Does Mindsight require line of effect?

[ATHATH]

A creature that has this feat can detect and pinpoint beings that are not mindless (anything with an Intelligence score of 1 or higher) within range of its telepathy. This works much like blindsense--the creature knows what square each thinking being is in, but it does not see the being, and the being still has total concealment unless the creature can see it by some other means. The creature also perceives several observable characteristics about each being detected with mindsight, including the being's type and Intelligence score. The creature need not take any additional or special actions to gain this information; it is as obvious to mindsight as the being's race and clothing would be to eyesight.




Blindsight And Blindsense
Some creatures have blindsight, the extraordinary ability to use a nonvisual sense (or a combination of such senses) to operate effectively without vision. Such sense may include sensitivity to vibrations, acute scent, keen hearing, or echolocation. This ability makes invisibility and concealment (even magical darkness) irrelevant to the creature (though it still can’t see ethereal creatures and must have line of effect to a creature or object to discern that creature or object). This ability operates out to a range specified in the creature description.




Blindsense
Other creatures have blindsense, a lesser ability that lets the creature notice things it cannot see, but without the precision of blindsight. The creature with blindsense usually does not need to make Spot or Listen checks to notice and locate creatures within range of its blindsense ability, provided that it has line of effect to that creature. Any opponent the creature cannot see has total concealment (50% miss chance) against the creature with blindsense, and the blindsensing creature still has the normal miss chance when attacking foes that have concealment. Visibility still affects the movement of a creature with blindsense. A creature with blindsense is still denied its Dexterity bonus to Armor Class against attacks from creatures it cannot see.


Does Mindsight require line of effect to detect things?

[Crake]

Since it says within your telepathy's range, and telepathy is not affected by line of effect, i believe it's generally accepted that mindsight is not affected by line of effect either, but, as with most controversial topics in 3.5, arguments can be made either way, as you did for example, by pointing to the fact that both blindsight and blindsense require line of effect

[Darg]

Does Mindsight require line of effect to detect things?

As Crake said, it's all open to interpretation. The default for everything is that things need LoE unless otherwise stated. However, Telepathy singularly doesn't seem to follow those rules. Take spell weaver for example with their 1000 mile telepathy. If it didn't bypass LoE in some way, there would be very very few scenarios where they'd be able to use the distance beyond a few hundred feet let alone miles. My theory is that the ability is centered on yourself and the range is actually the radius of the area. From there, personally, it makes more sense to use the spread rules for telepathy and by extension mindsight from a mechanical balance standpoint. However, there's no hard and fast RAW for it.