# Prestige Ancestry: Illithid <img src='https://www.gmbinder.com/images/DWr9u6c.png' style= 'position: absolute; bottom:975px; right: 200px; height:30px'> ___ Illithids, also called Mind Flayers, and sometimes referred to as Ghaik by the Githyanki, were sadistic aberrations feared by sentient creatures on many worlds across the Cosmos due to their powerful psionic abilities. These alien entities once held an empire that stretched across the Cosmos, led by the hyper intelligent Elder Brains, but this empire was destroyed when the Gith rebelled, reducing the Illithids to a low population. The older Illithids have begun to rebuild their empire, but their more recent additions to their people weren't members of that empire- in fact, many of them were once other creatures, infested with Illithid tadpoles that transformed them. Unless dominated by an Elder Brain, these transformed creatures aren't necessarily obedient to other Illithids, and are more prone to going rogue. ___ Illithids are roughly comparable to thin humans, but have soft, supple, moist, and rubbery flesh that ranges from mauve to greenish-violet in color. Illithids have heads reminiscent of an octopus, with a cluster of four flexible tentacles surrounding their mouths, typically around 2 to 4 feet long. Illithids don't have exterior ears, rather hosting small, fleshy, ridged holes on both sides of their heads, nor do they have nostrils. Their eyes are uniformly pale and devoid of pupils. Older Illithids are known to dress in dramatic flowing robes and cloaks, but newer Illithids might don cloaks and thick clothing to hide their forms. Illithids don't eat like normal creatures, instead subsisting on the brains of other intelligent creatures. ### Prestige The Illithid is a Prestige Ancestry. It can be taken after character creation at any point when you would receive a Feat in place of taking a regular Feat. A character must meet the following prerequisites to do so: - You must have an Intelligence score of 17 or higher. - You must have 60 or more hit points. - You must have a Common or Uncommon Ancestry. - You must be a Humanoid. - You can't already have a Prestige Ancestry. ___ Your DM might allow you to ignore one or more of these prerequisites, and may allow you to take this Prestige ancestry at 1st level. ___ Regardless of when you gain this ancestry, its features modify or add onto your base ancestry's. If a feature is present on both the prestige ancestry and the base ancestry, you take the version of the feature in the prestige ancestry unless specified otherwise. If your DM allows you to gain more than one prestige ancestry, you use the newest version of any feature it has that you previously gained. \columnbreak ### Illithid Traits **Creature Type.** You count as an Aberration in addition to any other creature types you gained from your base ancestry. ___ **Darkvision.** Thanks to your alien transformation, 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 discern colors in that darkness as shades of gray. ___ **Psychic Resistance.** You are resistant to Psychic damage. ___ **Brainbite.** While you are grappling an Incapacitated creature, you can use your action to consume their mind. Roll a melee attack roll against it, adding your Intelligence modifier, instead of your Strength modifier, to the attack and damage rolls. On a hit, you deal 3d6 Piercing damage. If you reduce a creature to 0 hit points with this ability, you consume its brain. ___ **Mental Magic.** You know the *Mage Hand* cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the *Detect Thoughts* spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the *Levitate* spell once and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells. ___ **Brain Hunger.** You gain nourishment from consuming the brains of intelligent creatures. When you consume brains from creatures with a collective Intelligence score of 20, you gain 1 day's worth of sustenance. If you go without satisfying your Brain Hunger for more than 1 week, you begin to starve.