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Alanik Ray

2021-05-31T01:56:46Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:1CB8:28D5:11D3:C04C: /* 5e */

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'''Alanik Ray''' is a heroic NPC native to the [[Ravenloft]] setting of [[Dungeons & Dragons]], having debuted there back in the days of [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] 2nd edition. He is a male [[elf]] originally born as a wealthy merchant's son in the realm of [[Demiplane of Dread#Darkon|Darkon]], but left that locale as a youth after being expelled from his family home when he discovered his father made much of his wealth as a drug lord and black marketeer; when Alanik protested his father's crimes, the patriarch Ardal banished him. Disgusted, Alanik turned to crime fighting, joining the Neblus watch and using it to dismantle his father's criminal empire, after which he quit Darkon and moved to Mordentshire, where he set up as a private detective. That lasted until the year 747 BC, where he was invited back to Darkon to serve as the Chief Constable of the Matira Bay watch by newly appointed town mayor, Baroness Karimana Reldkasen... unfortunately, he fell afoul of the Kargat, and when Azalin vanished during [[Grim Harvest|the Requiem]], they moved to eliminate him and he narrowly escaped with his life. He fled to Port-a-Lucine in Dementlieu and opened up a new detective agency, where he has been found ever since.

Basically, Alanik Ray is the Sherlock Holmes of the [[Demiplane of Dread]]; a highly intelligent whose love of the finer things in life is equaled if not exceeded only by his passion for mystery and deduction. Though he normally is patronized by wealthy clientele, he has a particular fascination with crimes centered around "particularly cunning" villains or supernatural elements, and as such he is willing to waive his fees for cases that catch his intrigue, especially those brought to him by less-wealthy would-be patrons. For defense, he wields ''Goldenfang'', a +4 Dagger that looks like it was shaped from solid gold, and a number of pistols. He even smokes a hookah, although in his case it's an enchanted item called a ''Hookah of Truth'', the smoke of which produces a Zone of Truth.

Of course, every Sherlock Holmes needs a Dr. Watson, and for Alanik, his Watson is a human physician by the name of Dr. Arthur Sedgewick. Sadly, we know next to nothing about him beyond that he exists, he has saved Alanik's life with his medical skills several times, and he writes accounts of their cases which he has begun to publish, with two such compilations existing in-universe so far; ''The Life of Alanik Ray'' and ''The Casebook of Alanik Ray''. Alanik is also a correspondent of [[Van Richten]] and, after the events of [[Bleak House]], he's interested in pursuing the good doctor's mysterious disappearance.

Notable supernatural foes that Alanik Ray has faced include [[Rabel Utik]], [[Toben the Many]], and a prostitute-hunting green [[hag]] serial killer known only as "The Hag of Chateaufaux".

Although he has been statted up in both AD&D (10th level [[Rogue]]) and in 3rd edition ([[Rogue]] 4/Detective 6) in [[Champions of the Mists]] and [[Ravenloft Gazetteer]] II respectively, Alanik is ironically a very minor character; whereas the other NPCs from ''Champions'' had been the stars of official novels (because it was the 90s and novels were a thing that pretty much all D&D settings got), Alanik's only appearances to that date had been as a flavor-only character mentioned in two of the [[Van Richten's Guide]] books - the Guides to Ghosts and Hags, specifically. 3rd edition wouldn't treat him much better; he got mentioned in ''Van Richten's Arsenal'' due to his connection with the Hookah of Truth, and also name-dropped as a flavor character in a third VRG - the Guide to the [[Walking Dead]].

===5e===
Alanik Ray reappears as an NPC in the [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]] Ravenloft campaign splat "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft". Here, there's more emphasis on his forming an informal monster hunter's alliance/network with [[Van Richten]], the [[Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins]] and the new character [[Ezmerelda d'Avenir]] from [[Curse of Strahd]]. Also, he's now wheelchair-bound, having broken his back after falling off a roof whilst pursuing a serial killer (cue "Wheels and the Legman" jokes). And, since this is the 2020s and two guys are no longer allowed to have platonic relationships by the rules of modern pop culture, he and Arthur Sedgewick are gay and married to each other.
[[Image:Alanik Ray 5e.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Alanik as depicted in 5e. Also, fun fact; this is the ''only'' time that Dr. Sedgewick has been given art!]]

[[Category: Ravenloft]]

Illithid

2021-05-31T00:34:07Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:1CB8:28D5:11D3:C04C: /* Illithid Mating Practices */

[[file:Illithid.jpg|thumb|right|Time to slurp brains]]

'''Illithids''' (also called '''Mind Flayers''') are cool, and by cool, I mean totally sweet. They look like tiny little, skinnier, wingless [[Cthulhu]]s, wear black robes with high collars and eat brains. Plus they all have psionic powers and are so super-smart even their breakfast is [[JUST AS PLANNED]]! They would be totally [[Mary Sue]], except for the fact that they are [[ Edgy|so brain-damagingly evil it makes them awesome]] instead of lame. (There was one good one in the [[Book of Exalted Deeds]], but nobody gives a crap about her, so let's move on.) Their psionic version is much better than their Monster Manual version by virtue of increased versatility. According to the book [[Lords of Madness]] they came from THE FUTURE.

The Illithid is considered "Product Identity" by Wizards of the Coast and as such is not released under its [[Open Gaming License]]. However, "half-Cthulhu creeps" and "squidface brainsuckers" are totally okay, so go nuts.

The illithid first appeared in the official newsletter of [[TSR]], The Strategic Review #1. They then appeared in the Eldritch Wizardry supplement for Original Dungeons & Dragons. Since then, they have have appeared the first [[Monster Manual]] of every edition. In second edition they got a whole book to themselves called The Illithiad, and in 3.5 they got a chapter in [[Lords of Madness]].

[[Fiend Folio]] in describing the [[githyanki]] (and [[githzerai]]) retconned that the 'flayers have enslaved humans - or will enslave them - and that they escaped/will-escape into a scourge perhaps even worse than they are/were/will-be. (Grammar gets kind of fuzzy with time diddlers.)

[[Dragonlance]] in a rare diversion into sword-n'-sorcery mooted a subrace of "degenerate" illithids, the Yaggol. These have retreated into Taladas' jungle, losing all of their psionic powers except for Mind Blast. On the upside, they are much stronger, stand 7 feet tall, and have chameleon-like skin.

Fun fact: in the city of Stormreach, in the [[Eberron]] campaign setting, there is an Illithid who just hangs around near a garden and engages in perfectly normal, honest, and voluntary business transactions with the humanoids and other races that inhabit the city. And by "normal" we mean people pay him to reprogram their brains and alter their memories. Why spend four years studying a new language when you can learn it by spending four minutes letting Fred gnaw on your brain? Oh, yeah, [https://ddowiki.com/page/Fred his name is Fred]. It's a very common Mind Flayer name. Point is, Mind Flayers don't just compulsively kill/consume humanoids on sight like the xenomorphs from the Alien movies; they're perfectly capable of being normal, well-integrated members of surface-dwelling, non-evil, humanoid societies.

==Illithid Physiology==
Illithids consist of... purple, mostly. Just brains and purple.

Their alien physiology has stumped our crack (addict) biology team even after years of scientific scrutiny. It is thought that if we could crack the mystery of why these skinny creatures subsist on a diet of nothing but fat and calcium, we would be closer to... something.

Look, just look up "aberrant" in the dictionary. We can't offer you much for the time being.

In actuality, Illithid physiology is a moderately altered version of their host organism's body (see mating practices). The brain of the host is replaced by a tadpole thing, and the digestive tract is altered to aid in the consumption of brains and their psychic essence. And of course, they grow tentacles and Sarlaac mouths and lose all of their hair.

