Detect Thoughts

For the duration of the spell, you can read the thoughts of certain creatures. When you cast the spell, and with your action on each of your turns until the spell ends, you can focus your mind on any creature you can see within 30 feet of you. If the creature you choose has an Intelligence of 3 or lower, or doesn’t speak any language, it is unaffected.

Initially, you learn the surface thoughts of the creature — what is most evident in its mind at that moment. As an action, you can shift your attention to the thoughts of another creature or try to probe deeper into the mind of the same creature. If you probe deeper, the target must make a Wisdom saving throw. If it fails, you gain insight into its reasoning (if any), emotional state, and something that dominates its thoughts (such as what worries it most, or what it loves or hates). If the target succeeds, the spell ends. Either way, the target knows you are probing its mind, and unless you shift your attention to another creature’s thoughts, it can use its action on its turn to make an Intelligence check opposed by your Intelligence check; if the target succeeds, the spell ends.

Questions verbally directed at the target creature naturally shape the course of its thoughts, which makes this spell particularly effective as part of an interrogation.

You can also use this spell to detect the presence of thinking creatures you can’t see. When you cast the spell, or with your action while it lasts, you can search for thoughts within 30 feet of you. The spell can penetrate barriers, but 2 feet of stone, 2 inches of any metal other than lead, or a thin sheet of lead blocks it. You can’t detect a creature with an Intelligence of 3 or lower or one that doesn’t speak any language.

After detecting the presence of a creature this way, you can read its thoughts for the remainder of the spell’s duration, as described above, even if you can’t see it, but it must still be within range of the spell.