My DM and I frequently do not see eye-to-eye when it comes to the rules. I tend to interpret rules expansively, with ambiguities decided in favor of the player. She tends to interpret rules narrowly, with ambiguities decided in favor of the DM.
That said, we got in another argument, today. This time about the Telepathic Speech ability that a Psicrystal gains when its master reaches 5th level.
She ruled that Telepathic Speech is simply speech. The Psicrystal can talk INTO the target creature's mind, but the creature cannot talk back into the Psicrystal's "mind." Any response must be verbalized.
Her ruling is based on the following. One, the name of the ability. It does say telepathic speech. Two, the difference in the wording between the Telepathic Speech ability and the Telepathic Link ability, which specifically refers to the Mindlink power.
I attempted to counter her ruling by citing to the following. First, that the text of the ability says, "the psicrystal can communicate telepathically with," not "can speak telepathically to." The use of the words "communicate" and "with" implies a shared experience with a back-and-forth/give-and-take. Second, that the text of the ability is virtually identical to that of the Telepathy special ability, as well as the Mindlink power.
Now, as always, what the DM says goes, blah, blah, blah. But I want to know: am I off-base, here, or is she? How do others play with this ability, and is there anything to which I could turn which would bolster my argument?
As an aside, I have the sense that she's ruled this way at least in part to keep the party from being able to easily communicate with a shy, mute Half-Giant NPC in an innocuous manner. This non-evil NPC has been forced to work for the bad guys and thus has a ton of information about them.
Regardless, I'm getting tired of all these narrowly-construed rules.