Explained somewhat in 3.5's Tome of Darkness, the resulting creature is entirely conscious of its organs and body, as opposed to being autonomous. There is a tiny part of the creature's powerful mind constantly remembering to make sure the heart beats, and regulating digestion. Things like that. So they eat normally, and extract maximum nutrition from it. The method of creating an illithid destroys the brain, which includes all those hormone producing glands in the skull that keep a person healthy. This is why they need brains to keep their body from decaying. The memories and thoughts consumed are... well "flavor" to put it in the least disgusting way possible. These memories, thoughts, and emotions are just as necessary as the hormones contained within the brain for an illithid that consumes only the brains of unintelligent creatures or animals will regress into a ravenous beast, actually pretty similarly to the [[Kroot]].

There is apparently a cult of illithid monks/clerics known as The THOON (yes all caps) who worship a god or philosophy also known as THOON (see below for more on THOON and The THOON). They minmax their bodies as well as their minds. The elder brains hate them. They've been out of circulation since 4e landed. But if you need a mastermind who can roundhouse kick the fighter through a wall after the party blitzes through his mooks, look no further.

For the morbidly curious about what'd happen if you ate an illithid's brain, according to 5e's Volo's Guide to Monsters, nothing good. Apparently, each bite into an illithid's brain releases an intense flood of memories that the illithid developed/consumed in its life, so strong it'll probably drive the typical consumer insane. As to how [[Elminster]] knows this, he refuses to explain.

==Illithid Mating Practices==
[[File:Ceremorphosis drow 3e.jpg|thumb|right|300px|This drow is in for a Bad Time.]]
[[File:Tadpole entering host.png|thumb|left|300px|NO NO NO NO NO]]
This morbid fascination of yours is going to get you killed one of these days, you know that?

Anyway, if you've ever seen that Bruce Campbell movie ''Mindwarp,'' with those burrowing leech things, you've got a pretty good grasp on what to expect. Consider this your warning.

Twice in an illithid's life, it will go to the pool containing the mind flayer community's Elder Brain (though any briny pool will do), and literally vomit a huge amount of tadpoles out of their mouth (they're asexual like that.) These tadpoles will be nurtured (though the elder brain will eat some of the tadpoles, who themselves engage in cannibalism) over the course of ten years (20 for ulitharids) and once they are ready, they are taken from their pool to undergo Ceremorphosis.

An unlucky creature will be restrained as the tadpole is brought to it, and the mind flayer carrying the tadpole will place it within the most direct route to the brain (typically the ear or nose, which makes no sense since neither of those connects to the brain, but the eye socket does so it could still work) and the tadpole will quickly burrow its way through the skull and into the brain where it will devour the host organism's brain over the course of a week as it alters the host with mind flayer traits. Not all tadpoles are able to integrate into the host body to the same degree, such that sometimes the resulting illithid is left with the impression of piloting its body rather than of being it. Very, very rarely the transformation process itself partially fails and no external changes are brought about (though it will still internally be a mind flayer and need to eat brains) in these cases the new mind flayer is used as an infiltrator for obvious reasons. Even rarer, to the point where it's practically considered an urban legend is the opposite, where the host undergoes the full transformation, but their original mind remains intact and in control of their newfound powers. Mind flayers are scared shitless of these creatures, referred to collectively as The Adversary. Not only are they perfectly capable of blending in flawlessly with mind flayer society, they are almost certainly in the vengeance-seeking mindset, and in the perfect position to bring it all crashing down on their tormentor's heads.

When the process is complete, no form of magic or psionics, excluding wish and reincarnate and true resurrection, can bring back the victim, but even then the mind flayer will still be alive. Aside from that, nothing can reverse the effects; there is no way to bring back the original host, so he/she/they is for all intents and purposes, dead forever. Though the newborn mind flayer will be physically mature, it will take some time to mentally mature (though its community will be more than willing to assist it in this manner).

If the host is any species besides a human, the result is a half-mindflayer, whose template can be found in the Fiend Folio. Special cases are present though; placing a mind flayer tadpole into a beholder results in a mindwitness (essentially replace four of the eyestalks with large thick tentacles and the rays of doom with psionics), a docile creature whose main role is to facilitate telepathic communications. A Mind Witness will look for another telepathic being to serve if the illithids it works for die. Placing it within a true dragon results in the unspeakably powerful gribbly horror that is the Brainstealer Dragon, whose psychic might is only surpassed by the Elder Brain. Put it in a Roper and you get the urophion, a creature with a genius level intellect whose talents are wasted on sentry duty due to racism (but with their slow, slow, slow move speed they can't do much of anything else). Implanting one in a [[Svirfneblin]] usually kills both the tadpole and its host, but if it survives the result is a mozgriken, a small shapechanging creature with no mouth and only three tentacles, a trait that forces them to feed only on brain fluids and earns them no small amount of abuse from true illithids. The tadpoles typically placed within lizardfolk are more bellicose than their kin, and form the Tzakand- creatures similar to lizardfolk save for the two acid-spitting tentacles emerging from their heads that become fanatically loyal to the first illithid they see. If a tadpole is placed into a [[Chuul]], the tadpole dies, but the Chuul is changed into a creature called an uchuulon, or a slime chuul, which is like a chuul, but slimier.

If a tadpole is not placed into a host and is placed in the wild (which normally happens only in spawning pools whose Elder Brain is dead, as it eats all tadpoles that do not undergo ceremorphosis), it will eventually eat and grow into a gigantic fucking psychic worm of doom called the neothelid (think the dune sand worm, only quite a bit smaller and with tentacles and head asploding psychic powers) with only minimal sentience- that is, unless it eats a sentient creature. Regular Mind Flayers consider it highly taboo to speak about neothelids (probably because neothelids remind the illithids too much of their "natural" state which their progeny would devolve into, were it not for the availability of suitable hosts their tadpoles could Ceremorph), and to actually create one is outright forbidden. Oddly, neothelids are ''not'' considered Product Identity by Wizards of the Coast, possibly because "giant slimy worm that spits acid and shoots mind bullets" would not have been copyrightable. No word on whether neolithids ever develop the capacity to birth tadpoles of their own.

One out of a hundred or so tadpoles will take twice as long to become ready for ceremorphosis. These tadpoles will create ulitharids when implanted into a host. Ulitharids are large sized and have two extra long tentacles and much more powerful psionic abilities. They also live for a lot longer than normal mind flayers. Sadly, the only statistics for ulitharids are for ulitharid tadpole/human combinations, which is a disappointment since an ulitharid brainstealer dragon would have been fuck-awesome.

Elder brains are created via a process that varies from edition to edition (in those editions that elaborate on the process at all, that is). In some editions all ulitharids that survive long enough eventually morph into one. In others it happens when a bunch of deceased mind flayer brains are dumped into a single pool filled with a briny solution; these brains will merge and eventually become alive and turn into a CR 25 [[TPK]]ing horror. There is also an idea that elder brains were created by the Illithid god Ilsensine, who performed ceremorphosis on some lesser gods or demigods. One of them, called the "Illithid God-Brain," is even trapped on [[Ravenloft]] and rules over an Illithid colony named Bluetspur, with the official backstory left open as to why one of these alien monstrousities would ever earn the place of a [[Darklord]] on that benighted plane, save that it must have done something atrocious even by Illithid standards.

A rare few Illithids who end up mastering actual arcane magic instead of psionics opt to become [[Lich|Liches]], named [[Alhoon]]s or Illithiliches, since Elder Brains can't absorb magical abilities from the brain of an Illithid mage and magical talent (unless it's that of a Cleric to Ilsenine, see below) is looked down on in Illithid society. These squid-faced liches are extremely dangerous examples of psionic undead and can still rip your brain from your skull despite having no need to consume brains after the transition to undeath, with no explanation being given for how they still continue to secrete the biocorrosive slime needed to soften the flesh and bone of the skull to allow for easy extraction of living brains while undead (and thus having no metabolism to speak of).

