Baldur's Gate 3 Lore: The Mind Flayer (Dungeons & Dragons)

welcome back for another lore video in this video we're gonna talk about a race that is a scourge of sentient creatures across countless worlds a race known to harvest entire other races for their own twisted ends so sit back relax enjoy the fire and let's talk mind flayers [Music] the mind flayers unlike the other lore videos I have done are not actually a playable race in baldur's gate 3 or are they probably not in your traditional character creation sense but you just may turn into one that doesn't happen at the very least you will likely meet them in combat for judging by the cinematic trailers that we've seen the mind flayers will play a large role in the plot of baldur's gate 3 also if you want to know what that vicious-looking maggot thing is that gets implanted into your brain then this video is for you we're going to start off this video like all of my other lore videos but near the end we're going to specifically talk about what you should expect if you encounter a mind flayer in baldur's gate 3 in terms of statistics and abilities so you're gonna want to stick around to the end of the video for that if you guys end up enjoying this video please subscribe for there will be more Baldur's Gate 3 content on the way I'll put links to my social medias below if you want to stay updated on future video releases let's talk about the mind flayers the mind flayers also known as lipids or evil and sadistic aberrations feared by sentient creatures on many worlds including our very own planet of Torrell where baldur's gate is located their powerful innate psionic abilities make them mysterious but extremely deadly monsters the mind flayers seek to expand their dominion over all other creatures by controlling their minds and using them as hopeless slaves while at the same time devouring their brains for sustenance doesn't get much more up than that these tyrant slavers and interdimensional voyagers are psionic masterminds that were known to harvest entire races one of these unfortunate races that were enslaved for countless generations is a playable race in baldur's gate 3 known as the gift Yankee the gift Yankee were thought by some to have been humans before their enslavement but thousands of years of being mentally dominated by the mind flayers was said to have given them the emaciated appearance that they are known for once the gift gained their freedom from the mind flayer control a large portion of them the gift Yankee specifically advocated for a campaign of total annihilation of the mind flares and the subsequent destruction of any race that could potentially enslave them again it might be interesting to have a gif Yankee in your party for the sole reason of seeing how they interact with the plot for which they may feel more personally invested in than others the mind flares had empires in the astral plane but the gift Yankees revenge would ultimately bring them all down the surviving mine flares dispersed and were constantly hunted the mine flares were humanoid in appearance but with an octopus like rigid head with tentacles surrounding a lamprey lifelike mouth they are warm-blooded amphibians whose blood has a silvery white color their hands consist of 4 long reddish fingers and their feet are two toed and webbed a typical mine flare would stand around 8 or 9 feet tall which is a terrifying sight when you add in their alien like features if you find one excreting a slimy mucous substance on their skin it typically means they are healthy from their brain rich diet their extreme sensitivity to bright light makes them a rare sight for surface dwellers living on faerûn but don't get too comfortable because many believe we will be journeying to the Underdark and baldur's gate 3 where these dwellers of the deep can be found mine flares viewed themselves as masterminds and they enjoyed using other creatures to further their evil and far-reaching goals they were very aggressive creatures and would attempt to mentally dominate any non slave non elephant that they met despite their aggressive nature they were paranoid creatures and their first priority was typically concealment and survival as a whole they knew only negative emotions and their only true fulfillment was found through consuming intelligent brains for an adult mind flayer to stay healthy they would need to consume at least one intelligent brain per month this was most often found from humanoid creatures like ourselves tn creatures brain was the only nourishment that could sustain the mind flayer physiology for an intelligent brain would provide enzymes hormones and psychic energy the only brain tissue could provide when a mind flayer fed on a brain it was a euphoric experience for they would absorb a victim's memories personality and fears the mind flares are said to have come tutorial from the planet of glyph as refugees more than thirteen thousand years before the baldur's gate game series events occurred these mind flares made their home in the Underdark and founded the city of a Rendel the city of lore takers this large mine flare city-state was located in the lower dark which is the lowest layer of the Underdark and- $8,100 Echenique the mine flares from our indle attacked the eastern sub kingdoms of shana tar which were controlled by the mountain dwarves this was known as the mine stalker wars the war ended with the retreat of the mine flares but they brought with them many Dwarfs from clan duraguard who were experimented upon and used as slaves for more than four thousand years this in many ways became the birth of the sub race of dwarves known as the Dewar Garr who would eventually rebel and break free nearly destroying the city of Arendal the Dewar gar would go on to find several holds across the Underdark but like the Genki they were known to be a cruel and heartless race we very well may end up coming across some durga on our adventures or who knows maybe they will even be a playable race mine flares were rarely found alone for they were usually accompanied by two or more slaves that were mentally bound to them races that we should expect to see enslave to them would be grimlocks ogres Magath sand troglodytes slaves could make up more than 80% of a mine flares colony the city of Arundel had a population of around 24,000 mine flares only made up 4,300 of that number