Telepathy: Conversation

[Yogibear41]

There are three characters, Character 1 and Character 2 have Telepathy, Character 3 does not.

Character 1 uses Telepathy to talk Directly to Character 3. Does Character 2 know what Character 1 said, does Character 2 know what Character 3 said back to Character 1? If not then does Character 2 at least know telepathic communication is taking place? Assume everyone is within range of everyone else for purposes of Telepathy.

[legomaster00156]

Telepathy is not equivalent to mind-reading. Telepathy must be directed at someone to be heard or even known of by them, short of magic that allows overhearing it.

[tyckspoon]

I'm not aware of any rules that actually address this, so ultimately it's up to you/how your DM wants telepathy to work. However, the most common version is depicted as individual channels of communication, similar to a modern day phone system; just because you have the ability to make and receive a phone call does not mean you can listen to a call between two other individuals. You either have to be specifically included in the communication (be included as part of a group or conference call) or possess some special ability to eavesdrop on the communication.

I could easily imagine a model where telepathy is more akin to verbal communication, however; perhaps everybody using the same mode of telepathy (same race, using the same spell/psionic power, getting it from the same kind of magic item, etc) can at least 'hear' the telepathy happening, even if they don't get the contents of the message. Maybe sending the message to a non-telepathic recipient (Character 1 sending to Character 3) requires 'shouting' or otherwise amplifying the message, making it possible for Character 2 to try to 'listen in' on something he couldn't hear if it was sent at normal 'volume.'

I should note that people usually assume that telepathy is direct, silent, and private - it's a big part of why some players want to have it, because it allows them to communicate with their party members without the DM going "So the monsters hear you shout 'Fireball incoming!' and all duck, they get a cover bonus to their saves.." If your telepathy is going to work differently any players/characters using it should be aware of that so they can adjust accordingly.

[Feantar]

Well, there's a level 3 sanctified spell in Nice book of Niceness that's called Telepathy Tap. It allows you to do exactly what you specified. It lasts for 1 round per level - I doubt that if you could just overhear with standard telepathy, it wouldn't just give you telepathy for 1 round per level. It would be simpler.

As a sidenote, I would allow one to detect telepathic communication with detect thoughts, seeing it as a weird "wave" of thought; though I wouldn't allow one to read what it said (you could do so by reading the thoughts of the speaker though).

[Fizban]

There are three characters, Character 1 and Character 2 have Telepathy, Character 3 does not.

Character 1 uses Telepathy to talk Directly to Character 3.
Does Character 2 know what Character 1 said,
No.

does Character 2 know what Character 3 said back to Character 1?
No- both because 2 cannot "listen in," and because 3 does not have telepathy and thus cannot respond telepathically, unless 1 has a particular ability that grants it. Sending spells allow a pingback, but unspecified telepathy does not.

If not then does Character 2 at least know telepathic communication is taking place?
No, but-

There's also the bit where probably every book I've read that had telepathy specifically let you send messages to any discreete number of people you want (which is directly supported by the MM text), but also intentionally "shout"/broadcast at everyone within range (which is not prohibited by the MM text)- most notable in the concept that you are broadcasting even to people you don't know are there. So the whole group can communicate secretly, except for 3 who has no ability to send. But anyone could know that telepathic communication is taking place, if it's being broadcast to everyone.

If you choose to read the MM's use of "communicate" as also letting you hear "messages" from people that you have telepathically contacted, that's fine, but being able to communicate to someone does not necessarily include them communicating back.

[FaerieGodfather]

I suddenly don't remember where, but there's some d20-ish game where part of the telepathy ability includes the ability to sense-- but not comprehend or pinpoint-- telepathic communication within the range of their own abilities.

I would probably treat it that way even if it's not the case. Maybe even as a skill unlock for Sense Motive.

[False God]

I have always run telepathy as the ability to send thoughts (words, images, voices), and "hear" surface thoughts.

So if Bob has telepathy, he can project "Lookout Joe!!!" into Joe's mind, and Joe can in return think loudly "Thanks for the tip Bob." which Bob can pick up on....as can anyone else with telepathy, just as though Joe had spoken the words out loud around others with hearing.

Not saying this is right or wrong, just saying this is what makes the most sense to me, and how I run it.

[Falontani]

Telepathy needs all sorts of elaborations that aren't exactly clear.

I personally have tiers of telepathy based on creatures, with high psionic creatures having the top of the telepathy rings.

T5 (Lowest Tier). This is the likes of the Empathic Link. You can pick up emotions from the creature(s) with which you have a link to. You could easily form some kind of emoticon language here, but it would be slow to communicate complex though through this. Generally this link goes both ways, however there are creatures that can form this link without permission from the target(s). Thank you Vaath, we hate you.

