Haha! Illithids of Thoon would rather get swole, "It's not magic runes, Mom, It's psionic circuitry! The biggest pain in the ass with converting Third Edition stuff into Fifth Edition stuff is that Third Edition was all about monsters having class levels. Alhoons were magic-using outcasts from mind flayer societies who had defied the ruling elder brains to achieve a limited form of lichdom. In some editions all ulitharids that survive long enough eventually morph into one. So they eat normally, and extract maximum nutrition from it. Look, just look up "aberrant" in the dictionary. They are ultra-perverted hedonists, using their psionics to brainwash victims into playmates of their obscene lusts, and are reputated to eventually transform men they take as their lovers mentally and physically into grotesque, squid-like tentacle-beasts, which spend the rest of their lives fastened to the mindflayer's hips and shoving her genitals full of tentacle-penises. Illithid First Appearance: 03 Strange Bedfellows Armor Class 15 Darkvision 120 ft, Passive 16 Speed 30 ft Advantage on saves vs. spells Average/Max HP: 71, 117 ep04: 79 taken, 8 dagger to the maw by Vax ep07: 90 taken, 8 dagger to the eye by Vax ep09: 94 taken, 20 Fireball by Tiberius The mind flayers used to have another god called Maanzecorian, but Tenebrous (actually Orcus, it's a long story) used the last word on him, so his head asploded. The Illithid is considered "Product Identity" by Wizards of the Coast and as such is not released under its Open Gaming License. Illithids function as a hive mind, serving the Elder Brain. Some illithids spend their time finding ways to put out the sun, because they hate that bright light shit. No word on whether Neolithids ever develop the capacity to birth tadpoles of their own. An illithid healthy from a brain-rich diet secretes a thin glaze of mucus that coats its mauve skin. By the way, this adventure also describes duthka'giths, who are brutal githyanki that carry red dragon blood; they could also be considered as effective opponents against the mind flayers. It started with just one bi-weekly Waterdeep Dragon Heist game.A few months ago, I started running another bi-weekly game using the excellent Skullport Dragon Swindle module by Alex Clippinger; both games occur in the same timeline with the same NPCs, so there should be some fun interactions eventually, especially … 3rd Edition Statistics[1] Today being Christmas, I decided to give the gift of marketing. This is why they need brains to keep their body from decaying. Actions Multiattack: The Dragon can use its Frightful Presence.It then makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws. Traits Legendary Resistance (3/Day): If the Dragon fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead. Subtype(s) First, we have the following sentence from 5e MM (page 159): In any case, the encounter with Thoon changed these particular illithids completely, they're a lot more irrational and unpredictable (NE instead of LE), make use of a lot of really weird constructs and altered humanoids (and employ a variant of the mind flayer that trades the ability to control minds for ninja powers), and for some fucking insane reason a CR 25 Elder brain came back as a CR 15 entity that's totally batshit insane. Bite: Melee Weapon Attack: +14 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target.Hit: 19 (2d10 + 8) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage. Their psionic version is much better than their Monster Manual version by virtue of increased versatility. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. Placing it within a true dragon results in the unspeakably powerful gribbly horror that is the Brainstealer Dragon, whose psychic might is only surpassed by the Elder Brain. Then they would commence brain extraction, killing one-headed creatures as they hungrily swallowed their brains.[1]. Each creed has different beliefs about the best path towards taking over the universe. The Nourishers promote the interest of maintaining the community's supply of thralls. They wield laser pistols and can be any allignment. The Daeijine Illithids are highly individual to all save their Elder Brain. Earth The Monstrous Manual for 2nd edition therefore had a much more detailed write up on the Mind Flayer and other psionic using creatures. [1], Brainstealers adopted the conniving personalities and manipulative minds of their mind flayer creators. Spent a few hours cooking this boy up, and trying to really make him shine as both a Mind Flayer and a Dragon, I'm still new to trying to make high quality homebrew monsters with accurate CRs, but he came out to a CR 17 before I calculated in the Psychic Domination and Psychic Grip (From the Mystic's Unearthed Arcana, just tweaked to be bonus actions) so I pumped him up to 18 fly 50ft medium dragon Neutral Evil Ryujin : 25 40 ft., fly 60 ft., swim 80 ft. Gargantuan dragon any chaotic alignment Salamence : 10 30 ft. They've been out of circulation since 4e landed. Their alien physiology has stumped our crack (addict) biology team even after years of scientific scrutiny. Its skin color ranges from mauve to a greenish lavender, soft and damp like an amphibious creature, and constantly covered by a layer of glistening slime.A mind flayer's hands