powerful creatures they are mine flare colonies operated as a single hive mind with control centralized by an elder brain an elder brain was held in a pool of salt ish fluids and was made up of all the rains of the dead mine flares in the colony it served as the center of the communication network relaying information received from one mine flare to the entire colony it stored all the collective knowledge of the colony and what issue commands to individual mine flares in the baldur's gate 3 opening cinematic we see what looks to be an elder brain inside an auto Lloyd ship which is a mind flayer ship that was capable of travelling between worlds and through the astral plane it might make more sense to think of a mine flare colony as an individual the elder brain for it had extreme control and organization over a colony keep this in mind when we come across some mine flares on our adventures within mine flare counties the Alif 'td were organized into ideological factions known as Creed's which align the mine flares philosophies and abilities representatives of these Creed's form the Elder Conchords which coordinated the colonies various activities under the elder brain when multiple colonies pursued common objectives a grand elder council was formed you better hope you are not the target of that Council sometimes there would be missions that needed to be conducted that would be outside of the elder brains reach these missions were dangerous for that very reason but highly profitable and if successful objectives like these were oftentimes carried out by inquisitions which were small parties of mine flares or carried out by cults which were much larger than inquisitions and headed by to mine flares who had constantly fight for power some mine flares would remain out of reach from the elder brain and could go on to establish new colonies and even seek cooperation with other species which would most certainly be against the elder brain supremacy views these mine flares were known as a lipid renegades and if I remember correctly the drow elf Drizzt Do'Urden came across some of these renegades on his journeys if Ana lifted renegade fell back under control to an elder brain they would lose their free will again which means their new personality and any alliances they made would quickly disappear now let's talk about the reproduction of the mine flares and how that ties into our story in baldur's gate 3 the mine flares were actually sucks less and once or twice in their life they would lay a claw of eggs from which tadpoles would hatch these tadpoles were kept in the elder brain tank as you can see in the cinematic like their parents they fed on brains these brains were given to them by their caretakers many times it wasn't enough for they would engage in cannibalism as well the elder brain itself also fed on tadpoles the tadpoles who survived to maturity which took around ten years in the elder brain tank would then be put through sera morphosis which unfortunately our characters in Baldur's Gate 3 are experiencing firsthand sera morphosis is when a tadpole is implanted in a humanoid where it would feed on its hosts brain eventually devouring it taking its place and merging with the body to transform it into a new mind flayer and the announcement trailer for baldur's gate 3 we witness a human transform into a mind flare and in the intro cinematics to the game we watch as a tadpole is implanted into a gif Yankees brain as well as our very own character the Serra morphosis process is said to take around seven days even though we see it basically happened within 30 seconds and the initial trailer so I'm not sure how this occurs after around an hour or so the sera morphosis is supposed to be irreversible even by magical means so our character has a major situation to attempt to overcome some tadpoles although rare would end up transforming their hosts into a more powerful form of mind flayer called Lili Thurid these would become the nobles of the olifants society these creatures would possess extraordinary gifts of strength and a vile malicious intellect instead of four tentacles they would have six and they were also not controlled by the elder brain eventually a yulie Thurid would break off from the colony take with it a few mind flares and go establish a new colony in a distant location upon a newly thurid's death their brain will be placed immediately in a brine pool where it would grow into an elder brain whoever came up with this stuff has quite the imagination although the process of Sarah morphosis was usually only successful when a tadpole was applied to certain compatible types of humanoids this did not scare the mind flares from constantly experimenting with other races and creatures creatures that underwent they're a morphosis but did not produce mine flares are referred to as flare kin or sera morphs some types of these flare cans included brain stealer dragon's brain golems mine witnesses and many more there's also actually a vampiric version of the mine flare called the vampiric elephant which was an undead mine flare that fed on brains as well as blood to survive so what is a mine Flair's origin some believe they are aliens from an extremely distant future who have come back in time to prevent their extinction others believed they were cursed inbred mutant offspring of humans from an ancient and distant crystal sphere some even believe they might have originated in the far realm which is a plane of madness most origin myths do agree that an untold millennia in their past the mine flares were the most powerful race and the inner planes commanding vast empires from the astral and ethereal planes that spanned multiple worlds mine flares did not worship entities from the outer Plains as deities and they did not share in the same thoughts about the afterlife as many other races did their last desire upon death was to be rejoined with its elder brain which is in a way a form of immortality where the mind flayers life experiences would merge into the elder brains conscious far in the past when the Durga were enslaved by the mind flayers in the city of Arendal the dwarves uprising nearly destroyed the city the mind flayers in the city were saved by the appearance of the mind flayer God Ilsan seen since Bilson Singh's appearance the mind flayers became much more religious and began to develop formidable