Playing a Gestalt Mind Flayer PC

[Quantumphear]

I'm about to start playing in a full evil party campaign, and everyone's gestalt just to ramp up the power level. Right about now the party is at levels 15/16, and the plot line so far has involved a lot of manipulation, murders in back alleyways, and general sneaky business(That way those pesky good PC's don't have a blinking neon light telling them where the bad guys are).

Everyone's pretty powerful, but mostly playing for the roleplaying - although one guy has this ridiculous wizard/cleric/walkerofthewastes/incantrix(7 phylacteries on different planes, and he has spellcraft of 100+ so metamagic mayhem) - i was thinking that a mind flayer character would fit in nicely. We currently have the aforementioned lich, a vermin lord, a scout who can do approx 200d6 in one round, and a psionic rogue who can spend power points to annul any damage. But what they're capable isn't really the point.

So anyhow, I was wanting to do my own concept character. Just getting into the mindframe of a mindflayer - Being able to infiltrate generally anywhere, and start mentally manipulating or eliminating people for my own ends (or that of the party).

My current idea is to start level 15, and go Wizard 10/MindBender10/Assassin10
I know the numbers are pretty weak, but it feels very much like what an illithid would do - either get your minions to do the dirty work, or take out the target directly. I'm also liking the synergy between the assassins choice of paralyzing, then eating some brains :D

I'm using this link for Mind Flayer stats.
http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Mind_Flayers,_MoFS_(3.5e_Race)

Could you recommend any other builds? I've had a look at most of the books, and mind flayer stats have huge LA. Beguiler seems like a nice class, but i already have wizard levels...

tl;dr
Gestalt Mind Flayer PC. Any ideas on builds?

[SilverLeaf167]

I come bearing not so much help, but a grave warning. You seem to have fallen victim to the treacherous lures of Dandwiki: that Mind Flayer you linked to is homebrew and rather overpowered.

Tread with extreme caution.

[AWiz_Abroad]

I come bearing not so much help, but a grave warning. You seem to have fallen victim to the treacherous lures of Dandwiki: that Mind Flayer you linked to is homebrew and rather overpowered.

Tread with extreme caution.

Dunh dunh dunh

That being said, what's the LA on a mindflayer, I want to take a crack at a build, but am away from books *and D&D wiki & srd are no goes on this system*

Also, OP, what do you want to focus on? Mindflayer is all well and fine, and your build sounds interesting, but what about using gestalt to make your grappling check ridiculous for extracting brains quicker?

[SilverLeaf167]

Well, the Mind Flayer presented in the Monster Manual (so, the official one) has 8 RHD and LA +7, which is actually rather convenient here and actually pretty strong with its huge ability boosts, psionics and other doodads. You could thus start the game with 15 class levels on one side and the RHD+LA on the other. To be honest, I really wouldn't recommend going either Mindbender or Assassin on a build like this. The Beguiler base class would actually do pretty well.

[Eman Resu]

get the feat mindsight!

Mindbender is usually a good 1 level dipper for the telepathy but yur squidy already has this ability, sooooo

Thrallard could be fun

.........that being said a race that costs you 15 HD is an awfully expensive buy in
now for fun and flavor look into this, if for nothing else - it would look cool! AS where the rest of the party lacks in penage, you excell, make a cha build

half fiend (4 LA), Hexblade 3 levels / 2 Paladin of Slaughter - yur now a saving throw machine! Put this opposite Sorcerer. Big guy big sword, err maybe spiked chain tree, All but immune to magic! some nice attribute bonuses (+16 total?) nice big bat wings, with magic in the blood feat you get all those Half Fiend spells from 1xday to 3xday

Another is the evil Druid, the evil Druid likes the brutality of nature, right? well summon some brutal beasties, have a beefed up (fiend/dragon) animal companion, turn into ? heck whatever you want and beat the crap outta...stack on the half fiend template it also will transfer when you wild shape....this could be a fun build

[AWiz_Abroad]

Given the OP wants a Mindflayer . . .

I'd almost say Sorcadin: Paladin of Slaughter 2/ Sorcerer 4/ Spellsword 1/ Abjurant Champion 5/Something3. (for CHA synergy with the Mindflayer's Mind Thrust)

But, Thrallherds are very much in line with the Mindflayer idea.

Concur with the above relating to Mindsight, and it should be allowed, after all, it's out of the book for Mindflayers & aberations.

[Fouredged Sword]

I would use the psionic version of the mind flayer. That gives you Psion abilities.

Now to top that off I would go Totemist 10 / warhulk 10

Yes, Warhulk.

Expansion (get a feat to grab this power off the psiwar list) grants you strength and size increases allowing you to selectively activate your warhulk levels.

Max out your grapple with grallion arms and pick up other nice soulmeld bonuses and try to max out your reach. Get the snatch line of feat to allow you to take -20 to your grapple check and ignore the fact that you are grappling.

Then combine that with the warhuk ability to hit everything in your reach to grapple everything you can reach all at once and eat like 30 brains in one round.

