Good video for playing a wizard in Baldur's Gate and thinking "My character should know a great deal about mindflayers, but I don't want to read spoilers for the game itself."
here's how it could be, prologue. the mighty years. a mess around area getting you to test out spell jamming vessels, soldier placement, other enemies and traitors. chap 1 modern day mind city. planted in the middle of a land of standerd fantasy monsters. introduces traitors and boss monsters (fire dragons and liches) chap 2 breaching crystal sphere galaxies. spell jamming vessels and more alien enemies. introduces enemy illithid colonies and ship teleportation chap 3 the muiltiverse. you go after semi gods to get a way to bypass the far realm, introduces diverse hard monster colonies on each universe. final chap the beyond. your final challenge before becoming interdimensional conquers are the commanders of the lovecraftien gods armadas. possible secret bosses could be a time dragon (that warns you about your actions and if killed won't have their warning cutscenes appear in new game + lich illithid the king of traitors.
This dude just casually stating the premise of baldur's gate 3 5 years before its release as a "myth" lol. Can't believe that tidbit of lore was used for the game.
34:41 "There's so much lore on the Mind Flayers I could talk about them all day, and maybe one day I will." Don't telepathically threaten us with a good time...
I feel like I've half bastardized this race by playing one of these a bard. His instrument is a vuvuzela, which he plays because the vibrations feels good on his tentacles, but being healed by a vuvuzela is probably more excruciating than his mindblast.
Jackson Briggs Ever since the World Cup in South Africa I have considered the vuvuzela as an instrument if pure evil. So it makes sense a Mind Flayer would use one.
that reminds me.. i read in some 3.5 book about mind flayers using purple worms as mounts by causing a cyst in their mouth and a special harness that could be used to force the beasts mouth to stay open or shut... i forget the precise book but i think it was in a section about exotic mounts.
Arms & Equipment Guide, page 86. Rules are 3.0, but should still be perfectly valid. Same book has an item that allows you to "ride" a gelatinous cube, which would also make an interesting mount for a mind flayer.
I played an Illithid once as an ambitious Rogue/Wizard that was a Mastermind subclass. The combination of their mind control and psychic powers combined with the Mastermind's ability to sow the seeds of deceit among groups of people made the class almost the ultimate "non-combat combat" character. I eventually just got so good at playing the character that the rest of my party was almost a little scared of the character. He was so hard to kill that eventually me and the DM agreed to have the character live on in legend and have me move on to another. The DM has allowed me to use him sometimes in again when the appropriate campaign/setting comes along, but his invincibility, just because of mainly my luck with him and the combination of race and class, has made him a "if he's on the scene, shits real" in our play group. I love Illithids and Morgrack will always live on to be one of the five most powerful characters in my group's circle. My DM and me have been talking about making a campaign where my Illithid is the villain and they ascend into a Lich Illithid. We'll see how that goes, especially if things go as planned and the DM lets me play as the villain and have us have a "Raid Boss" campaign where I get to play as the main villain and actively have a group of players against a single other evil player.
I believe I read somewhere that the cosmic Illithid Empire grew so vast and so powerful at one point that the Blood War actually stopped, with demons and devils considering a truce to deal with these powerful psychics. That's the level of scary these things can reach. Back in the early 2010s I had contemplated an alhoon antagonist who had an ambition of becoming the next Orcus, never really understanding that Orcus was using him as a blunt object to batter his enemies with.
According to Lords of Madness: Illithids originated in the vastly distant future when creation was starting to die. Thousands of elder brains pooled their energies to create a portal into the Far Realm, which exists outside the boundaries of creation. Upon their arrival within its influence they ripped an opening through time and space to arrive in the prime material. Less than 1% of those who embarked on the journey survived and those who lived were greatly weakened to such an extent that the servitor race that had been under their mental control for millennia revolted and fled to become the Illithids most hated, implacable and tenacious enemies.
I've been waiting for this! The mind flayers have been my favorite d&d monster since the ancient days of 1st edition, and this episode in the series truly did them justice. Well done!
I ran a campaign centered around the Illithids of Thoon. I made Thoon an Obyrith in the Far Realm who used her essence more than any other Obyrith in crafting the Seed of Evil given to Tharizdun the O.G. Mad God (take notes, Cyric) to place in the Astral Sea. In my cannon, Thoon never left the Far Realm (unlike many other Obyriths who inhabit the Abyss, & rule/propagate the Qlippoth) & as much as the Obyriths imprinted on Tharizdun, so too did Tharizdun imprint upon Thoon. This led to an overwhelming drive to reunite with the Chained God (described by Thoon as "completing herself"), thereby sending her Illithids to collect Quintessence (which I redefined as refined souls stripped of identity & processed into raw Creation energy) to fuel a particular weapon which when combined with a sliver of the heart of the Abyss, would shatter the Chained God's prison. In other words, I love em too
I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw the similarity between the wraith of Stargate Atlantis and the illithids of D&D. I am convinced that the illids were the inspiration for the wraith. Feed on humans Bio-tech Mysterious origin Psychic powers and communication Psychic controlled tech Ravaging entire worlds for food Even their hive mentality. Just replace the elder brain with a queen, and their societies would be virtually identical.
