DM Q&A: Shifter, Illithid Shape

[Fluffy the Mad]

Simple enough question. By most books they can speak a language or two (usually Undercommon) but prefer telepathic communication. Since a shifter has some of their psionic powers but are limited in them, is it acceptable to RP them as having limited telepathic abilities as well? Namely, I'm curious if they can 'speak' telepathically, sending but not receiving in that way and thus avoiding any tricky metagamey issues but still getting a neat point to play around. Is that possible or should it be avoided entirely?

[DM Hawk]

Hi Fluffy Reaper

With historic in game limitations...

We have an old tried and true rule about sharing in character information in tells, which is in short don't do it.

There is too much room for abuse and meta gaming information that should be roleplayed, even with characters capable of long distance communication by magic in Pen and Paper the rules and constraints that govern these spells can't be enforced through tells.

This would apply to shifter squidface telepathy taking place in tells.

Also, can't touch on this issue without mentioning: It is rule breaking to do so, especially for dead characters to send tells to others to come and help them.

There are exceptions:

Tells may be used to share information about character locations for the purpose of grouping up and forming parties.

Getting agreement from a friendly neighborhood DM to facilitate magical or telepathic communication in a particular instance.

[DM Hawk]

PS - if you can find creative ways to use the talk channel to portray near range shifter squidface telepathic communication without a DM present, that should be fine.

The problem areas are Tells or even the Party channel to convey information over distance without moderation.