Even more rare than Alhoons are Illithid [[Vampire|vampires]], who are created by unknown means. Unlike Alhoons, Ilithid vampires still need to consume brains to survive, plus retain the thirst for blood that vampires are cursed with. The process that turns them into vampires also affects their brains, as the majority of their intellect is replaced with feral instincts and a savage cunning streak. Fifth edition gives us more on their lore by having them be the servants of the Elder Brain overlord of [[Demiplane of Dread#Bluetspur|Bluetspur]], created by infecting Illithid tadpoles with vampirism before implantation. These creatures then go out into the world to complete their only mission: draining cerebral fluid from sapient creatures. Once this objective is fulfilled, they return to the Elder Brain's pool, where they are then dissolved into the briny fluid, releasing the cerebral fluid which is used to stave off the dark lord's degeneration. Despite all this, vampiric mind flayers are (rightly) considered by their living brethren to be abominations.

The fifth edition adventure [[Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden]] introduced two more Illithid variants. A gnome ceremorph is an illithid created from a gnome host that failed to completely change into an illithid and so retains some of the physical and mental traits of a [[gnome]], making them shorter than a regular illithid, but talented at invention. They wield laser pistols and can be any allignment. A gnome squidling is an pathetic and [[Dawww|kind of adorable]] variant of the gnome ceremorph that came out horrifically wrong with a stunted body, an oversized head, big eyes, and a pair of tentacles that are way too long. They have to use levitation to move around and their mind blast attack is replaced with a much weaker mind tickle attack. Their lack of intelligence makes them unaligned.

==Illithid Society==
[[File:Elder Brain 5e.png|thumb|right|300px|An elder brain in his pimped-out floating vat]]
Illithids function as a hive mind, serving the Elder Brain. Other than maintaining the Elder Brain, the day-to-day duties of the average illithid consist of evil science and making cheeky wood burnings. The purpose of these wood burnings is an inextricable mystery, as they seem to disappear shortly after their completion. They can make Brain Golems out of buds from said queen-like Elder Brain, which are exactly what they sound like and exactly as retarded as you would think. Even the Illithids and the Elder Brain itself know how impractical this can be, and would prefer to use any other type of golem instead. The Illithids live for the fact that after they die, their brains, and thus their minds, will be merged with the Elder Brain after death. This is, of course, complete and utter bullshit, as the Elder Brain just eats their knowledge and discards everything else (although pretty much nobody in-universe aside from the elder brains themselves is aware of this). Elder Brains discourage studying magic too much because Elder Brains can't eat a mind flayer's magical abilities, though they can eat a mind flayer's knowledge of psionics (if it ever took levels in Psion, Erudite, Wilder, or what have you.) Below the Elder Brain on the mind flayer hierarchy are the Brainstealer Dragons (very rare because it's notoriously difficult to restrain a true dragon) and the Ulitharids.

The mind flayers have one deity they pay respects to in Illsensine, who did not create them. Perhaps to make up for the fact that Illsensine is the only Mind Flayer God, Illsensine is a very powerful rank 20 greater deity who omnoms the knowledge of everyone the instant they die. The Mind Flayers don't exactly worship Illsensine per se, they just respect it for its great knowledge, and Illsensine returns the favor by considering Mind Flayers to be the only worthy species in the multiverse. This is not to say that there are no Mind Flayer clerics to Illsensine, because said clerics of Illsensine do indeed exist, but their numbers are rather small relative to say the number of Dwarven clerics of Moradin, however; Mind Flayer communities have an exception to their rule of "don't study magic too much" for the Clerics of Illsensine, and in fact greatly respect these clerics and leave them to their business.

The mind flayers used to have another god called Maanzecorian, but Tenebrous (actually Orcus, it's a long story) used the last word on him, so his head asploded.

Some illithids spend their time finding ways to put out the sun, because they hate that bright light shit. Unfortunately for them, putting out a 1,392,000+ kilometer ball of ungodly hot hydrogen and helium is nigh on impossible (unless your name is [[Elder Evils#Father Llymic|Father Llymic]].) Most other Illithids think that these illithids are wasting their time when it's common knowledge that all they have to do is wait many, many billions of years for the sun to eventually puff up and die. And it goes without saying putting out the sun would indirectly eliminate their food source as well.

===Creeds===
Illithid communities are governed by a group of representatives called an Elder Concord, while the Elder Brain acts like the president. These representatives come from the various creeds or factions of illithid culture. Each creed has different beliefs about the best path towards taking over the universe. The symbols of each creeds are squares containing six horizontal bars that are either solid or split in two.
* The Creatives devote themselves to advancing illithid society though scientific and psionic research and invention.
* The Awaiters believe in [[Just As Planned|long term planning]] and avoid making rash decisions.
* The Possessors think hording wealth and resources through trade with other races is the best path to power.
* The Tamers work to build up the illithid's military strength so they can dominate the universe through force.
* The Thorough Biters have a philosophy of learning through failure, making them more humble that most other illithids.
* The Nourishers promote the interest of maintaining the community's supply of thralls.
* The Abysmal feel that the best way to dominate other races is through the power of terror.
* The Influencers specialize in collecting intelligence and misleading their enemies through infiltration and spying.
* The Darkeners, the dudes who think they can find a way to extinguish suns.
* The Gatherers want to consolidate the illithid race into larger, more powerful communities instead of many small disparate ones.
* The Arisers say that illithids shouldn't stay in darkness and so they develop ways for them to work in daylight and make plans for conquering the surface.
* The Venerators are the worshipers of the illithid god [[Ilsensine]].

* The Loretakers are a minor creed, but they are important as the source of the Thoon:

Some Loretaker mind flayers (possibly) went to the [[Far Realm]] and apparently encountered something called Thoon. However, the exact nature of Thoon is unknown even to the mind flayers themselves, so whether Thoon is a god, an aberration, a philosophy, or something else entirely is open to interpretation. In any case, the encounter with Thoon changed these particular illithids completely, they're a lot more irrational and unpredictable (NE instead of LE), make use of a lot of really weird constructs and altered humanoids (and employ a variant of the mind flayer that trades the ability to control minds for ninja powers), and for some fucking insane reason a CR 25 Elder brain came back as a CR 15 entity that's totally batshit insane. Oh, and they also seek to gather [[Psion|quintessence]] for some reason.

== 3.5e stats ==

Is this copyrighted? Who cares? It's not like anyone reads this site anyway.

::— +2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +8 Intelligence, +6 Wisdom, +6 Charisma.
::— A mind flayer’s base land speed is 30 feet.
::— Darkvision out to 60 feet.
::— Racial Hit Dice: A mind flayer begins with eight levels of aberration, which provide 8d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +6, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +2, Ref +2, and Will +6.
::— Racial Skills: A mind flayer’s aberration levels give it skill points equal to 11 × (2 + Int modifier). Its class skills are Bluff, Concentration, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (any), Listen, Move Silently, and Spot.
::— Racial Feats: A mind flayer’s aberration levels give it three feats.
::— +3 natural armor bonus.
::— Natural Weapons: 4 tentacles (1d4).
::— Special Attacks: Mind blast, psionics, improved grab, extract.
::— Special Qualities: Spell resistance equal to 25 +class levels, telepathy 100 ft.
::— Automatic Languages: Common, Undercommon. Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Aquan, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Infernal, Terran.
::— Favored Class: Wizard.
::— Level adjustment +7.

==Monstergirls?==
[[File:Illitiddies.png|right|300px|thumb|With assets like those, who cares if she has an octopus for a head?]]
{{Monstergirls}}

Now, you'd see the face on these things and the how of their reproduction and figure that this has to be one species that can't get the [[monstergirls]] treatment? ...But then you realize that they have tentacles, and you suddenly remember that Japan exists. "Feminized" illithids, which are basically mind-flayers with boobs and often skimpily clad, occasionally pop up in monstergirl-related threads on /tg/, usually under the same joking context as the [[thri-kreen]]/[[xixchil]].