I always saw them as the Goa'uld with how they use hosts to control through their true worm-like body. It is very easy to reflavor them for that as well, just a Mind Flayer without the horrible appearance.
@@AJPickettI’m really bad at keeping up with notifications on youtube. You mean the video you made on the Stargate RPG, right? Or was there a specific creature video?
Yay. :) Loved the old mindflayer vid, it was one of my favorites. This one is missing all of the cool atmospheric details you had in the other one though, like when you were describing the lairs.
i once roleplayed a lawfull neutral mindflayer. He wore robes and a iron mask, stalking around in the night to eat the brains of badits and thieves. yes, i created the goddamn squidman
I played a high level wizard who was captured by an illithid. I had a contingency spell readied in case I was killed by something to “soul jar” their consciousness and I could attempt to possess their body. The tadpole stood no chance against my spell DC. Body still died and I got to experience turning myself into an illithid. I was barely able to resist the elder brain when I made my escape, and my party almost killed me when I reconnected with them. Character became an NPC after a couple of sessions, but it was fun and cool. Eventually transferred his mind to a fresh clone of his old body.
I like the reproductions A.J. As always, thank you for the entertainment and hard work. I know these must take some effort and research to put together.
Wow, Mindflayers really made it impossible to get rid or limit them. It'd be awesome to come up with a timeline. That alters their race and turns them into a symbiotic species, instead of body stealing parasites.
Actualy I remember in a magazine that Mind Flayers where inspired by the Larry Niven story World of Ptavvs. A race called the Thrint who enslaved others telepathically creating a galactic empire via mind control. Also Charles Stross based his Gith races upon the enemies of the Thrint the race the Tnuctip.
i love mind flayers i know there are a lot of beholders fans out there and i get it but to me mind flayers will always be king i love the fact that despise using several references to several works they still manage to be kind of unique and cool in their own way, i love their culture, their society (i mean for being villains obviously) and they look mughty badass too!
Weird dark sun game idea, you are retinue of the finest Templars of a sorcerer- king and you've been tasked to find out why a growing psychic black spot has developed in a region only to be a confronted woth something more terrible than your lord. A mind flayer colony has plan shifted to Athas and found lots of large psychic brains to eat and convert.
I once played a Mind Flayer Warlock called Xan'Thurr who after an encounter with a powerful wizard began to have flashbacks to his life as a human and became fascinated with the world above. After he left he had to keep hidden by living in the shadows. He also had to consume brains which he got from killing drifters. Favorite character I ever played and tough to roleplay. He eventually met his end by the hands of another mindflayer saving the party.
5:55 dead in an hour you say? I wonder then how the writers of Baldur’s Gate 3 justify the player’s character and other NPC’s surviving more than a day with it in their heads. XD
Bravo well done, Sir. I was wondering if you could make a small section in your videos for information on what can be harvested and made from key parts of creatures that you cover in your videos. thank you
How about: The Illithid races become so diverse & far seeding into the past that, humans, or dodecapus, are an intensively planned blend of Illithid races, here on earth, where they believe this to be a successful planetary domination.
"TH' Illithid stood just in front of th' Aboleth, so that they faced each other, it whose empire was yet unborn, and it whose empire had been lost in th' mists of time for unguessed ages. Kings of darkness, thought Soratha, nameless kings of th' night, whose realms are gulfs and shadows."
I always imagined a game where the elder brain has some what of a tumor that alters the natural state of the mind flayers making a colony of them more docile and neutral instead of evil
AJ, I swear, the depth you go into in your videos it's amazing! Please, keep up the good work. PS. I wonder in the creators of Stargate (the show, not the movie) bases the Goa'uld off of mind flayers...? It's worth a thought. PPS. you should try making a few videos showing the influence D&D has officially had on pop culture. That would be awesome! I would watch fully, thumbs up and share (with all my friends) every video in that series. SOOOOOOOO.... Basically I already do with your videos. LoL. Love ya man, keep on inspiring and entertaining all us lore addicted nerds. LoL.
Stargate Atlantis, hell yeah. For some reason not as many people as one might think like SGA, which is a shame because of how awesome it is. By he way, great job on the video, quite informative.
Fun facts: Humans are the only humanoid that has a 100% ceremorphasis success rate. Elan are a psychically enhanced super race that can only be made from humans. Illithids are from the future, while Elans are from the present. Perhaps there is an evolutionary tale of Human to Elan to Illithid, with the squidbilly aspect coming from some Far Realm corruption?
