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Chainsaw Hobbit
2010-05-02, 10:59 AM
Half-Mind Flayer
Children of horrors form out of time, this race possesses many strange powers.

Racial Traits

Ability Scores +2 charisma, +2 intelligence
Size Medium
Speed 6 squares
Vision Low-light

Languages Common, Choice of one other.
Skill Bonuses +2 insight, +2 intimidate
Psychic Resistance The Half-Mind Flayer has resistance to Psychic damage equal to 5+ half the HHalf-Mind Flayer's level
Psychic Carnivore The Half-Mind Flayer has +1 to attacks vs targets taking ongoing psychic damage.
Mind Blast The Half-Mind Flayer gains the use of the Mind Blast power

Mind Blast
Half-Mind Flayer Racial Power
A wave of psychic energy pours forth from your mind, tearing into those of the fools surrounding you.
Encounter * Psychic
Minor Action
Close burst 1
Targets: All creatures in area
Attack: Intelligence +2 vs. Will, Wisdom +2 vs. Will, or Charisma +2 vs. Will
Hit: Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier psychic damage.
Increase to +4 bonus and 1d6+Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier psychic damage at 11th level, and to +6 bonus and 2d6+Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier psychic damage at 21st level.
Special: When you create your character, choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as the ability score you use when making attack rolls and calculating damage with this power. This choice remains throughout your character's life and does not change the power's other effects.

Heroic Tier Feat:
Expanded Mind Blast [Half-Mind Flayer]
Prerequisites: Half-Mind Flayer, mind blast racial power
Benefit: When you use your mind blast racial power, you may choose to make it a burst 2 instead of a burst 1. At 11th level, you may instead choose to make it a burst 3, and at 21st level, you may choose to make it a burst 4.

Paragon Tier Feats:
Continued Pain [Half-Mind Flayer]
Prerequisites: Half-Mind Flayer, mind blast racial power
Benefit: Any creature hit by your mind blast power also takes 5 ongoing psychic damage (save ends).

Mental Pressure [Half-Mind Flayer]
Prerequisites: Half-Mind Flayer, mind blast racial power
Benefit: Any creature hit by your mind blast power is also slowed until the end of your next turn.

Selective Blast [Half-Mind Flayer]
Prerequisites: Half-Mind Flayer, mind blast racial power
Benefit: You may choose to take a -5 penalty to hit your allies targeted by your mind blast power. If you do so, allies hit by your mind blast power take half damage.

Epic Tier feat:
Mental Collapse [Half-Mind Flayer]
Prerequisites: Continued Pain, Mental Pressure
Benefit: If a target of your mind blast power is already taking ongoing psychic damage and you hit that target, increase that target's ongoing psychic damage by 5. If a target of your mind blast power is already slowed and you hit that target, that target is also dazed and cannot shift until the end of your next turn. Treat your target's resist psychic as 20 fewer than normal when determining damage for mind blast.

My goal here was to put mind blast roughly in line with the Dragonborn's dragon breath, without making them too similar -- or making the feat-granted riders hideously overpowered, for that matter. Thoughts?


Tell me what you think.

Touchy
2010-05-02, 11:03 AM
I don't think mind flayers work like that...

hamishspence
2010-05-02, 11:04 AM
There were the illithid heritage feats in Complete Psionic- maybe this is an attempt to replicate that, at low level.

Daze seems a little too good for a 1st level racial encounter power- but I could be wrong.

Anonomuss
2010-05-02, 11:18 AM
I agree with hamishpence. Maybe if it only did psychic damage at heroic, slowed at paragon, and then dazed at epic? Also, mind-flayers do not produce traditionally. Rather they grow out of other mamals, whose eggs have been replaced with Illithid young. I don't see how half-illithids could exist, but I hadn't heard of the heritage feats.

Other than that they should probably have deep speech as a language or some form of telepathy. One or both.

hamishspence
2010-05-02, 11:59 AM
Illithids experiment, a lot, on other creatures.

The Fiend Folio half-illithid represented what happened if you implanted a tadpole in the more exotic type of humanoid, such as a lizardfolk.

The Underdark half-illithid represented the results of experimentation on such creatures as beholders (in this case, turning it into a Mindwitness)- which doesn't necessarily involve plain implantation.

Feats like Illithid Heritage and the others feats that require it, I think, represent similar kinds of experimentation. Which may lay dormant, manifesting itself generations later (represented by the character taking those feats).

Though there was the rather unusual theory that- since present-day illithids are actually from the far future (Lords of Madness) maybe these feats, are illustrations of how, someday, humans will evolve into illithids, with the beings with Illithid Heritage actually being primitive proto-illithids.

Chainsaw Hobbit
2010-05-02, 01:13 PM
I originally meant it to be what happens when a dieing Illithid tadpole is inserted into a human skull, I know that's kinda stupid but the 4e half-Illithids ware too awesome to waste.

hamishspence
2010-05-02, 01:18 PM
So- dying tadpole is inserted, it begins changing the body- then dies before more than a small amount of change has happened?

