D&D Monster Review: Mind Flayer

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

I wrote a review of the Mind Flayer, comparing the different ways it was interpreted in different editions of D&D.

http://ultimatejosha.blogspot.ca/201...nd-flayer.html

[Lord Torath]

Nice. Nothing of import to add, other than I enjoyed the comparisons!

[Lupus753]

Oddly, this monster is unavailable on d20srd.com. On that sorta-related note, I don't like the 3.X art. It looks way too awkward.

I like to imagine that their brains greatly enlarge after death and grow tentacles.

I heard that Complete Psionics offers a background where your character is a descendant of Mind Flayers - despite their asexual reproduction. Just one reason why it's hated.

I also heard that there's a section in Book of Exalted Deeds that features someone redeeming a Mind Flayer. ...That is awesome.

[TuggyNE]

Oddly, this monster is unavailable on d20srd.com.

It's because of the ferocity of PRODUCT IDENTITY.

(Mind flayers squid thingies, yuan-ti, beholders, and one or two other monsters are non-OGL, since they're iconic to D&D the brand. The more you know!)

[LOTRfan]

Those "Illithid-descended" feats are much cooler when you consider the fact that since the Illithids came from the future, you can refluff the feats so that rather than being their descendants you are actually one of the ancient ancestors of the future Illithid civilization.

[Bogardan_Mage]

I'm a little disappointed not to see d20 Modern's take on the Mind Flayers. It doesn't add much in the way of background (the Agents of PSI campaign plays on the contradictory backstories by suggesting the Illithids are providing their own misinformation, and may simply be genetic experiments gone wrong) but it does have some nice pictures:
http://www.wizards.com/d20modern/ima..._088190_91.jpg
http://www.wizards.com/d20modern/ima...lery/50022.jpg

[LOTRfan]

I don't really like the first one, but that second one is absolutely amazing.

[tbok1992]

I heard that Complete Psionics offers a background where your character is a descendant of Mind Flayers - despite their asexual reproduction. Just one reason why it's hated.

Funny thing, I actually think I've found an explanation for that in-canon. You see, in the "Underdark" book, they had a "Half-Illithid" template they said was caused by Mind-Flayers magically interfering in the reproduction process of other creatures. I'm guessing the descendants of those creatures are where that class comes from.

But what bugs me about the Reformed Illithid from the BoED is that they never explain how she eats. They could've said "She eats only the brains of the wicked" or "She uses a magic item that allows you to go without eating", but nope. In fact, I believe they explicitly ruled out the possibility of the former by giving her a feat representing vow never to kill. Now that's what I call a dodge of moral quandaries!

OP, your article was great, but on the 4e lore, you forgot one very important, very awesome detail. The origin of the Mind-Flayers in 4e, instead of the 3e version of them being from the distant future come back to ruin everything (Which you also forgot), was that there was this giant brain monster that emerged in the Underdark (Which has unpleasant links to the Far Realm in 4e, with implications that all of reality was built atop said Far Realm), and when that thing died, the parasites infesting it became the first mind flayers.

And, funny thing about Thoon, I whipped up my own version of him as an Elder Evil for my own campaign setting Dungeonworld. What do you think of it?

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Funny thing, I actually think I've found an explanation for that in-canon. You see, in the "Underdark" book, they had a "Half-Illithid" template they said was caused by Mind-Flayers magically interfering in the reproduction process of other creatures. I'm guessing the descendants of those creatures are where that class comes from.

But what bugs me about the Reformed Illithid from the BoED is that they never explain how she eats. They could've said "She eats only the brains of the wicked" or "She uses a magic item that allows you to go without eating", but nope. In fact, I believe they explicitly ruled out the possibility of the former by giving her a feat representing vow never to kill. Now that's what I call a dodge of moral quandaries!

OP, your article was great, but on the 4e lore, you forgot one very important, very awesome detail. The origin of the Mind-Flayers in 4e, instead of the 3e version of them being from the distant future come back to ruin everything (Which you also forgot), was that there was this giant brain monster that emerged in the Underdark (Which has unpleasant links to the Far Realm in 4e, with implications that all of reality was built atop said Far Realm), and when that thing died, the parasites infesting it became the first mind flayers.

And, funny thing about Thoon, I whipped up my own version of him as an Elder Evil for my own campaign setting Dungeonworld. What do you think of it?

Thanks for pointing those things out. I had indeed missed the Fourth Edition origin story, and had forgotten about the Third Edition one. I will probably edit the post tomorrow, when I'm less tired.

I have been half-following your Dungeonworld thing for a while now. I think its great. Your interpretation of Thoon is both whimsical and chilling - exactly how it should be. It would make a fun adventure.

[holywhippet]

But what bugs me about the Reformed Illithid from the BoED is that they never explain how she eats. They could've said "She eats only the brains of the wicked" or "She uses a magic item that allows you to go without eating", but nope. In fact, I believe they explicitly ruled out the possibility of the former by giving her a feat representing vow never to kill. Now that's what I call a dodge of moral quandaries!

Is there anything specifically stopping them from eating the brains of non-sentient creatures? For that matter, although they have the power to instantly remove a creatures brain, do they actually need to eat only brains?

[Eurus]

Is there anything specifically stopping them from eating the brains of non-sentient creatures? For that matter, although they have the power to instantly remove a creatures brain, do they actually need to eat only brains?