[Gerrtt]

If you're gestalt and evil and a mind flayer you have no reason not to put illithid savant on one side as far as I am concerned. Your other side could make up for the d4 hit dice and other limitations that come with having a d4 hit dice, as well as being able to get pretty much whatever you want.

[Immabozo]

I would use the psionic version of the mind flayer. That gives you Psion abilities.

Now to top that off I would go Totemist 10 / warhulk 10

Yes, Warhulk.

Expansion (get a feat to grab this power off the psiwar list) grants you strength and size increases allowing you to selectively activate your warhulk levels.

Max out your grapple with grallion arms and pick up other nice soulmeld bonuses and try to max out your reach. Get the snatch line of feat to allow you to take -20 to your grapple check and ignore the fact that you are grappling.

Then combine that with the warhuk ability to hit everything in your reach to grapple everything you can reach all at once and eat like 30 brains in one round.

This idea makes the world a better place

[Gazzien]

Can... why hasn't Illithid Savant out of Savage Species been brought up?

Did I miss something in the OP? Because Savant is ridiculous for a PC.

EDIT: You could already have a few levels in it (even without having 'finished' the Mind Flayer on the other side, you're still part of the race)...

[Waker]

All well and good with the suggestions so far, but I propose a Mindflayer...Swordsage. (Bottom picture in the post) Warblade works too.

[Gerrtt]

Can... why hasn't Illithid Savant out of Savage Species been brought up?

Did I miss something in the OP? Because Savant is ridiculous for a PC.

EDIT: You could already have a few levels in it (even without having 'finished' the Mind Flayer on the other side, you're still part of the race)...

Look two posts before yours...

[karkus]

Definitely look into The Book of Vile Darkness for this one (if another teammate truly has levels in Vermin Lord, ask him/her for it; it's in the same book).

Go for Rogue/Assassin/Fighter/Monk/Soul Eater. 2 levels of Rogue gets you Evasion, and will make getting into the Assassin PrC much easier, and after taking at least 2 Monk levels, you will have Improved Evasion. Fighter levels will keep your BAB up and make it easy to become a Soul Eater.

Here's the kicker: Soul Eaters drain levels and gain strength every time they touch an opponent. Your Rogue/Monk/Assassin levels will allow you to sneak up on your enemies, allowing you to devour both their mind and their souls with your tentacles in a single round.

Meanwhile, your Monk levels not only allow your 4 tentacles to deal catastrophic lethal damage in a single round, but also to gain grapple benefits, and your Fighter levels allow you to take feats such as Great Cleave and/or Whirlwind Attack, so that you can literally leap into the middle of combat, twirl your squid face around for a second, then leap away, more powerful than before, and afterwards, you can command the undead bodies of these creatures to finish off the rest of their allies.

Now, is that cool, or is that cool?

EDIT: Keep in mind that, while Sneak Attacks and Death Attacks deal damage of the same kind as the initial attack, that they do not, in this case, drain ~6d6 extra levels. The opponent will, however, in addition to losing levels, take an untyped form of damage to their Hit Points, equal to that of the Sneak Attack damage.

It is also worth mentioning that if you kill your foe in one round with your level-draining attack (as with a Death Attack/Level Draining combo), you will automatically absorb any remaining levels that he had.

For example, you are facing a 20th-level Wizard, when you touch him, drain 2 levels, and Death Attack him. You will then absorb the remaining 18 levels he possessed (this plays a key role in the numerical effects of draining multiple levels at once; read the BoVD's description for more info).

EDIT #2: Oooooh, maybe pair Soul Eater with Illithid Savant, draining levels, gaining strength, and then keeping some strength permanently! This is even better than before... :smallcool:

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

That mind flayer you linked to is not legitimate, and should not be used. Get its stats from the Monster Manual, and apply the modifications in the back of the Expanded Psionics Handbook.

That gives you LA +7/ Aberration 8, you keep the Mind Blast, but all the so-called psionic spell-like abilities are replaced with Psion (Telepath) (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/psion.htm) 9 manifesting. Note that this manifesting is not tied to any particular character level, so the standard gestalt rule of not stacking two of the same class feature at a given level will never apply to it. You could go Psion 5/ Anarchic Initiate 10// LA +7/ Aberration 8, and have the manifesting of a Psion 24 starting out. That would allow you to keep Persistent (http://www.wizards.com/d20/files/msrd/ArcanaOccupationsandFeats.rtf) Timeless Body (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/timelessBody.htm) continually active, which makes it so even deities are incapable of harming or even shoving you.

Since you were considering using Assassin, I'll recommend Psychic Assassin (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723d) instead. Go something like Spellthief 1/ Psion 4/ Psychic Assassin 8/ Anarchic Initiate 2// LA +7/ Aberration 8 starting out, for Psion 19 manifesting, and best of all Mind Cripple from Psychic Assassin, which is far more likely to disable an opponent in a single round than Death Attack ever was.

[Quantumphear]

Wow, cheers everyone, this is great :)

Especially like that idea to eat 30 brains at once, give that man a medal or something!