On mind flayer bards; flavor tips?

[MonkeySage]

Now, right now i'm the dm, writing up the characters for a one shot. One of those characters is a chaotic good mind flayer bard(it feeds on livestock brains, pigs tend to be intelligent).

One of my ideas was that it's telepathic - it could use telepathy to sing.

Also, I welcome more creative ideas for where a good aligned mind flayer gets it's food.

[Alent]

For breakfast, Eggs and porkbrain, while the rest of the party eats an eggs and ham breakfast.

For midday snack, he might purchase incompletely tanned leather and suck on it. If anyone asks, it's beef jerky and no he won't share. If a leatherworker notices it's still basted with brain, well, that's just how you cure leather.

For lunch, he might enjoy a tofu sandwich, made from the shambling mound the party killed earlier. It had an int score, you don't let that go to waste!

For Supper, he should give in to his unhealthy desire for icecream and create an ice assassin of the party barbarian. Same great taste, zero calories.

[beforemath]

He doesn't have to let the other organs go to waste, either. Brain stuffed into intestines for sausage or into stomach for haggis.


Also, he'd look neat playing the bagpipes.

[MonkeySage]

The part about the bagpipes? Loved it. I've integrated that into the character.

[Mutazoia]

Gives a whole new meaning to "psychedelic rock".

[Gnarnia]

talk about getting a song stuck in your head...

[Waker]

talk about getting a song stuck in your head...
That's terrible and you should feel bad.

You might consider the Subsonic feat from Complete Adventurer. It allows your music to avoid being heard, so you could fluff it as telepathically communicating the music into the allies heads.

What prompted a Mindflayer to not only become Chaotically Good, but a Bard? Knowing a bit about the proposed history might give us more ideas.

[Slipperychicken]

Don't Illithid Savants already do performances by eating brains in such a way that a whole audience of Illithid can enjoy the victim's pain and other emotions? You could take Perform (Brain) and do that via telepathy spells.

Also, I think an Illithid would look awesome playing sax (Just train Perform(Wind Instruments) and keep a bunch of different instruments, much like real musicians do). Maybe he could hold a tenor sax with his face tentacles, leaving his hands free for combat?

Great. Now I'm envisioning a whole brass section of mind-flayers. I'm not going to be able to take them seriously again :smalltongue:

[Waker]

Great. Now I'm envisioning a whole brass section of mind-flayers. I'm not going to be able to take them seriously again :smalltongue:
Now that is just absurd. Everyone knows that Illithids are most well known for their xylophone playing skills. Such deft performers with those tentacles.

[Silkspinner]

http://dsp-d20-srd.wikidot.com/thoughtsinger

[A Tad Insane]

You could do perform(subconscious) and say all his "music" is psychic manipulation. Or you could say he's an Ood

[Angelalex242]

The mindflayer's player should totally make up a 'jingle' of sorts detailing why brains are the best tasting thing ever.

[Slipperychicken]

The mindflayer's player should totally make up a 'jingle' of sorts detailing why brains are the best tasting thing ever.

You mean like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC6UtsPa13o)?

[Mutazoia]

You mean like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC6UtsPa13o)?

darn it....ninja'd :smallbiggrin:

[Morphie]

He could carry a tiny piano that he plays with his tentacles (like Davy Jones on the Pirates of the Caribbean) or maybe an harp floating with his psionic powers.

[Manly Man]

Stick with the bagpipes, and get Spellbreaker Song instead of Countersong, then screw up all of your opponents' spells by being The Scotsman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrsPOg2ogcM). Hell, as a DM, I'd probably rule that playing the bagpipes in an intentionally distracting manner would make it so that they'd have to make a Concentration check against your Perform (bagpipes) check, or lose the spell, even without something like either of those class features, but hey.

The Thoughtsinger class that was mentioned earlier is a good one too, but I just can't get the imagery of a mind flayer in a black, red, and gold kilt with a set of bagpipes made from an eldritch creature of some kind out of my head. Use his tentacles and his hands to make otherwise impossible notes (or, possibly, play two sets of bagpipes at once).

[Slipperychicken]

Hell, as a DM, I'd probably rule that playing the bagpipes in an intentionally distracting manner would make it so that they'd have to make a Concentration check against your Perform (bagpipes) check, or lose the spell, even without something like either of those class features, but hey.

Bards can already do that.


Countersong (Su)
A bard with 3 or more ranks in a Perform skill can use his music or poetics to counter magical effects that depend on sound (but not spells that simply have verbal components). Each round of the countersong, he makes a Perform check. Any creature within 30 feet of the bard (including the bard himself) that is affected by a sonic or language-dependent magical attack may use the bard’s Perform check result in place of its saving throw if, after the saving throw is rolled, the Perform check result proves to be higher. If a creature within range of the countersong is already under the effect of a noninstantaneous sonic or language-dependent magical attack, it gains another saving throw against the effect each round it hears the countersong, but it must use the bard’s Perform check result for the save. Countersong has no effect against effects that don’t allow saves. The bard may keep up the countersong for 10 rounds.

The Scotsman's playing was definitely probably a Countersong, since the sirens' magic was definitely sound-dependent.

[Manly Man]

The Scotsman's playing was definitely a Countersong, since the sirens' magic was definitely sound-dependent.

I was suddenly aware of this about ten minutes after posting that, but I just figured that someone else would have pointed it out in that time. Blame my stomachache for my laziness, too much ham last night. :smallfrown:

EDIT: As for food ideas, there's always battle. Most of what you'd be fighting is evil (unless you like to make yourself known a lot, in which case a whole bunch of everything will be coming after you) so you don't have to worry too much, I'd wager. After all, braining enemies with your mouth is hardly any worse than braining them with a sword, if you ask me. If a Druid can get away with biting and clawing his enemies to death, you should be able to get away with killing something with your mouthparts, too. Just go to an unconscious enemy (or one who's dying, but not dead), attach dem tentacles, and suck out all the goodies inside. It won't be as tasty by mind flayer standards (they prefer their prey to be alive and screaming, the psychic energies of strong emotions like terror add flavor to the brains), but sacrifices must be made for the sake of altruism. Besides, you could get some other, rather nifty 'spices' based on what's going through the minds of your meals while they're unconscious and not really thinking 'OH GODS IT'S EATING MEEEEEEEEEEEEE'.

[Slipperychicken]

I was suddenly aware of this about ten minutes after posting that, but I just figured that someone else would have pointed it out in that time. Blame my stomachache for my laziness, too much ham last night. :smallfrown:

Don't sweat it. We're on break (or at least most of us are) anyway. Happy Holidays :smallbiggrin:

[Telonius]

You might look for some inspiration here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ood). :smallamused:

[ericgrau]

Common seasonings to provide flavor with brains include pickled ginger, chili pepper, fried peanuts and cilantro.

And you are an adventurer. Justified killing is what you do for a living. Bonus points if you make in character arguments for why so and so should die instead of being captured, while making eager slurping noise. The scary part is you'll often be right.