If I remember Lords of Madness correctly, they eat normal food for physical nourishment but eat brains for psychic nourishment. I'd guess that it does indeed have to be from intelligent creatures, but don't quite recall if they said. They can go a long time without brain-eating if necessary, but it's one of the only things they find enjoyable.

[Tvtyrant]

If I remember Lords of Madness correctly, they eat normal food for physical nourishment but eat brains for psychic nourishment. I'd guess that it does indeed have to be from intelligent creatures, but don't quite recall if they said. They can go a long time without brain-eating if necessary, but it's one of the only things they find enjoyable.

Well, they remember everything the person did right? She could probably do a brisk business in the brains of people who want to live forever or want to further magical/psionic studies.

[DigoDragon]

Mindflayers as aliens was always my favorite go-to concept.

[Scow2]

If I remember Lords of Madness correctly, they eat normal food for physical nourishment but eat brains for psychic nourishment. I'd guess that it does indeed have to be from intelligent creatures, but don't quite recall if they said. They can go a long time without brain-eating if necessary, but it's one of the only things they find enjoyable.

From what I remember of Lords of Madness, they ate only brains, but only needed to eat once a week.

[Scowling Dragon]

There are also SpellJammer Mind-Flayers.

[ExtravagantEvil]

If I remember Lords of Madness correctly, they eat normal food for physical nourishment but eat brains for psychic nourishment. I'd guess that it does indeed have to be from intelligent creatures, but don't quite recall if they said. They can go a long time without brain-eating if necessary, but it's one of the only things they find enjoyable.

I swore in LoM, it stated something about them being able to break down Psionic Sustenance through sources non-brain related, but that brains were the most efficient means of metabolizing it.

I'll break out my copy and check in a minute, but I swore there was something akin to that.
So they could go on, in theory, without brains for a long time, but it's not as fulfilling or efficient.

I'll edit my findings in here later

[Lupus753]

So they could go on, in theory, without brains for a long time, but it's not as fulfilling or efficient.

So, it's like vegetarianism?

[holywhippet]

The reminds me, are mind flayers any different in Eberron? I've never played in that setting in pen and paper format but I did play one video game in that setting. Mind flayers were kind of weak when you faced them in underground dungeons.

[JoshuaZ]

The reminds me, are mind flayers any different in Eberron? I've never played in that setting in pen and paper format but I did play one video game in that setting. Mind flayers were kind of weak when you faced them in underground dungeons.

Eberron mindflayers came over with the invasion of the Dalkyrs. They are the primary instigators of the dalkyr plans (with the dalkyr often bothering a lot less than the mindflayers to push things forward). Official material does not mention elder brains at all I think, nor discuss illithid reproduction.

[Beleriphon]

Eberron mindflayers came over with the invasion of the Dalkyrs. They are the primary instigators of the dalkyr plans (with the dalkyr often bothering a lot less than the mindflayers to push things forward). Official material does not mention elder brains at all I think, nor discuss illithid reproduction.

It doesn't, although an Elder Brain could very well be a daelkyr lord. The implication is that mind flayers are directly spawned by the daelkyr from other creatures in Khyber much like the tadpole implant idea, or created whole cloth as a fully grown creature.

[J-H]

Both of these have been interesting... please keep it up.

[Kol Korran]

nice reviews. a few ideas:
- the mind flayer's lore (and quite a bit of it's best art) comes from the supplement Lords Of Madness. might be worth a look.
- It would be cool if you looked into hobgoblins and bugbears as well, since you've looked into goblins. the 3 races are supposed to be related (at least in some editions), though there is little lore on how the 3 interact (I think there is one source book, but it's 3rd party, and i don't remember it's name)
- trolls, ogres and ogre mages are also quite iconic. would love to see how they changed through the ages.
- I'd love to see a work up on gargoyles. If my (hazy) memory serves me right, they were constructs in earlier editions?
- on a more supernatural venue- the Efreet and Djinn are a curiousity of mine.

anyway, nice work, quite interesting reviews!

[BWR]

I stick with Bruce Cordell's 'Illithiad' as the starting point for anything illithid related. It's where much of the accepted lore in 3E was taken from, and is generally much cooler. Especially when you start figuring in Penumbra from the illithid adventure trilogy.

[Mighty_Chicken]

Love your blog!

I disagree about 2nd edition ones being "silly". They were less edgy and comic-like, and when I was a child they weren't that appealing to me - but today many 2nd edition drawing look more unique and inspiring to me, while 3rd edition monsters too often look like anything else I've already seem in comics or movies...

The 2nd edition illithids, for example, had a very interesting clothing and posture. They really seem to have an alien culture, where somehow their dress and hat are supposed to make sense. 3rd edition illithid is just screaming "eeevil! Look how I'm evil!" in his clothing, posture, etc.

[Fighter1000]

In 3.5 D&D I once had an encounter with a party of adventurers that had to face a mind flayer. It caused some of the adventurers to fall unconscious with its brain wave attack. It attempted to eat the brain of one of the unconscious adventurers, but it never got the chance before it got hacked down. :(

[nyarlathotep]

Also this is a nitpick but your 3rd edition picture is from the 3.5 monster manual. The 3.0 one had a different picture.

[Scowling Dragon]

Again: Spelljammer Also has good pics:

Spoiler

Show

[Vknight]

Again: Spelljammer Also has good pics:

Spoiler

Show

I remember it coming up about one of the artist for Spelljammer wanting to do a mindflayer with a lasergun or something along thoes lines