Do rakshasa have to concentrate on Detect Thoughts?

[jmax]

Rakshasa have continuous Detect Thoughts, which they can suppress and resume as a free action.


Detect Thoughts (Su)
A rakshasa can continuously use detect thoughts as the spell (caster level 18th; Will DC 15 negates). It can suppress or resume this ability as a free action. The save DC is Charisma-based.

Does the rakshasa have to concentrate to maintain it? If so, is there any functional difference between "continuous" and "at will" in this instance?

If it doesn't have to concentrate, its standard action is available for other uses while mind-reading, which makes its mind-reading much better than normal usage of Detect Thoughts.

[Crake]

Rakshasa have continuous Detect Thoughts, which they can suppress and resume as a free action.



Does the rakshasa have to concentrate to maintain it? If so, is there any functional difference between "continuous" and "at will" in this instance?

If it doesn't have to concentrate, its standard action is available for other uses while mind-reading, which makes its mind-reading much better than normal usage of Detect Thoughts.

I would probably imagine it like a permanencied detect thoughts, so they can sense the presence of thoughts without action, but if they want to actually read surface level thoughts they have to spend an action focusing each round. That being said, thats just how i would rule it, the raw seems to be ambiguous, but may lean toward having full function with no need to spend actions

[sreservoir]

Seems like it also has the disadvantage (vs at-will) that, since it can't exactly re-cast the effect, saving once makes a given target forevermore immune to that particular rakshasa's attempts to read surface thoughts.

[Crake]

Seems like it also has the disadvantage (vs at-will) that, since it can't exactly re-cast the effect, saving once makes a given target forevermore immune to that particular rakshasa's attempts to read surface thoughts.

I mean, it says right there, it can suppress or resume the ability as a free action, so... I don't think that's correct. It can just try again in a couple rounds by supressing and resuming.

[Paragon]

I'd argue that resuming is different than recasting so I'm inclined to follow the "you don't get another save" meaning "you keep the previous one" forever.

[jmax]

Seems like it also has the disadvantage (vs at-will) that, since it can't exactly re-cast the effect, saving once makes a given target forevermore immune to that particular rakshasa's attempts to read surface thoughts.


I'd argue that resuming is different than recasting so I'm inclined to follow the "you don't get another save" meaning "you keep the previous one" forever.

Those are an interesting interpretation I hadn't considered. Though most effects with "can't be affected by this ability again" have a time cap on that - usually not more than 24 hours.



I would probably imagine it like a permanencied detect thoughts, so they can sense the presence of thoughts without action, but if they want to actually read surface level thoughts they have to spend an action focusing each round. That being said, thats just how i would rule it, the raw seems to be ambiguous, but may lean toward having full function with no need to spend actions

That seems like a reasonable interpretation - but yeah, the actual text of the spell says you have to study the area or subject, which inherently can't require a standard action because the standard action is already being spent on maintaining the spell.

[Biggus]

That seems like a reasonable interpretation - but yeah, the actual text of the spell says you have to study the area or subject, which inherently can't require a standard action because the standard action is already being spent on maintaining the spell.

I'd see it that the studying is part of the same standard action which is used to maintain the spell: both of them involve keeping your mind focused on the spell. But we're far into speculative territory here, ultimately how it works is going to be a DM decision based on what makes most sense to them.

[ericgrau]

It seems odd that it would be a free action to end the concentration rather than a non-action. I'm pretty sure the rakshasa doesn't need to use an action to concentrate on it or there would be no point to that text.

Also consider that when you cast a concentration spell you don't need another action that round to concentrate on it, or else concentration spells would never work without quicken. So the rakshasa could activate detect thoughts as a free action and then end it as a free action every round and get it without using an action anyway. That could keep the 2nd round and 3rd round abilities from working, but it would still be super useful and is silly enough that I'm pretty sure this isn't the intent. And so we're back to it not taking an action to concentrate on it.

The bonuses to bluff and disguise would also be a bit silly if the rakshasa had to blow its action every turn to get them too. It would quickly seem odd that you can't use your action on anything that the observer can see.