Helmet of Telepathy

Artifice 4	Type: detection, esoteric
Range: 180’	Duration: 1 turn

Helmet of Telepathy

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Infusion — see Artifice for the rules and the Infusion List for the full list.

By means of this infusion, a touched ordinary helmet or skullcap is imbued with telepathic powers. The wearer can engage in direct mind-to-mind communication with other sapient creatures without need for a shared language. When the infusion is applied or the helm is donned, the wearer can request a telepathic link with a target sapient creature. The target “feels” its mind being “touched.” The target can either accept the telepathic link or attempt to refuse it. If the target accepts the link, it is automatically established. If the target attempts to refuse the link, it must make a Spells saving throw. If the save fails, the link is established despite its refusal. If the save succeeds, the link is not established.

Once the link is established, the wearer of the helm can read all of the target’s surface thoughts and can send thoughts of his own to the target. Note that this is asymmetrical: the wearer can read what target is thinking, even if the target doesn’t want him to, while target can only read what the wearer chooses to send.

Since telepathy only allows the wearer to read the target’s surface thoughts, the target’s deeply held secrets, private concerns, or suppressed memories cannot usually be accessed with a helm of telepathy unless they are somehow brought to the surface of the target’s mind. A clever wearer might transmit cues, reminders, or triggers to try to bring certain thoughts to the surface, or might even have a nearby accomplice provoke the target to expose what it thinks. Such shenanigans are left to the Judge’s discretion to decide.

The helm’s wearer must maintain stationary concentration to keep a telepathic link active, but concentration is not needed to sustain the infusion. For instance, the wearer can concentrate for one round to communicate with a target, take another action the following round, and then establish a new link with that or another target on the subsequent round. The wearer can change the creature with which he is linked each round that he concentrates, if desired. However, if the wearer breaks his telepathic link with an unwilling creature, then wants to link with that creature again later, the creature receives a new saving throw to resist the link.