Mind Flayers: A Beginners Guide to D&D Monsters - Lore and Background

mind flers sadistic aberration who once had an Empire stretching Across the Universe controlling with their deadly psionic powers and their raw brutality one of D and's most well-known monsters there's a lot to learn about them so stick around for mind flares explained the Mind flare also known as a liths are mediumsized lawful evil aberration with greenish Violet Skin they glisten with slime and are moist and rubbery to the touch they give off a faint smell not unlike onion or garlic and their blood is a silver color four tentacles protrude from the ID's face each one dextrous flexible and strong the tentacles hid the Mind Flay's mouth a circular hole lined with layers of sharp teeth Their Eyes Were pale and lacked pupils the liths were often caught dressed in flowing robes mind flers seek complete domination not just over a world but the entire universe and every plane of existence to their own minds though they are not evil beings but as agents of order destined to give direction into an unguided Universe they saw other species and races as thals enjoying aimless existences believing their grand mission to be for the benefit of the whole universe equally though mind players are arrogant and elitist and see all others as inferior little more than cattle to be enslaved used for food or reproduction aths believe that knowledge equals power and give Focus to expanding their knowledge across all disciplines in their quest for knowledge they often acted as spies wood bargaining tra raiding stealing and plundering they appear almost always calm and collected and emotionless they could display fits of anger on occasion although equally this could just be a trick to manipulate mind plays do experience a range of emotions but are well equipped to internalize and not show them these emotions though were rarely positive with anger frustration and hate being most common happiness is not really a concept to the Mind fler although they may experience something similar when consuming a brain speaking of brains mine flares dieted mostly on brains although they did consume other Foods brain tissue provided them everything they needed for sustenance where other Foods did not due to their unique digestive system eating a brain also allows them to pull stray memories from their victim which would also be shared with others in the colony the psionic energy extracted from a brain would also go a long way to sustaining the Mind flares physically without it they would grow weak and eventually die ideally they would consume a brain once a week to stay off this deprivation while they could Feast on the brains of lower life forms thinking brains provided the most nourishment the experience and emotion of the individual gives the brain taste and character with magic filled Minds such as those of wizards and Sorcerers being the tastiest to an athid in the past the athid Empire stretched vast and covered many worlds but after the fall of their empire they are now predominantly found in the underd dark a natural place for them to go as all mind flers despise the Sun mind flares are rarely found alone instead existing colonies that often range from 200 to 2,000 aths bear in mind that each mine flare in the colony would also have multiple slaves or thrs so the true size of a colony would be far greater a colony operates as a single hive mind under the control of an elder brain a being that exerts telepathic control over all the Mind flares within a 5 mile radius held in a pool of Briny fluid the Elder brain is made up of the brains of all the dead mindful from The Colony if a mind fler strayed beyond the reach of the Elder brain it could regain its Free Will mind flares did not have a biological sex but during their lifetime they would lay eggs from witch hatched tadpoles these tadpoles which were kept in the Elder brain's fluid would be implanted into a captured victim when mature the tadpole would Devour the victim's brain take its place and become one with the body transforming it into a new mind flare this process is called ceremorphosis after trans the new ithd would retain no memory of their previous existence I mentioned earlier that the ithd Empire had once been vast and great no one is sure exactly where they came from no one seems to be able to remember the beginnings of the iths some even theorize that the Mind flers were in fact aliens from the Far Far Future whose Empire or perhaps even their existence itself was threatened so they traveled back in time to prevent their own Extinction regardless of their origin the gith once a prominent slave SL race of the alids rebelled and managed to bring down their empire the GI managed to bring the oths nearly to Extinction with raiding parties hunting and killing the remaining colonies when in combat a m flare would attempt to use its mind blast ability to stun victims and then kidnap them to feed later once a victim was targeted it would grapple them by wrapping its tentacles around their head then bite into the back of their head and suck out the brain because of their psionic abilities mind flers had the ability to levitate charm nearby creatures and detect the thoughts of others if we look at the Mind flare stat block they are a CR7 monster the hit points isn't anything to shout about for a monster of this level and they don't have any damage resistances but they do have some interesting abilities firstly they do have a magic resistance which grants them advantage on saving throws against spells and magical effects they also have innate spell casting with spells such as dominate monster plane shift and levitate offensively they can cast mind blast which covers a 6 foot cone and Deals 48 plus4 damage and more importantly stuns any creatures that fail the saving throw for one minute when an enemy is stunned the M flare can grapple them and use their extract brain ability if this attack which deals a hefty 10 d10 damage reduces the target to zero HP it kills them by extracting and devouring their brain another variation of the mine flare stat block exists the M flare Arcanist these deviants shunned by their peers for turning away from psionic powers in in favor of magic have a CR of eight and gain access to a wider spell list including two fifth level spell slots if used alone a mind flare probably won't present much of a challenge to an appropriately leveled party or certainly not the challenge that their law would suggest but if used in a group they could still be a major threat in conclusion mind flayers are one of the most well-known and popular monsters to emerge from DND and for good reason they have a unique and captivating law in history and a great fund to include in a campaign if you like like this video please consider subscribing is there anything that I missed about mind flers leave a comment down below

Channel: ProficientCaster

Views: 21

Keywords: D&D, dungeonsanddragons, lore, explained, monster, mindflayer, illithid

Id: SEJiGl__6eA

Length: 6min 36sec (396 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 28 2024