More importantly than that, Mindflayers are one of the "Aberrant" monstergirls that show up in the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]]. Formally considered a relative of the [[scylla]], they take the form of tall, curvy, slime-dripping women with tentacles for hair and a Morticia Addams-like dress implied to actually be tentacle-legs. It also (good taste) has an ultra-high collar. They are ultra-perverted hedonists, using their [[psionics]] to brainwash victims into playmates of their obscene lusts, and are reputated to eventually transform men they take as their lovers mentally and physically into grotesque, squid-like tentacle-beasts, which spend the rest of their lives fastened to the mindflayer's hips and shoving her genitals full of tentacle-penises.

Later sources clarified that the man in question can freely transform back and forth between squid-form and human form, but that the mindflayers are uncharacteristically shy about public displays of affection when their lovers ''aren't'' tentacled, so this is only done in private. And they usually use their mind-powers to help friends engage in emotionally-resonant roleplay when in societies with other monsters.

==See Also==
* [[Aberration]]
* [[Githzerai]]
* [[Githyanki]]
* [[Far Realm]]
* [[Unified_Setting/Illithid]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Mind flayer Blackmoor.jpg|The ''very first'' illustration of a mind flayer, in ''D&D Supplement II: Blackmoor''.
Mind flayer 1e.jpg|1e
Mind Flayer MCv1.jpg|2e
Illithid MM 2e.png
Mind flayer 3e.jpg|3e
Mind flayer 4e.jpg|4e
Mind flayer 5e.jpg|5e
Mind Blast.jpg|The Illithid's Mind Blast power in use
Illithiad cover.jpg|The cover image of the Illithiad
Pirate illithid 5e.jpg|Yes, that is an [[awesome|Illithid space pirate captain]]. Yes, he is canon.
Illithid eating.jpg
Mindflayer skull.jpg| Mindflayer skull
Nihiloor 5e.jpg|[[Intellect Devourer]]s are like dogs that can teleport into and eat the brains of your enemies.
Mind flayer funerary jar 3e.jpg
Mind flayer of Thoon 3e.jpg|Illithids of Thoon would rather get swole
Illithid savant 3e.jpg| Illithid [[savant]]. Mind blasts are mid-range, don't you know.
Illithid Body Tamer.jpg|Spiked tentacles!
Mindflayer nom.jpg
Underdark cover.jpg
Mind flayer Dragon 313.jpg|[[Dragon Magazine]] #313
Illithid MC Ravenloft.jpg
Yaggol.jpg|A Yaggol
Vesuvian illithid MA.jpg
Illithid dissection MA.jpg
Adult illithid MA.jpg
Arcane illithid MA.jpg|Arcane illithid
Psionic illithid MA.jpg|Psionic illithid
Illithid mind blast MA.jpg
Illithid astral MA.jpg
Psionic circuitry MA.jpg|"It's not magic runes, Mom, It's ''psionic circuitry''!"
Illithid perils of the warp MA.jpg
Illithid partialism MA.jpg|An illithid afflicted with partialism, wherein some of the personality of its last meal takes over.
Illithid praying MA.jpg
Illithid thrall MA.jpg
Illithid wrestling MA.jpg| Illithid wrestling. why are a race known for mind over matter so physically fit?
Illithid web MA.jpg
Brain eating ceremony MA.jpg
Thrall pokemon battle MA.jpg|Thrall pokemon battle
Illithid undead MA.jpg|Illithid undead
Illithid vs Githyanki MA.jpg
Illithid bathhouse MA.jpg
Space illithid MA.jpg
Illithid instrument MA.jpg
Illithid inventor.jpg
Illithid dampsuit.jpg
Illithid boss.jpg
Illithid tentacle knives.jpg
Monsters illithid.jpg

Illithid Night Below 1.jpg
Qualith MA.jpg|An example of [[Qualith]], Illithid braille. Designed to be read with the mouthparts.
</gallery>

<big>ulitharid</big>
<gallery>
Monsters ulitharid.jpg
</gallery>

<big>Illithid vampire</big>
<gallery>
Illithid vampire MC Ravenloft.jpg|An illithid vampire
Illithid vampire MA.jpg
Monsters vampire illithid.jpg
Vampiric Mind Flayer 5e.png
</gallery>

<big>Nautiloid</big>
<gallery>
Nautiloid 2e.jpg
Nautiloid MA.jpg
</gallery>

<big>Elder brain</big>
<gallery>
Elder brain MA.jpg|Elder brain
Brain pool MA.jpg
Elder concord MA.jpg
</gallery>
<big>Ceremorph tadpoles</big>
<gallery>
Big tadpole MA.jpg|Ceremorph tadpole, an Illithid's base form
Monsters tadpole.jpg
Monsters tadpoles.jpg
</gallery>
<big>Neothelid</big>
<gallery>
Neothelid MA.jpg|Neothelid, when an Illithid tadpole reaches its "natural" maturity.
Neothelid 3e.jpg|3e
Neothelid into the darklands.png|PF
Neothelid 5e.jpg|5e, where D&D actually copied a design from PF and not the other way around
Neothelid PF 2e.png|PF 2e
</gallery>
<big>Ceremorphed thralls</big>
<gallery>
Urophion MA.jpg|Urophion (Ceremorphed [[roper]])
Monsters urophion.jpg|Urophion
Cranium rat MA.jpg|Cranium rats
Kezreth Dragon 255.jpg|Kezreth
Tzakandi Dragon 255.jpg|Tzakandi (Ceremorphed [[lizardfolk]])
Mozgriken Dragon 255.jpg|Mozgriken (Ceremorphed [[gnome]] infused with [[Shadowfell]] energy)
Gnome Squidling .jpeg| Gnome Squidling, why using gnomes are not worth the Tadpole
Gnome Ceremorph.jpeg| Gnome Ceremorph, that 1 in a million chance something doesn't go wrong.
Abductor Dragon 255.jpg|Abductor
</gallery>

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Monsters]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Monsters]]

Illithid

2021-05-31T00:32:51Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:1CB8:28D5:11D3:C04C: /* Illithid Mating Practices */

Illithid

2021-05-31T00:24:44Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:1CB8:28D5:11D3:C04C: /* Illithid Mating Practices */

[[file:Illithid.jpg|thumb|right|Time to slurp brains]]

'''Illithids''' (also called '''Mind Flayers''') are cool, and by cool, I mean totally sweet. They look like tiny little, skinnier, wingless [[Cthulhu]]s, wear black robes with high collars and eat brains. Plus they all have psionic powers and are so super-smart even their breakfast is [[JUST AS PLANNED]]! They would be totally [[Mary Sue]], except for the fact that they are [[ Edgy|so brain-damagingly evil it makes them awesome]] instead of lame. (There was one good one in the [[Book of Exalted Deeds]], but nobody gives a crap about her, so let's move on.) Their psionic version is much better than their Monster Manual version by virtue of increased versatility. According to the book [[Lords of Madness]] they came from THE FUTURE.

The Illithid is considered "Product Identity" by Wizards of the Coast and as such is not released under its [[Open Gaming License]]. However, "half-Cthulhu creeps" and "squidface brainsuckers" are totally okay, so go nuts.

The illithid first appeared in the official newsletter of [[TSR]], The Strategic Review #1. They then appeared in the Eldritch Wizardry supplement for Original Dungeons & Dragons. Since then, they have have appeared the first [[Monster Manual]] of every edition. In second edition they got a whole book to themselves called The Illithiad, and in 3.5 they got a chapter in [[Lords of Madness]].

[[Fiend Folio]] in describing the [[githyanki]] (and [[githzerai]]) retconned that the 'flayers have enslaved humans - or will enslave them - and that they escaped/will-escape into a scourge perhaps even worse than they are/were/will-be. (Grammar gets kind of fuzzy with time diddlers.)

[[Dragonlance]] in a rare diversion into sword-n'-sorcery mooted a subrace of "degenerate" illithids, the Yaggol. These have retreated into Taladas' jungle, losing all of their psionic powers except for Mind Blast. On the upside, they are much stronger, stand 7 feet tall, and have chameleon-like skin.