have three narrow reddened fingers and a thumb, while its feet have two webbed toes. Using 5e language, it might be a called a half-illithid. Special cases are present though; placing a mind flayer tadpole into a beholder results in a mindwitness (essentially replace four of the eyestalks with large thick tentacles and the rays of doom with psionics), a docile creature whose main role is to facilitate telepathic communications. Vampiric illthid are a type of undead mind flayer. The memories and thoughts consumed are... well "flavor" to put it in the least disgusting way possible. It's a very common Mind Flayer name. The symbols of each creeds are squares containing six horizontal bars that are either solid or split in two. Implanting one in a Svirfneblin usually kills both the tadpole and its host, but if it survives the result is a mozgriken, a small shapechanging creature with no mouth and only three tentacles, a trait that forces them to feed only on brain fluids and earns them no small amount of abuse from true illithids. The Possessors think hording wealth and resources through trade with other races is the best path to power. The Arisers say that illithids shouldn't stay in darkness and so they develop ways for them to work in daylight and make plans for conquering the surface. The word "ceremorphosis" derives from a language called the Elder Tongue, with cere meaning "brain", and morphe meaning "form". Their goal is nothing short of world domination. As to how Elminster knows this, he refuses to explain. The Loretakers are a minor creed, but they are important as the source of the Thoon: This page was last edited on 22 February 2021, at 14:26. The Influencers specialize in collecting intelligence and misleading their enemies through infiltration and spying. Illithids are humanoid in basic shape - one head, two arms and two legs - but the similarities with humans end there. The elder brains hate them. homebrewery link. This is, of course, complete and utter bullshit, as the Elder Brain just eats their knowledge and discards everything else (although pretty much nobody in-universe aside from the elder brains themselves is aware of this). In last week’s column I shared a cobbled-together homebrew system for handling ship-to-ship combat from the homebrew 5E D&D Spelljammer campaign that I run for my friends. Is this copyrighted? Elder Brains discourage studying magic too much because Elder Brains can't eat a mind flayer's magical abilities, though they can eat a mind flayer's knowledge of psionics (if it ever took levels in Psion, Erudite, Wilder, or what have you.) When the process is complete, no form of magic or psionics, excluding wish and reincarnate and true resurrection, can bring back the victim, but even then the mind flayer will still be alive. The 3.0 Monster Manual has illithid stats for 3.0 D&D. so brain-damagingly evil it makes them awesome, https://1d4chan.org/index.php?title=Illithid&oldid=748686. dragon Neutral Evil Red Inferno Wyrmling : 2 30ft. But if you need a mastermind who can roundhouse kick the fighter through a wall after the party blitzes through his mooks, look no further. A rare few Illithids who end up mastering actual arcane magic instead of psionics opt to become Liches, named Alhoons or Illithiliches, since Elder Brains can't absorb magical abilities from the brain of an Illithid mage and magical talent (unless it's that of a Cleric to Ilsenine, see below) is looked down on in Illithid society. It's not like anyone reads this site anyway. Underground[1] Many of the problems that plagued psionics in 1st edition were corrected for 2nd edition. All that is known of these creatures is that they cannot create spawn, need both fresh blood and fresh brains to survive, are more feral than typical illithids, and are barely intelligent. Their skin tones range from a deathly white to varying shades of blue, purple or even green. Like their illithid kin, they could use a mind blast to mentally debilitate their prey. An unlucky creature will be restrained as the Tadpole is brought to it, the Mind flayer carrying the tadpole will place it within the most direct route to the brain (typically the ear or nose, which makes no sense since neither of those connects to the brain, but the eye socket does so it could still work) and the tadpole will quickly burrow its way through the skull and into the brain where it will devour the host organism's brain over the course of a week as it alters the host with mind flayer traits. Anyway, if you've ever seen that Bruce Campbell movie Mindwarp, with those burrowing leech things, you've got a pretty good grasp on what to expect. Not too long ago I stumbled across the account of a hard-working artisan living in England with the Instagram handle @trayedandtested. Oct 12, 2015 #1 One of my favorite things about mind flayers has always been the way they shrug off spells with near-total impunity. If the host is any species besides a human, the result is a half-mindflayer, whose template can be found in the Fiend Folio. page 90 talks about gith ships and helm Storm King Thunder . [1], The brainstealer's powerful draconic build was aided by its diverse array of mental abilities. Dungeons and Dragons 5e Monster Spotlight: The Mind Flayer. Their draconic bodies were covered in small purple