Uses for Telepathy?

[Merudo]

My Wizard recently acquired a "Psi Crystal" providing telepathy to a range of 120 feet.

The telepathy works like the one in the Monster Manual:

TELEPATHY
Telepathy is a magical ability that allows a monster to communicate mentally with another creature within a specified range. The contacted creature doesn't need to share a language with the monster to communicate in this way with it, but it must be able to understand at least one language. A creature without telepathy can receive and respond to telepathic messages but can't initiate or terminate a telepathic conversation.

A telepathic monster doesn't need to see a contacted creature and can end the telepathic contact at any time. The contact is broken as soon as the two creatures are no longer within range of each other or if the telepathic monster contacts a different creature within range. A telepathic monster can initiate or terminate a telepathic conversation without using an action, but while the monster is incapacitated, it can't initiate telepathic contact, and any current contact is terminated.

A creature within the area of an antimagic field or in any other location where magic doesn't function can't end or receive telepathic messages.


I was wondering - what nifty tricks or advantages I can get from the telepathy?

I figured out a good use is to combine it with minions that can't speak. For example, skeletons & most summons understand languages but can't speak them - making it easy to boss them around but hard to get information out of them.

With telepathy, nearly all of these minions can communicate back quickly and silently, making them much better scouts. The Ghost created by Summon Undead can fly through walls and floors, observing all there is, and report it all back to you - as long as you have telepathy. You can also make decisions for it remotely - something that is quite useful as the poor thing has a meager intelligence of 4.

[OldTrees1]

You can talk to the other PCs telepathically. You would be surprised how strong that is.

[Necrosnoop110]

What source material is this "Psi Crystal" from?

[quindraco]

My Wizard recently acquired a "Psi Crystal" providing telepathy to a range of 120 feet.

The telepathy works like the one in the Monster Manual:

TELEPATHY
Telepathy is a magical ability that allows a monster to communicate mentally with another creature within a specified range. The contacted creature doesn't need to share a language with the monster to communicate in this way with it, but it must be able to understand at least one language. A creature without telepathy can receive and respond to telepathic messages but can't initiate or terminate a telepathic conversation.

A telepathic monster doesn't need to see a contacted creature and can end the telepathic contact at any time. The contact is broken as soon as the two creatures are no longer within range of each other or if the telepathic monster contacts a different creature within range. A telepathic monster can initiate or terminate a telepathic conversation without using an action, but while the monster is incapacitated, it can't initiate telepathic contact, and any current contact is terminated.

A creature within the area of an antimagic field or in any other location where magic doesn't function can't end or receive telepathic messages.


I was wondering - what nifty tricks or advantages I can get from the telepathy?

I figured out a good use is to combine it with minions that can't speak. For example, skeletons & most summons understand languages but can't speak them - making it easy to boss them around but hard to get information out of them.

With telepathy, nearly all of these minions can communicate back quickly and silently, making them much better scouts. The Ghost created by Summon Undead can fly through walls and floors, observing all there is, and report it all back to you - as long as you have telepathy. You can also make decisions for it remotely - something that is quite useful as the poor thing has a meager intelligence of 4.

Can you... stop being a Wizard? RAW, this on a Warlock with Aspect of the Moon will let you kill anyone in less than a week and they'll have no real way of working out who you are or how you're doing it, since they can't stop listening to you and with Aspect of the Moon you can shout in their brain 24/7 until they die of exhaustion. Your GM's only way out of it is letting you talk in their dreams, and that's quite a bit more dangerous. Basically, the Dream spell but better.

[Merudo]

Can you... stop being a Wizard? RAW, this on a Warlock with Aspect of the Moon will let you kill anyone in less than a week and they'll have no real way of working out who you are or how you're doing it, since they can't stop listening to you and with Aspect of the Moon you can shout in their brain 24/7 until they die of exhaustion. Your GM's only way out of it is letting you talk in their dreams, and that's quite a bit more dangerous. Basically, the Dream spell but better.