Fun fact: in the city of Stormreach, in the [[Eberron]] campaign setting, there is an Illithid who just hangs around near a garden and engages in perfectly normal, honest, and voluntary business transactions with the humanoids and other races that inhabit the city. And by "normal" we mean people pay him to reprogram their brains and alter their memories. Why spend four years studying a new language when you can learn it by spending four minutes letting Fred gnaw on your brain? Oh, yeah, [https://ddowiki.com/page/Fred his name is Fred]. It's a very common Mind Flayer name. Point is, Mind Flayers don't just compulsively kill/consume humanoids on sight like the xenomorphs from the Alien movies; they're perfectly capable of being normal, well-integrated members of surface-dwelling, non-evil, humanoid societies.

==Illithid Physiology==
Illithids consist of... purple, mostly. Just brains and purple.

Their alien physiology has stumped our crack (addict) biology team even after years of scientific scrutiny. It is thought that if we could crack the mystery of why these skinny creatures subsist on a diet of nothing but fat and calcium, we would be closer to... something.

Look, just look up "aberrant" in the dictionary. We can't offer you much for the time being.

In actuality, Illithid physiology is a moderately altered version of their host organism's body (see mating practices). The brain of the host is replaced by a tadpole thing, and the digestive tract is altered to aid in the consumption of brains and their psychic essence. And of course, they grow tentacles and Sarlaac mouths and lose all of their hair.

Explained somewhat in 3.5's Tome of Darkness, the resulting creature is entirely conscious of its organs and body, as opposed to being autonomous. There is a tiny part of the creature's powerful mind constantly remembering to make sure the heart beats, and regulating digestion. Things like that. So they eat normally, and extract maximum nutrition from it. The method of creating an illithid destroys the brain, which includes all those hormone producing glands in the skull that keep a person healthy. This is why they need brains to keep their body from decaying. The memories and thoughts consumed are... well "flavor" to put it in the least disgusting way possible. These memories, thoughts, and emotions are just as necessary as the hormones contained within the brain for an illithid that consumes only the brains of unintelligent creatures or animals will regress into a ravenous beast, actually pretty similarly to the [[Kroot]].

There is apparently a cult of illithid monks/clerics known as The THOON (yes all caps) who worship a god or philosophy also known as THOON (see below for more on THOON and The THOON). They minmax their bodies as well as their minds. The elder brains hate them. They've been out of circulation since 4e landed. But if you need a mastermind who can roundhouse kick the fighter through a wall after the party blitzes through his mooks, look no further.

For the morbidly curious about what'd happen if you ate an illithid's brain, according to 5e's Volo's Guide to Monsters, nothing good. Apparently, each bite into an illithid's brain releases an intense flood of memories that the illithid developed/consumed in its life, so strong it'll probably drive the typical consumer insane. As to how [[Elminster]] knows this, he refuses to explain.

==Illithid Mating Practices==
[[File:Ceremorphosis drow 3e.jpg|thumb|right|300px|This drow is in for a Bad Time.]]
[[File:Tadpole entering host.png|thumb|left|300px|NO NO NO NO NO]]
This morbid fascination of yours is going to get you killed one of these days, you know that?

Anyway, if you've ever seen that Bruce Campbell movie ''Mindwarp,'' with those burrowing leech things, you've got a pretty good grasp on what to expect. Consider this your warning.

Twice in an illithid's life, it will go to the pool containing the mind flayer community's Elder Brain (though any briny pool will do), and literally vomit a huge amount of tadpoles out of their mouth (they're asexual like that.) These tadpoles will be nurtured (though the elder brain will eat some of the tadpoles, who themselves engage in cannibalism) over the course of ten years (20 for ulitharids) and once they are ready, they are taken from their pool to undergo Ceremorphosis.

An unlucky creature will be restrained as the tadpole is brought to it, and the mind flayer carrying the tadpole will place it within the most direct route to the brain (typically the ear or nose, which makes no sense since neither of those connects to the brain, but the eye socket does so it could still work) and the tadpole will quickly burrow its way through the skull and into the brain where it will devour the host organism's brain over the course of a week as it alters the host with mind flayer traits. Not all tadpoles are able to integrate into the host body to the same degree, such that sometimes the resulting illithid is left with the impression of piloting its body rather than of being it. Very, very rarely the transformation process itself partially fails and no external changes are brought about (though it will still internally be a mind flayer and need to eat brains) in these cases the new mind flayer is used as an infiltrator for obvious reasons. Even rarer, to the point where it's practically considered an urban legend is the opposite, where the host undergoes the full transformation, but their original mind remains intact and in control of their newfound powers. Mind flayers are scared shitless of these creatures, referred to collectively as The Adversary. Not only are they perfectly capable of blending in flawlessly with mind flayer society, they are almost certainly in the vengeance-seeking mindset, and in the perfect position to bring it all crashing down on their tormentor's heads.

When the process is complete, no form of magic or psionics, excluding wish and reincarnate and true resurrection, can bring back the victim, but even then the mind flayer will still be alive. Aside from that, nothing can reverse the effects; there is no way to bring back the original host, so he/she/they is for all intents and purposes, dead forever. Though the newborn mind flayer will be physically mature, it will take some time to mentally mature (though its community will be more than willing to assist it in this manner).

If the host is any species besides a human, the result is a half-mindflayer, whose template can be found in the Fiend Folio. Special cases are present though; placing a mind flayer tadpole into a beholder results in a mindwitness (essentially replace four of the eyestalks with large thick tentacles and the rays of doom with psionics), a docile creature whose main role is to facilitate telepathic communications. A Mind Witness will look for another telepathic being to serve if the illithids it works for die. Placing it within a true dragon results in the unspeakably powerful gribbly horror that is the Brainstealer Dragon, whose psychic might is only surpassed by the Elder Brain. Put it in a Roper and you get the urophion, a creature with a genius level intellect whose talents are wasted on sentry duty due to racism (but with their slow, slow, slow move speed they can't do much of anything else). Implanting one in a [[Svirfneblin]] usually kills both the tadpole and its host, but if it survives the result is a mozgriken, a small shapechanging creature with no mouth and only three tentacles, a trait that forces them to feed only on brain fluids and earns them no small amount of abuse from true illithids. The tadpoles typically placed within lizardfolk are more bellicose than their kin, and form the Tzakand- creatures similar to lizardfolk save for the two acid-spitting tentacles emerging from their heads that become fanatically loyal to the first illithid they see. If a tadpole is placed into a [[Chuul]], the tadpole dies, but the Chuul is changed into a creature called an uchuulon, or a slime chuul, which is like a chuul, but slimier.

If a tadpole is not placed into a host and is placed in the wild (which normally happens only in spawning pools whose Elder Brain is dead, as it eats all tadpoles that do not undergo ceremorphosis), it will eventually eat and grow into a gigantic fucking psychic worm of doom called the neothelid (think the dune sand worm, only quite a bit smaller and with tentacles and head asploding psychic powers) with only minimal sentience- that is, unless it eats a sentient creature. Regular Mind Flayers consider it highly taboo to speak about neothelids (probably because neothelids remind the illithids too much of their "natural" state which their progeny would devolve into, were it not for the availability of suitable hosts their tadpoles could Ceremorph), and to actually create one is outright forbidden. Oddly, neothelids are ''not'' considered Product Identity by Wizards of the Coast, possibly because "giant slimy worm that spits acid and shoots mind bullets" would not have been copyrightable. No word on whether neolithids ever develop the capacity to birth tadpoles of their own.

One out of a hundred or so tadpoles will take twice as long to become ready for ceremorphosis. These tadpoles will create ulitharids when implanted into a host. Ulitharids are large sized and have two extra long tentacles and much more powerful psionic abilities. They also live for a lot longer than normal mind flayers. Sadly, the only statistics for ulitharids are for ulitharid tadpole/human combinations, which is a disappointment since an ulitharid brainstealer dragon would have been fuck-awesome.

