How to keep the mindflayers from eating my brain? [Archive] - Wizards Community

How to keep the mindflayers from eating my brain? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Hideous Phidias
10-30-07, 09:47 PM As the title says I am looking for ideas for live through a mindflayer attack. I am a whisper gnome rogue/swashbuckler with the daring outlaw build. The party is one springheel fey, one urban druid, one warmage and a sorcerer.
Hideous Phidias
10-30-07, 10:02 PM As the title says I am looking for ideas for live through a mindflayer attack. I am a whisper gnome rogue/swashbuckler with the daring outlaw build. The party is one springheel fey, one urban druid, one warmage and a sorcerer.
Sezarious
10-30-07, 10:03 PM You need fire. Lots and lots of fire.

No, i think psionic abilities counter a lot of that sort of thing.:thinks:
cinnamonator
10-30-07, 10:05 PM Do you happen to have maxed ranks in bluff?

I say come up with a story that incorporates these points:

- If they eat your brain, your spirit will take any useful knowledge you might possess into the afterlife with it. It's a contingency plan that your mother placed on your entire family, she was a powerful sorceress...but you don't know anything about magic yourself.

- They'll get a nasty psychic virus due to an attack of undead Illithid/Troll progeny from the negative energy plane when you were a young child. The virus has lain dormant for a long time every since a priest of *enter god here* laid a protective curse on it. "You should have seen what happened to my sorcerer friend when he tried to read my mind for fun!" *Shudder* "I couldn't drink orange juice or peel a potato for weeks!"

- You will work for them as their non-tentacled eyes and ears on the surface world. "Apparently there are some clerics and paladins of Pelor that found a map down here. They'll be coming soon. I heard it in *enter city name* before we came down ourselves." You'll agree to stop them.

- You will incapacitate at least 3 master mages and bring their unconscious bodies down to the lair in return for your freedom.

If your DM doesn't let you off the hook for creative use of the bluff skill + in character RPing...it looks like he just wanted to kill you anyway.
Artector
10-30-07, 10:11 PM Wear a helmet? (might work)

What level is your party and do you know how many mindflayers you will be fighting?

I'd suggest not grouping so the mind blast can hit you all, if its possible. But that's about it. Stuff that makes you immune to mind-affecting is the next idea. But I'm a little limited on the circumstances.
Amon_V
10-30-07, 10:13 PM Silly Idea: Put a set of candles on your head. The Illithid will take fire damage for attempting to put a tentacle on your head.

More plausible idea: They can't eat what they can't touch. Go Etheral and get out of there. UMD is your best friend.
Hideous Phidias
10-30-07, 10:55 PM Answers
1)Level 8
2)as many as we can hunt and kill

I also forgot to say I have an amulet of mind blank
ZeroSpace9000
10-30-07, 11:00 PM Answers
1)Level 8
2)Ideally one at a time

I also forgot to say I have an amulet of mind blank

There ya go. 'Flayers are CR 8, so more than that threatens TPK. Especially given how nasty flayers are. I would honestly say ONE flayer threatens TPK, while 3+ is certain TPK.
Hideous Phidias
10-30-07, 11:02 PM Bluff is good with this party. we once bluff a miner god into thinking we served him so that we did not die at his hands.
Grumman
10-31-07, 04:51 AM Buy a scroll of Flaying Tendrils. Eat his brain first. :)
Derren S.
10-31-07, 06:13 AM Freedom of Movement (alternatively high escape artist). Then you "only" need something to prevent stunning.
Dherki
10-31-07, 08:23 AM Have a high level sorcerer/wizard/druid cast Antipathy on your brain? :P
Sezarious
10-31-07, 08:44 AM Do a Barrel Roll!:rofl:
Sezarious
10-31-07, 08:47 AM Do a Barrel Roll!:rofl:
Cifer
10-31-07, 12:27 PM Freedom of Movement is indeed the best thing available to you. If you have a decent bluff modifier, you might even move to the front rows, pretend being stunned by the Mind Blast and wait for the flayer to come for you. He is incapable of grappling you and will probably be considered flatfooted (he isn't exactly expecting you to stab him). Mindflayer in a Melee where he can't suck on brains = dead squid thingy.

