MIND FLAYER – 5e stats

Medium aberration, lawful evil

Armor Class 15 (breastplate)
Hit Points 71 (13d8 + 13)
Speed 30 ft.

Proficiency Bonus +3
Proficiency Bonus +6 (5th Edition Advanced Mode)

STRDEXCONINTWISCHA
11 (+0)12 (+1)12 (+1)19 (+4)17 (+3)17 (+3)

Saving Throws lnt +7, Wis +6, Cha +6
Skills Arcana +7, Deception +6, Insight +6, Perception +6, Persuasion +6, Stealth +4
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive perception 16
Languages Deep Speech, Undercommon, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

Magic Resistance. The mind flayer has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Innate Spellcasting (Psionics). The mind flayer’s innate spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components:

Innate Spellcasting (Psionics, suggested). The mind flayer’s innate spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 19, added 4 to the DC due to the Mind Flayer’s mental prowess). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components:

Psionic Powers (suggested). The Mind Flayer has 266 (13d12 + 182) PSPs and can use the following psionic powers, mental attacks and mental defenses:

ACTIONS

  • Multiattack (suggested). The mind flayer can make four attacks with its tentacles or one attack with its extract brain ability if conditions are met.
  • Tentacles (suggested). Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 2 (1d4) psychic damage. If the target is Large or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 15) and must succeed on a DC 15 Strength saving throw or suffer automatic damage in the next round. Add +2 to the escape DC for each tentacle grappling the target. If at any moment the target is grappled by four tentacles, then the mind flayer can activate the extract brain ability as a swift action.
  • Tentacles. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) psychic damage. If the target is Medium or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 15) and must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or be stunned until this grapple ends.
  • Extract Brain. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one incapacitated humanoid grappled by the mind flayer. Hit: The target takes 55 (10d10) piercing damage. If this damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, the mind flayer kills the target by extracting and devouring its brain.
  • Mind Blast (Recharge 5-6). The mind flayer magically emits psychic energy in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or take 22 (4d8 + 4) psychic damage and be stunned for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
  • Mind Blast (suggested). The mind flayer magically emits psychic energy in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 19 Intelligence saving throw or take 22 (4d8 + 4) psychic damage and be stunned for 1 minute.

5th Edition Advanced Mode
Limiting the power of a character and making the overall difficulty of the game harder, does not reduce the creativity, indeed it does quite the opposite.
The Game Master has the option to use any and all of the instances proposed in this guide, or just some of them according to their preference.

It is the lack of something that move and motivate characters, not the abundance of it

DESCRIPTION

The mind flayer, also known as illithid, is an evil and feared creature of the Underdark; its powers are formidable and it feeds on the brains of any creature it encounters.

Using psionic abilities and spells, it enslaves or destroys its foes, which include such powerful creatures as drow and kuo-toa.

Mind flayers stand about 6 feet tall and have hideous mauve skin that glistens with slime.

The head resembles an octopus, with white eyes (no pupils are evident) and four tentacles around its mouth, a round, many-toothed orifice like that of a lamprey.

The creature has three reddish fingers and a thumb on each hand.

Mind flayers have darkvision and can communicate with any creatures via innate telepathy; they have no spoken language, although they often accompany their thoughts with hissing, and the eager lashing of their tentacles.

Mind flayers dress in flowing robes, often with high, stiff collars, adorned with symbols of death and despair.

COMBAT

Mind flayers are formidable foes in combat, using their psionic abilities and spells to disable, dominate, or destroy their enemies. They prefer to avoid direct confrontation, relying on their minions or allies to protect them while they strike from a distance or ambush their foes. Mind flayers have several innate psionic abilities, such as telepathy, detect thoughts, levitate, and plane shift. They can also cast spells as arcanists or psions, depending on their specialization. Some of the most common spells they use are charm person, suggestion, hold person, dominate person, and feeblemind.

One of the most feared abilities of mind flayers is their mind blast, which they can use once every few seconds. This is a cone-shaped burst of psychic energy that can stun and damage anyone caught in its range. The only way to resist this attack is to have a strong willpower and intelligence. Mind flayers use their mind blast to incapacitate their enemies before moving in for the kill with their tentacles. Their tentacles can grapple and restrain a creature, and then pierce its skull to extract its brain. This is a fatal attack that can only be prevented by breaking free from the grapple or killing the mind flayer before it completes the extraction.

