D&D 5E Detect Thoughts and Dream Combo

[Rabulias]

Maybe someone was inspired by Inception....

 

[Swedish Chef]

Thanks all. I missed the "no actions" part of the Dream spell. That would seem to negate the possibility of casting spells will in the Dream state.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

The PC is thinking of casting Dream on a sleeping character. There would be a savings throw required as per the spell as the target would not be willing.

They don't have to be willing. The saving throw is if you choose to make it a nightmare, making them miss their long rest and take psychic damage. If you just use it to talk and/or mess with them in ways that don't have a direct mechanical impact they don't get a save.

To me, it looks like more of a DM spell to try and interrupt long rests.

One player character in a campaign I am the DM for instigated an unnecessary fight with an evil drow archmage, who then escaped and more or less became the big bad of the campaign. Although he did once use the Dream spell to give the party member who started the fight a nightmare (he sent him to world of infinite hands giving him infinite middle fingers) out of petty spite and to assert his superiority, he has used it continuously since without invoking the nightmare properties to negotiate a truce with the party, send them on missions, and generally deliver all the villain speeches and exposition that would otherwise require him to be in the same room as the party and risk them deciding to deal with him before I had planned. Honestly it will probably be a go to villain spell for me now anytime they need to contact the party, and an important part of my exposition toolkit.

And generally, just for extended communications, it is the strongest spell option in the game. There is no word limit unless you are making it a nightmare. You can have an extended conversation with anyone sleeping on your plane of existence. I assume it's what high level wizards use in place of a phone call.