By the way: According to Lords Of Madness, wearing a helmet does absolutely nothing to protect you.
Radiun
10-31-07, 01:44 PM Fighting them in the Underdark?
What's the plausibility of you causing a cave in that kills them, but not you?
Prator_The_Golden
10-31-07, 03:01 PM By the way: According to Lords Of Madness, wearing a helmet does absolutely nothing to protect you.

Really? Where is that in the book? Because I would think that a close-faced helmet that's been fastened down properly wouldn't leave any openings small enough for tentacles....
russdm
10-31-07, 03:10 PM Really? Where is that in the book? Because I would think that a close-faced helmet that's been fastened down properly wouldn't leave any openings small enough for tentacles....

I think they could just rip the helmet off unless you tie it down or staple it to your head.
Saiyamantis
10-31-07, 03:42 PM Mind flayer tentacles secrete powerful acid that makes them go through everything like it's warm butter. A blueshined helmet might prevent that, but that's up to your DM.
Cifer
10-31-07, 05:57 PM Really? Where is that in the book? Because I would think that a close-faced helmet that's been fastened down properly wouldn't leave any openings small enough for tentacles....
Page 62, Mouth and Tentacles, last paragraph.

However, I prefer the reasoning that they can just rip off a helmet, with their initial grapple and attack rolls representing just that. That doesn't leave the problem that they should be making touch attacks against pretty much everything when using their tentacles...
Cedric_the_Lucky
10-31-07, 06:01 PM The easiest response to this would be don't go near any mindflayers! If your brain is not near them its not on the menu!
Cartigan
10-31-07, 07:37 PM Mordakai's Tinfoil Hat?
Voran
10-31-07, 08:03 PM Present them with jailbait quality females in various anime outfits.

Seriously, would tentacle monsters go for your brain with that other option available?
Mock26
10-31-07, 08:37 PM Chop your head off and leave it at home. Or, fill up a portable hole with brains and throw them to distract the mindflayers!
ToastedAmphibian
10-31-07, 09:20 PM Wash your hair with ingestion posion. Try lich dust. Easy to appy, just dust your head with it. DC 17 fort save, 2d6str dmg (lowers grapple check and might paralyze them, not sure what an illithids str is, its not in the SRD) Costs 250 gold, so not too exspensive to screw with a mind flayers head when it tries to screw with yours. Or cover a hat in dragon bile (Ew) DC 26 CONTACT posion that does 3d6 str initial, but costs 1500 gold.

Otherwise you could try and talk your DM into letting you build a trap on your head, have it make an attack roll for 1d4 piercing damage, and coat it with drow posion. Possibly render it unconcious.

Also, you COULD combine all 3, heh. Try not to posion yourself though. It would suck to knock yourself out for 2-8 hours just before the Brain Eater knocks the door in.
ZeroSpace9000
11-01-07, 01:26 AM The only problem with ingested poisons is that you would need to be 'flayed for the poison to kick in, which would defeat the purpose.
Saragon42
11-01-07, 01:38 AM Mind flayers have to make grapple checks to attach their tentacles, and the number one way to modify those checks is by changing the size of the grapplers. Increase your size -- enlarge person or expansion -- or find some way to decrease the mind flayer's size. The "standard" mind flayer behavior is to only eat a brain when it's relatively safe, so if you can get an immunity to stunning you'll be in great shape. Just remember that mind blast is a mind-affecting power, and immunity to mind-affecting powers isn't hard to get at all.
Grumman
11-01-07, 03:10 AM Just remember that mind blast is a mind-affecting power, and immunity to mind-affecting powers isn't hard to get at all.
Unfortunately, some DMs rule that despite the obvious, a mind blast isn't a mind-affecting power because the rules don't say that it is.
Axiomatic_vampire
11-01-07, 07:11 AM Necropolitan FTW
Dog_O_War
11-01-07, 10:51 AM Originally posted by Sezarious
Do a Barrel Roll!
That is too funny:)

I was gonna suggest you keep the most spicy of peppers in your hair, in the hopes of such a strong burning would cause one to recoil in shock allowing you to escape (this idea might actually work!)

