Level
Cantrip
Casting Time
1 Action
Range/Area
120 ft
Components
V, S, M *
Duration
1 Round
School
Transmutation
Attack/Save
None
Damage/Effect
Communication (...)
You point your finger toward a creature within range and whisper a message. The target (and only the target) hears the message and can reply in a whisper that only you can hear.
You can cast this spell through solid objects if you are familiar with the target and know it is beyond the barrier. Magical silence, 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of common metal, a thin sheet of lead, or 3 feet of wood blocks the spell. The spell doesn't have to follow a straight line and can travel freely around corners or through openings.
* - (a short piece of copper wire)
I might be wrong, but it seems like you could interpret the spell description to mean that it functions like a cochlear device; i.e. it transmutes the sound into an electrical signal in the target's auditory nerve. This would guarantee that only the target would "hear" the message, so to speak. It's still not quite telepathy – otherwise you could think the message rather than having to whisper it. But this would explain the "transmutation" aspect.
I'm interested because I'm considering RP'ing a deaf character, and by my interpretation this spell would allow them to hear; though you'd be limited to one person at a time, and only in 6-second intervals. Nonetheless this would help them to communicate with the uhhh "non-Deaf" community. :)
Can I combine this with the Actor feat?
Sending a message with the voice of the target for example. Or distracting enemys with the voices of their allies.
Relevant: https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/652550899814916096
Naturally it's up to your DM how magic works in your world, but the assumptions of RAW are that verbal components are audibly chanted mystic words, and somatic components are a complex series of gestures, and that each of those components sets the Weave in motion in the desired way to produce the spell's effect. The actual message in this case is whispered after the spell is in effect.
(Wait, how do I delete this comment. Help.)
My group is unclear about the language of "familiar with the target". How familiar do you need to be? Like, friends with? Know of existence? Have met? The biblical sense?
As far as I'm aware, that's not defined in the rules anywhere, which means the term has its normal everyday meaning, and it's up to your DM to adjudicate exactly who it applies to.
Will my target find out where i am after i cast this spell on him?
The way my DM ruled it, when I used subtle spell I didn't have to use the verbal component to cast it, but since the spell isn't telepathic I still had to move my lips to speak the message even though only the recipient would hear what the actual words were. Since line of sight isn't required, I'd turn away from the person and pretend to be checking on a party member so they couldn't see my lips. (Hiding behind something or a mask would also have worked. Possibly some uses of Disguise Self as well.) I coupled this with the Actor feat to successfully impersonate invasive thoughts of doubt as well as successfully impersonate an NPC's patron casting a Sending spell.
Hi am now go easy on me okay dungeon master
Pls go easy on me am serias
They would understand you, but unless you have Speak with Animals or similar ability, you could not comprehend their reply. This is not telepathy.
Does the receiver of the message need to have the workings of the spell explained to them before they can reply? For example, how would they be aware that any response they utter will be heard only by the caster unless the caster explicitly tells them, or does the magic somehow impart that knowledge as part of the spell?
Could this be used to 'listen in' on a snippet of a conversation by #1 targeting someone that doesn't know you (so they cannot identify you) and #2 having the message contain nothing more than a sigh or a minimally brief message like 'eh', resulting in the next few moments of the target's conversation to be also heard by you?
How long can the message be? 25 words or less as with the sending spell or can a caster press as many words in the "1 round" duration as they're able to?
...or spell tattoo, but I think that would be a one-shot. A scroll is definitely one-shot.
Two questions:
Could this be used to eavesdrop one a target's conversation?
What would happen should one target themselves? (LOL)
Can i use the spell to have more then one voice like a creepy echo
yall now mardy
Can you use Message to communicate from Border Ethereal Plane to someone on Material Plane?