Mind Blank: Get Out of My Head!
Spell Level: 8
School: Abjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Duration: 24 hours
Components: V, S
Until the spell ends, one willing creature you touch is immune to psychic damage, any effect that would sense its emotions or read its thoughts, divination spells, and the charmed condition. The spell even foils Wish spells and spells or effects of similar power used to affect the target’s mind or to gain information about the target.
Review by Samuel West, Twitter: @CrierKobold
How many monsters exist that Mind Blank helps against? Looking through the upper CR baddies, I think we’re in the single digit territory. How good Mind Blank is to you then directly relates to your situation; if one of these handful of divining villains knows specifically only you exist, or does predominately psychic damage, Mind Blank is fine. In every other instance, the spell is dead. It does nothing for you. It's easily one of the worst 8th level spells in existence.
Mind Blank attached to a magic item or in the wheelhouse of a lich, aboleth, mind flayer, or other high CR caster villain seems like it could be decent, right? Here’s the thing; Nondetection exists. A 2nd level spell from a world building and monster tool perspective counteracts player attempts to divine their location, meaning in order for Mind Blank to be good on a monster, the charm prevention or psychic immunity need to matter. In some recent books they’ve printed some moderate damage psychic spells, but you know what handles them as well as every other spell out there? Counterspell! Sure, this can always prevent Feeblemind from happening, but legendary resistance was stopping that anyway. Charmed is a common immunity on its own, especially in high CR monsters.
This spell tries to trick you into thinking it's good by telling you it can’t be removed, not even by Wish! Here’s the thing; no creature in any universe would waste a Wish, or hell just a Dispel Magic, trying to get rid of Mind Blank. In a world full of magic, ignoring a single condition and mind reading isn’t a reasonable defense. It's a waste of a spell slot.
It is a shame a spell designed around characters who conceptually want to be the Professor X archetype get shafted so hard here. Mental detection and thought reading is neat, but practically using at the table is always going to be clunky and awkward. Meta discussions make the whole of mind reading and telepathic communication feel redundant; I’m not lobbying to root out meta discussions and cooperative tactics, but I do think this style of effect gets worse because it exists. It's just the reality of cooperative RPGs.
You only should be taking Mind Blank as a player if you’re going against a Mind Flayer colony or something with that level of telepathic prowess. Outside of that specific kind of monster, the effect is done better on spells under half its level. Mind Blank could be a 4th level spell and I’d still say it’s basically useless, but here it is taking up your 8th level slot instead.
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