Or watch that thing called tee vee. I hear it rots your brain, and who wants to eat a rotten one?
The_Wrath_of_Talos
11-01-07, 02:16 PM If you have an amulet of mind blank I wouldn't worry to much. Mindlflayer tactics usually follow a patern of:

1. mindblast
2. grapple
3. eat brains

Your amulet takes care of #1 your agility takes care of #2 so you shouldnt have to worry about #3. If your that concerned about it have your wizard polymorph you and change your anatomy so your brain is some where less obtainable.
Sezarious
11-01-07, 07:01 PM Don't bright sudden light effects like a sunrod blind creatures with darkvision?
Cifer
11-01-07, 07:11 PM Don't bright sudden light effects like a sunrod blind creatures with darkvision?
Not unless they have Light Blindness, which they don't. Mind Flayers just don't like the sun because it tends to desiccate their rubbery skin.
Mock26
11-01-07, 08:44 PM Not unless they have Light Blindness, which they don't. Mind Flayers just don't like the sun because it tends to desiccate their rubbery skin.

This is taken from R. A. Salvatore, but use/create some sort of spell that allows you to alter your body structure and put your brain elsewhere in your body, like maybe in your foot.
Radiun
11-01-07, 08:54 PM ...like maybe in your foot.

And from there on it's simply a matter of avoid mindflayers with foot fetishes.
Mock26
11-01-07, 08:56 PM And from there on it's simply a matter of avoid mindflayers with foot fetishes.
Or just wear high heeled shoes made out of lead.
Voran
11-01-07, 11:27 PM Dreadlocks! The kind made with real goat poop!
Mock26
11-01-07, 11:52 PM Dreadlocks! The kind made with real goat poop!

Grow dreadlocks and then cast Dreads to Snakes.
Fitz10019
11-02-07, 11:56 AM What about Horrible Taste (SC 116)? If you can't stop them from eating your brain, at least stop them from enjoying it!!! :D
Xavon
11-02-07, 09:06 PM There is always the old standby of shapeshifting you brain into another part of you body. Switching your brain with your intestines will certain get the mind flayer's attntion.
Mock26
11-02-07, 10:21 PM Cover your head in anchovies! Most people don't like anchovies (though I love them!), and I'd assume that same is true of mind flayers (unless they're Italian!). So, odds are that they won't like anchovies and even if you pick them off they still won't eat your brains because your head would still have anchovie oil on it.
taradusis
11-03-07, 12:38 PM Try not to have a brain?Play a golem,construct,plant,ooze or undead?
JasonOrlandoHawk
11-04-07, 09:22 AM With a successful hide check and a foolish tank, it is not your brain that shall be devoured. After that, remember that Mind Flayers don't stand up well to melee attacks. Tumble and Destroy!!!
hangedman1984
11-04-07, 11:08 AM Eat his brain first. :)

not nessacarily a good idea, a player in my group tried that and ended up getting possesed by the mindflayer.
Khatoblepas
11-04-07, 12:30 PM not nessacarily a good idea, a player in my group tried that and ended up getting possesed by the mindflayer.

Well, that and Mind Flayers don't have brains, per se. Their entire body is their brain, with their head only containing green goo. (LoM, I believe)

