Epinephrine
2009-05-22, 03:09 PM
How do you reveal "surface thoughts" to a player using detect thoughts? Have you had issues with players using this spell?
Clearly, surface thoughts are those that are most current, most present - but they seem easy to manipulate. After all, by asking questions you get certain thoughts to become most pressing. Can you give me some examples of how you use it?
As an example from my game, someone locked behind bars is begging the PCs to let him out, but he plans to attack them when he gets free. A PC goes to unlock the door, but another PC is detecting the prisoner's thoughts (she had gone out of the room, cast the spell out of earshot, and wandered back in maintaining concentration, while the prisoner fails his will save against the spell, so is oblivious). He has a blade hidden under his mattress, and I figure that's probably what's on his mind, so I tell the player that his current jumble of thoughts is something like, "hurry up... hurry up, I want to kill you. I think I'd best take the dwarf first, he's the biggest threat. That's right, smile at me you stupid git, you'll taste my blade soon enough. "
Too much? Is that about right? It's the main thing occupying him, he's thinking about how to grab his blade and attack as soon as the door opens.
In another situation, the party were interrogating people, and they suspected one of them was a shapechanger - so one by one, they brought them into the room and questionned them - starting with, "ok XXXX, we know you're the shapechanger, you may as well confess."
It seems pretty obvious that most who aren't guilty will have a thought that gives away their lack of guilt, like "What? What on earth is he talking about?? ", while the shapechanger will likely think something like "he's bluffing. They can't possibly know, this disguise is perfect. Lie to them, you can bluff your way out of this..."
Again, I don't know about how other DMs might handle it, but it seems like it would be hard not to have your surface thoughts jump to the issue presented to you.
Maybe I'm allowing too much from it, but it seems like a very potent for a 2nd level spell.
Clearly, surface thoughts are those that are most current, most present - but they seem easy to manipulate. After all, by asking questions you get certain thoughts to become most pressing. Can you give me some examples of how you use it?
As an example from my game, someone locked behind bars is begging the PCs to let him out, but he plans to attack them when he gets free. A PC goes to unlock the door, but another PC is detecting the prisoner's thoughts (she had gone out of the room, cast the spell out of earshot, and wandered back in maintaining concentration, while the prisoner fails his will save against the spell, so is oblivious). He has a blade hidden under his mattress, and I figure that's probably what's on his mind, so I tell the player that his current jumble of thoughts is something like, "hurry up... hurry up, I want to kill you. I think I'd best take the dwarf first, he's the biggest threat. That's right, smile at me you stupid git, you'll taste my blade soon enough. "
Too much? Is that about right? It's the main thing occupying him, he's thinking about how to grab his blade and attack as soon as the door opens.
In another situation, the party were interrogating people, and they suspected one of them was a shapechanger - so one by one, they brought them into the room and questionned them - starting with, "ok XXXX, we know you're the shapechanger, you may as well confess."
It seems pretty obvious that most who aren't guilty will have a thought that gives away their lack of guilt, like "What? What on earth is he talking about?? ", while the shapechanger will likely think something like "he's bluffing. They can't possibly know, this disguise is perfect. Lie to them, you can bluff your way out of this..."
Again, I don't know about how other DMs might handle it, but it seems like it would be hard not to have your surface thoughts jump to the issue presented to you.
Maybe I'm allowing too much from it, but it seems like a very potent for a 2nd level spell.