Detect Thoughts awareness

[Radiating Gnome]

If a PC casts Detect Thoughts, are the subjects aware that they are being scanned?

They are allowed a saving throw, but the text description of the spell makes it sound a lot more like eavesdropping, and that unless the spellcaster were really obvious the subject would not be aware of the spellcaster's ability to hear the subject's thoughts.

Am I reading that correctly?

-j

 

[Pielorinho]

My understanding is that as soon as the person makes the saving throw successfully, they're aware that a spell was cast on them, but they don't know who did it.

This makes spells like charm person, hypnotize, and detect thoughts much more dangerous to use, and I've thought of house-ruling it so that on a successful save, the victim isn't aware automatically that a spell was cast on her; conversely, the caster isn't aware that the victim saved successfully.

That makes for more fun in a high-social game, I think: it encourages enchanters to use their spells more often, but not to rely on the spells' having worked.

Daniel

 

[Pielorinho]

(I should add that, in the case of charmed victims, normally the spellcaster can deduce whether the spell worked based on the victim's behavior. The change to the rules that I'm talking about allows people to pretend to be charmed when they aren't really.)

Daniel

 

[Someone]

Page 150 of the PHB: "Succeeding at a saving throw: A creture that sucessfully saves against a spell without obvious physical effects feel a hostile force or tingle, but cannot deduce the exact nature of the attack [...]"

So, only if they make the saving throw. Make sure they don´t make it.

Although "Spell focus: Divination" is not a really minmaxed feat