Illithid Inquisition

[LordOfCain]

NOTE: If you are in my campaign, STAY OUT!
I am running a campaign where the party is trying to root out and destroy an illithid inquisition of three mind flayers (+enslaved muscle). The members of the party so far are: a Dvati Psychic Rogue, a Warforged Barbarian, and a Human Monk. All three members (ab)used template stacking to get pretty great stats, are level 12, and were built on 32 point buy. Note that, except for the Psychic Rogue, the characters multiclassed a lot. The key points of the monk are that it took Vow of Poverty (more loot for the other characters!) and is a Saint. The key points of the Barbarian is that it has the Titan bloodline and wields a gargantuan warhammer. The key points of the Psychic Rogue are Assassin's Stance, Dex/Int focused (via Shadow Blade/Weapon Finesse), Dvati stuff, and uses rapiers. I would like to have some suggestions for how to build the illithids. I am thinking each should have ~4 class levels.

tl;dr: Help me build three complementary illithids with four non-RHD class levels each.

[Inevitability]

1. First thing when I heard 'three illithids' was 'voidmind creatures'. You are using those, aren't you?

2. If the characters have multiclassed enough for it to be relevant to mention, perhaps tell us what classes they've multiclassed in?

3. VoP doesn't work like that: the book explicitly says that you not getting any treasure doesn't mean the entire party can just divvy up your share.

That said, on to the illithids:

The dvati rogue might be best countered with AoE's that don't allow a reflex save.

The barbarian I suggest dealing with like anyone deals with dumb brutes: throw a few enchantments at it. A Maximized Empowered Hypnotism (maybe the illithids use a magic item?) can barely ensnare a 12th-level character, which is enough to make the barbarian stop killing you.

Against the monk... Well, he's a VoP monk with no caster support. Fly fifty feet up and keep spamming some save-or-lose.

[JeminiZero]

Are you using the psionic or sorcerer version of mind-flayers?

In either case, the easiest thing is to add more class levels of the same to advance their casting/manifesting. Have them complement one another, and leave the melee to the thralls/summons/undead minions.

[LordOfCain]

1. First thing when I heard 'three illithids' was 'voidmind creatures'. You are using those, aren't you?

2. If the characters have multiclassed enough for it to be relevant to mention, perhaps tell us what classes they've multiclassed in?

3. VoP doesn't work like that: the book explicitly says that you not getting any treasure doesn't mean the entire party can just divvy up your share.

That said, on to the illithids:

The dvati rogue might be best countered with AoE's that don't allow a reflex save.

The barbarian I suggest dealing with like anyone deals with dumb brutes: throw a few enchantments at it. A Maximized Empowered Hypnotism (maybe the illithids use a magic item?) can barely ensnare a 12th-level character, which is enough to make the barbarian stop killing you.

Against the monk... Well, he's a VoP monk with no caster support. Fly fifty feet up and keep spamming some save-or-lose.

Yes, they have to donate their shares of treasure to charity right? Kinda ignored that cuz a party with a vow of poverty monk needs some extra help. And yes, voidmind creatures will be used.

To the other poster: most likely using psionic illithids.

[Necroticplague]

3. VoP doesn't work like that: the book explicitly says that you not getting any treasure doesn't mean the entire party can just divvy up your share.


Yes, they have to donate their shares of treasure to charity right? Kinda ignored that cuz a party with a vow of poverty monk needs some extra help.

Actually, they don't. The Vow itself only says you can't use the wealth, it is entirely quiet on the topic of what to do with wealth that would otherwise be yours. Even in an entirely different section of the book doesn't state that they can't. It states

Having a character in the party who has taken a vow of poverty should not necessarily mean that the other party members get bigger shares of treasure! Which is a much vaguer phrase that leaves quite a bit of wiggle room in that regard.

[JeminiZero]

By my reckoning, even without going into Wartroll Cross breeding experiments (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=101587), its fairly easy for 3 optimized Illithids with Psion class levels tacked on top, to TPK a Rogue, Barbarian and Monk.

So here are some general pointers (you don't have to follow them all, keep in mind you DON'T want a TPK):

-By default they manifest as 9th level Telepaths (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powerList.htm#telepathTelepathyDisciplinePowers). Add on 4 Psion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/psion.htm) levels, and that pushes them to 13th level Telepaths, and they can access 7th level powers. Alternatively,

-Switch up their default Powers known list, and feat selection. Additional recommendations to both are below:

-Each of them will at the very least take Inertial Armor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/inertialArmor.htm), Vigor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/vigor.htm), Touchsight (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/touchsight.htm), Freedom of Movement (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/freedomofMovementPsionic.htm) and Psionic Overland Flight (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/overlandFlightPsionic.htm). At the start of the day, they should manifest a fully augmented Inertial Armor for +7 AC bonus. (This is in addition to the mindscrew powers that define Mindflayers like Charm (www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/charmPsionic.htm), Suggestion (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/suggestionPsionic.htm), Read Thoughts (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/readThoughts.htm) & Dominate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/dominatePsionic.htm))

-If you want them to be beefier, consider the Psicrystal Share Pain trick. Each of them spends a feat on Psicrystal Affinity (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#psicrystalAffinity), then takes Share Pain (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/sharePain.htm). They use that to Share Pain with their Psicrystal. Then they manifest Vigor, and use Share Power so their Psicrystal also benefits. E.g. At 13th level, they can get 65 temp HP from Vigor, on themselves and their psicrystal. They need to sustain 130 HP damage (because share pain splits the damage between them and their psicrystal) before they run out of temp HP.

-Change their feats: Combat Casting and Weapon Finesse are largely useless. Aside from Psicrystal Affinity mentioned above, you could also grab Expanded Knowledge (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#expandedKnowledge). Pick up useful powers from other disciplines, like Astral Construct (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/astralConstruct.htm).

-While raging a barbarian (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/barbarian.htm) cannot use any Charisma, Dexterity, or Intelligence based skills. That means he automatically falls prone to Psionic Grease (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/greasePsionic.htm). Scratch that. I was thinking of Frenzied Berserkers

-For both the Monk and Rogue, powers like Energy Stun (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/energyStun.htm) offer the option of Cold damage, which changes the save from Reflex to Fort, and bypasses evasion. Don't forget to augment to full, to boost damage and DC.

There's a lot more to optimizing Psions than the above. This is just a start.

[ComaVision]

-While raging a barbarian (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/barbarian.htm) cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills. That means he automatically falls prone to Psionic Grease (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/greasePsionic.htm).

Actually:

While raging, a barbarian cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, and Ride)

Character Minimum

[Telok]

A level of warlock and boots of levitation. If you're cruel, Ego Whip. If you're scum, a one use item of force cage and a dijore of Ego Whip.

[neriractor]

how about one of them is an illithid body tamer from forgotten realms underdark? yeah, you can make them all psions (1 level of psion going into a prestige class would be better) but why don´t you give your party a fighting chance while making the illithids more memorable?