A spellcaster’s world is a complex and dangerous place, full of traps and spells that can catch them by surprise. To survive in this hostile environment, they need to be well-prepared. By using protective wards, shielding spells, and other magical traps, a spellcaster can keep themselves safe from harm while still interacting with the world around them.
The spell known as Abjuration is one of the most powerful abjuration spells available. It can be used to remove any type of magical effect from a target, including curses, hexes, and charms.
Mind Blank
You create a field of force that blocks all physical and magical attacks for 24 hours.
Touch spell: You must make contact with a willing creature in order to cast the spell.
-It has a 50% chance to resist all damage. -It has a 50% chance to resist all stuns and immobilizes. ..
The creature is immune to psychic damage, and can’t have its emotions or thoughts read. It’s also immune to divination spells and the charmed condition.
The spell also prevents any spells used to mess with a target’s mind or learn things about the target.
The spell specifically calls out wish, one of the most powerful spells in D&D. Even if used to mentally affect a creature, it would be blocked by mind blank.
That leads to some interesting questions about the president’s relationship with Russia.
If we use wish to completely change the timeline, would a creature with no memory of the old timeline still remember the new timeline? ..
There is no one answer to the question of whether or not high-level officials are able to effectively communicate with the public. This is often a difficult question to answer because it depends on a variety of factors, including the individual’s skills and experience.
Ultimately, it’s up to the DM. ..
What Does This All Mean?
The spell mind blank is simple and straightforward.
The power of a magic item can vary depending on its level. For example, a magic item with a low level of power would have little or no effect, while an item with a high level of power could cause great damage.
The main point is that mind blank protects your mind from everything.
You are immune to being charmed, so any effects that rely on it are useless. Dominate person or dominate monster, geas, modify memory, vampiric charm abilities, and anything else that relies on the charmed condition fails immediately.
Your mind is also unaffected by powerful spells like feeblemind, mental prison, weird, and maddening darkness.
Who Gets This Spell?
The spell “Mind Blank” is a high-level spell that allows the caster to temporarily block all incoming thoughts, memories, and emotions. This can be useful in situations where the caster needs to focus on a specific task without distraction. ..
As a result, it is harder to obtain than many low-level spells. ..
The spell is on the Bard and Wizard spell lists, so they can choose to learn it if they’d like.
Arcane Domain clerics can pick up the Arcane Mastery feature to gain increased abilities when using their spells.
Where Mind Blank Gets Tricky
In some games and older editions of Dungeons & Dragons, there were tags that explicitly defined if a spell affected a creature’s mind. ..
The 5th edition of the game doesn’t have a tagging system that helps clarify the effects of spells. This leaves the text of the spell to carry the burden of clarifying these effects. ..
This spell was labeled as “mind-affecting” in previous editions, but the 5e version doesn’t explicitly say it affects the mind.
The frightened effect is blocked by mind blank, but the charm effect is not. This is because antipathy repels or attracts “intelligent” creatures, which means it would generally be considered a mind-affecting spell in 5th edition. ..
That means the mind can’t go blank, which probably means it can’t do anything else either.
DM’s can determine if a spell is antipathy by checking the spell’s alignment.
Drawbacks
Nondetection renders you immune to divination spells. ..
A DM could rule that mind blank prevents you from being seen by divination spells, but still allows you to cast divination spells on yourself.
The downside to being mind blank is that you are unable to cast spells that rely on your own intuition or divination, such as detect or telepathic bond. ..
Mind Blank: Uses, Tips & Tricks
The psychic damage immunity is not going to be hit-or-miss. ..
In some campaigns, you may not find as many psychic monsters as you would in others.
The daelkyr are a few creatures that do mind-affecting attacks, and it can be useful to use this against them.
The immunity to charm and mental magic comes in handy against spellcasters. And being immune to the debilitating feeblemind spell is always a plus.
Timing
Mind blank has a 24-hour duration.
If you haven’t used your 8th or 9th level spell slot by the end of a day, you can cast mind blank on yourself before your long rest. ..
After getting your spell slots back, you have 16 hours of protection left. ..
There are multiple uses for a pen. If you have the time and inclination, you can use it to write, draw, or even paint.
If you have a fight tomorrow and would like to be able to remember what happened during the fight, you could put the spell on yourself before the fight. ..
If necessary, you could cast the spell twice more the next day to provide psychic and charm immunity to the entire party. ..
If you have a simulacrum of yourself lying around, you can use it to cast two powerful offensive spells the next day.
Evil Items
Yes, I have. It’s called a spellsword and it’s really powerful.
The kind that allows you to do amazing things for a price?
Mind blank can be a helpful tool for solving problems. ..
Some magic items demand that their wielder cause destruction or mayhem in order to use them.
If Mind blank is ignored, some of them can attempt to take control of their wielder. If Mind blank is used, it can stop that from happening.
The device won’t be able to keep the object from pouting or from disabling its abilities. ..
You won’t go on a killing spree in the middle of the night if you don’t feed souls to your evil magic sword.
Enemy Tactics
The archmage starts combat with a mind blank spell already cast, so that she can focus on her target.
For the adventurers, being charmed by enemies is a frustrating experience.
With the release of Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, more psychic damage spells have been added to the game. This means that people who are immune to psychic damage will find this spell useful. ..
When players use psychic-dealing spells such as the Shadow Blade, Psychic Scream, and Synaptic Static correctly, they can cause serious damage or even paralysis to their opponents. ..
If you have a caster in the party that specializes in psychic damage, mind blank can be a way to force them to change up their tactics.
It can be difficult for mages to start a battle without knowing their spells. Instead of trying to focus on dispel the mind blank, they may choose to try and focus on countering the mage’s magic.
A bard’s Jack of All Trades ability can be a challenge that involves a good deal of the party. This ability allows the bard to use their knowledge and skills to help the party in their endeavors. Some features of this ability include Bend Luck, which can help the bard dispel enemy spells. Additionally, other features like Jack of All Trades can help the bard in many ways.
Peace and Quiet
Some spellcasters may find themselves in a position where they can request help from lower-levelled adventurers or spellcasters for information. These individuals may be willing to share their knowledge or help with tasks that are difficult or impossible for higher-level adventurers.
If they’re a mysterious entity from another plane, mind blank can be a handy way to keep curious adventurers off your back.
Since contact other plane magic blocks divination magic, spells like contact other plane won’t work when other spellcasters cast them to ask questions.
This is a particular corner case, but something that some powerful creatures in the game can use. If a creature wouldn’t want to have questions thrown its way, mind blank can block all those calls.
Sending emails can be a hassle. Maybe there’s a better way. ..
Sending explicitly sends a message to a target’s mind, which can block spells that affect the target’s mind. ..
The DM will decide whether or not the player’s actions affected the game. ..
A DM would be well within their rights to say that mind blank keeps a powerful wizard from being called at all hours of the day.
If you’re a wizard being harassed by annoying kings, universities asking for donations, or worse of all… magical sending telemarketers, this could come in handy.