Elder brains are created via a process that varies from edition to edition (in those editions that elaborate on the process at all, that is). In some editions all ulitharids that survive long enough eventually morph into one. In others it happens when a bunch of deceased mind flayer brains are dumped into a single pool filled with a briny solution; these brains will merge and eventually become alive and turn into a CR 25 [[TPK]]ing horror. There is also an idea that elder brains were created by the Illithid god Ilsensine, who performed ceremorphosis on some lesser gods or demigods. One of them, called the "Illithid God-Brain," is even trapped on [[Ravenloft]] and rules over an Illithid colony named Bluetspur, with the official backstory left open as to why one of these alien monstrousities would ever earn the place of a [[Darklord]] on that benighted plane, save that it must have done something atrocious even by Illithid standards.

A rare few Illithids who end up mastering actual arcane magic instead of psionics opt to become [[Lich|Liches]], named [[Alhoon]]s or Illithiliches, since Elder Brains can't absorb magical abilities from the brain of an Illithid mage and magical talent (unless it's that of a Cleric to Ilsenine, see below) is looked down on in Illithid society. These squid-faced liches are extremely dangerous examples of psionic undead and can still rip your brain from your skull despite having no need to consume brains after the transition to undeath, with no explanation being given for how they still continue to secrete the biocorrosive slime needed to soften the flesh and bone of the skull to allow for easy extraction of living brains while undead (and thus having no metabolism to speak of).

Even more rare than Alhoons are Illithid [[Vampire|vampires]], who are created by unknown means. Unlike Alhoons, Ilithid vampires still need to consume brains to survive, plus retain the thirst for blood that vampires are cursed with. The process that turns them into vampires also affects their brains, as the majority of their intellect is replaced with feral instincts and a savage cunning streak. Fifth edition gives us more on their lore by having them be the servants of the Elder Brain overlord of [[Ravenloft|Bluetspur]], created by infecting Illithid tadpoles with vampirism before implantation. These creatures then go out into the world to complete their only mission: draining cerebral fluid from sapient creatures. Once this objective is fulfilled, they return to the Elder Brain's pool, where they are then dissolved into the briny fluid, releasing the cerebral fluid which is used to stave off the dark lord's degeneration. Despite all this, vampiric mind flayers are (rightly) considered by their living brethren to be abominations.

The fifth edition adventure [[Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden]] introduced two more Illithid variants. A gnome ceremorph is an illithid created from a gnome host that failed to completely change into an illithid and so retains some of the physical and mental traits of a [[gnome]], making them shorter than a regular illithid, but talented at invention. They wield laser pistols and can be any allignment. A gnome squidling is an pathetic and [[Dawww|kind of adorable]] variant of the gnome ceremorph that came out horrifically wrong with a stunted body, an oversized head, big eyes, and a pair of tentacles that are way too long. They have to use levitation to move around and their mind blast attack is replaced with a much weaker mind tickle attack. Their lack of intelligence makes them unaligned.

==Illithid Society==
[[File:Elder Brain 5e.png|thumb|right|300px|An elder brain in his pimped-out floating vat]]
Illithids function as a hive mind, serving the Elder Brain. Other than maintaining the Elder Brain, the day-to-day duties of the average illithid consist of evil science and making cheeky wood burnings. The purpose of these wood burnings is an inextricable mystery, as they seem to disappear shortly after their completion. They can make Brain Golems out of buds from said queen-like Elder Brain, which are exactly what they sound like and exactly as retarded as you would think. Even the Illithids and the Elder Brain itself know how impractical this can be, and would prefer to use any other type of golem instead. The Illithids live for the fact that after they die, their brains, and thus their minds, will be merged with the Elder Brain after death. This is, of course, complete and utter bullshit, as the Elder Brain just eats their knowledge and discards everything else (although pretty much nobody in-universe aside from the elder brains themselves is aware of this). Elder Brains discourage studying magic too much because Elder Brains can't eat a mind flayer's magical abilities, though they can eat a mind flayer's knowledge of psionics (if it ever took levels in Psion, Erudite, Wilder, or what have you.) Below the Elder Brain on the mind flayer hierarchy are the Brainstealer Dragons (very rare because it's notoriously difficult to restrain a true dragon) and the Ulitharids.

The mind flayers have one deity they pay respects to in Illsensine, who did not create them. Perhaps to make up for the fact that Illsensine is the only Mind Flayer God, Illsensine is a very powerful rank 20 greater deity who omnoms the knowledge of everyone the instant they die. The Mind Flayers don't exactly worship Illsensine per se, they just respect it for its great knowledge, and Illsensine returns the favor by considering Mind Flayers to be the only worthy species in the multiverse. This is not to say that there are no Mind Flayer clerics to Illsensine, because said clerics of Illsensine do indeed exist, but their numbers are rather small relative to say the number of Dwarven clerics of Moradin, however; Mind Flayer communities have an exception to their rule of "don't study magic too much" for the Clerics of Illsensine, and in fact greatly respect these clerics and leave them to their business.

The mind flayers used to have another god called Maanzecorian, but Tenebrous (actually Orcus, it's a long story) used the last word on him, so his head asploded.

Some illithids spend their time finding ways to put out the sun, because they hate that bright light shit. Unfortunately for them, putting out a 1,392,000+ kilometer ball of ungodly hot hydrogen and helium is nigh on impossible (unless your name is [[Elder Evils#Father Llymic|Father Llymic]].) Most other Illithids think that these illithids are wasting their time when it's common knowledge that all they have to do is wait many, many billions of years for the sun to eventually puff up and die. And it goes without saying putting out the sun would indirectly eliminate their food source as well.

===Creeds===
Illithid communities are governed by a group of representatives called an Elder Concord, while the Elder Brain acts like the president. These representatives come from the various creeds or factions of illithid culture. Each creed has different beliefs about the best path towards taking over the universe. The symbols of each creeds are squares containing six horizontal bars that are either solid or split in two.
* The Creatives devote themselves to advancing illithid society though scientific and psionic research and invention.
* The Awaiters believe in [[Just As Planned|long term planning]] and avoid making rash decisions.
* The Possessors think hording wealth and resources through trade with other races is the best path to power.
* The Tamers work to build up the illithid's military strength so they can dominate the universe through force.
* The Thorough Biters have a philosophy of learning through failure, making them more humble that most other illithids.
* The Nourishers promote the interest of maintaining the community's supply of thralls.
* The Abysmal feel that the best way to dominate other races is through the power of terror.
* The Influencers specialize in collecting intelligence and misleading their enemies through infiltration and spying.
* The Darkeners, the dudes who think they can find a way to extinguish suns.
* The Gatherers want to consolidate the illithid race into larger, more powerful communities instead of many small disparate ones.
* The Arisers say that illithids shouldn't stay in darkness and so they develop ways for them to work in daylight and make plans for conquering the surface.
* The Venerators are the worshipers of the illithid god [[Ilsensine]].

* The Loretakers are a minor creed, but they are important as the source of the Thoon:

Some Loretaker mind flayers (possibly) went to the [[Far Realm]] and apparently encountered something called Thoon. However, the exact nature of Thoon is unknown even to the mind flayers themselves, so whether Thoon is a god, an aberration, a philosophy, or something else entirely is open to interpretation. In any case, the encounter with Thoon changed these particular illithids completely, they're a lot more irrational and unpredictable (NE instead of LE), make use of a lot of really weird constructs and altered humanoids (and employ a variant of the mind flayer that trades the ability to control minds for ninja powers), and for some fucking insane reason a CR 25 Elder brain came back as a CR 15 entity that's totally batshit insane. Oh, and they also seek to gather [[Psion|quintessence]] for some reason.

== 3.5e stats ==

Is this copyrighted? Who cares? It's not like anyone reads this site anyway.

