Illithids, slaves and soulknives... [requesting minor help ^^]

[Red_Dog]

Hello guys, since I've registered here, I figured might as well ask a question while I am here ^^

So I am running a campaign. Details are not important(and loooong >_>) so I'll get straight the business=>
Important details=>
=>XP system is modded, which allows me to scale encounters not by CR but by "can they do this?" factor.
=>An average able body humanoid is level 8.
=>Crafting modified that up to CL10, xp is not required, instead a facility is required (a lab, a forge, etc.) to create low level magical items. It costs gold, labor and time to set up.
=>Everlasting rations are banned in order to put emphasis on logistics.

Campaign is centered around Mysteries and Warfare. In it, players need to usually complete smaller quests to "arrange" bigger picture, like supplying troops, getting allies, hindering enemies to defeat main antagonists.

With this in mind=>
There is a small faction of Illithids [Psionics are in game, so Psionic version] is residing in local Undermountain for the last, say 25-30 years. They do not have an elder brain, and up on arrival were able to dominate [or brought some of there own] a small tribe of [B]X-Slaves.

In order to cut down on supplies needed to sustain and equip an army, they trained slaves as Soulknives. Reason is simple=> They come with there own weapon in a world where getting mass-produced items of even mastercraft level requires SUBSTANTIAL amount of resources.

Question=>race & build for these X-Slaves I should use? How can Illithids maintain a good control over them?[Straight Psionics? Some psionic machine of sorts? Deception? Intimidation?]

The main enemies that they would face would be Drow[more skilled, but fewer in numbers] & Undead[Some more skilled, some well... Braaaains....].

===============================>
My current Ideas are[ignore LA +2 unless, its a substantial edge]=>
All use Soulknife variant with bonus feats instead of Psionic Strike, and Hidden Talent varient
=======>
Thri-Kreen 2/Soul Knife 6
Feats[3+1]: Shock Trooper Chain[3], Leap Attack? <=Charging with 2.5Str weapon...
Alternative... Something involving Multi Attack/Weapons

Pros:
Grow quickly, only 6 years to reach adulthood. (maters little in game terms, more in explaining large numbers of them already trained)
Stat boosts are nice, but build over all isn't great.

Cons:
Die quickly too but I guess not as important, as time tables are flexible
Not sure if possible to meat them underground heh... Could be brought with? Also not suited for underground much.
=======>
Deurgar Soul Knife 6/Fighter 2
Feats[3+1+2]: Shock Trooper Chain[3] or Combat Brute, Psionic Weapon, Deep Impact, Leap Attack?

Pros: Suited for Underdark, commonly slaves to illithids, and over expected
Cons: 40 years to raise one to adult hood? damn...
=======>
===============================>
*Books => All core/supplements. NO Dragon magazine, no settings[Eberon, Faurun etc.], no Incarnum, NO ToM. Very FEW 3.0 [XPH & BoVD for example]*

That's all I got so far. Please hold all comments such as "soulknife sucks. I know it sucks, but these aren't player characters ^^ I need to make them Self sufficient, easily trained/conditioned and mass produced... Speaking of which!

P.S. Bonus question! How can one mass produce humanoids in reasonable time-scale permanently? Is there anything on books? I though maybe home-brewing a unique cloning machine/magic-steroid like diet... but I truly want this only as a reserve option as this might be tooooo powerful and I want this faction to be as appealing as allies as they would be as enemies ^_^

I hope its not too much to read guys ^^. Thanks in advance!

[missmvicious]

Hm... I'm not 100% sure what you're trying to do here. But let me see if I can just answer your questions:

Question=>race & build for these X-Slaves I should use? How can Illithids maintain a good control over them?[Straight Psionics? Some psionic machine of sorts? Deception? Intimidation?]

Illithids maintain control over their slaves by two sources: The Elder Brain and individual telepathic dominance. I don't know if their god-brain needs to be statted, since it doesn't attack, defend, or perform skill checks. It simply commands its slaves to do, and the slaves do. Give it a fixed amount of HP and call it a day.