psionic powers some believed Ilsan seemed to be their creator as well mine flares great mental prowess was why they were so feared by other creatures in addition to a small array of mind affecting spells they also had a powerful mind blast which could affect a multitude of foes this cone lake blast could reach 60 feet and would stun anyone caught within once in a fortunate victim our victims were stunned a mine flare would drag them away to feed attaching all of its tentacles to the head of their prey they would then suck out the brain a mind flare can also levitate at will and detect the thoughts of nearby creatures any creature in their vicinity they could dominate or charm which would oftentimes lead to slavery or if you were lucky a quick death now let's take a look at the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons mind flares which will likely be what we come across and Baldur's Gate 3 I'm not going to pay too much attention to the stats on the top 4 this stuff could change depending on the difficulty that Larian Studios wants to make them but if you notice the mine flares have a higher intelligence wisdom and charisma than there are other abilities beneath this we can see that they are proficient in intelligence wisdom and charisma saving throws mind flare is going to be more difficult to charm than say a more physical based monster 4 skills the mind Flair has proficiency in Arcana deception insight perception persuasion and stealth monster skills are an indicator of what they are good at for example seeing the stealth proficiency lets us know that the mind flayers that we come across will probably be hidden or sneaking around for they are good at that for languages they know deep speech under common in telepathy up to 120 feet which means you might be contacted before the fight even begins try not to be persuaded the challenge 7 means that if we have a party of 4 and all of us are level 7 there will be an even fair fight this could change in the game but I think it's safe to assume that if we fight the mind flayers it will be on the second half of our journey to love laying up to level 10 the census category tells us that the mind flare has dark vision up to a hundred and twenty feet it will be difficult to sneak past these guys for sure and they have a passive perception of 16 which means if you get caught in a stealth check with a mine flare you have to roll a 16 or higher or you will be caught on sight for the mine flares special traits that have magic resistance which gives them advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects but they also have an 8 spell casting psionics which allows them to cast at will detect thoughts and levitate without requiring any components as well as once a day they can cast a dominate monster and plane shift which allows them to travel to a different plane their actions are what we really need to watch out or their first action being tentacles which acts as a melee weapon and does psychic damage for their attack role they will roll the d20 and get to add seven to their role for their damage role they will roll to D ten plus four which is an average of 15 damage if the target is of medium sized or smaller the mind flayer will grapple if the target does not succeed on an intelligent saving throw Larian Studios did say that grappling will not be in the game at least initially but I wonder if that's just for players themselves and maybe some enemies might still be able to grapple not really sure at this point if the mind flare grapples your character it basically means they have their tentacles holding you in place which can lead to their other action of extract brain if a mind flare uses extract brain and are successful with their attack role they will do 55 piercing damage of course that number is subject to change and if the targets HP drops to zero the target dies from the mind flare extracting and devouring their brain I doubt you'll be able to make death saving throws to come back from that so it might be time to load an earlier save point their third action which we briefly talked about earlier in this video is mind blast the mind blast will emit psychic energy and a 60 foot cone each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 15 intelligent saving throw or take 22 psychic damage and be stunned for one minute a creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns in an attempt to end the stun if you guys don't understand some of the terminology that I'm using such as DC or attack roles or damaged roles make sure to look back on my channel have probably 10 or more beginners guides to help introduce you to these mechanics so that's the basic mind flair for you but as you can see there is a variant version and Larian Studios might make even more than that for all we know right here is the mind flayer Arcanist which is a mind flare whoo supplements their psionic power with arcane spells these Arcanist mind flares are tenth level spellcasters and use a bunch of wizard can trips and spells it will certainly be very cool to come across different types of mind players on our journey that's it for the mine flare I hope you guys enjoyed the lore and learned a little bit about this creature that will certainly show up at some point in our playthrough if you guys enjoyed the video please no below but a lot of time into these videos and I really appreciate the support that you guys have been showing really excited for Baldur's Gate 3 thanks so much for watching guys if you guys enjoyed the video please like comment and subscribe I really appreciate it it's a huge help to my videos I do all sorts of content on this channel ranging from comedy videos to other lore videos to game reviews to product reviews the tutorials etc I would love to see some of you guys on a future video much more baldur's gate 3 content on the way until next time

Channel: WolfheartFPS

Views: 106,680

Keywords: Baldur's Gate 3, Mind Flayer, baldur's gate 3 lore, lore, mind flayer lore, dungeons & dragons lore mind flayer, illithid, bg3, baldurs, gate, baldur's gate 3 mind flayers, baldur's gate 3 classes, classes, races, history of baldurs gate, mind, flayer, story baldurs gate, monsters, d&d, wolfheartfps, larian studios, races in baldur's gate 3, what is a mind flayer

Id: 0qVkXWwqUM8

Length: 18min 9sec (1089 seconds)

Published: Thu May 07 2020