30 Day OD&D Challenge - Eldritch Wizardry Monsters (Part Four) - Day Twenty-Six

Today's Topic is "Eldritch Wizardry Monsters - Part Four" as we continue our celebration of International Original Dungeons and Dragons Month! Today we will look at Mind Flayers, Cerebral Parasites, and Thought Eaters.

Eldritch Wizardry presents Mind Flayers this way:

MIND FLAYERS: These are super-intelligent, man-shaped creatures of great (and lawful) evil. Their heads most resemble a small octopus, with four tentacles which are used to strike their prey. If a tentacle hits it penetrates to the brain where it quickly curls around it and draws it forth for food. It requires from one to four turns for the tentacle to reach the brain, and as soon as it reaches the brain the victim is dead. The mind flayer will immediately retreat if an encounter is going against it. Although non-magical, these monsters are 90% magic resistant. They are psionically endowed, however, having from 5-8 abilities. Their only attack form psionically is the mind blast, with a 6" directional range and a 5' radius; all within this radius are affected by the attack. Mind flayers have several defense modes (1-4), and a total psionic strength of 241-340. They speak only their own arcane language and several other strange tongues purportedly those of terrible races which inhabit regions far beneath the ground.

This is an iconic monster that most have heard of and one of the rare psionic monsters I allow into my campaign. I do not run it as psionic though, I treat it more like a type of vampire. It is 8+3 HD, but it has the innate dual ability Charm Person/Monster and its victims are at a -4 disadvantage on their saving throw. I also gave the tentacles a +4 to Hit bonus that increases to +8 to Hit if the Charm is successful. And yes I do run it as one to four turns (10-40 melee rounds to reach the brain. If the tentacles are attached it will carry the victim with it as it retreats. Its move is 12 inches so it can not just completely outrun the party. One to four appear at a time and I changed that to 1d4+2 (3-6). Note that if you are wearing a full helm and you make the save against charm, it adds a full turn to your defense against the tentacles reaching the brain.

Eldritch Wizardry presents Cerebral Parasites this way:

CEREBRAL PARASITES: These creatures are not visible to the human eye and can only be detected psionically by means of careful examination of a person's aura. They can be removed similarly as a disease. If a psionically endowed creature comes within 1" of cerebral parasites they will attack him, but the attack will be completely unnoted. These creatures can become ethereal or astral. Thereafter, whenever psionic abilities, including attacks/defenses, are used, the parasites will drain additional psionic energy to feed upon. Each parasite will drain one energy point. Furthermore, after one has fed upon six psionic energy points it will reproduce another parasite, and thereafter continue to drain energy, as will its offspring. They cannot be psionically attacked.

This is a monster that I do not use; however, if I did I would just change the draining of energy points to level drain. It would take 6 melee rounds to drain one level and on the 7th round it spawns another parasite and starting on the 8th rounds they both are each draining the next level from the victim and on melee round 14 the victim would lose two levels and two parasites would be spawned the following round and so on. To attack it you would need to use a magic weapon made ethereal. They appear 3-12 at a time and AC, HPs, move and treasure do not apply.

Eldritch Wizardry presents Thought Eaters this way:

THOUGHT EATERS: These monsters are basically unintelligent dwellers in the ether. Their senses, however, extend into the physical plane, and any psionic or psionic-related energy use in either area will attract their attention (range of ability or magic equals attraction range). The thought eater appears to be something like a sickly grey, skeletal-bodied, enormous headed platypus to those who are able to observe it. Its webbed paws allow it to swim through the ether. It can be attacked only by ethereal creatures. Its only desire is to feed on the mental energy of prey it is attracted to, and if it comes within 6" of any creature in the ethereal or physical planes it will be able to absorb any psionic or spell energy they attempt to use; at a range of 1" the thought eater is able to begin feeding on the actual thoughts of even non-psionic creatures. Each thought eater is able to consume from 101-200 psionic energy points before becoming sated. Convert magical energy to psionic points on a basis of 5 points per spell level, and actual thought consumption converts to 1 intelligence point equalling 10 psionic energy points. Note that if it feeds on thoughts the creature loses intelligence permanently. At intelligence 0 the creature is dead. 1 equals mindlessness. 2 idiocy. 3 imbecility, and an intelligence of 4 is equivalent to a low grade moron. Mental defenses, including "mind blank" spell, and magical devices against psionic and psionic-related powers thwart attacks of these horrid things.

This is another psionic monster that I do use, they feed on magical energy and if close enough feed on your thoughts themselves. I use this because I view intelligence as presented here. I do not run it as psionic per se, but there are magic items that provide protection against this and the Mind Flayer. Again you need a magical weapon make ethereal to attack this monster.

Tomorrow I will look at Artifacts in a general way as they are presented and as how I use Artifacts.