Renegade Mind Flayer
Sometimes a mind flayer that's away from its colony breaks free from the elder brain. Perhaps it ran into a situation where its bonds of obedience were broken, or perhaps the colony was destroyed while it was away. In such a case, the mind flayer becomes free-willed for as long as it avoids contact with an elder brain.
A renegade flayer remains fearful of gith attacks, and likely sets about creating a sort of colony of its own, the better to remain undetected. It gathers minions, establishes a lair, and makes defense of its territory a top priority. Unlike colonial mind flayers, renegade flayers develop a healthy respect for those not of their kind. They treat especially powerful creatures and individuals as equals, not adversaries, and seek to cooperate with them. A renegade mind flayer might become a trusted advisor or a powerful ally, so long as it is kept well fed. Any alliance it makes, however, collapses if the mind flayer falls under the sway of an elder brain once more.
Relations with other races
Illithids usually view any sentient creature as worthy only of being their slaves or their food. While renegade flayers maintain some of this attitude, they can develop respect for other races and individuals.
Gith still hunt renegade flayers with the same prejudice as they would any other flayer, and as such a renegade flayer must be careful not to attract their attention.
All illithids fear the undead because these creatures, even the sentient ones, are immune to telepathic detection and manipulation, and have no brains to consume. Confronting such mindless creatures can even be traumatizing to some of them.
Illithids are one of the few races respected by the aboleths. This is because the aboleths remember the origin of almost every other race, through their hereditary memory. However, illithids, as far the aboleths can remember, just appeared without preamble, which scares them.
Religion
Illithids acknowledge the existence of divine entities, but it is unusual for any but a deviant flayer to actively worship such a power. Since they are capable of planar travel, they don't view the afterlife and the Outer Planes in the mythic way that most other races do. Illithids don't believe they possess souls whose eternal fate is governed by the gods. Instead, when a mind flayer's brain is returned to the elder brain to be consumed, the creature's intelligence lives on.
However, because an illithid's consciousness is cast into oblivion if its brain isn't retrieved after death, many renegade mind flayers take to worshiping deities.
Vital Statistics
Alignment
Lawful Evil
Lifespan
135 years
Mature At
10 years
Height
5'7" +2d4
Weight
150 + (height roll x 2d4) lbs.
Mind Flayer Traits
- Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score, your Charisma score, and one other ability score of your choice each increase by 1.
- Size. Your size is Medium.
- Speed. Your base land speed is 30 feet.
- Aberration. Your creature type is aberration, rather than humanoid.
- Darkvision. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light, and in darkness as if it were dim light. You can't discern color in darkness, only shades of gray.
- Telepathy. You can speak telepathically to any creature you can see within 60 feet of you. You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand you, but it must be able to understand at least one language or be telepathic itself.
- Detect Thoughts. You known and can cast the Detect Thoughts spell without the need for components or a spell slot. When cast this way, the spell only lasts until the start of your next turn. You can only cast the spell this way a number of times equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
- Mental Resistance. You have advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic.
- Mind Blast. You can use your action to emit a powerful blast of psychic energy in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in the cone must make an Intelligence saving throw (DC = 8 + your Intelligence modifier + your proficiency bonus). A creature takes 2d6 psychic damage on a failed save, and half as much damage on a successful one. The damage increases to 3d6 at 6th level, 4d6 at 11th level, and 5d6 at 16th level. After you use your mind blast, you can’t use it again until you complete a short or Long Rest.
- Tentacles. You can use your tentacles to perform a special attack. As an action, make a melee spell attack against a target. Your spellcasting ability for this attack is intelligence. On a hit, you deal psychic damage equal to 1d6 + your intelligence modifier. If the target is Medium or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier) and must succeed on an Intelligence saving throw (DC = 8 + your Intelligence modifier + your proficiency bonus) or be restrained until this grapple ends. You can’t attack another target with your tentacles while maintaining this grapple. The damage increases to 2d6 at 6th level, 3d6 at 11th level, and 4d6 at 16th level.
- Extract Brain. When you kill a humanoid with your Tentacles attack, you can choose to devour that humanoid's brain. If you go for more than two weeks without devouring a brain, you begin to starve, gaining one level of Exhaustion every three weeks until you can successfully consume a humanoid brain. Devouring a brain resets the count of weeks spent without devouring a brain to zero.
- Languages. You can speak, read, and write Common, Deep Speech, and Undercommon.
Suggested Characteristics
Mind Flayer characters gain access to the following Characteristics. You are not required to take any of these.
Mind Flayer Personality Traits
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I never let pass an opportunity to show my contempt for lesser beings. |
| 2 | I like to flavor my meals by engendering positive emotions in my victims before feeding on them. |
| 3 | So as not to taint my thoughts, I avoid telepathically communicating with lesser beings when possible. |
| 4 | I never eat unless the victim is conscious and aware. |
| S | I'm very picky. I feed only on the brains of a specific kind of humanoid. |
| 6 | I'm curious about how other races live and how their societies function. |
| 7 | I find battle stimulating. |
| 8 | I'm curious about the limits of other creatures' intelligence and devise situations to test them. |
Mind Flayer Ideals
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Knowledge. All information is of value. (Neutral) |
| 2 | Obedience. Nothing is more important than following orders. (Lawful) |
| 3 | Selfishness. I do my best work when motivated by my own self-interest. (Chaotic) |
| 4 | Truth. Truth is the foundation of knowledge, so I never lie. (Lawful) |
| S | Superiority. Nothing can be gained from the study of lesser beings. (Neutral) |
| 6 | Domination. All others should submit to my control. (Evil) |
Mind Flayer Flaws
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I am oblivious to the emotions expressed by others. |
| 2 | I believe my minions will always do precisely as I intend. |
| 3 | I never assume others understand and always explain everything. |
| 4 | I have a memory that isn't mine. I'm obsessed about it. |
| 5 | It is inconceivable that another creature could out-smart me. |
| 6 | I sometimes confuse others' thoughts with my own. |