Infect yourself with Cascade Flu and Cerebral Parasites. Mind Flayers won't want to eat a diseased brain ;) and you won't be affected by it! And even if you do get braineaten, the Mind Flayer will spend the rest of the day manifesting "Charm Monster" and "Detect Thoughts" on itself. Or something. Either way, the Mindflayer won't want to catch those diseases. Especially as the cure for psionic disease only appears in Complete Psionic ;)
wordserpent
11-04-07, 03:57 PM Wear a helmet, a very pointy one...with a chin strap.
Cifer
11-05-07, 06:53 PM Well, that and Mind Flayers don't have brains, per se. Their entire body is their brain, with their head only containing green goo. (LoM, I believe)
That is not entirely correct. While the parasite indeed replaces the nervous system of the entire body with something more or less brainlike, the main portion is still located in the skull and the removal leads to the flayer's death. Further, it is exactly that portion that is given to the Elder Brain after the individual Mind Flayer's demise.
HCL
11-05-07, 08:22 PM when it does its thing all of the characters should pretend to be under the effect and one should signal to the others that he is normal (preferable a heavily buffed barbarian or monk) then go to the front of the line to get his brain eaten and wrestle the squid down.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Hideous Phidias 10-30-07, 09:47 PM	As the title says I am looking for ideas for live through a mindflayer attack. I am a whisper gnome rogue/swashbuckler with the daring outlaw build. The party is one springheel fey, one urban druid, one warmage and a sorcerer.
Hideous Phidias 10-30-07, 10:02 PM	As the title says I am looking for ideas for live through a mindflayer attack. I am a whisper gnome rogue/swashbuckler with the daring outlaw build. The party is one springheel fey, one urban druid, one warmage and a sorcerer.
Sezarious 10-30-07, 10:03 PM	You need fire. Lots and lots of fire. No, i think psionic abilities counter a lot of that sort of thing.:thinks:
cinnamonator 10-30-07, 10:05 PM	Do you happen to have maxed ranks in bluff? I say come up with a story that incorporates these points: - If they eat your brain, your spirit will take any useful knowledge you might possess into the afterlife with it. It's a contingency plan that your mother placed on your entire family, she was a powerful sorceress...but you don't know anything about magic yourself. - They'll get a nasty psychic virus due to an attack of undead Illithid/Troll progeny from the negative energy plane when you were a young child. The virus has lain dormant for a long time every since a priest of enter god here laid a protective curse on it. "You should have seen what happened to my sorcerer friend when he tried to read my mind for fun!" Shudder "I couldn't drink orange juice or peel a potato for weeks!" - You will work for them as their non-tentacled eyes and ears on the surface world. "Apparently there are some clerics and paladins of Pelor that found a map down here. They'll be coming soon. I heard it in enter city name before we came down ourselves." You'll agree to stop them. - You will incapacitate at least 3 master mages and bring their unconscious bodies down to the lair in return for your freedom. If your DM doesn't let you off the hook for creative use of the bluff skill + in character RPing...it looks like he just wanted to kill you anyway.
Artector 10-30-07, 10:11 PM	Wear a helmet? (might work) What level is your party and do you know how many mindflayers you will be fighting? I'd suggest not grouping so the mind blast can hit you all, if its possible. But that's about it. Stuff that makes you immune to mind-affecting is the next idea. But I'm a little limited on the circumstances.
Amon_V 10-30-07, 10:13 PM	Silly Idea: Put a set of candles on your head. The Illithid will take fire damage for attempting to put a tentacle on your head. More plausible idea: They can't eat what they can't touch. Go Etheral and get out of there. UMD is your best friend.
Hideous Phidias 10-30-07, 10:55 PM	Answers 1)Level 8 2)as many as we can hunt and kill I also forgot to say I have an amulet of mind blank
ZeroSpace9000 10-30-07, 11:00 PM	Answers 1)Level 8 2)Ideally one at a time I also forgot to say I have an amulet of mind blank There ya go. 'Flayers are CR 8, so more than that threatens TPK. Especially given how nasty flayers are. I would honestly say ONE flayer threatens TPK, while 3+ is certain TPK.
Hideous Phidias 10-30-07, 11:02 PM	Bluff is good with this party. we once bluff a miner god into thinking we served him so that we did not die at his hands.
Grumman 10-31-07, 04:51 AM	Buy a scroll of Flaying Tendrils. Eat his brain first. :)