::— +2 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +8 Intelligence, +6 Wisdom, +6 Charisma.
::— A mind flayer’s base land speed is 30 feet.
::— Darkvision out to 60 feet.
::— Racial Hit Dice: A mind flayer begins with eight levels of aberration, which provide 8d8 Hit Dice, a base attack bonus of +6, and base saving throw bonuses of Fort +2, Ref +2, and Will +6.
::— Racial Skills: A mind flayer’s aberration levels give it skill points equal to 11 × (2 + Int modifier). Its class skills are Bluff, Concentration, Hide, Intimidate, Knowledge (any), Listen, Move Silently, and Spot.
::— Racial Feats: A mind flayer’s aberration levels give it three feats.
::— +3 natural armor bonus.
::— Natural Weapons: 4 tentacles (1d4).
::— Special Attacks: Mind blast, psionics, improved grab, extract.
::— Special Qualities: Spell resistance equal to 25 +class levels, telepathy 100 ft.
::— Automatic Languages: Common, Undercommon. Bonus Languages: Abyssal, Aquan, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Infernal, Terran.
::— Favored Class: Wizard.
::— Level adjustment +7.

==Monstergirls?==
[[File:Illitiddies.png|right|300px|thumb|With assets like those, who cares if she has an octopus for a head?]]
{{Monstergirls}}

Now, you'd see the face on these things and the how of their reproduction and figure that this has to be one species that can't get the [[monstergirls]] treatment? ...But then you realize that they have tentacles, and you suddenly remember that Japan exists. "Feminized" illithids, which are basically mind-flayers with boobs and often skimpily clad, occasionally pop up in monstergirl-related threads on /tg/, usually under the same joking context as the [[thri-kreen]]/[[xixchil]].

More importantly than that, Mindflayers are one of the "Aberrant" monstergirls that show up in the [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]]. Formally considered a relative of the [[scylla]], they take the form of tall, curvy, slime-dripping women with tentacles for hair and a Morticia Addams-like dress implied to actually be tentacle-legs. It also (good taste) has an ultra-high collar. They are ultra-perverted hedonists, using their [[psionics]] to brainwash victims into playmates of their obscene lusts, and are reputated to eventually transform men they take as their lovers mentally and physically into grotesque, squid-like tentacle-beasts, which spend the rest of their lives fastened to the mindflayer's hips and shoving her genitals full of tentacle-penises.

Later sources clarified that the man in question can freely transform back and forth between squid-form and human form, but that the mindflayers are uncharacteristically shy about public displays of affection when their lovers ''aren't'' tentacled, so this is only done in private. And they usually use their mind-powers to help friends engage in emotionally-resonant roleplay when in societies with other monsters.

==See Also==
* [[Aberration]]
* [[Githzerai]]
* [[Githyanki]]
* [[Far Realm]]
* [[Unified_Setting/Illithid]]

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Mind flayer Blackmoor.jpg|The ''very first'' illustration of a mind flayer, in ''D&D Supplement II: Blackmoor''.
Mind flayer 1e.jpg|1e
Mind Flayer MCv1.jpg|2e
Illithid MM 2e.png
Mind flayer 3e.jpg|3e
Mind flayer 4e.jpg|4e
Mind flayer 5e.jpg|5e
Mind Blast.jpg|The Illithid's Mind Blast power in use
Illithiad cover.jpg|The cover image of the Illithiad
Pirate illithid 5e.jpg|Yes, that is an [[awesome|Illithid space pirate captain]]. Yes, he is canon.
Illithid eating.jpg
Mindflayer skull.jpg| Mindflayer skull
Nihiloor 5e.jpg|[[Intellect Devourer]]s are like dogs that can teleport into and eat the brains of your enemies.
Mind flayer funerary jar 3e.jpg
Mind flayer of Thoon 3e.jpg|Illithids of Thoon would rather get swole
Illithid savant 3e.jpg| Illithid [[savant]]. Mind blasts are mid-range, don't you know.
Illithid Body Tamer.jpg|Spiked tentacles!
Mindflayer nom.jpg
Underdark cover.jpg
Mind flayer Dragon 313.jpg|[[Dragon Magazine]] #313
Illithid MC Ravenloft.jpg
Yaggol.jpg|A Yaggol
Vesuvian illithid MA.jpg
Illithid dissection MA.jpg
Adult illithid MA.jpg
Arcane illithid MA.jpg|Arcane illithid
Psionic illithid MA.jpg|Psionic illithid
Illithid mind blast MA.jpg
Illithid astral MA.jpg
Psionic circuitry MA.jpg|"It's not magic runes, Mom, It's ''psionic circuitry''!"
Illithid perils of the warp MA.jpg
Illithid partialism MA.jpg|An illithid afflicted with partialism, wherein some of the personality of its last meal takes over.
Illithid praying MA.jpg
Illithid thrall MA.jpg
Illithid wrestling MA.jpg| Illithid wrestling. why are a race known for mind over matter so physically fit?
Illithid web MA.jpg
Brain eating ceremony MA.jpg
Thrall pokemon battle MA.jpg|Thrall pokemon battle
Illithid undead MA.jpg|Illithid undead
Illithid vs Githyanki MA.jpg
Illithid bathhouse MA.jpg
Space illithid MA.jpg
Illithid instrument MA.jpg
Illithid inventor.jpg
Illithid dampsuit.jpg
Illithid boss.jpg
Illithid tentacle knives.jpg
Monsters illithid.jpg

Illithid Night Below 1.jpg
Qualith MA.jpg|An example of [[Qualith]], Illithid braille. Designed to be read with the mouthparts.
</gallery>

<big>ulitharid</big>
<gallery>
Monsters ulitharid.jpg
</gallery>

<big>Illithid vampire</big>
<gallery>
Illithid vampire MC Ravenloft.jpg|An illithid vampire
Illithid vampire MA.jpg
Monsters vampire illithid.jpg
Vampiric Mind Flayer 5e.png
</gallery>

<big>Nautiloid</big>
<gallery>
Nautiloid 2e.jpg
Nautiloid MA.jpg
</gallery>

<big>Elder brain</big>
<gallery>
Elder brain MA.jpg|Elder brain
Brain pool MA.jpg
Elder concord MA.jpg
</gallery>
<big>Ceremorph tadpoles</big>
<gallery>
Big tadpole MA.jpg|Ceremorph tadpole, an Illithid's base form
Monsters tadpole.jpg
Monsters tadpoles.jpg
</gallery>
<big>Neothelid</big>
<gallery>
Neothelid MA.jpg|Neothelid, when an Illithid tadpole reaches its "natural" maturity.
Neothelid 3e.jpg|3e
Neothelid into the darklands.png|PF
Neothelid 5e.jpg|5e, where D&D actually copied a design from PF and not the other way around
Neothelid PF 2e.png|PF 2e
</gallery>
<big>Ceremorphed thralls</big>
<gallery>
Urophion MA.jpg|Urophion (Ceremorphed [[roper]])
Monsters urophion.jpg|Urophion
Cranium rat MA.jpg|Cranium rats
Kezreth Dragon 255.jpg|Kezreth
Tzakandi Dragon 255.jpg|Tzakandi (Ceremorphed [[lizardfolk]])
Mozgriken Dragon 255.jpg|Mozgriken (Ceremorphed [[gnome]] infused with [[Shadowfell]] energy)
Gnome Squidling .jpeg| Gnome Squidling, why using gnomes are not worth the Tadpole
Gnome Ceremorph.jpeg| Gnome Ceremorph, that 1 in a million chance something doesn't go wrong.
Abductor Dragon 255.jpg|Abductor
</gallery>

[[Category:Dungeons & Dragons]][[Category:Monsters]][[Category:Dungeons & Dragons Monsters]]

Khorne Berzerkers

2021-05-31T00:11:51Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:1CB8:28D5:11D3:C04C:

{{heresy}}
[[File:Alex_boyd_khorne_berserker.JPG|thumb|right|WHY AREN'T WE KILLING YET!?]]
{{Topquote|1=Blood for the Blood God! Blood for the Blood God! BLOOD FOR THE BLOODGAWDRARAWRERAR!|2=[https://youtu.be/ZAfPGgzcOVY?t=14s The popular warcry of Berzerkers. Choking included.]}}
{{Topquote|I know what I have become... I am the inside of this world... I taste the gore, and I smell the crying... AND I WANT MORE! I want to bathe in your flesh, I want to savor your fear. I wanna live inside a castle built of your agony, AND I WANT TO CRUMBLE IT WITH AN AXE TO YOUR CAROTID ARTERY!|Krieg, Borderlands 2}}
'''Khorne Berzerkers''' (languagefaggotry note: that ''should'' be Khornate Berzerkers, but "Khorne Berzerkers" is the official title) are [[Space Marines]] dedicated to [[Khorne]], the god of blood, war, and fucking your shit up.

