Manifest Mind: Does Wizard have awakened Spellbook Vision on Reactions

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Player wizard was hidden behind pillar and had the Awakened Spellbook out in play. Monster cast Hypnotic Pattern on multiple party members. Player attempted to counterspell from behind the pillar.

With counterspell and no vision, the casting shouldn't work. Player argued that they can see through the Awakened Spellbook.

The question is if, on a reaction, the player can make use of the visibility of the spellbook…

  • Telepathic sharing doesn't imply that the wizard gets a baked in
    "Arcane Eye" (LVL 4 spell) without concentration

  • The spellbook can report to the wizard, but the wizard still cannot
    see through the mind of the spellbook

  • It's not an action on the wizard's turn, so "cast it as if you were in
    the spectral mind's space, instead of your own, using its senses."
    doesn't apply

The wording for Manifest Mind is (emphases mine):

While manifested, the spectral mind can hear and see, and it has darkvision with a range of 60 feet. The mind can telepathically share with you what it sees and hears (no action required).

[…]

Whenever you cast a wizard spell on your turn, you can cast it as if you were in the spectral mind's space, instead of your own, using its senses.

My feeling is that RAW the answer is NO – the player cannot counterspell as the spellbook doesn't give it the vision to do so. "Telepathically share" doesn't (in DND terms) implicitly indicate shared vision to facilitate spellcasting.

Best Answer

A wizard can cast spells through the Manifest Mind only on their turns.

You quoted the relevant rules for the timing of this casting (emphasis mine):

Whenever you cast a wizard spell on your turn, you can cast it as if you were in the spectral mind’s space, instead of your own, using its senses.

Since Counterspell is cast in the monster's turn, the requirement about the timing and not about line of sight for using this feature is not met.

Beware that one of the uses of the Manifest Mind is exactly to cast spells in areas that the wizard cannot see with his own eyes: indeed, the feature says:

you can cast it as if you were in the spectral mind’s space, instead of your own, using its senses.

Hence, the wizard can use hearing and seeing senses of the Manifest Mind for casting in areas they do not have a clear path to.

Consider this scenario: the wizard is behind the pillar and casts, in their turn via the Manifest Mind, Fireball. An enemy in line of sight with the Manifest Mind casts Counterspell, but the wizard attempts to counter it with his own casting of Counterspell.

This is legit, since all the spells are cast during the wizard's turn, it does not matter that the casting time is an Action or a Reaction.

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