So I am going to be starting a new campaign in which Mindflayers will not be the biggest baddest thing in the world. My girl friend has wanted to play one for a while and I thought this would be a good time to do so, however we will be low level, and I think the Savage Species book is a bit lame. What kind of level adjustment would this give:
Telepathy 100ft
Lower powered mind blast: Per day ability (most likely 1 per day). 1d4 rounds Will = half level + cha
Natural weapon: 4 tentacles 1d4
Darkvision 60ft
Improved grab
Extract
I was also thinking of giving it +3 to natural armor, I’m not to sure. As well she may have to take Improved grab and extract as a feat. The idea I have behind this character is a Mindflayer that has not really developed his true powers, and just has most of his physical properties.
Thanks
Most of the mind flayers massive LA comes simply from extract as it is instant death.
A stunned foe can’t escape from a grapple. (as a stunned creature can’t take any actions). So once a mind flayer stuns a creature its easy prey against the extract ability.
I’d advice looking at the book Complete which has the illithid heritage feats.
The heritage extract is far weaker dealing 2d4 points of intelligence damage (which is still fatal if it drops it to zero). But not quite as deadly as instant death.
Saying Mind Flayers are not the baddest thing in the world is well really far fetched. They live off brain matter.
They are born from the utter destruction of another being. Each Mind Flayer used to be a person.
That would reduce the LA to… maybe three or four, off the top of my head. But they’ve still got lots of HD and high ability mods, so your adaptation ought to go a lot further.
The idea of my Mindflayers is that they think of allies in a time of need against so many enemies. They are willing to help others as long as those who they help give back the favor. So they are, as you may say, “the better of two evils” or even trying to regain some honor that they have lost. Its the idea of all people having to come together to save Khorvair.
What do you mean by my adaptation ought to go a lot further?
The adaptation will not be given any bonus to stats, as well as no hit dice.
Note that a stunned opponent cannot resist grapple, as mentioned above. So if you stun a foe, they are dead.
The telepathy is just plain fun.
Honestly though, I’d say just have her play a psion and go into the mind-flayer esque PrC from Complete Psionic. She’ll effectively wind up being very close to a mind flayer, for all intents and purposes.
I was just playing a psuedodragon. I LOVED being telepathic.
But yeah, this does look at bit powerful. The save or dies are always kind of tough to justify giving a lower level character.
I assume the plan is to not give her any racial HD, and just those abilties?
Honestly though, I’d say just have her play a psion and go into the mind-flayer esque PrC from Complete Psionic. She’ll effectively wind up being very close to a mind flayer, for all intents and purposes.
So I read the class… and I agree that this does seem to be the best way to go about the mindflayer esque abilities. However, this is a bit of a complicated route for my girl friend. This is why I thought of trying to do a character class instead. With that in mind do you have any suggestions?
There’s already a Half-Illithid template, found in the Fiend Folio and in Underdark. It’s almost the same as yours, but with some additional spell-like abilities usable 3/day and SR, with a +5 LA.
Certain high powered races, such as the mind flayer, just don’t break down well. Either you lose the flavor of the race (by taking away important racial abilities) in favor of balance, or you get rid of balance in favor of flavor. There’s a certain point where it just can’t go lower and be the same race.
I don’t particularly like the PrC in question. I think Biff has the best solution: just use the half-illithid template on a humanoid, and call it a full illithid.
I dont remember the PrC, I remember that it exists but dont remember the specifics, but my DM allowed Bonus Feats from Fighter Class to get Heritage Feats. So, if your DM allows it, it wouldnt be too bad. Other than that, you would get Extract around 9th level or something like that. Which you could definetely go into the Illithid Savant by that point.
