how to ACTUALLY use Mindflayers in D&D

Mindflayers, Illithids, whatever you want to call them, sure are a D&D staple, but what if we gave them a twist? What if one of your DnD players got too close to those pesky tadpoles?

Get the Rules for Psionic Transformation here!

[zacharyhawley]

The concept of a mindflayer that excessively collects adventurer thralls like a cat mom bears merit.

[crowsenpai]

I once played a Mindflayer in a Curse of Strahd campaign. Basically with how when he’s bored, Strahd just sometimes spirits people into his little one way area of Barrovia, and my character was yoinked mid Ceromorphisis. His past psyche was mostly destroyed, but was taken before his mind was fully integrated into the Hive Mind, so he was left as a confused squid man who didn’t know who he was or what his purpose was, and was adopted by the party.

[kainhighwind]

Your twist is actually canon, too! The aberration sorcerer suggests "You got a ilithid tadpole implanted that for some reason didn't take over, and now you have psionic powers"

[arcana]

Flawlessly predicted the star mechanic of BG3’s full release with the Illithid powers.

[dragonicdoom]

They actually did revisit the mind flayer dragon concept in Fizban's, where they introduced the Elder Brain Dragon. As the name suggests, its what happens when an Elder Brain takes over the corpse of deceased dragon. Their breath weapon is terrifying, its a blast of brine filled with illithid tadpoles for mass Mind Flayer production.

[icetide]

Knowing an elder brain needs to be nearby for them to be truly connected to the hivemind, I'm now imagining a mind flayer being "born" outside of one's influence and just being unbelievably confused. Orphaned mind flayer seems like a fun concept

[Larper]

In terms of laying eggs, it is important to remember that most of the Illithid's actual form is in the head. I've previously read, I think in Lords of Madness but I may be mistaken, that the laying of eggs more resembles the Illithid vomiting into the pool of the Elder Brain.

[davididiart]

I love using Mindflayers. I even wrote a setting where one of the major differences was that the world was so psychically rich with psionic energy that it kept the local Mindflayers' hunger at bay long enough to think past their next meal. They tried to expand their culture and society beyond feeding. And... perhaps due to experimentation, or perhaps due to their "Interns" eating _their_ brains in a demented sort of retribution during the inevitable uprisings... there was now a Half-ilid race known as Versari players could be. Basically an excuse to play a half-elf but with Mind Flayer powers, Aboleth tentacles, or bizarre Beholder laser stuff. But they've been the most popular custom race I've put into my games, so I must have done something right.

[JettSvart]

I love renegade Mindflayers. I like to think that, away from the Elder Brain, a lot of the host's old personality an desires resurfaces. My party ran into a renegade mindflayer cheerfully named Bernard, who is a tailor that lives in Waterdeep. It's sort of an open secret in his neighborhood that he's an illithid, and his "assistants" are linked to him in a hivemind. I envision their shared mind situation being like Sens8 - the members of the "pod" keep their individuality, and joined willingly so that they could all be closer to each other, and consider each other found family. (They were, in fact, a former adventuring party that found Bernard when he was lost away from his Elder Brain, and starved for psychic energy, and once they made contact with him, they realized he wasn't evil. They agreed to make a hivemind so that Bernard could feed off their minds without overwhelming any of them, and liked it so much that they just never unlinked.)

There's a lot of evil Mindflayer stuff going on in the campaign, including a couple of NPCs that are being taken over by Intellect Devourers, so Bernard is there as an asset the party can use to help figure out who is being controlled, and maybe even save some of the NPCs whose brains are being eaten. (Or "converted"; I have homebrew lore about how Intellect Devourers are made, and it's kind of horrifying...)