scales and their wings reduced to fleshy flaps of eldritch skin. It is possible that the mind flayers were created when the daelkyr destroyed the native world of the githyanki and githzerai. Favored terrain [1], Their skin was immune to acid, and grew in resistance to non-magical means of attack as they grew older. Stand down, and we will make your death painless." Like most illithids and their creations, brainstealer dragons had squid-like heads and brain-devouring maws. Mozgriken heads resembled the heads of normal illithids, except they only had three tentacles instead of four, and lacked a mouth. Some Loretaker mind flayers (possibly) went to the Far Realm and apparently encountered something called Thoon. ...But then you realize that they have tentacles, and you suddenly remember that Japan exists. Even rarer, to the point where it's practically considered an urban legend is the opposite, where the host undergoes the full transformation, but their original mind remains intact and in control of their newfound powers. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. Thread starter FormerlyHemlock; Start date Oct 12, 2015; F. FormerlyHemlock Explorer. The Creatives devote themselves to advancing illithid society though scientific and psionic research and invention. The Fiend Folio is sort of a transitional book between 3.0 and 3.5 I think, so just be aware that it has some changes to creature types, subtypes, and the basic stats for some creature types. It is thought that if we could crack the mystery of why these skinny creatures subsist on a diet of nothing but fat and calcium, we would be closer to... something. Traits Ice Walk: The dragon can move across and climb icy surfaces without needing to make an ability check. In actuality, Illithid physiology is a moderately altered version of their host organism's body (see … Ulitharids are large sized and have two extra long tentacles and much more powerful psionic abilities. Actions Multiattack: The dragon can use its Frightful Presence Other than maintaining the Elder Brain, the day-to-day duties of the average illithid consist of evil science and making cheeky wood burnings. The mind flayers have one deity they pay respects to in Illsensine, who did not create them. Though the newborn mind flayer will be physically mature, it will take some time to mentally mature (though its community will be more than willing to assist it in this manner). Mind flayers are scared shitless of these creatures, referred to collectively as The Adversary. The downside to their transformation was that their "wings" were far less powerful, and so their flight was clumsy and more difficult. A gnome ceremorph is an illithid created from a gnome host that failed to completely change into an illithid and so retains some of the physical and mental traits of a gnome, making them shorter than a regular illithid, but talented at invention. Wyrmling4Very young6Young9Juvenile10Young adult12Adult14Mature adult16Old17Very old20Ancient21Wyrm23Great wyrm25 Even more rare than Alhoons are Illithid vampires, who are created by unknown means. And they usually use their mind-powers to help friends engage in emotionally-resonant roleplay when in societies with other monsters. -Aurelioz, illithid priest In eons past, illithids controlled empires that spanned many worlds. The Nautiloid is the standard ship of the line of the various illithid nations and reflects the nature of the race. Fun fact: in the city of Stormreach, in the Eberron campaign setting, there is an Illithid who just hangs around near a garden and engages in perfectly normal, honest, and voluntary business transactions with the humanoids and other races that inhabit the city. (There was one good one in the Book of Exalted Deeds, but nobody gives a crap about her, so let's move on.) It was a terrifying dragon with mind flayer powers. The mind flayers accompanied the daelkyr from the plane of Xoriat to Khorvaire during the Daelkyr War and terrorized the goblinoids and orcs of the Age of Monsters. Pages in category "Monster Manual/Mind Flayer" The following 25 pages are in this category, out of 25 total. The Darkeners, the dudes who think they can find a way to extinguish suns. Regular Mind Flayers consider it highly taboo to speak about Neothelids (probably because Neothelids remind the Illithids too much of their "natural" state which their progeny would devolve into, were it not for the availability of suitable hosts their tadpoles could Ceremorph), and to actually create one is outright forbidden. So if the Illithid PC goes with Jester David's idea of part of the host brain survives the tadpole ceremorphosis, then it becomes something different. Intellect Devourers are like dogs that can teleport into and eat the brains of your enemies. page 132-135 covers details of an air ship page 165-166 details a giant's ship page 216 - page 219 has a deck plan for a ship page 221 -page 223 has deck plans and stats for a squid ship Waterdeep: Dragon heist The Thorough Biters have a philosophy of learning through failure, making them more humble that most other illithids. Apparently, each bite into an illithid's brain releases an intense flood of memories that the illithid developed/consumed in its life, so strong it'll probably drive the typical consumer insane.