with Animal Handling, Empathy, and the like.

 

[Empirate]

"A creature that has a language" ought to be easy to adjudicate: every creature that can speak or understand a language hasusually a line or two in their writeup. "XYZ speak Common and Abyssal", "UVW cannot speak, but can understand Common and Undercommon", "Most RST speak only RSTan, but exceptionally intelligent individuals can learn other languages", that kind of thing.

Animal intelligence means the creature cannot learn a language. Simple verbal commands the creature can learn to understand, but this is independent of language: it's a part of the Handle Animal skill. "You can use this skill on a creature with an Intelligence score of 1 or 2 that is not an animal, but the DC of any such check increases by 5."

Since Telepathy only works on creatures with a language, and Ankhegs don't have a language, it wouldn't work, period. Charming the Ankheg in the first place wouldn't be a problem, though. I'd probably also allow the character to keep the Ankheg from eating his friends - but to order it about, against specific foes and the like, would require Handle Animal checks.

 

[Aldarad]

Thx for the speedy answers.
In case of animals I will deny him telephatic communication and play it out by Animal Handling. I do belive it will work and that the player will be satisfied with any kind of method.
I will allow him to use telep. when handling charmed creatures with a stated language.
Well time see how they will use this to shortcut the next adventure. Will be fun!

 

[Balnagown]

You could allow the player a circumstance bonus on the Handle Animal check for using Telepathy to better present the concept of what he is trying to have the animal do. The bonus could be larger for a domesticated animal ( dog ) than for a wild animal ( wolf ). These bonuses could be in the range of 2 to 4.

Regards,
Martin

 

[Empirate]

Telepathy only works on creatures that have a language, which heavily implies that it works like audio messages sent right into the brain. An animal can't be "shown" what you want via telepathy.