Question on True Seeing vs psionic Touchsight

[NewJeffCT]

Just curious, Touchsight seems pretty similar in its ability to True Seeing. Why manifest True Seeing for 9 power points when Touchsight can do the same for only 5. The only difference is True Seeing has greater range. Maybe Shadow Evocations would fool Touchsight? But, maybe not?


You generate a subtle telekinetic field of mental contact, allowing you to “feel” your surroundings even in total darkness or when your sight would otherwise be obscured by your physical environment. Your touchsight field emanates from you out to 60 feet. You ignore invisibility, darkness, and concealment, though you must have line of effect to a creature or an object to discern it. You do not need to make Spot or Listen checks to notice creatures; you can detect and pinpoint all creatures within 60 feet. In many circumstances, comparing your regular senses to what you learn with touchsight is enough to tell you the difference between visible, invisible, hiding, and concealed creatures.

SRD - Powers Q to W

Thanks

 

[GreyVulpine]

It looks like touchsight and true seeing do pretty much the same thing in locating and pinpointing creatures and objects within a certain range.

One disadvantage with touchsight is that you don't see the true form of certain creatures. Doppelgangers, medusas, dragons and others all can shift into alternate forms which true seeing can defeat.

Touchsight also does not defeat illusions like minor/major image.

 

[Physiker]

At least you can still be fooled by illusions, like disguise self or some transmutations like alter self.

I'd guess that shadow evocation fools touchsight since the shadow evocation is partly real and thus noticable.

 

[NewJeffCT]

It looks like touchsight and true seeing do pretty much the same thing in locating and pinpointing creatures and objects within a certain range.

One disadvantage with touchsight is that you don't see the true form of certain creatures. Doppelgangers, medusas, dragons and others all can shift into alternate forms which true seeing can defeat.

Touchsight also does not defeat illusions like minor/major image.

hmm, I'm not entirely sure it wouldn't see through illusions, but I could be wrong.

 

[GreyVulpine]

True seeing defeats all illusions, thus, mirror image, minor/major image and the rest of the illusion school is defeated. It's a 6th level sor/wiz spell.

Touchsight is a 3rd level psion spell. I don't see a lower level spell being able to do things better than a much higher level spell can do.

I can see reasons for it being interpreted both ways. You can 'see' a figment with your own eyes, but touchsight doesn't discern it (not an object or a 'real' creature), giving you a bonus to saving throws against an illusion. Would mirror image still be viable, since it doesn't provide a saving throw against it?

If touchsight can discern illusions as real, then you're still fooled by the illusion, since you mentally discern it as a real object, and you can see it as a real object, giving you no real benefit.

Are the other mind-affecting classes of illusions defeated by touchsight? Glamers make it seem like something's real to your senses. Phantasms exist in your mind making you perceive like something's there. It doesn't seem like it.

 

[Physiker]

I think it does look through most illusions which depend on sight, save for disguise self and similar.
But it still can be fooled by sound and/or feeling, so major image maybe not defeated by touchsight some other sense is included...

 

[Jhaelen]

In most situations touchsight is better than truesight since it also automatically detects hiding creatures.