Not in poor taste at all, go for it. Cult of Illithids create a gate and summon a Titan shaped as Cthulhu. Even on the small scale of 6th-level Planar Binding/ Call Planar Ally and summon a 16d8 hd outside hill/ or stone giant size bat wing mind flayer to wreak the PC party with.
Well now I want to have my players over hear a madman ramble on about how covering your self with the epidermal goo that covers the Illithids body will grant you a measure ov spell resistance, depending upon how much you use. ...only to find out that it does Not do that. Perhaps it does nothing. Perhaps it does something terrible! Not sure what to do yet but I seriously feel like you just handed me a beautiful gift ov an awful idea 😈
How about it only does so for the Illithid that produced it? No other being has a mind resonance that allows for this positive effect. All others have some sort of effect related to thier special racial traits. Roll Gor whether it is positive or negative with advantage or disadvantage being given on whether this is in the presense of aware Illithids.
So in baldurs gate 3 there are two mind flayers free of the colony with their own free will. And At least one of those actually remembers who they were before they transformed. Seems it was a prophecy after all
I had a friend play an uitharid(The uber mind flayer) that was a 7'7'' barbarian. All he wanted was to convince the other mind flayers that they should "cook" their meals. He'd melt peoples brains out of their nose too.
Did they though? Do they even HAVE a beginning? Also, quick question that I just noticed. You said that the Ulitharids begin as larger, slower developing Tadpoles. And tadpoles naturally grow into Neolithids, so... What happens if a Ulitharid tadpole grows to a Neolithid? (Ulineolithid?)
Stone or early bronze age sorcerer with a sea fetish Polymorph themselves into a squid head monster and assault their victims with the Nightmare spell. Since 3rdE lower the requirements to become a lich to 11th-level. His cult followers mutated after a few generation of breeding are under water coastal monster that ritually feed on brains, when they are killed they rise as ghouls. The sea god brings the fish, .. " summon animal spell." The sea god brings the rains, .. " Control Weather spell ." The sea god causes the crops to grow, .." Plant Growth spell magic item." So we raid other villages as slave offering to the sea god and his angels the deep ones.
In _Out of the Abyss_ , there is a small chance that the PCs, when traveling between the locales in the Underdark, can meet Grazzilax, a mind flayer who is part of a small group of similar, normally evil denizens that are actually _neutral_ aligned and have 18 intelligence, dubbed the Society of Brilliance. His fellow Society members include a derro, a troglodyte, a kuo-toa archpriest and an orog, Of course, that neutral alignment just means that Grazzilax is not immediately going to try mind blasting the party then sucking out their brains - even if he clearly has the ability to overpower them - unless they attack him first. He'd much rather talk things over, and may even become a temporary ally depending on whether he enjoys their company or not. A lot of published D&D adventures have individual monsters who deviate from their usual behavior for one reason or another. _Out of the Abyss_ also has: -A kuo-toa who's basically a beacon of serenity, but is 100% pacifist, and won't even fight in self-defense. -A gnoll fang of Yeenoghu who's gone completely mad, in that he genuinely regrets all the vile things he's done...and if treated with Greater Restoration, he immediately reverts to normal gnoll behavior. -A wounded gnoll who was captured by minotaurs working for Baphomet to be used as bait. If his injuries are treated, he warns the PCs of his situation. Meanwhile, _Descent Into Avernus_ has: -A bearded devil named Krikendolt who suffered a brain injury that made him turn chaotic good, and that gets him bullied by his fellows, who want him to kill his pet abyssal chicken Earwax. He will accompany the PCs if they save him, but he will return to being lawful evil if his brain injury is treated. -An death knight who, if reminded of his humanity, will help the PCs on their quest to find Zariel's sword by pointing them in the right direction, since he hates his current state and wants to pass on, but Zariel won't let him. -A chaotic evil eladrin who will nonetheless team up with the characters if they help him defeat the other warlords of Avernus. And in _Dungeon of the Mad Mage_ there's one that comes to mind: -A corrupted planetar that has been capturing people who reach his level and executing them for some BS reason I can't remember. A character who willingly offers to take the place of an ally he's deemed guilty has a chance to break the corruption. When freed from the corruption, the planetar immediately commits suicide, but Torm grants blessings to the party, which are permanent if a character worships Torm.
Say AJ, I noticed in the table for Aberrant Mind sorcerers’ origins that there’s an option for an incomplete ceremorphosis. Any theories on how one could gain sorcerous power from something like that? Best ones I could come up with are that the tadpole was modified by an Ilithid magic user or Alhoon, there was a planar bleed through during the ceremophosis process or a condensation of ambient magical energy such as faerzress, or (if you wanna tie it in with BG3) the tadpole was a prototype for the tadpoles used by the cult of the absolute.
Turning your brain into a receptor for psionic beings on the Astral plane, that could work as both a source of Sorcery, and a means to be in contact with an Eldritch Patron as a Warlock.
