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A magic user casts a divination spell- know alignment, detect thoughts, psychic reading, etc against a person protected with a ring of mind shielding, a mind blank spell, or some such. What sort of feedback does the magic user get?
You cast the spell and nothing happens?
Spell failed?
Spell was successfully cast but returned no information?
Is the caster aware that their spell failed because the target is protected by some other magic?
Error, does not compute?
Mind Blank specifies that scrying that scans an area works, but the protected creature is not detected. That seem to indicate the correct way would be that the spell is successful but returns no information regarding the protected subject under a mind blank.
A ring of Mind Shielding is based on nondetection not mind blank. But the magic item is a lot more limited than the spell. All it does is make the wearer immune to detect thoughts, discern lies and magically discerning the subject's alignment.
But none of the magic items or spells say they prevent the spell from working. All of the spells and items also only protect the subject of the spell or item. This further supports the idea that the spell succeeds but returns no information about the target under protection. If the divination spell affects an area, it would return information on other creatures or objects in the area. For example, a detect evil would not affect the evil character with the ring of mind shielding but would detect other evil characters in the area of affect.
The Saving Throw rules section states the following:
Likewise, if a creature's saving throw succeeds against a targeted spell, you sense that the spell has failed. You do not sense when creatures succeed on saves against effect and area spells.
So that represents the norm. If a creature made its Will saving throw against, e.g., Detect Thoughts, you'd know it. Your character would know that creature was within the 60 ft. cone-shaped emanation of the spell, and would know what its Intelligence score was. Your character would know it made its saving throw, and that this was why he couldn't read its thoughts.
Mind Blank strikes me as pointing to immunity to divination not providing a magical "return" to the spellcaster:
The subject is protected from all devices and spells that gather information about the target through divination magic (such as detect evil, locate creature, scry, and see invisible). ... In the case of scrying that scans an area the creature is in, such as arcane eye, the spell works but the creature simply isn't detected. Scrying attempts that are targeted specifically at the subject do not work at all.
It starts off with a broad and vague description, but then qualifies that, for scrying, the spell simply doesn't work.
Note, this is completely different from defenses like the Nondetection spell, which forces the caster of the divination to succeed on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) against a DC of 11 + the caster level of the spellcaster who cast nondetection in order to observe his target.
Scrying is interesting itself:
You can observe a creature at any distance. If the subject succeeds on a Will save, the spell fails. The difficulty of the save depends on how well your knowledge of the subject and what sort of physical connection (if any) you have to that creature.
Scrying works by default, even if you're only familiar with the target and have no connection to it. The spell normally only fails if the creature makes its Will saving throw, and you'd know if that was the case. Mind Blank bypasses the need for a saving throw, though.
This, I think, points to a multi-part answer:
1. A spellcaster casts a spell like Clairaudience/Clairvoyance in a location outside of his line of fight. His sensor reveals to him everything, except for the Lich benefiting from Mind Blank. He has no idea the Lich is there and received no magical feedback indicating failure.
2. A spellcaster casts a spell like Clairaudience/Clairvoyance in a location outside of his line of fight. His sensor reveals to him the undead servants of the Lich in that location, but the Lich has a Nondetection spell cast. When the spellcaster turns his sensor toward where the Lich is sat, he finds that he has to exert his power over that of another in order to see what is there.
3. A spellcaster casts Detect Thoughts at a group of six NPCs directly in front of him. The spell tells him there are five people in front of him. He can read the surface thoughts of three of those five individuals, and is aware that two of them resisted his spell. The fact that one of them doesn't even register indicates that he benefits from potent magical defenses.
4. A spellcaster casts Scrying, to locate a rival. He knows that unless his target resists his spell that he should be able to locate him. He receives no feedback indicating either success or failure, though. He might surmise that his rival is either dead or benefiting from potent magical defenses.
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The Saving Throw rules section states the following:
Likewise, if a creature's saving throw succeeds against a targeted spell, you sense that the spell has failed. You do not sense when creatures succeed on saves against effect and area spells.So that represents the norm. If a creature made its Will saving throw against, e.g., Detect Thoughts, you'd know it. Your character would know that creature was within the 60 ft. cone-shaped emanation of the spell, and would know what its Intelligence score was. Your character would know it made its saving throw, and that this was why he couldn't read its thoughts.
It is not a targeted spell; it is a cone-shaped emanation, so you don't know if some of the creatures have made the save, only that you are unable to read the surface thoughts of some of them.
The Ring of Mind Shielding says:
"The wearer is continually immune to detect thoughts, discern lies, and any attempt to magically discern her alignment."
I would interpret that as making you immune to all stages of the spells with multiple effects, like Detect Thoughts. The character casting the spell would not be able to detect the esistence of the shielded mind.
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I guess I'm trying to find the right wording, as a GM, to tell a player. Which I guess is something along the lines of "Your spell succeeded, but gives you no information," but that just sounds weird.
"You cast your spell at the man, but strangely are unable to divine anything."
I dunno.
"You don't get anything when trying to detect the person's thoughts/alignment/etc."
What do you say normally when a character uses Detect Evil, and there is no creature with a discernible Evil aura in the area of effect?
I generally say something like:
"You don't notice any evil aura."
There is no need to specify that the spell is working.
The way I would handle it would be to simply omit the protected target from your response. Describe the effects of the spell like you normally would for all other targets and circumstances, but make no mention of the protected target.
Depending on the circumstances this may give a clue to the caster of the divination spell. For example, if you cast detect thoughts and one of the targets is protected, the fact that target is not showing up may give a clue that something is wrong. Don’t give them any information except that the target does not register. Let the player try and figure out why the target is not registering. The player may think that there is something else going on. An illusion of the target could produce the same effect, except that casting the divination spell would probably be considered interacting with the target and the player would usually get a save vs illusion if the spell allows a saving throw.
It is not a targeted spell; it is a cone-shaped emanation, so you don't know if some of the creatures have made the save, only that you are unable to read the surface thoughts of some of them.
Very good catch, thank you!