Bonus question! How can one mass produce humanoids in reasonable time-scale permanently? Is there anything on books? I though maybe home-brewing a unique cloning machine/magic-steroid like diet... but I truly want this only as a reserve option as this might be tooooo powerful and I want this faction to be as appealing as allies as they would be as enemies ^_^

You're talking an in-game solution? How about taking a concept from modern ranching? There are mindless slaves all over an Illithid complex. If used for breeding, a single hearty male could be used to fertilize countless females for the purpose of breeding new slave stock. If the female slaves keep churning out babies until their wombs are useless, then they should have an endless supply of slaves. Not clones... but the next best thing. Of course, Illithids are supposed to be highly intelligent, so it's conceivable that they developed an alchemical solution to this problem to create clones, or an artificial insemination lab where babies are created in Matrix like pods.

[Hazzardevil]

The ekder brain (statted up in lords of madness page 144) has access to either 20th level psionics as a psion or 20th level casting as a sorcerer, thus it isn't unreasonable to think it has set up planes of existence for fast flowing time to make slaves quickly. But if they can do this, it raises the question why bother with the outside world at all, since they have a near never-ending supply of brains and salves.

They would have to find a way to feed slaves, which leads to a problem.

Mindflayers on this fast flowing plane need to feed themselves, anywhere from a brain a month to a brain a week, which is difficult, so they will likely need large amounts of fertile ground and breeding facilities.
Although they could just conjure food up with wishes, but this will over time leave the Mindflayer community weak due to continually spend xp on casting wish. But I presumed that if the everlasting rations are banned, so is the travel cloak and any means of conjuring up food.

[KillianHawkeye]

You don't need an elder brain if it is a small expeditionary force just scouting out an area for the first time. Twenty-five to thirty years isn't that long for a mind flayer, so they could still be evaluating whether or not the region would make a good place for a full settlement.

Alternatively, there could be some reason why these mind flayers have been cut off from others of their kind. Maybe they crashed their nautilus here, and given that nobody even knows how to make those anymore, they're unable to repair it? Now they're stuck on some backwater world with nothing but scant supplies and a hold full of fresh slaves from that desert planet they just visited (thri-kreens) and they have to make a go of it as best they can. Luckily they've been able to rely on stealth to build up their campsite and breed additional slaves before too many surface dwellers began to notice them.

We're talking about illithids, here. They're from space! You can pretty much find a way to justify any weird creatures you want (unless it's something immune to mind control).

[Red_Dog]

Thanks for replies guys! ^^

Ok maybe some clarification will help ^^

=>Illithid's back story for this campaign is that this is all that left of once massive(500+ population of mindflayers) Illithid Hive that had to evacuate because it was raided and attack relentlessly by Illithid Hunters. The Illithids used w/e resources they had left to strike an emergency deal with an Efreeti Weapons merchant (Very important character in this campaign) to just blindly evacuate everything they could to any distant location on material plane (Campaign Setting).

Questions still remain => What build of Soul-knife will be an acceptable foot soldier/meal/worker/etc. Races on the table are I guess some Psionics (as mentioned in first post), really any Underdark dwelling humanoids will do IF they can be grown quickly enough to amass an army(1k+) in 15-30 years.

This way, while maybe unable to resurrect fallen troops or bind planar creatures like a lot of other faction doing, Illithids will bring a unique spin to the campaign where they can be a valuable ally, or a dangerous enemy without use of traditional ways of reenforcing there army.

P.S. They only magical production machines I found on books=> BoVD has zombie creating machine and it seems that's it. There are also ton of rituals/instructions for making oozes or constructs, and I am aware of them but this way isn't for these illithids. I might be able give ONE construct or what not, but Constructs in this campaign are more of a "special weapons" that are while powerful, usually serve as support and not foot troops.

So only semi-balanced solution I think I found maybe could be some kind of magical steroid-like paste that shortens life-span DRASTICALLY, but giving a way to replenish troops. But again, I was wondering if I missed anything that already exists on books?O_o

Thanks in advance again guys ^^

[Red_Dog]

Ammm not sure If I can do this but=> *shameless bump*

If anyone can pitch good idea for a slave type of a Soulknife? I was actually starting to think Elans as they are "created" and do not need to eat much...

Anyways sorry if bumps are not allowed. And I won't do it again anyway I guess ^^

[deuxhero]

Wouldn't Illithids useing steel tools be odd anyways?

The *illithids* were powerful. Zerthimon had believed that there was nothing that they did not *know.* Yet the *illithids* never carried tools of steel. They only used flesh as tools. Everything was done through flesh, for the tentacled ones were made of flesh and they *knew* flesh. Yet steel was superior to flesh. When the blade had killed the husk, it was the flesh that had been weaker than the steel. (http://www.sorcerers.net/Games/Torment/zerthimon.php)