Had an idea where a colony tried to turn a goliath, ut the dude was so willful and robust of will that he overpowered and warped the elder brain. He became a massive, jacked illithid and the chieftain of the colony while the brain steppwd down to a coordination/elder advisor role. Now there are a few ships out there filled with beefed up, tattooed viking mind flayers laughing as they raid evil illithid ships and colonies.
Great video and keep up the good work ❤
1:18 Meta Origin
1:50 Publication History
4:05 Ecology
4:34 Tadpole Stage
5:26 Ceremorphosis
6:40 Host Races
7:21 Adult Size
8:18 Senses and Sun Resentment
10:08 Mucus Properties
10:24 Diet and Digestion
11:35 Variant Intellect Devourer
11:45 Joining the Elder Brain
12:45 Colony Communication
13:12 Elder Brain Pt 2
14:25 Brain Golem
14:43 Ulitharid
15:44 Origin
20:46 Neolithid
22:00 Fun Fact: Scent
22:20 Illithid Roper
22:54 Vampiric Illithid (Feral, not charming)
23:30 Arcane Illithids
23:52 Alhoons
24:52 Mind Witness
25:56 Cranium Rats
26:15 Illithosites
26:42 humanoid cattle
28:03 Illithidae: animals with convergent evolution
28:50 Slime Chuul (ceremorph)
29:11 Mosgricken (Deep Gnome ceremorph)
30:25 Ceremorph Shock Troops (lizardfolk)
31:05 Oryndoll
31:40 Architecture & Tech
32:27 Language
32:58 City of Oryndoll
33:25 Founding of Oryndoll
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Baldurs gate 3 introduced me to dnd. I wish i’d discovered this stuff earlier, cuz this is amazing!
same here.
Yeah, but now you get to binge and watch it all for the first time! Lucky.
nah regular dnd is boring
@@daved1113 L opinion
@@daved1113 Please purtel tell me how is 50 years of lore stories and adventures boring?
Good video for playing a wizard in Baldur's Gate and thinking "My character should know a great deal about mindflayers, but I don't want to read spoilers for the game itself."
As someone who’s never played DnD and is now in love with Baldurs Gate 3, this video is awesome. Great insight into the lore.
Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Idea: a game where you play as an elder brain running a mindflayer colony
here's how it could be, prologue. the mighty years. a mess around area getting you to test out spell jamming vessels, soldier placement, other enemies and traitors.
chap 1 modern day mind city. planted in the middle of a land of standerd fantasy monsters. introduces traitors and boss monsters (fire dragons and liches)
chap 2 breaching crystal sphere galaxies. spell jamming vessels and more alien enemies. introduces enemy illithid colonies and ship teleportation
chap 3 the muiltiverse.
you go after semi gods to get a way to bypass the far realm, introduces diverse hard monster colonies on each universe.
final chap the beyond.
your final challenge before becoming interdimensional conquers are the commanders of the lovecraftien gods armadas.
possible secret bosses could be a time dragon (that warns you about your actions and if killed won't have their warning cutscenes appear in new game +
lich illithid the king of traitors.
Both of you, shut up and just take my money!! XD
Sid Meier's Civilization Illithid
Sim Cthulu City
Edit: of course that's Sim R'leyh.
Serve the Hive.
Feel the groove.
I had no idea that an Illithid could become a Lich. I think I've found my new favourite Monster.
Same here!
AD&D2ndE Dark Sun/ Ravenloft monstrous compendium Psionic Lich are nightmares to deal with.
I always thought any arcane caster could achieve lichdom?
@@yully89Pretty much. Though some races have a chance of failing and dying. Dragons for example.
@@danielrobinson7872 same with them all though tbh.
"Good hunter, may you find peace in the waking world."
"Let's check RUclips before I got to bed." Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Mind Flayer - 44 seconds ago "Every once in a great while I have good timing."
The inspiration for Baldurs Gate 3 at 7:38
This dude just casually stating the premise of baldur's gate 3 5 years before its release as a "myth" lol. Can't believe that tidbit of lore was used for the game.
both used the same lore documents, of course
The psionic people of Athas and necromancers with their mindless undead hoards can save us from the mindflayers!
The desert would do that itself😂
34:41
"There's so much lore on the Mind Flayers I could talk about them all day, and maybe one day I will."
Don't telepathically threaten us with a good time...
I feel like I've half bastardized this race by playing one of these a bard.
His instrument is a vuvuzela, which he plays because the vibrations feels good on his tentacles, but being healed by a vuvuzela is probably more excruciating than his mindblast.
Ha ha ha! Oh my... that is great.
Jackson Briggs Ever since the World Cup in South Africa I have considered the vuvuzela as an instrument if pure evil. So it makes sense a Mind Flayer would use one.
