A Thought on Mind Blank

[Rubik]

Shouldn't Mind Blank (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/mindBlank.htm) (and the psionic version thereof) allow the subject to ignore numerical bonuses granted by divination spells and clairsentience powers for things like bonuses to AC, attack, damage, skill checks, power and spell DCs, saving throws, and so on? It does, after all, protect against "information gathering by divination spells or effects," which would encompass bonuses to all of those things.

Take the Defensive Precogniton power (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/precognitionDefensive.htm), for instance. It's granting an insight bonus to AC and saving throws against your attacks. If you're under the effects of Mind Blank, however, the power can no longer sense your presence, thus making you immune to your opponent's ability to react to you using that power.

Does this make sense at all?

[Lord Vukodlak]

Insight bonuses don't work by reading your thoughts they work by predicting the future.

[Rubik]

Insight bonuses don't work by reading your thoughts they work by predicting the future.And as far as the effect is concerned, you're not in the future.

[Lord Vukodlak]

And as far as the effect is concerned, you're not in the future.
Not according to the spell description for Mind Blank. Sorry it doesn't defeat insight bonuses. Precognition Defensive is not mind-affecting nor is it classified an information gathering divination spell. Those are things like scrying or locate object/person.

[Rubik]

Not according to the spell description for Mind Blank. Sorry it doesn't defeat insight bonuses. Precognition Defensive is not mind-affecting nor is it classified an information gathering divination spell. Those are things like scrying or locate object/person.It IS info-gathering. What else is the effect doing but gathering information about what's happening an instant into the future?

[Lord Vukodlak]

It IS info-gathering. What else is the effect doing but gathering information about what's happening an instant into the future?

Your stretching the meaning far beyond the rules but let me defeat you using my own brand of twisted logic. Your existence in the future is irrelevant he can still see himself be hit even if what hit him is unclear. That information he got from himself can then be used to provide an insight bonus to his AC.

In essence the insight bonus lets him see into his own future not yours.

[faircoin]

It would under "real world logic" (however that may apply to D&D is very questionable at best). If mind blank actually does the following, word for word:


The subject is protected from all devices and spells that detect, influence, or read emotions or thoughts.

Detect, influence, or read? Under the strictest, most ridiculous but literal interpretation, that means your light cone doesn't intersect with the subject's emotions or thoughts.

That means, future or current brain state, the spells can't interact with your thoughts in any way. Or you. Because, by physical law, not having your light cone interact with something means it never happened.

Of course, then you get into difficult questions, like can your body provide nutrition for your brain to survive, if it can't interact with it? How do we demarcate between the "body" and a "device"?

But we're not ridiculous players. We play by common sense (and, in this case, RAW as well), not by the laws of physics and metaphysics. So, I'm going to agree with Lord Vukodlak, that by RAW this is pretty strictly defined as two different things; i.e., mind blank doesn't protect against insight bonuses.

[Douglas]

The wording of the spell Mind Blank is quite vague in some ways. Personally, I view the much clearer wording of Psionic Mind Blank (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/mindBlankPsionic.htm) to be a strong indication of intent, and effectively a clarification errata for the spell. By that wording, Mind Blank is a protection for your mind and against remote observation, nothing more, and certainly not something that nullifies the entire school of Divination.