You activate one of the effects below. Until the spell ends, you can activate either effect as a Magic action on your later turns.
Sense Thoughts. You sense the presence of thoughts within 30 feet of yourself that belong to creatures that know languages or are telepathic. You don’t read the thoughts, but you know that a thinking creature is present.
The spell is blocked by 1 foot of stone, dirt, or wood; 1 inch of metal; or a thin sheet of lead.
Read Thoughts. Target one creature you can see within 30 feet of yourself or one creature within 30 feet of yourself that you detected with the Sense Thoughts option. You learn what is most on the target’s mind right now. If the target doesn’t know any languages and isn’t telepathic, you learn nothing.
As a Magic action on your next turn, you can try to probe deeper into the target’s mind. If you probe deeper, the target makes a Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, you discern the target’s reasoning, emotions, and something that looms large in its mind (such as a worry, love, or hate). On a successful save, the spell ends. Either way, the target knows that you are probing into its mind, and until you shift your attention away from the target’s mind, the target can take an action on its turn to make an Intelligence (Arcana) check against your spell save DC, ending the spell on a success.
* - (1 Copper Piece)
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Dec 15, 2025Because part of the design philosophy for the 2024 rules was removing all the bare ability checks that didn't have a skill attached, and Arcana is the best fit of the existing skills for this particular thing.
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jan 10, 2026I am very new at this game, how do you know if someone is telepathic?
-
View User Profile
-
Send Message
Posted Jan 12, 2026For player characters, it'd usually be listed as part of a species feature or class feature. For monsters and non-player characters, it'd be found in the "Languages" section of their stat block.
For the purposes of this spell, it's not something you usually need to worry about as it doesn't come up very often. The only reference to it in this spell is the part that says the spell only works on creatures that know languages and/or are telepathic. The vast majority of the time, this spell is going to be used on creatures that know languages, so it's not going to matter whether they're telepathic or not.