When a druid cast dominate beast at 4th level and uses their action to "take total and precise control of the target," does the druid learn everything about the beast (all attacks, resistance, actions, etc.)?
I would say she learn all relevant abilities relating to actions and reactions. You could keep resistances secret if you wanted. But it could also be ruled the other way meaning she doesn’t learn anything and can only ask for actions she has seen or can deduct. Not sure that would be fun as fun to play.
I'm not really sure what part of the text of the spell even lends itself to the above speculation. There's a telepathic link that allows for communication and instructions. But even when you take full control, the text follows that up with, "Until the end of your next turn, the creature takes only the actions you choose, and doesn’t do anything that you don’t allow it to do."
The only difference I perceive between the initial part of the spell and the 2nd part is that with the initial casting the creature does it's best to do what you tell it to, and once done (if it receives no additional instructions) it does its best to survive. Whereas if you take complete control the creature can only do what you instruct and nothing else.
Nothing indicates or suggests that you learn anything about the creature's capabilities, resistances, special attacks, etc.
I'm not really sure what part of the text of the spell even lends itself to the above speculation. There's a telepathic link that allows for communication and instructions. But even when you take full control, the text follows that up with, "Until the end of your next turn, the creature takes only the actions you choose, and doesn’t do anything that you don’t allow it to do."
The only difference I perceive between the initial part of the spell and the 2nd part is that with the initial casting the creature does it's best to do what you tell it to, and once done (if it receives no additional instructions) it does its best to survive. Whereas if you take complete control the creature can only do what you instruct and nothing else.
Nothing indicates or suggests that you learn anything about the creature's capabilities, resistances, special attacks, etc.
I agree. I also think it might be interesting, however, to interpret the "telepathic link" to be more complete. I've considered a home-brew version of this spell that's that's less adversarial, a juiced-up higher-level version of "Beast Bond." One way to do it might be to rule that when the beast in question is friendly toward the caster before the spell is cast, the caster gets all the information through the telepathic link, but if the beast is neutral or adversarial toward the caster before the spell is cast, the caster must use actions to interrogate the subject beast to learn those details. I'm sure I haven't thought this through carefully enough to implement yet, but it's something worth thinking about. Good discussion.
I'm not really sure what part of the text of the spell even lends itself to the above speculation...
The "telepathic link" plus the "total and precise control". When's the last time you had total and precise control of a body without having some inkling of what that body could do? I think it would not be unreasonable for a DM to quickly list the attacks and special actions available for the dominated beast when that control is established, just like you would know the special abilities of an animal during Wildshape. Dominating an Aurochs you should instinctively know about its Charge ability and how to activate it. I would not divulge great detail on attribute scores or resistances, however - that seems unnecessary.
Your don't need to know what it can do to control it. You tell it to attack an enemy of your choice and the DM uses it's most effective attack to do so.
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When a druid cast dominate beast at 4th level and uses their action to "take total and precise control of the target," does the druid learn everything about the beast (all attacks, resistance, actions, etc.)?
I would say she learn all relevant abilities relating to actions and reactions. You could keep resistances secret if you wanted. But it could also be ruled the other way meaning she doesn’t learn anything and can only ask for actions she has seen or can deduct. Not sure that would be fun as fun to play.
I'm not really sure what part of the text of the spell even lends itself to the above speculation. There's a telepathic link that allows for communication and instructions. But even when you take full control, the text follows that up with, "Until the end of your next turn, the creature takes only the actions you choose, and doesn’t do anything that you don’t allow it to do."
The only difference I perceive between the initial part of the spell and the 2nd part is that with the initial casting the creature does it's best to do what you tell it to, and once done (if it receives no additional instructions) it does its best to survive. Whereas if you take complete control the creature can only do what you instruct and nothing else.
Nothing indicates or suggests that you learn anything about the creature's capabilities, resistances, special attacks, etc.
I agree. I also think it might be interesting, however, to interpret the "telepathic link" to be more complete. I've considered a home-brew version of this spell that's that's less adversarial, a juiced-up higher-level version of "Beast Bond." One way to do it might be to rule that when the beast in question is friendly toward the caster before the spell is cast, the caster gets all the information through the telepathic link, but if the beast is neutral or adversarial toward the caster before the spell is cast, the caster must use actions to interrogate the subject beast to learn those details. I'm sure I haven't thought this through carefully enough to implement yet, but it's something worth thinking about. Good discussion.
Recently returned to D&D after 20+ years.
Unapologetic.
The "telepathic link" plus the "total and precise control". When's the last time you had total and precise control of a body without having some inkling of what that body could do? I think it would not be unreasonable for a DM to quickly list the attacks and special actions available for the dominated beast when that control is established, just like you would know the special abilities of an animal during Wildshape. Dominating an Aurochs you should instinctively know about its Charge ability and how to activate it. I would not divulge great detail on attribute scores or resistances, however - that seems unnecessary.
Your don't need to know what it can do to control it. You tell it to attack an enemy of your choice and the DM uses it's most effective attack to do so.