Are Intellect Devourers The Most Under Rated Opponent? Can Resurrection Help?

[MarkVIIIMarc]

Man, them things and their mind wiping ability look to be pretty dangerous, especially in the right circumstances. In the higher AC attempted optimzation group I DM for I think only the Wizard has more than a 50/50 chance of passing the DC12 Intelligence save.

Assuming any of them are taken over by the devourer, what can restore their brains besides a wish spell?

[Zhorn]

I think Wish is you're only option to avoid death, but once dead a Resurrection (and True Resurrection) should work as it restored missing body parts.
Also Reincarnate works after death as you don't need a COMPLETE body.

In theory (so subject to DM approval), the intellect devourer and the host body are two separate creatures, with the intellect devourer functioning as the creature's brain. Casting Regeneration (1 hour duration) might work as the spell should work to restore missing body parts, so the brain would regrow in 2min, forcing the intellect devourer out.
The intellect devourer could attempt to consume the brains as they regenerate, but they'd have to consume ~30 brains in that time. We're delving into 'cases not covered by the RAW' here, as we don't have a precise limit of how much brain matter an intellect devourer can devour within a given timeframe, or how much of a functioning brain is needed to maintain the base bodily functions to support a living body.
I'd allow it to work as a creative solution. The intellect devourer tries to consume the brain matter as it regenerates, but is soon satiated/overfed to the point it just gives up, the brain regenerates to enough of a size to force the intellect devourer out.
The intellect devourer now too full to consume any more brain matter is unable to Body Thief a new target for a while, making it a little easier to eliminate.

[Greywander]

Intellect devourers are one of those enemies that look weak on paper, but only a fool would underestimate them, and usually not more than once. It's basically a weak monster with a super lethal attack that targets a defense that is often neglected (INT is probably the most dumped stat). They're not particularly hard to kill, but they are very dangerous. Throwing a couple into a fight is a great way to ratchet up the tension without making the fight a lot more difficult, assuming the party doesn't act stupid and ignore them.

You know, this kind of reminds of something I often say about Dark Souls: it's not actually that difficult, it just won't hesitate to kill you if you're goofing off. Intellect devourers are kind of the same way.

[Unoriginal]

Man, them things and their mind wiping ability look to be pretty dangerous, especially in the right circumstances.

The Intellect Devourer is not underrated in any way, it's rightly considered extremely deadly.

The only reason it has CR 2 is that in a straight fight against 4 lvl 2 PCs it isn't likely to do much. But as an ambusher/stalker/assassin/hit-and-runner, however, it's damn scary.



In the higher AC attempted optimzation group I DM for I think only the Wizard has more than a 50/50 chance of passing the DC12 Intelligence save.

They don't sound very optimized, then. Sounds more like they'd get defeated by the first illusionist they meet.



Assuming any of them are taken over by the devourer, what can restore their brains besides a wish spell?

Resurrection & True Resurrection, Reincarnation, Regenerate.

[Guy Lombard-O]

Are they the MOST underrated? Possibly. But there are other deadly low CR threats out there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NwtOixkD0g&t=1305s

[EggKookoo]

The only reason it has CR 2 is that in a straight fight against 4 lvl 2 PCs it isn't likely to do much. But as an ambusher/stalker/assassin/hit-and-runner, however, it's damn scary.

The problem comes with new players. A table of newbies at APL 2 might not know to prioritize the Devourer and end up with a dead or Int-wiped PC without the resources to correct it. This happened with my current campaign, and they just so happened to be in the employ of a relatively wealthy noble for whom they were rescuing an abducted family member. And the Devourer hit right near the end of the mission. So the stars aligned such that the party could get the afflicted PC back to the noble, who had the resources and gratitude to cover the cost of restoring the lost Int. And that was just a successful use of Devour Intellect -- had the fight gone on longer there was a chance of Body Thief happening.

[Willie the Duck]

I guess it depends on what one means by under rated. Yes, they have a low CR. However, 'Geeze, would you look at how dangerous wandering into a den of Intellect Devourers would be?' was one of the first comments I heard about the MM and people seem to have held the same view ever since.

[Unoriginal]

The problem comes with new players. A table of newbies at APL 2 might not know to prioritize the Devourer and end up with a dead or Int-wiped PC without the resources to correct it. This happened with my current campaign, and they just so happened to be in the employ of a relatively wealthy noble for whom they were rescuing an abducted family member. And the Devourer hit right near the end of the mission. So the stars aligned such that the party could get the afflicted PC back to the noble, who had the resources and gratitude to cover the cost of restoring the lost Int. And that was just a successful use of Devour Intellect -- had the fight gone on longer there was a chance of Body Thief happening.

I don't consider that a problem. Also it'll make a great story for your players to tell in the future.

[Zeb_by_Proxy]

My regular table is now TERRIFIED of Intellect Devourers after an encounter a couple campaigns ago when their Druid's brain was consumed. Their solution has become legendary at our table: the party immediately knew what happened from a Medicine check, the cleric yelled "I can't Revivify without a brain!", the paladin of Tymora reacted by immediately chopping the top of the Druid's head off and decapitating a nearby Drow corpse, grabbing the Drow brain, putting it into the Druid's head and holding the top of the Druid's head back on while yelling "let's do this!". It took her less than 30 seconds, and the Cleric cast Revivify just under the wire.

Then they had to deal with their Druid coming back with an amalgam of her personality/memories and that of the Drow brain they had jammed in there (balancing what part of the personality is in the soul and what part in the brain in a 5e context was tough to do on the fly), but the result was amazing. It all happened basically in real-time and everyone at the table was screaming and panicking. Good times.

From now on, all I need to do is tell them they hear a skittering sound and see a shadow roughly the size of a house cat moving in the corner to induce a FULL PANIC, regardless of their character level.

:smallbiggrin:

[EggKookoo]

I don't consider that a problem. Also it'll make a great story for your players to tell in the future.

It wasn't a problem because the party got lucky. But they could have easily had a dead PC at 2nd level. For an experienced player, maybe not a big deal, but an experienced player is more likely to understand how dangerous the Devourer is.

I don't disagree that the ID should be CR 2. It's more of a DM awareness thing, when running a table for people new to D&D or 5e.