+Reague of Regends It's not the heretical Abomination that is the Neothelid?
That’s awesome! Please tell me more!
damn, should've had him play the otamatone lmao
Recommended this video to my friends so I could go through Baldur's Gate 3 campaign without having to explain every single detail.
Gotta love these ancient evils from scary settings. Nothing like a marriage of Lovecraft and RPG!
Check out the aboleth! That one is...holy geez wtf.
8:00 The legend of the Host-which retained its memory when turning into a Mindflayer (cough Baldur's Gate 3 cough)
Oh that goes back to Bruce Cordell's source books on the Illithids.
that reminds me.. i read in some 3.5 book about mind flayers using purple worms as mounts by causing a cyst in their mouth and a special harness that could be used to force the beasts mouth to stay open or shut... i forget the precise book but i think it was in a section about exotic mounts.
Arms & Equipment Guide, page 86. Rules are 3.0, but should still be perfectly valid. Same book has an item that allows you to "ride" a gelatinous cube, which would also make an interesting mount for a mind flayer.
I played an Illithid once as an ambitious Rogue/Wizard that was a Mastermind subclass. The combination of their mind control and psychic powers combined with the Mastermind's ability to sow the seeds of deceit among groups of people made the class almost the ultimate "non-combat combat" character. I eventually just got so good at playing the character that the rest of my party was almost a little scared of the character. He was so hard to kill that eventually me and the DM agreed to have the character live on in legend and have me move on to another. The DM has allowed me to use him sometimes in again when the appropriate campaign/setting comes along, but his invincibility, just because of mainly my luck with him and the combination of race and class, has made him a "if he's on the scene, shits real" in our play group. I love Illithids and Morgrack will always live on to be one of the five most powerful characters in my group's circle.
My DM and me have been talking about making a campaign where my Illithid is the villain and they ascend into a Lich Illithid. We'll see how that goes, especially if things go as planned and the DM lets me play as the villain and have us have a "Raid Boss" campaign where I get to play as the main villain and actively have a group of players against a single other evil player.
I'm glad none of these vile monsters are real otherwise we would all be in big trouble.
if they were real we'd have powers too though, and the lore to fight them
How do we know they aren't real?
With the apparent lack of brains in this world, I'd say humanity would be safe.
One of my players played a mindflayer who was "disconnected" from the hive mind and they played them as skittish and paranoid it was fun
I believe I read somewhere that the cosmic Illithid Empire grew so vast and so powerful at one point that the Blood War actually stopped, with demons and devils considering a truce to deal with these powerful psychics. That's the level of scary these things can reach.
Back in the early 2010s I had contemplated an alhoon antagonist who had an ambition of becoming the next Orcus, never really understanding that Orcus was using him as a blunt object to batter his enemies with.
Imagine a Mind Flayer equivalent of a Worm that Walks, which is comprised entirely of Mind Flayer tadpoles.
Yikes
That's a Neolithid!
What you're describing is very similar to the Tsochar
Your skin monster thing is now an official part of the mind flayer lore in my games. Too cool!
Absolutely.
According to Lords of Madness:
Illithids originated in the vastly distant future when creation was starting to die. Thousands of elder brains pooled their energies to create a portal into the Far Realm, which exists outside the boundaries of creation. Upon their arrival within its influence they ripped an opening through time and space to arrive in the prime material. Less than 1% of those who embarked on the journey survived and those who lived were greatly weakened to such an extent that the servitor race that had been under their mental control for millennia revolted and fled to become the Illithids most hated, implacable and tenacious enemies.
Timey Wimey, wibbly wobbly :) The Illithids thus created themselves.
and thus the gith are from the future.
Terminators, but in reverse... neat!
Isn't that stated in this video?
II'd love to listen to a twelve hour Mindflayer marathon video.
I knew this was gonna be awesome, but man you knocked it way out of the park. Bravo (does a slow clap)
Arthur Bonner thanks :)
all of a sudden, very popular video :P
I've been waiting for this! The mind flayers have been my favorite d&d monster since the ancient days of 1st edition, and this episode in the series truly did them justice. Well done!
I ran a campaign centered around the Illithids of Thoon. I made Thoon an Obyrith in the Far Realm who used her essence more than any other Obyrith in crafting the Seed of Evil given to Tharizdun the O.G. Mad God (take notes, Cyric) to place in the Astral Sea. In my cannon, Thoon never left the Far Realm (unlike many other Obyriths who inhabit the Abyss, & rule/propagate the Qlippoth) & as much as the Obyriths imprinted on Tharizdun, so too did Tharizdun imprint upon Thoon. This led to an overwhelming drive to reunite with the Chained God (described by Thoon as "completing herself"), thereby sending her Illithids to collect Quintessence (which I redefined as refined souls stripped of identity & processed into raw Creation energy) to fuel a particular weapon which when combined with a sliver of the heart of the Abyss, would shatter the Chained God's prison. In other words, I love em too
Great job, AJ. Your videos have always been great, but you can really see how the production values have improved over time.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who saw the similarity between the wraith of Stargate Atlantis and the illithids of D&D. I am convinced that the illids were the inspiration for the wraith.
