Ilithid
Ilithid
Nightmarish, alien invaders from another time and place, illithids typically live in societies of their own kind, hidden away from the light of the sun, feeding on the brain matter of living creatures to sustain themselves, as well as fuel their strange and unnatural powers. Notorious as the "mind flayers" on dozens of worlds, the illithid are possessed of a desire to dominate and master all things around themselves, using their mental powers to force enemies into thralldom.
Still, members of illithid-kind can and do take up the adventuring life, from time to time at least, and only under rare and extraordinary circumstances. Leaving the collective networked intelligence of their own kind diminishes the powers of illithids that brave the outside world, and severely reduces their psionic abilities. Most illithids encountered outside their citadels and outposts are spies, renegades, and ones long banished for crimes even their alien moralities find unspeakable, illithids left with no choice but to leave their collective intelligence.
Ilithid Names
Illithids are hermaphrodic, reproducing via a process known as ceremorposis, which consists of producing "tadpoles" via parthenogenesis, then allowing them to consume the brains of other creatures, eventually mutating them into new illithids. They often use unique psychic impressions rather than true names among themselves, but many use Common equivalents to allow non-psionic creatures to address them.
Names: Altharid, Ilsenparint, Malinbossk, Qorik, Ullipsine, Xalliordell, Clarota, Quixillion
"I have met mind flayers who have not wished to kill me. they state, their elder brain has no hold on them. Just how human can they get?"
Aseph The Wanderer
Ilithid Traits
Ability Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and your Constitution increases by 1.
Age. Illithids complete ceremorphosis within a week, and have become fully mature by age 20. Illithids live longer than humans, and can live to be older than 120 years old.
Aberrant Form. Your creature type is both humanoid and aberration.
Size. Most illithids are usually usually similar in height to taller humans, standing at least six feet in height, though they weigh less than humans of the same size. Your size is Medium.
Speed. Your base walking speed is 30 feet.
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.
Devour Brain. When a living creature within 5 feet of you is reduced to 0 hit points, you can, as an action on your next turn, devour their brain, gaining temporary hit points equal to your level + your Intelligence Modifier (with a minimum of 1).
This creature must have a size of Medium or smaller. You can use this ability once per long rest.
Psionic Power. You know the Mage Hand cantrip, and the hand is invisible when you cast the cantrip with this trait.
Once you reach 3rd level, you can cast Comprehend Languages spell once. Once you reach 5th level, you can also cast the Detect Thoughts spell once. You must finish a long rest to cast these spells again with this trait. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells.
Languages. You can speak, read, and write Deep Speech and Common.