Derren S. 10-31-07, 06:13 AM	Freedom of Movement (alternatively high escape artist). Then you "only" need something to prevent stunning.
Dherki 10-31-07, 08:23 AM	Have a high level sorcerer/wizard/druid cast Antipathy on your brain? :P
Sezarious 10-31-07, 08:44 AM	Do a Barrel Roll!:rofl:
Sezarious 10-31-07, 08:47 AM	Do a Barrel Roll!:rofl:
Cifer 10-31-07, 12:27 PM	Freedom of Movement is indeed the best thing available to you. If you have a decent bluff modifier, you might even move to the front rows, pretend being stunned by the Mind Blast and wait for the flayer to come for you. He is incapable of grappling you and will probably be considered flatfooted (he isn't exactly expecting you to stab him). Mindflayer in a Melee where he can't suck on brains = dead squid thingy. By the way: According to Lords Of Madness, wearing a helmet does absolutely nothing to protect you.
Radiun 10-31-07, 01:44 PM	Fighting them in the Underdark? What's the plausibility of you causing a cave in that kills them, but not you?
Prator_The_Golden 10-31-07, 03:01 PM	By the way: According to Lords Of Madness, wearing a helmet does absolutely nothing to protect you. Really? Where is that in the book? Because I would think that a close-faced helmet that's been fastened down properly wouldn't leave any openings small enough for tentacles....
russdm 10-31-07, 03:10 PM	Really? Where is that in the book? Because I would think that a close-faced helmet that's been fastened down properly wouldn't leave any openings small enough for tentacles.... I think they could just rip the helmet off unless you tie it down or staple it to your head.
Saiyamantis 10-31-07, 03:42 PM	Mind flayer tentacles secrete powerful acid that makes them go through everything like it's warm butter. A blueshined helmet might prevent that, but that's up to your DM.
Cifer 10-31-07, 05:57 PM	Really? Where is that in the book? Because I would think that a close-faced helmet that's been fastened down properly wouldn't leave any openings small enough for tentacles.... Page 62, Mouth and Tentacles, last paragraph. However, I prefer the reasoning that they can just rip off a helmet, with their initial grapple and attack rolls representing just that. That doesn't leave the problem that they should be making touch attacks against pretty much everything when using their tentacles...
Cedric_the_Lucky 10-31-07, 06:01 PM	The easiest response to this would be don't go near any mindflayers! If your brain is not near them its not on the menu!
Cartigan 10-31-07, 07:37 PM	Mordakai's Tinfoil Hat?
Voran 10-31-07, 08:03 PM	Present them with jailbait quality females in various anime outfits. Seriously, would tentacle monsters go for your brain with that other option available?
Mock26 10-31-07, 08:37 PM	Chop your head off and leave it at home. Or, fill up a portable hole with brains and throw them to distract the mindflayers!
ToastedAmphibian 10-31-07, 09:20 PM	Wash your hair with ingestion posion. Try lich dust. Easy to appy, just dust your head with it. DC 17 fort save, 2d6str dmg (lowers grapple check and might paralyze them, not sure what an illithids str is, its not in the SRD) Costs 250 gold, so not too exspensive to screw with a mind flayers head when it tries to screw with yours. Or cover a hat in dragon bile (Ew) DC 26 CONTACT posion that does 3d6 str initial, but costs 1500 gold. Otherwise you could try and talk your DM into letting you build a trap on your head, have it make an attack roll for 1d4 piercing damage, and coat it with drow posion. Possibly render it unconcious. Also, you COULD combine all 3, heh. Try not to posion yourself though. It would suck to knock yourself out for 2-8 hours just before the Brain Eater knocks the door in.
ZeroSpace9000 11-01-07, 01:26 AM	The only problem with ingested poisons is that you would need to be 'flayed for the poison to kick in, which would defeat the purpose.
Saragon42 11-01-07, 01:38 AM	Mind flayers have to make grapple checks to attach their tentacles, and the number one way to modify those checks is by changing the size of the grapplers. Increase your size -- enlarge person or expansion -- or find some way to decrease the mind flayer's size. The "standard" mind flayer behavior is to only eat a brain when it's relatively safe, so if you can get an immunity to stunning you'll be in great shape. Just remember that mind blast is a mind-affecting power, and immunity to mind-affecting powers isn't hard to get at all.
Grumman 11-01-07, 03:10 AM	Just remember that mind blast is a mind-affecting power, and immunity to mind-affecting powers isn't hard to get at all. Unfortunately, some DMs rule that despite the obvious, a mind blast isn't a mind-affecting power because the rules don't say that it is.
Axiomatic_vampire 11-01-07, 07:11 AM	Necropolitan FTW