Feed on humans
Bio-tech
Mysterious origin
Psychic powers and communication
Psychic controlled tech
Ravaging entire worlds for food
Even their hive mentality.
Just replace the elder brain with a queen, and their societies would be virtually identical.
Check my latest video, you will LOVE IT
I always saw them as the Goa'uld with how they use hosts to control through their true worm-like body. It is very easy to reflavor them for that as well, just a Mind Flayer without the horrible appearance.
@@AJPickettI’m really bad at keeping up with notifications on youtube. You mean the video you made on the Stargate RPG, right? Or was there a specific creature video?
Favourite monster ever.
Yay. :)
Loved the old mindflayer vid, it was one of my favorites. This one is missing all of the cool atmospheric details you had in the other one though, like when you were describing the lairs.
Hmmm, true, and my simulation of a mind blast. Thanks, good critique.
hits different after Baldurs Gate 3
i once roleplayed a lawfull neutral mindflayer. He wore robes and a iron mask, stalking around in the night to eat the brains of badits and thieves. yes, i created the goddamn squidman
You predicted a now cannon character. Good job, Emperor!
I played a high level wizard who was captured by an illithid. I had a contingency spell readied in case I was killed by something to “soul jar” their consciousness and I could attempt to possess their body. The tadpole stood no chance against my spell DC. Body still died and I got to experience turning myself into an illithid. I was barely able to resist the elder brain when I made my escape, and my party almost killed me when I reconnected with them. Character became an NPC after a couple of sessions, but it was fun and cool. Eventually transferred his mind to a fresh clone of his old body.
That's amazing!
These are so going to be my villains for my campaign
I like the reproductions A.J. As always, thank you for the entertainment and hard work. I know these must take some effort and research to put together.
Yeah, a wee bit :)
Wow, Mindflayers really made it impossible to get rid or limit them. It'd be awesome to come up with a timeline. That alters their race and turns them into a symbiotic species, instead of body stealing parasites.
Actualy I remember in a magazine that Mind Flayers where inspired by the Larry Niven story World of Ptavvs.
A race called the Thrint who enslaved others telepathically creating a galactic empire via mind control.
Also Charles Stross based his Gith races upon the enemies of the Thrint the race the Tnuctip.
im so happy to see this channel growing so fast
i love mind flayers i know there are a lot of beholders fans out there and i get it but to me mind flayers will always be king i love the fact that despise using several references to several works they still manage to be kind of unique and cool in their own way, i love their culture, their society (i mean for being villains obviously) and they look mughty badass too!
Mind Flayer is a great name for a heavy metal band
"Your source for easy listening lore..." Indeed it is. Love your channel AJ
5 year old video, has 171k views as of 8/12/23.
Bg3 came out
👍
Yeah, traffic on this video is going to skyrocket.
Outstanding video on the illithids,great foe for any campaign Master Pickett! Keep cranking out that good content!
BG3 Brought me here. Fascinating stuff. I love it. Thank you for making this video!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Weird dark sun game idea, you are retinue of the finest Templars of a sorcerer- king and you've been tasked to find out why a growing psychic black spot has developed in a region only to be a confronted woth something more terrible than your lord. A mind flayer colony has plan shifted to Athas and found lots of large psychic brains to eat and convert.
I once played a Mind Flayer Warlock called Xan'Thurr who after an encounter with a powerful wizard began to have flashbacks to his life as a human and became fascinated with the world above. After he left he had to keep hidden by living in the shadows. He also had to consume brains which he got from killing drifters.
Favorite character I ever played and tough to roleplay. He eventually met his end by the hands of another mindflayer saving the party.
Freakin fantastic as usual. You should have waaayyyy more subs.
Thanks, tell your friends. :)
Thank you BG3 for renewing my love for DND
😊
5:55 dead in an hour you say? I wonder then how the writers of Baldur’s Gate 3 justify the player’s character and other NPC’s surviving more than a day with it in their heads. XD
Thanks AJ, I knew research on your channel would be helpful.
Bravo well done, Sir. I was wondering if you could make a small section in your videos for information on what can be harvested and made from key parts of creatures that you cover in your videos. thank you
I do think that the cult of Thoon will be the thing that does bring the end to the Mindflayer empire
How about:
The Illithid races become so diverse & far seeding into the past that, humans, or dodecapus, are an intensively planned blend of Illithid races, here on earth, where they believe this to be a successful planetary domination.
Similar to the vampire description of 'the Strain' novels.
The 'worms' burrow into a host and the body is transformed
This is amazing, glad it got recommended to me after playing Balders Gate 3!
