Are undead immune to telepathy?

[Evilhalfling]

... and what about familar bonds?
Specifically a lich wizard who has become a Skull-king in the service of Orcus. Can he hear the telepathic messages of demons? what if they are relayed through his (new) quasit familiar?

Can the demons use telepathy to give orders to the undead hordes they are in charge of?


I just wanted a minor undead/demonic planar invasion - and things got complicated.

 

[Voadam]

No telepathy for liches.

From the srd:

Traits
An undead creature possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry).

No Constitution score.
Darkvision out to 60 feet.
Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, phantasms, patterns, and morale effects).

 

[Drowbane]

Hail Orcus!

...Specifically a lich wizard who has become a Skull-king in the service of Orcus...

Telepathy is a mind-affecting effect, so by RAW, all Undead are immune to Telepathy. There is a feat in Dragon Compendium (pg 108) that might help.

Song of the Dead [Metamagic]
You can add such a powerful dose of necromantic energy to your mind-affecting spells that they function against undead creatures but are useless against all others.
Benefits: A mind-affecting spell modified by this feat works normally against intelligent undead creatures...

Its not hard to picture a version that works with SLAs or Su abilities.

edit: by the way, my current Planescape character is a vampiric Deathmaster 15 (DCvol1) Skull-Lord of Orcus. In 5 more levels he will acheive lichdom (for "free").

 

[Hypersmurf]

No telepathy for liches.

It depends. Rary's Telepathic Bond, for example, does not have the [mind-affecting] descriptor. It's just a divination spell, which a lich could use with no problem.

Unless otherwise noted, I'd assume other forms of telepathy (like an intelligent weapon's communication mode, or a familiar's empathic link, or the Su ability of Fiends and Formians) to operate on similar principles.

Mental control over a telepathic link is usually from a source defined as mind-affecting, and would be ineffective. But simple communication seems okay.

-Hyp.

 

[Drowbane]

It depends. Rary's Telepathic Bond, for example, does not have the [mind-affecting] descriptor. It's just a divination spell, which a lich could use with no problem.

Unless otherwise noted, I'd assume other forms of telepathy (like an intelligent weapon's communication mode, or a familiar's empathic link, to operate on similar principles.

-Hyp.

Interesting!

Thanks for pointing that out Hyp.

 

[Voadam]

It depends. Rary's Telepathic Bond, for example, does not have the [mind-affecting] descriptor. It's just a divination spell, which a lich could use with no problem.

Unless otherwise noted, I'd assume other forms of telepathy (like an intelligent weapon's communication mode, or a familiar's empathic link, or the Su ability of Fiends and Formians) to operate on similar principles.

Mental control over a telepathic link is usually from a source defined as mind-affecting, and would be ineffective. But simple communication seems okay.

-Hyp.

Heh, I had never noticed that in the spell before.

I always assumed that

Telepathy
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. It is possible to address multiple creatures at once telepathically, although maintaining a telepathic conversation with more than one creature at a time is just as difficult as simultaneously speaking and listening to multiple people at the same time.

Some creatures have a limited form of telepathy, while others have a more powerful form of the ability.

was just vaguely written and that communicating telepathically directly to a creature's mind was by definition a mind affecting ability.

 

[Beginning of the End]

Hmm... Can anyone actually give me a page reference where the rules define what it means to be immune to something?

 

[Will]

I REALLY dislike the construct/vermin/undead blanket mind immunity... it's just dumb.

It'd make a lot more sense to say something like 'Int 1 or 0 means you are immune to Mind-affecting spells.'


I'll chalk that up with grumbling about Extraordinary abilities not distinguishing between relatively natural abilities, like Scent, and more unusual abilities, like Regeneration. It's kind of a kick in the pants for druids.


Mutter.

 

[Infiniti2000]

Looking at the SRD, what says that the telepathy ability is mind-affecting? I see:

Telepathy (Su): 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. It is possible to address multiple creatures at once telepathically, although maintaining a telepathic conversation with more than one creature at a time is just as difficult as simultaneously speaking and listening to multiple people at the same time.

Some creatures have a limited form of telepathy, while others have a more powerful form of the ability.

 

[Corsair]

Remember, just because Blasphemy can kill you, it isn't a [death] spell. Just because telepathy affects your mind, it isn't a [mind affecting] effect.