T4 Hivemind. This is both great and bad. Everything that connects to the hivemind knows exactly what you are thinking. There is no specific link between you and a given target, you either have the radio on, your out of range from your radio tower, or you don't possess a radio. Think discord where everyone in the voice chat has hands free with a high sensitivity. Your connection being really low is being too far from the tower. It works. But it isn't ideal. Oh and everyone with the right radio can pick up your emotions. Great.

T3 Telepathic Bond. This is where I believe true telepathy begins. This is for creatures where telepathy is more like a second or third language. You weren't born with it. This is how people normally talk, with the caveat that it is difficult to listen in. Oh and it is fast. Telepathy is used at the speed of thought, which is supposedly faster than people can talk. Which is technically true, so it is technically faster than a free action once employed. Neat.

T2 Mindbender. Okay its not just mindbender, but it is the biggest one. True telepathy. Through and through. You no longer need a specific link to a target to use it on them. I believe this is the lowest form of telepathy that can sort of listen in on your target's thoughts. It is like Detect Thoughts detect surface though, except that I believe you can only hear their surface thoughts if they specifically will you to be able to. Think of it more as being Willing vs Unwilling. If your unwilling then they can't hear you. If your willing then they can hear only what you willingly tell them. I also believe that this is where most people can transmit images. Because an image can be a thought. So to summarize, you can communicate with others with or without telepathy, you can transmit language, emotion, and images; True Telepathy. So what is higher?

T1 Illithids. Okay again not just illithids. But really it is the Native speakers. Creatures who learn telepathy before they learn their native language. These are the creatures whose very thought patterns are dependent and created with telepathy in mind. An infant learns based off of stimuli. Scientifically language impacts how you think. Someone that is deaf, and has always been deaf thinks differently than someone that can hear. Someone that speaks english thinks differently than someone who speaks german. It is in the upbringing, and while not insurmountable, is one of the biggest influencers in someone's life. Is one language better than another? No. Well probably not. Studies are still out. But Telepathy. It has true potential. I personally envision that illithids are so adept at telepathy, that they don't need to communicate in concise trains of thought. They can just throw a package of information at the recipient. Imagine instead of hearing someone talk, they just hand you a book, with all the information within being the different connections, ideas, and images behind one's train of thought. And you can digest and interpret the book nearly instantly. This is what the T1 telepathy users can do. It is much more akin to a computer downloading a file than what we consider speech. There is a reason that most of the creatures that are supposed to be alien to our way of thinking has telepathy. It is also why illithids are generally portrayed as blunt, socially awkward, or estranged. The very way they think has to be translated into something foreign to them.


at least this is how I portray telepathy.

[Troacctid]

I just use Animorphs rules. You can choose to project your thoughts to specific individuals or to everyone in range, but you don't receive anyone else's thoughts unless the telepathy ability specifically allows for a two-way link. (Of course if they have telepathy as well, they can project thoughts at you with their own ability, natch.)

[Quertus]

I just use Animorphs rules. You can choose to project your thoughts to specific individuals or to everyone in range, but you don't receive anyone else's thoughts unless the telepathy ability specifically allows for a two-way link. (Of course if they have telepathy as well, they can project thoughts at you with their own ability, natch.)

Pretty much this.


As a sidenote, I would allow one to detect telepathic communication with detect thoughts, seeing it as a weird "wave" of thought; though I wouldn't allow one to read what it said (you could do so by reading the thoughts of the speaker though).

Now, I've not read any psychology books on this particular topic, but I would *think* that the thoughts of someone listening intently would, you know, rather closely mirror what was being said, plus their own take / thoughts on the matter.


a skill unlock for Sense Motive.

Pray that you are never naughty enough to be sent to the layer of Hell where the punishment is reading the stories I've written, but… it seems to me that "knowing that someone's attention is elsewhere" is a rather trivial use of Sense Motive (DC 5-10, or opposed by bluff), and "knowing why" sounds like a much harder Sense Motive (DC <opposed bluff check> +20 or more) or could arguably be covered by Spellcraft. At least, that's not unlike how I've played it in several stories.

[Segev]

Yeah, if you have the Telepathy monster ability, you can talk to as many or as few people as you want in range. Same message to all of them, though, unless you take the same time you would to convey the info individually to each of them to whom you send different messages.

You can't do what Miss Martian does in Young Justice without a different ability (Rary's telepathic bond does it, I think), but you can relay if you want to play middle-man in the telephone chain and everyone's okay with trusting you're telling them what everyone else is saying.