My favorite part of this is the tadpole and the changing into the mindflayer with ten years of growing to dominince
I've been really interested in the Tamer Creed lately. I love the idea of a mind flayer decked out in full plate armor.
Anyone else exited about the fact baldurs gate 3 early access releases today and its about these guys
"TH' Illithid stood just in front of th' Aboleth, so that they faced each other, it whose empire was yet unborn, and it whose empire had been lost in th' mists of time for unguessed ages. Kings of darkness, thought Soratha, nameless kings of th' night, whose realms are gulfs and shadows."
I always imagined a game where the elder brain has some what of a tumor that alters the natural state of the mind flayers making a colony of them more docile and neutral instead of evil
An Intellect Devourer is basically junk food. Can't live off them, but they're quite tasty... I got a genuine chuckle out of that.
AJ, I swear, the depth you go into in your videos it's amazing! Please, keep up the good work.
PS. I wonder in the creators of Stargate (the show, not the movie) bases the Goa'uld off of mind flayers...? It's worth a thought.
PPS. you should try making a few videos showing the influence D&D has officially had on pop culture. That would be awesome! I would watch fully, thumbs up and share (with all my friends) every video in that series.
SOOOOOOOO.... Basically I already do with your videos. LoL. Love ya man, keep on inspiring and entertaining all us lore addicted nerds. LoL.
i smell an epic campaign... one with spell weavers as the anti-heroes... oh that would be so so sweet...
Indeed!
Ended up here coz of Bulders Gate 3 😂
Awesome stuff man!
Hey, thanks!
20:06 Quintessence you said? Now, I can put those DnD monster into my Mage: The Ascension campaign!
See? It all works together.
@@AJPickett All part of a "Grand Design"!
I've just discovered this channel and I'm loving it you haved earned another sub lol
Thank you Jay C, much appreciated :)
We need the Great Modron March to destroy them! But seriously I miss Mechanus and would love to see the interaction between these two races...
Would Ilithids trade with a society with sufficiently advanced psionics, or would the Ilithids see that society as a threat?
Both, what better way to infiltrate than to trade?
Your videos are fantastic, I'm glad I found this channel!
I really enjoyed this in preparation for bauldur's gate 3.
Great video man, I’m working on my first campaign and I’ll definitely use these guys
I like giving mindeflayers the ability to hide their real face. The nobel will definitely be a secret mindflayer
Stargate Atlantis, hell yeah. For some reason not as many people as one might think like SGA, which is a shame because of how awesome it is. By he way, great job on the video, quite informative.
Those spaceships look goofy as all get out. Arg we be Squid Pirates Arg!
Great video I'm hooked on the lore since BD3
Another fantastic show AJ!
I have 3.5 edition stats for a mind flayer assassin. That character was absolutely Nasty
This lexicon must be forwarded to Swen for a BG3 sequel .
Fun facts: Humans are the only humanoid that has a 100% ceremorphasis success rate. Elan are a psychically enhanced super race that can only be made from humans. Illithids are from the future, while Elans are from the present. Perhaps there is an evolutionary tale of Human to Elan to Illithid, with the squidbilly aspect coming from some Far Realm corruption?
These guy always gave me the creeps.
Guess I need to bing all of these again.
Squid faces. would it be in poor taste to have Illithids form a cult of Cthulhu?
Not in poor taste at all, go for it.
Cult of Illithids create a gate and summon a Titan shaped as Cthulhu.
Even on the small scale of 6th-level Planar Binding/ Call Planar Ally and summon a 16d8 hd outside hill/ or stone giant size bat wing mind flayer to wreak the PC party with.
Well now I want to have my players over hear a madman ramble on about how covering your self with the epidermal goo that covers the Illithids body will grant you a measure ov spell resistance, depending upon how much you use.
...only to find out that it does Not do that. Perhaps it does nothing.
Perhaps it does something terrible!
Not sure what to do yet but I seriously feel like you just handed me a beautiful gift ov an awful idea 😈
How about it only does so for the Illithid that produced it? No other being has a mind resonance that allows for this positive effect. All others have some sort of effect related to thier special racial traits. Roll Gor whether it is positive or negative with advantage or disadvantage being given on whether this is in the presense of aware Illithids.
So in baldurs gate 3 there are two mind flayers free of the colony with their own free will. And At least one of those actually remembers who they were before they transformed. Seems it was a prophecy after all
iv always wanted to play a mind flayer monk
I had a friend play an uitharid(The uber mind flayer) that was a 7'7'' barbarian. All he wanted was to convince the other mind flayers that they should "cook" their meals. He'd melt peoples brains out of their nose too.
nice
that sounds pretty frightening lol
So... Mind Flayers only exist because of Mind Flayers.They're naturally Neolithids. So... Mind Flayer loop.
Yeah, they are effectively a self-bootstrapped species. How they originally evolved is a complete mystery.
