unseenmage
2013-04-15, 11:29 AM
I've always been fascinated with the illithid life cycle and the idea of playing a larval illithid small and young enough to be implanted and undergo ceramorphosis. (Lords of Madness pg. 62) Crawling into the ear of and eating the brain of the very first BBEG of a campaign just sounds like a lot of fun.
There are several problems with the idea though. First, Larval Flayers (Complete Psionic pg. 133) are too big/old for implantation so a new monster is required.
Perhaps a younger version of the Larval Flayer; younger as detailed here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=280415
Second, the creature would still be, as per Lords of Madness, "still little more
than intelligent frogs." So an 'Awaken Aberration" spell would be required and I can't find anything like that anywhere.
Third, the lore on illithid larvae, implantation, and ceramorphosis is fairly specific. Not only would the larvae and the victim creature be subsumed and remade into a new illithid consciousness, but there would only be a small window of time for an Illithid Larvae character to adventure before they got too big/old for implantation.
My DM and I solved this problem using the ritual rules from Unearthed Arcana (Creating New Incantations pg. 178). Using these rules it was fairly simple to make a ritual that would allow him to retain his awakened mind after implantation and even remain his awakened self if he were raised from the dead. This also has the added bonus of negating an illithid's 20 year "childhood" wherein it's newly created mind is childlike and inexperienced.
This specificity of lore is also a boon as well though because it allows for a rich diversity of options for a Larval Illithid player. There are many specific monsters that result when illithids implant non-humanoids up to and including the half-illithid. There is also the Larval Flayer and the Neothelid, both examples of what happens when an illithid larvae doesn't get implanted and is allowed to grow and grow. Which leads us to...
Fourth, aging. The larvae are spawned into the brine pool and stay there for a decade. Then they'll have an undetermined amount of time as, what I imagine to be, a tadpole state before they're implanted. And another unknown amount of time before they grow into Larval Flayers. And as detailed in the Larval Flayer entry, "In the fullness of time, larval flayers grow into neothelids (EPH 204)."
My DM and I originally used Google/Wikipedia to find the average durations between the stages of the Mind Flayer life cycle that of real world frogs and squids. This method gave us a 7 year window for the Larval Flayer character to adventure and find a victim before he grew too large for implantation.
Sidestepping this problem was as easy as Plane Shift to the Astal Plane or the Steal Life spell (Book of Vile Darkness pg. 106). Each casting grants him 1 week of youth at the cost of being horrifically evil.
Now I'd originally taken the Toad stats and made a tadpole of it with the linked 'Younger Monsters' info.
Then I Awakened it and used that as a base race. The mods were horrible and those 2-3 HD from Awaken made it even more useless still.
Now I wonder if I wasn't simply overcomplicating the idea.
Alternatively I could either a) Use the Larval Flayer and make a younger version of it; or b) Just use the Mind Flayer racial mods on a fine-diminutive sized custom tadpole-squid. Both of these options would sidestep the need for an Awaken Aberration spell too.
I need advice on which option to use please and advice on how long a larval flayer could adventure before growing too old to be implanted.
Thanks regardless.
There are several problems with the idea though. First, Larval Flayers (Complete Psionic pg. 133) are too big/old for implantation so a new monster is required.
Perhaps a younger version of the Larval Flayer; younger as detailed here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=280415
Second, the creature would still be, as per Lords of Madness, "still little more
than intelligent frogs." So an 'Awaken Aberration" spell would be required and I can't find anything like that anywhere.
Third, the lore on illithid larvae, implantation, and ceramorphosis is fairly specific. Not only would the larvae and the victim creature be subsumed and remade into a new illithid consciousness, but there would only be a small window of time for an Illithid Larvae character to adventure before they got too big/old for implantation.
My DM and I solved this problem using the ritual rules from Unearthed Arcana (Creating New Incantations pg. 178). Using these rules it was fairly simple to make a ritual that would allow him to retain his awakened mind after implantation and even remain his awakened self if he were raised from the dead. This also has the added bonus of negating an illithid's 20 year "childhood" wherein it's newly created mind is childlike and inexperienced.
This specificity of lore is also a boon as well though because it allows for a rich diversity of options for a Larval Illithid player. There are many specific monsters that result when illithids implant non-humanoids up to and including the half-illithid. There is also the Larval Flayer and the Neothelid, both examples of what happens when an illithid larvae doesn't get implanted and is allowed to grow and grow. Which leads us to...
Fourth, aging. The larvae are spawned into the brine pool and stay there for a decade. Then they'll have an undetermined amount of time as, what I imagine to be, a tadpole state before they're implanted. And another unknown amount of time before they grow into Larval Flayers. And as detailed in the Larval Flayer entry, "In the fullness of time, larval flayers grow into neothelids (EPH 204)."
My DM and I originally used Google/Wikipedia to find the average durations between the stages of the Mind Flayer life cycle that of real world frogs and squids. This method gave us a 7 year window for the Larval Flayer character to adventure and find a victim before he grew too large for implantation.
Sidestepping this problem was as easy as Plane Shift to the Astal Plane or the Steal Life spell (Book of Vile Darkness pg. 106). Each casting grants him 1 week of youth at the cost of being horrifically evil.
Now I'd originally taken the Toad stats and made a tadpole of it with the linked 'Younger Monsters' info.
Then I Awakened it and used that as a base race. The mods were horrible and those 2-3 HD from Awaken made it even more useless still.
Now I wonder if I wasn't simply overcomplicating the idea.
Alternatively I could either a) Use the Larval Flayer and make a younger version of it; or b) Just use the Mind Flayer racial mods on a fine-diminutive sized custom tadpole-squid. Both of these options would sidestep the need for an Awaken Aberration spell too.
I need advice on which option to use please and advice on how long a larval flayer could adventure before growing too old to be implanted.
Thanks regardless.