Detect Thoughts wrote:
You sense the surface thoughts of intelligent creatures around you. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you concentrate on an area or target. The spell can penetrate some barriers, but 3 feet of dirt or wood, 1 foot of stone, 1 inch of metal, a thin sheet of lead, or any force barrier blocks it. Creatures who are immune to mental effects are immune to detection by this spell.
[1-Action] You detect the presence or absence of thoughts from conscious creatures that have Intelligence modifiers of –3 or higher.
[2-Action] You detect the number of thinking minds and whether or not the creatures are telepathic. Creatures with telepathy have louder thoughts than creature who don’t have telepathy, and might be able to sense your intrusion, at the GM’s discretion.
[3-Action] You gain a +1 status bonus to Perception to Sense Motive against the target while the spell is sustained. A target who succeeds at its Will save prevents this.
Mind Reading wrote:
With a cursory mental touch, you attempt to read the target's mind. It must attempt a Will save. The target then becomes temporarily immune to your mind reading for 1 hour.
Critical Success The target perceives vague surface thoughts from you when you Cast the Spell.
Success You find out whether the target's Intelligence modifier is higher than, equal to, or lower than yours.
Failure You perceive vague surface thoughts from the target when you Cast the Spell, and you find out whether its Intelligence is higher than, equal to, or lower than yours.
Critical Failure As failure, and for the duration of the spell, you can Sustain the spell to detect the target's surface thoughts again. The target doesn't receive any additional saves.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but at a glance, Detect Thoughts seems to do what Mind Reading can do as a Rank 3 spell as a cantrip. I was trying to talk it over with my partner, and they interpreted that perhaps detect thoughts cannot actually read thoughts, just detect whether or not thoughts are happening, as the 1, 2, and 3 action varients do not specifically say that you perceive their surface thoughts, but at the same time, I still see that Detect thoughts says that you "sense the surface thoughts" of creatures.
Considering the Starfinder Playtest allows the use of Pathfinder Player Core spells, of which Mind Reading is one, I think Detect Thoughts should be clarified on just how much information you are gleaming in its use, and how powerful it should be compared to mind reading. At a glance, it looks like it is as powerful as an at- will Rank 3 spell without a Will saving throw with one interpretation, but another interpreation would level it out to be much more cantrip-level.
On the GM side, the more sane interpretation is to say that Detect Thoughts cannot actually read thoughts, just detect the loudness or general flavor of them as if it was converted to an adult in the Peanuts talking, but I just want to be sure.