[aguywithalotofopinions]

I think a mindflayer separating from the brain and slowly regaining their former identity would be hella fun to play

[TheCrimsonElite]

Interestingly, there is an official mechanical way for a player to become a Mind Flayer. In Fizban's Treasury of Dragons, we have Elder Brain Dragons, which are Brainstealer Dragons, but better in every single way, and significantly more horrifying. It's the result of an Elder Brain attaching itself to an adult dragon by using it's tentacles to burrow into the dragon's brain, and it fuses itself with it's host with a fleshy membrane. Their signature attack, Tadpole Brine Breath, not only deals huge amounts of psychic damage, but no matter if you succeeded of failed in the saving throw, you become infested with tadpoles. This deals heavy psychic damage at the start of your turns, and if you're reduced to 0 HP while infested, you fall unconscious and nothing, save for a Wish spell, can bring you back at that point. After a few days, or several hours if you're really unlucky, you regain consciousness by becoming a Mind Flayer.

[mizublackriver]

When the mind aberration subclass was released i was into wanting to play as one.
So me and my DM decided that, for race, it would be a tiefling, and the lore it would be that a human mother, desperate, agreed to let her dying baby partake in the ritual because a mind flayer wanted to fuck around and find out.
He was exiled because he "wasted" the tadpole on a baby, so he decides to live with the woman that offered him shelter, he disguises as a magic item/book shop owner while observing and studying the growing child.

The baby grew up to be Neutral Good and learn between the coldness of the mind flayer and the warm and happiness of what a peasant can have on its simple life, it was fun playing her.

[pLanetstarBerry]

Now I'm just thinking of the socially awkward alhoon my party befriended while exploring an abandoned mindflayer colony that was converted into an evil wizard's (now abandoned) lab. Said evil wizard wiped out the mindflayer colony by feeding them people infected with a prion disease, and the alhoon (a mindflayer at the time) missed out on it because he got too into reading a contraband spellbook to go eat dinner. When the alhoon realized what was happening and couldn't feel his hivemind connection, he decided to hide in a secret room and bunker down until the evil wizard went away. Again, he... lost track of time. For about ten years. Since the alhoon doesn't need brains to survive and the party didn't attack him on sight, they were able to make friends and find him a secluded, lost library to organize. They check up on him from time to time, and hes fun to roleplay.

[Gunthersby]

I've found mindflayers are commonly seen as pure evil because they "have" to eat sentient live brains. They may be evil, but I can't say something is evil because of what it has to eat to live; if a mindflayer became an adventurer and ate bandit brains, no one would bat an eye. It wouldn't even be that cruel compared to what some regular adventurers do

[SonicTheHedgedawg]

The only thing that gets me through from one day to the next is knowing I'm going to get a big Pointy Hat smooch when he drops his next video.

[lilsiggi]

Fun fact: "Thrall" actually comes from the Old Norse "Þræll", which means ""Intern"". The word is still used in Icelandic to this day.

Just thought I'd share this little tidbit.

[Hazel-xlin]

writing mind flayer dialogue is so fun. early on in the chain of acheron there was an imprisoned mind flayer with such hits as:

“Oh no, _I_ haven’t eaten anyone’s brain in… _hours.”_

“I’m surprised a creature with so many _bones_ in its head has room for a brain.”

one i wrote is “What… thoughts run through your head? And what use could you _possibly_ have for them?”

[michaelcohen]

There was a book called the Book of Exalted Deeds, and one of the characters is a redeemed Mind Flayer who became a monk. They established that brains are a delicacy to Illithids, not a requirement, so she refuses to eat brains now.

[pointyhatstudios]

What is your favorite horror movie and why is it alien :)
Also! The timecode to skip the eye stuff is slightly wrong bc we moved some stuff around in editing. To avoid it entirely go to 13:52

[firebladeentertainment]

In one of our campaigns we have one of our players be a renegade Ilithid that decided to become a wizard. he keeps his identity a secret
we play him as needing a somewhat constant supply of brains to sustain himself, but he grows sentient moss in his coat as a backup. the more intelligent the brain was, the more nourishing it is to him.
the player also plays him as needing to keep himself moisturised (also he has an ice cream spoon to spoon out a fallen enemies brain)