Worldbuilding help - telepathic race

[Iampower]

Need help for a race of telepath that i plan to introduce to my group.
I am thinking of a race that have an unbreakable telepathic link to everyone else of their species. They can access each others thoughts, emotion, motivations, etc without fail or misunderstanding.

A hive mind sounds boring. I was thinking that they will have measure of invididualism - they still have their individual opinions, but if anyone from their species/race thinks about them they will immidiately know that opinion.

What would their society be like? What would their thought process be like? How would i, the DM, roleplay one of them for my group to interact with? And what would humaniod races think of them? Would they even be humanoids? They sound like mindflayers, but i was thinking of a neutral good race.

[Studoku]

If anything, such a society would probably be more open-minded. With the way you describe their telepathy, paying lip service to the majority opinion would be impossible. Members who go against it would be obvious, whether they want to be or not. The immediate assumption of a totalitarian state wouldn't happen- there would be no silent majority support from a majority that does not it fact exist.

Additionally, with the ability to sense emotions, outside views would be backed by transparent empathy. When you can tell exactly why someone believes the way they do, it's much harder to dismiss them as stupid, insane, or evil. Such a society would likely be more open to new ideas than others.

Dealing with other races would be interesting. It's worth noting that such a species would have no need to develop spoken language (possibly not even the ability to speak) so simply communicating would be interesting. I can imagine them being someone xenophobic, not just because of the difficulty but because other species are so dishonest, i.e. being capable of dishonesty.

[Phhase]

What's the tech level? You could have a race of machines that share a sort of communal mind database. That's an easy lawful neutral or lawful good race.

[geppetto]

First question might be if theres a range to their telepathy? If so then you might have individual groups breaking off and forming their own little colonies of like minded members to have independence from the main groupmind. If not then you can expect every member in the world to either belong to one political organization or for their race to be in the midst of unifying.

By the same token i would expect their group to be extremely fascist, with actual codes against thought crimes. A race like this is likely to have their leaders establish a very rigid code of thought and behavior since your thoughts act almost like a kind of pollution to all the members around you. Anyone who disrupts the harmony of the community with different thoughts is likely to be punished. And since you cant stop someone from thinking and sending them away doesnt really help if theres unlimited range all you can really do is either kill them or turn off their telepathy somehow. Sort of like deafening someone as a punishment for blasphemy for instance.

If the telepathy extends to other races around them then they are likely to be very xenophobic. Especially as a good race the thoughts of other species who are generally neutral are likely to be very confusing and upsetting. Not to mention the many bad thoughts and impulses that normal races have all throughout the day but dont act on. A generally good species is likely to be horrified by the thoughts of everyone around them.

Imagine if the real world was like 4chan. Everyone just uncontrollably says whatever horrible thing pops into their heads the second they think it with no filter at all and no one can shut them up. Society would collapse, people couldnt get along for 5 minutes. Thats the world a telepathic race would live in whenever they are around the neutral demihumans.

[Iampower]

For tech level i was thinking around the same as other races in terms of science/magic - typical medeival-esque famtasy. Though i like the idea of them beibg more open minded and more progressive.

Woukd they even have leaders? I can see them beung able to come to concensus much easier. Though what they do to "devients"...not sure really. At least none that would be in line with neutral good. Typical criminals/viooent individuals would likely be as you said though, but again i'm not certain how much of those would appear.

Range...haven't thought of that. Either way have pros and cons in terms of plot potential...

[King of Nowhere]

If anything, such a society would probably be more open-minded. With the way you describe their telepathy, paying lip service to the majority opinion would be impossible. Members who go against it would be obvious, whether they want to be or not. The immediate assumption of a totalitarian state wouldn't happen- there would be no silent majority support from a majority that does not it fact exist.

Additionally, with the ability to sense emotions, outside views would be backed by transparent empathy. When you can tell exactly why someone believes the way they do, it's much harder to dismiss them as stupid, insane, or evil. Such a society would likely be more open to new ideas than others.

That seems more likely if the race is generally good.
There is also the opposite path, though, of having the race being extremely bigotic and conformist because "deviants" are quickly isolated and face a lot of stigma until they convert or they are forced into exile.
It could easily support a totalitarianism, one ruled by consensus because dissidents are quickly found and either "reeducated" or eliminated.

Depends if you want to go the utopian or dystopian way. I just don't see them sitting in the middle.

Oh, and i expect there would be a lot of differences with their sexuality and courtship, which should be quite easy because you can discover if the other person is interested simply by concentrating. Again, i could see them as very open (i can perceive that you like me, let's have sex) or very conservative (we can sort it telephatically, no need to bring any of it in public)

[Spore]

You basically want to look at the protoss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDwtPJDbF_A

A bit of help:
0) Khala is what Protoss call this telepathic bond.
1) Taldarim are sadistic individualists that bound themselves to a creator god named Amon. They pride themselves as not being shackled to other protoss (their almost Star Wars Sith like mantra has been noted tho).
2) Nerazim or Dark Templar cut their connection to the Khala (by severing their nerve endings) because it impeded individualism. They were banished for this sacrilege.
3) Their creator race (who also created the zerg) created slave races, basically making the entire Starcraft story an ode to individualism because even if the humans do terrible things in that setting, they have a free will.

A few things I got from that example. Protoss are incredibly understanding with each other but they have fiercely different interpretations of what is right. They have a rigid caste system that does not allow social permeability at all. You are born a templar/executor/whatever, you die as such.

They have noble goals (maybe they even want to purge said mindflayers because these are the biggest threat for them), but their society is so broken and rigid, they constantly get held up by their own traditions.

They sound like mindflayers, but i was thinking of a neutral good race.

What you claimed would work for a LG to LN race. Neutral good needs a big measure of individuality with the option of shutting out the collective inside your head (maybe through meditation) but I feel a very rigid and focussed social order is better than a NG approach.

Also you may look at the Kalashtar from Eberron. Some are pretty good aligned telepaths, others were consumed by darkness and nightmares and are evil and possibly mad now.

[Particle_Man]

Their sensory abilities might atrophy somewhat and they would keep getting surprised by nontelepaths talking. It would be like us in a museum and then a statue started talking.

I vote for open minded. If there are no secrets there can be no shame. Especially as they realize that they have so much in common with each other.