Chainsaw Hobbit
2010-05-02, 01:30 PM
So- dying tadpole is inserted, it begins changing the body- then dies before more than a small amount of change has happened?

Yup, it dies when the host is half changed.

hamishspence
2010-05-02, 01:33 PM
Seems like a workable way of doing it.

Maybe this is how the 3.5 ed half-illithid worked- except the reason the tadpole dies before finishing the transformation, was that the body of its victim was a hostile environment.

With a few adjustments, could make a fun player race.

Chainsaw Hobbit
2010-05-03, 06:27 PM
Seems like a workable way of doing it.

Maybe this is how the 3.5 ed half-illithid worked- except the reason the tadpole dies before finishing the transformation, was that the body of its victim was a hostile environment.

With a few adjustments, could make a fun player race.

Like what?

Asbestos
2010-05-08, 11:00 PM
For one, you need to better define the targets of 'Mind Blast' (is it everyone in the burst or just enemies?) and think about reducing both its strength (as Hamispence suggested) and the action required. You might also want to think about letting the attack stat be something other than Intelligence. A wise or charismatic Squid-thingie should have powerful brain parts too (and a more powerful Will save than a Primarily INT based Squid-man, so mechanically there's an argument for brain power there)

Lunix Vandal
2010-05-09, 12:45 AM
For one, you need to better define the targets of 'Mind Blast' (is it everyone in the burst or just enemies?) and think about reducing both its strength (as Hamishspence suggested) and the action required. You might also want to think about letting the attack stat be something other than Intelligence. A wise or charismatic Squid-thingie should have powerful brain parts too (and a more powerful Will save than a Primarily INT based Squid-man, so mechanically there's an argument for brain power there)This. Also, without a scaling bonus to the attack roll, it's statistically unlikely to hit and has minuscule damage (and thus is nigh-worthless, especially since it's a standard action) in paragon/epic. For comparison, a 30th-level Half-Mind Flayer Wizard will have (at least) 9 more to-hit and 6-12 more static damage with his Wizard attacks than with his Mind Blast: 6 to-hit and static damage from implement bonus, 3 to-hit from Implement Expertise, and another 6 static damage from Dual Implement Spellcaster with an offhand implement. You might consider revising the power (and associated feats) thusly:Mind Blast
Half-Mind Flayer Racial Power
A wave of psychic energy pours forth from your mind, tearing into those of the fools surrounding you.
Encounter * Psychic
Minor Action
Close burst 1
Targets: All creatures in area
Attack: Intelligence +2 vs. Will, Wisdom +2 vs. Will, or Charisma +2 vs. Will
Hit: Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier psychic damage.
Increase to +4 bonus and 1d6+Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier psychic damage at 11th level, and to +6 bonus and 2d6+Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma modifier psychic damage at 21st level.
Special: When you create your character, choose Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma as the ability score you use when making attack rolls and calculating damage with this power. This choice remains throughout your character's life and does not change the power's other effects.

Heroic Tier Feat:
Expanded Mind Blast [Half-Mind Flayer]
Prerequisites: Half-Mind Flayer, mind blast racial power
Benefit: When you use your mind blast racial power, you may choose to make it a burst 2 instead of a burst 1. At 11th level, you may instead choose to make it a burst 3, and at 21st level, you may choose to make it a burst 4.

Paragon Tier Feats:
Continued Pain [Half-Mind Flayer]
Prerequisites: Half-Mind Flayer, mind blast racial power
Benefit: Any creature hit by your mind blast power also takes 5 ongoing psychic damage (save ends).

Mental Pressure [Half-Mind Flayer]
Prerequisites: Half-Mind Flayer, mind blast racial power
Benefit: Any creature hit by your mind blast power is also slowed until the end of your next turn.

Selective Blast [Half-Mind Flayer]
Prerequisites: Half-Mind Flayer, mind blast racial power
Benefit: You may choose to take a -5 penalty to hit your allies targeted by your mind blast power. If you do so, allies hit by your mind blast power take half damage.

Epic Tier feat:
Mental Collapse [Half-Mind Flayer]
Prerequisites: Continued Pain, Mental Pressure
Benefit: If a target of your mind blast power is already taking ongoing psychic damage and you hit that target, increase that target's ongoing psychic damage by 5. If a target of your mind blast power is already slowed and you hit that target, that target is also dazed and cannot shift until the end of your next turn. Treat your target's resist psychic as 20 fewer than normal when determining damage for mind blast.

My goal here was to put mind blast roughly in line with the Dragonborn's dragon breath, without making them too similar -- or making the feat-granted riders hideously overpowered, for that matter. Thoughts?

Chainsaw Hobbit
2010-05-09, 10:15 AM
I just fixed mind blast.