The range of the Telepathy is 120 feet, and the telepathic contact is broken as soon as the two creatures are no longer within range of each other.

[Merudo]

What source material is this "Psi Crystal" from?

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

[quindraco]

The range of the Telepathy is 120 feet, and the telepathic contact is broken as soon as the two creatures are no longer within range of each other.

So stay within 120 feet. That's more than 8.5 stories straight up or down, for example. Shouldn't be that hard, especially with aids like invisibility and flight.

[Merudo]

So stay within 120 feet. That's more than 8.5 stories straight up or down, for example. Shouldn't be that hard, especially with aids like invisibility and flight.

For a full week? Really?

How many invisibility & fly spells do you have?

[quindraco]

For a full week? Really?

How many invisibility & fly spells do you have?

I mean.... once we've committed to Aspect of the Moon, might as well commit to One with Shadows and Ascendant Step. But yes, it's a lot harder for a wizard. Much stronger need to get into a hidden position and stay there.

[Noodz]

Telepathy is fun, but it does need a little bit of creativity to make the most.

It's great for faces, since ignoring language barriers is close to have permanent tongues (though you're probably restricted to single targets). That makes the summoning of extraplanar creatures easier, especially if the summoned creature have interesting abilities. You can probably count on a summoned Xorn to fight back against enemies attacking it, but ordering it to scout ahead stealthily while sniffing for treasure will demand that you have some way of communicating with it.

In social environments, telepathy can help cover magical subversion. A DM might allow you to issue "verbal commands" to the victim of your enchantments through telepathy (like with Suggestion spell). If you also have subtle spell metamagic, you could charm/dominate something and then order it around with telepathy while giving no other clue than emitting an enchantment aura. This can be particularly devious with Modify Memory, allowing you to twist someone's mind while just standing 30 feet from it.

[The_Jette]

Telepathy is really useful for infiltration, if your DM lets you occasionally "probe" for minds to read. "Are there any minds that I can communicate with in the next room? What are they thinking about? I'll just quietly listen for a bit to get an idea of what's going on in there..." Also, if you're negotiating with someone you can listen in on their thoughts to get an advantage. Nobody can lie to you, since they need to think of what they're trying to lie about. Honestly, where information gathering is concerned, at-will telepathy is a bit broken.

[Merudo]

That makes the summoning of extraplanar creatures easier, especially if the summoned creature have interesting abilities. You can probably count on a summoned Xorn to fight back against enemies attacking it, but ordering it to scout ahead stealthily while sniffing for treasure will demand that you have some way of communicating with it.


This works well with the Invisible Stalker too, who otherwise would require the caster to speak Auran to communicate with it.

[Segev]

You could try to convince creatures that what you're saying in their mind is a hallucination and that they're going crazy, or is a divine being choosing them as a prophet, or somesuch shenanigan. It obviously gets around language barriers, making comprehend languages or the Eyes of the Rune Keeper invocation to be an effective omniglot.

[JackPhoenix]

Can you... stop being a Wizard? RAW, this on a Warlock with Aspect of the Moon will let you kill anyone in less than a week and they'll have no real way of working out who you are or how you're doing it, since they can't stop listening to you and with Aspect of the Moon you can shout in their brain 24/7 until they die of exhaustion. Your GM's only way out of it is letting you talk in their dreams, and that's quite a bit more dangerous. Basically, the Dream spell but better.

That's assuming you can "shout" telepathically in the first place, that telepathy works at all if the target is unconscious, and that it would interrupt the sleep. Plenty of ways for a GM to tell you it doesn't work.

[HPisBS]

That's assuming you can "shout" telepathically in the first place, that telepathy works at all if the target is unconscious, and that it would interrupt the sleep. Plenty of ways for a GM to tell you it doesn't work.

The idea would be to not let the target get to sleep in the first place. Plenty of people have trouble getting their own minds to quiet down enough to let them get to sleep. These shenanigans would be that on steroids.

If I were the dm, though, I think I'd say, at some point, the exhaustion would outweigh the distraction and they'd sleep regardless.