Did they though? Do they even HAVE a beginning?
Also, quick question that I just noticed.
You said that the Ulitharids begin as larger, slower developing Tadpoles. And tadpoles naturally grow into Neolithids, so... What happens if a Ulitharid tadpole grows to a Neolithid? (Ulineolithid?)
Good question, I think the answer is "A very scary Neolithid"
Stone or early bronze age sorcerer with a sea fetish Polymorph themselves into a squid head monster and assault their victims with the Nightmare spell. Since 3rdE lower the requirements to become a lich to 11th-level. His cult followers mutated after a few generation of breeding are under water coastal monster that ritually feed on brains, when they are killed they rise as ghouls.
The sea god brings the fish, .. " summon animal spell."
The sea god brings the rains, .. " Control Weather spell ."
The sea god causes the crops to grow, .." Plant Growth spell magic item."
So we raid other villages as slave offering to the sea god and his angels the deep ones.
maybe each new addition of D&D is another loop for the Mind Flayer's so we are now on loop 5?
In _Out of the Abyss_ , there is a small chance that the PCs, when traveling between the locales in the Underdark, can meet Grazzilax, a mind flayer who is part of a small group of similar, normally evil denizens that are actually _neutral_ aligned and have 18 intelligence, dubbed the Society of Brilliance. His fellow Society members include a derro, a troglodyte, a kuo-toa archpriest and an orog,
Of course, that neutral alignment just means that Grazzilax is not immediately going to try mind blasting the party then sucking out their brains - even if he clearly has the ability to overpower them - unless they attack him first. He'd much rather talk things over, and may even become a temporary ally depending on whether he enjoys their company or not.
A lot of published D&D adventures have individual monsters who deviate from their usual behavior for one reason or another. _Out of the Abyss_ also has:
-A kuo-toa who's basically a beacon of serenity, but is 100% pacifist, and won't even fight in self-defense.
-A gnoll fang of Yeenoghu who's gone completely mad, in that he genuinely regrets all the vile things he's done...and if treated with Greater Restoration, he immediately reverts to normal gnoll behavior.
-A wounded gnoll who was captured by minotaurs working for Baphomet to be used as bait. If his injuries are treated, he warns the PCs of his situation.
Meanwhile, _Descent Into Avernus_ has:
-A bearded devil named Krikendolt who suffered a brain injury that made him turn chaotic good, and that gets him bullied by his fellows, who want him to kill his pet abyssal chicken Earwax. He will accompany the PCs if they save him, but he will return to being lawful evil if his brain injury is treated.
-An death knight who, if reminded of his humanity, will help the PCs on their quest to find Zariel's sword by pointing them in the right direction, since he hates his current state and wants to pass on, but Zariel won't let him.
-A chaotic evil eladrin who will nonetheless team up with the characters if they help him defeat the other warlords of Avernus.
And in _Dungeon of the Mad Mage_ there's one that comes to mind:
-A corrupted planetar that has been capturing people who reach his level and executing them for some BS reason I can't remember. A character who willingly offers to take the place of an ally he's deemed guilty has a chance to break the corruption. When freed from the corruption, the planetar immediately commits suicide, but Torm grants blessings to the party, which are permanent if a character worships Torm.
Just imagine a mindflayer trying to read the mind of deadpool.
I like to give my ilithids cool syfy like bio mechanical guns and constructs
Yeah, coming up with weird equipment that is not magical, but still fantastic, is half the fun with these bad guys. :)
Fantastic job. Very well done. Love the lore vids!
Man playing as a null would be cool or being able to transform into null
Interesting to go back and rewatch this after playing BG3 and the "mindflayer who will turn against them."
Say AJ, I noticed in the table for Aberrant Mind sorcerers’ origins that there’s an option for an incomplete ceremorphosis. Any theories on how one could gain sorcerous power from something like that? Best ones I could come up with are that the tadpole was modified by an Ilithid magic user or Alhoon, there was a planar bleed through during the ceremophosis process or a condensation of ambient magical energy such as faerzress, or (if you wanna tie it in with BG3) the tadpole was a prototype for the tadpoles used by the cult of the absolute.
Turning your brain into a receptor for psionic beings on the Astral plane, that could work as both a source of Sorcery, and a means to be in contact with an Eldritch Patron as a Warlock.
Had an idea where a colony tried to turn a goliath, ut the dude was so willful and robust of will that he overpowered and warped the elder brain. He became a massive, jacked illithid and the chieftain of the colony while the brain steppwd down to a coordination/elder advisor role. Now there are a few ships out there filled with beefed up, tattooed viking mind flayers laughing as they raid evil illithid ships and colonies.
AJ always killing it
I’m willing to bet the guy who made this video was not expecting to get 253k views courtesy of BG3.
That would be a wager you would lose :)
He had these views before BG3