Mind flayers are vulnerable to physical attacks, especially those that target their heads or tentacles. They have a low tolerance for pain and will flee or surrender if they are wounded or outnumbered. They also have a weakness to sunlight, which impairs their vision and makes them more susceptible to attacks. Mind flayers are usually accompanied by thralls or servants that obey their commands and fight for them. These can include humans, duergar, drow, githyanki, githzerai, kuo-toa, quaggoths, troglodytes, umber hulks, or other creatures that have been enslaved or charmed by the mind flayers.

HABITAT / SOCIETY

Mind flayers hate sunlight and avoid it when possible. They live in underground cities of 2d10 x 100 mind flayers, plus at least two slaves per mind flayer.

All the slaves are under the effects of a dominate monster spell or a psionic power equivalent to it, and obey their illithid masters without question.

The center of a community is its elder brain, a pool of briny fluid that contains the brains of the city’s dead mind flayers. Due to the mental powers of mind flayers, the elder brain is still sentient, and the telepathic union of its brains rules the community.

The elder brain communicates with all mind flayers in its colony through telepathy, providing them with guidance, knowledge, and orders. The elder brain has a telepathic range of 2 to 5 miles, depending on its age and size. It does not attack, but telepathically warns the mind flayers of the presence of thinking creatures, so a mind flayer within its telepathic radius can be surprised only by non-intelligent creatures.

The range of the elder brain determines the territory claimed and defended by the community, though raiding parties are sent far beyond this limit.

Mind flayers have no family structure. Their social activities include eating, communicating with the elder brain, and debating on the best tactics to conquer the Underdark.

For amusement, they inflict pain on their captives and force slaves to fight in gladiatorial games.

Mind flayers are arrogant, viewing all other species only as cattle to be fed upon. They prefer to eat the brains of thinking creatures.

Mind flayers have a long-standing enmity with the gith, a race of former slaves that rebelled against them and waged a war that lasted for millennia. Mind flayers also have conflicts with other Underdark dwellers, such as drow, duergar, svirfneblin, and beholders.

ECOLOGY

Mind flayers live between 120 and 200 years. They are warm-blooded amphibians, and spend the first 10 years of life as tadpoles, swimming in the elder-brain pool until they either die (which most do) or grow into adult mind flayers.

On an irregular basis, adult mind flayers feed brains to the tadpoles, which do not molest the elder brain. Mind flayers are hermaphroditic; each can produce one tadpole twice in its life.

Mind flayer ichor is an effective ingredient in a potion of ESP.

Mind flayers have a complex and unnatural life cycle that involves several stages and processes. The first stage is the tadpole, which is a small worm-like creature that hatches from an egg laid by a female mind flayer. The tadpoles are kept in a pool of brine near the Elder Brain, where they feed on organic matter and each other. Only the strongest and most cunning tadpoles survive this stage, which lasts for about ten years. The second stage is the ceremorphosis, which is the process of transforming a humanoid into a mind flayer. This is done by inserting a tadpole into the ear or nose of a living victim, usually a human, elf, or similar race. The tadpole then burrows into the brain of the host, consuming it and replacing it with its own. The host’s body then undergoes drastic changes, growing tentacles, changing skin color, and developing psionic abilities. The final stage is the mind flayer, which is the adult form of the creature. Mind flayers live for about 125 years, after which they die and their brains are added to the Elder Brain.

Mind flayers have a significant impact on their environment and the creatures around them. They often enslave or manipulate other races to serve as their thralls, guards, spies, or food sources. They also conduct experiments on their captives, creating new forms of life or enhancing existing ones with psionics or magic. Some examples of these creations are alhoons, which are mind flayers that become undead liches; brainstealers, which are hybrids of mind flayers and dragons; cranium rats, which are rats with psionic abilities; intellect devourers, which are brains with legs that can possess other creatures; neothelids, which are giant worms that result from failed ceremorphosis; and ulgurstasta, which are tentacled beasts that can drain life force.