Dog_O_War 11-01-07, 10:51 AM	Originally posted by Sezarious Do a Barrel Roll! That is too funny:) I was gonna suggest you keep the most spicy of peppers in your hair, in the hopes of such a strong burning would cause one to recoil in shock allowing you to escape (this idea might actually work!) Or watch that thing called tee vee. I hear it rots your brain, and who wants to eat a rotten one?
The_Wrath_of_Talos 11-01-07, 02:16 PM	If you have an amulet of mind blank I wouldn't worry to much. Mindlflayer tactics usually follow a patern of: 1. mindblast 2. grapple 3. eat brains Your amulet takes care of #1 your agility takes care of #2 so you shouldnt have to worry about #3. If your that concerned about it have your wizard polymorph you and change your anatomy so your brain is some where less obtainable.
Sezarious 11-01-07, 07:01 PM	Don't bright sudden light effects like a sunrod blind creatures with darkvision?
Cifer 11-01-07, 07:11 PM	Don't bright sudden light effects like a sunrod blind creatures with darkvision? Not unless they have Light Blindness, which they don't. Mind Flayers just don't like the sun because it tends to desiccate their rubbery skin.
Mock26 11-01-07, 08:44 PM	Not unless they have Light Blindness, which they don't. Mind Flayers just don't like the sun because it tends to desiccate their rubbery skin. This is taken from R. A. Salvatore, but use/create some sort of spell that allows you to alter your body structure and put your brain elsewhere in your body, like maybe in your foot.
Radiun 11-01-07, 08:54 PM	...like maybe in your foot. And from there on it's simply a matter of avoid mindflayers with foot fetishes.
Mock26 11-01-07, 08:56 PM	And from there on it's simply a matter of avoid mindflayers with foot fetishes. Or just wear high heeled shoes made out of lead.
Voran 11-01-07, 11:27 PM	Dreadlocks! The kind made with real goat poop!
Mock26 11-01-07, 11:52 PM	Dreadlocks! The kind made with real goat poop! Grow dreadlocks and then cast Dreads to Snakes.
Fitz10019 11-02-07, 11:56 AM	What about Horrible Taste (SC 116)? If you can't stop them from eating your brain, at least stop them from enjoying it!!! :D
Xavon 11-02-07, 09:06 PM	There is always the old standby of shapeshifting you brain into another part of you body. Switching your brain with your intestines will certain get the mind flayer's attntion.
Mock26 11-02-07, 10:21 PM	Cover your head in anchovies! Most people don't like anchovies (though I love them!), and I'd assume that same is true of mind flayers (unless they're Italian!). So, odds are that they won't like anchovies and even if you pick them off they still won't eat your brains because your head would still have anchovie oil on it.
taradusis 11-03-07, 12:38 PM	Try not to have a brain?Play a golem,construct,plant,ooze or undead?
JasonOrlandoHawk 11-04-07, 09:22 AM	With a successful hide check and a foolish tank, it is not your brain that shall be devoured. After that, remember that Mind Flayers don't stand up well to melee attacks. Tumble and Destroy!!!
hangedman1984 11-04-07, 11:08 AM	Eat his brain first. :) not nessacarily a good idea, a player in my group tried that and ended up getting possesed by the mindflayer.
Khatoblepas 11-04-07, 12:30 PM	not nessacarily a good idea, a player in my group tried that and ended up getting possesed by the mindflayer. Well, that and Mind Flayers don't have brains, per se. Their entire body is their brain, with their head only containing green goo. (LoM, I believe) Infect yourself with Cascade Flu and Cerebral Parasites. Mind Flayers won't want to eat a diseased brain ;) and you won't be affected by it! And even if you do get braineaten, the Mind Flayer will spend the rest of the day manifesting "Charm Monster" and "Detect Thoughts" on itself. Or something. Either way, the Mindflayer won't want to catch those diseases. Especially as the cure for psionic disease only appears in Complete Psionic ;)
wordserpent 11-04-07, 03:57 PM	Wear a helmet, a very pointy one...with a chin strap.
Cifer 11-05-07, 06:53 PM	Well, that and Mind Flayers don't have brains, per se. Their entire body is their brain, with their head only containing green goo. (LoM, I believe) That is not entirely correct. While the parasite indeed replaces the nervous system of the entire body with something more or less brainlike, the main portion is still located in the skull and the removal leads to the flayer's death. Further, it is exactly that portion that is given to the Elder Brain after the individual Mind Flayer's demise.
HCL 11-05-07, 08:22 PM	when it does its thing all of the characters should pretend to be under the effect and one should signal to the others that he is normal (preferable a heavily buffed barbarian or monk) then go to the front of the line to get his brain eaten and wrestle the squid down.