Mind Flayer

Mind flayers, also called illithids, are the scourge of sentient creatures across countless worlds. Psionic tyrants, slavers, and interdimensional voyagers, they are insidious masterminds that harvest entire races for their own twisted ends. Four tentacles snake from their octopus-like heads, flexing in hungry anticipation when sentient creatures come near.

In eons past, illithids controlled empires that spanned many worlds. They subjugated and consequently warped whole races of humanoid slaves, including the githyanki and githzerai, the grimlocks, and the kuo-toa. Conjoined by a collective consciousness, the illithids hatch plots as far-reaching and evil as their fathomless minds can conceive.

Since the fall of their empires, illithid collectives on the Material Plane have resided in the Underdark.

Psionic Commanders Mind flayers possess psionic powers that enable them to control the minds of creatures such as troglodytes, grimlocks, quaggoths, and ogres. Illithids prefer to communicate via telepathy and use their telepathy when issuing commands to their thralls. When an illithid meets strong resistance, it avoids initial combat as it orders its thralls to attack. Like physical extensions of the illithid's thoughts, these thralls interpose themselves between the mind flayer and its foes, sacrificing their lives so that their master can escape.

Hive Mind Colonies Solitary mind flayers are likely rogues and outcasts. Most illithids belong to a colony of sibling mind flayers devoted to an elder brain- a massive brain-like being that resides in a briny pool near the center of a mind flayer community. From its pool, an elder brain telepathically dictates its desires to each individual mind flayer within 5 miles of it, for it is able to hold multiple mental conversations at once.

Hunger of the Mind Illithids subsist on the brains of humanoids. The brains provide enzymes, hormones, and psychic energy necessary for their survival. An illithid healthy from a brain-rich diet secretes a thin glaze of mucus that coats its mauve skin. An illithid experiences euphoria as it devours the brain of a humanoid, along with its memories, personality, and innermost fears. Mind flayers will sometimes harvest a brain rather than devour it, using it as part of some alien experiment or transforming it into an intellect devourer.

Qualith On the rare occasion that mind flayers need to write something down, they do so in Qualith. This system of tactile writing (similar to braille) is read by an illithid's tentacles. Qualith is written in four-line stanzas and is so alien in construction that non-illithids must resort to magic to discern its meaning. Though Qualith can be used to keep records, illithids most often use it to mark portals or other surfaces with warnings or instructions.

Illithid Traits Your mind flayer character has many similarities with others of its own race, but some do have unique characteristics which make them an outcast. Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2 and your Charisma score increases by 1. Age. They are a simple tadpole for around the first 10 years of their lives, feeding off the energies of the Elder Brain. Then, through a process of ceremorphosis, they are placed into the bodies of enslaved humanoids in order to obtain their more perfect form. In this form they live, showing little to no signs of aging, for an average of 125 years. Alignment. The species as a whole tend to be lawful evil. They follow a very structured society, being controlled by the Elder Brain at every move and sharing all information among one another. They also believe they are the greatest creatures in all lands and planes. Though they do have an overall agenda of universal domination, they can break free and form their own personality. Size. Illithids tend to not vary much between themselves and mostly resemble elves and humans in size and stature, though tend to take the shape of whatever humanoid they inhabited during ceremorphosis. Your size is Medium. Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet. What Lies Beneath. You have four tentacles on your face that cover a circular, toothy maw. These tentacles together make a natural weapon, along with the toothy maw. Tentacles. Melee Weapon Attack: On hit, deals 1 + your Strength modifier bludgeoning damage. Additionally, you may attempt to grapple a Medium or smaller creature on a successful hit. Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: On hit, deals 1+ your Strength modifier bludgeoning damage. Can only attack targets grappled by your Tentacles. Languages. You know Common, Undercommon, Deep Speech, and Qualith, along with any other languages granted to you by your background.