Most Khorne Berzerkers come from the [[World Eaters]] [[Traitor Legion]]. Their [[Primarch]], [[Angron]], decided that his Marines should have partial lobotomies, just like himself. When this was done, the only emotion they could feel was [[Rage|RRRAAAAGGGGEEE]]. As the [[Horus Heresy]] dragged on, the World Eaters would eventually turn to the worship of Khorne, with the Berzerkers leading the way. Of course, they lost, fled to the [[Eye of Terror]], and have spent the past 10,000 years worshiping Khorne the only way they know how: BATTLE, GLORIOUS BATTLE! Some renegades have joined them, but very few Space Marines are angry enough to keep up. They usually hang out in small squads to company to chapter size groups although the bigger formations are always temporary; there is too much RAGE going on in their minds to work together for long, because, after all, they are as likely to spill their comrades blood as an enemy's. A point of contention among them is whether or not a Khornate Berserker is still serving the Blood God if he [[Skub|spills blood using ranged weapons]].

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REGQThf4i80| And now thanks to HMKids they have a very awesome thematic song!]

==Tabletop History==
Berserkers (or ''Berzerkers'' if you prefer) trace their origins back to Rogue Trader and are arguably one of the few units from then to basically survive the retconning rampant throughout other units in the game, largely in terms of fluff and spirit. Their crunch and effectiveness however have varied throughout the editions but they have always been described as angry motherfuckers that have no fear, just all anger - built for close combat exclusively.

===Second Edition===
This is the one neckbeards think happy thoughts about. Frenzied, shitload of attacks, [[chainaxe]]s, kickass weapon skill - mmmmm... Notable here was that these basically ported rules over from Fantasy and the Aspiring Champion could take a Bloodletter's sword for gear. Fun times!

They could also take relatively less Khornate weaponry like Bolters, Meltaguns and Flamers if you're into that sort of thing, you freakin' scumbag.

===Third Edition===
This is where things get confusing. Though 3E nerfed everything when it landed and the Berserkers were no exception, there was a stitch in the rules - just how much strength does an individual Berserker have? Some said 5, some said 6: again, the rules said they had the Mark of Khorne which granted +1S back in the day, but Games Workshop had to point out that this bonus was included in the profile. Regardless, they were stronger and had more attacks than a CSM as well as being fearless. Unfortunately, their signature [[chainaxe]]s were effectively sticks so bummer about that. A quirk with this edition is that if your chaos lord had the Mark of Khorne, you could take these guys in the new troops slot, so that was cool too.

Then the infamous 3.5 book hit and... well, Berserkers actually didn't get blasted into the sky with cheese. They were good sure, but not seriously OP as they were just upgrades for various CSM units. Their [[chainaxe]]s were Ork [[Choppa]]s and the Mark of Khorne bestowed fearlessness, +1 attack and if played in the World Eaters army, lost all options for heavy and special weapons except [[Plasma Pistol|plasma pistols]]. Basically, the Berserkers themselves weren't that great but at this time there were also Berserker bikers, chosen, terminators and possessed, which was pretty fucking cool. Oh, and some of those could take veteran skills, which was almost always Furious Charge because of course it was.

===Fourth Edition===
Aw shucks, well that happened didn't it? No more Berserker anythings but MEQs on foot with no extra sauce and their [[chainaxe]]s are sticks again. However, they got moved to the Troops slot permanently which was cool plus they got a higher WS 5 and Furious Charge. Overall, not bad for a price bump to 21 pts./model but with all the things included, it was actually a bit of a steal from the previous codex. Unfortunately, they were overshadowed by Plague Marines, who were just more survivable for only costing 2 pts./ model more. Berserkers would languish for an edition before getting an update in 6th...

===Sixth Edition===
This is the painful part; they were basically regular Chaos Space Marines with close combat weapons and [[Bolt Pistol|bolt pistols]] (which they use as good clubbing instruments). They retained their higher Weapon Skill, Fearless, and Furious Charge from the last time around, as well as the Mark of Khorne, which now gave them Rage and Counter-Attack. They could hypothetically butcher in melee if they could get there and assuming they had the charge. Their price tag got cut to 19 points per model, but with poor transport options (expensive [[Land Raider]] or assault-ramp-less [[Rhino]]), and then came the overall nerfing of melee in 7th Edition (and the sheer fragility of one wound MEQs in the current meta), it's very difficult to get them there. In their defense, the most Zerky CSM squad will be 20p cheaper, but not Fearless or at WS5. So it's always more worth it to take regular Zerks, which scored in 7th and changed Counter-Attack so it no longer requires a Ld test. Also MoK Lord [[Kharn|or this fun guy]] made them Troops.

===Eighth Edition===
Berzerkers have been buffed back into the little close combat monsters they should always have been. They now have a base Strength of 5, which can be increased to 6 with a [[Chainaxe]] (which also has -1 AP). Alternatively a regular [[Chainsword]] (with no armor modifier) gives them an additional attack (on their 2 base). Chainaxes can either replace their Chainsword or their [[Bolt Pistol]]. Even better, the Blood For The Blood God ability allows Berzerkers to fight ''twice'' in each Fight Phase (yours and your opponent's), meaning a single Berzerker will be hitting 4 times at S6 or 6 times at S5 every fight phase depending on your loadout.
*Alternatively, give them both chainaxes and chainswords, and strike with four S6 AP-1 attacks AND two S5 AP0 attacks.

== In Dawn of War series ==
Khorne Berzerkers came to Dawn of War series with Winter Assault. Because Chaos didn't have enough melee so far. They are performing pretty amazing in melee combat. Heavy infantry armor, no morale, satisfying melee damage. Pretty scary in melee combat for other melee units. Pretty similar to table top. However, their bleed is a problem if you keep reinforcing them. They also prefer that you drive faster or else this happens [https://youtu.be/1HnCSdzkowQ?t=17s]

In Dawn of War 2, there isn't a unit called Khorne Berzerkers. Instead, you are upgrading your Chaos Space Marines squad with Mark of Khorne, equipping them with chainaxes and [[Plasma Pistol|plasma pistols]]. Their Aspiring Champion gets the same axe, but with a [[Inferno Pistol|melta pistol]]. Their axes are all doing power melee damage, deadly against all heavy infantry armours. They are also gaining increased speed and health. However, it is not a great thing to use them like an elite melee troop. They are effective if you use them like shock troops, like an Assault Marine Squad. Should be send against defenseless ranged squads to tie them up in melee combat. They are not winning against fully upgraded Sluggaz or Banshees in game sadly. Might be because they aren't real Berserkers.

[[File:Bezerkerz.png|thumb|left|350px|Scorpion has nothing on this motherfucker!]]

==In <S>Warhammer Fantasy</s> Age of Sigmar:==
Surprisingly, Khorne has never had dedicated worshipper-troops in [[Warhammer Fantasy]], just Chaos Warriors/Knights sporting his Mark, though they certainly fulfill the role fluff-wise. To be fair, you could always take Juggerknights, because who doesn't like a cavalry of bloodthirsty iron rhinos? [[The End Times]] adds two units even closer to the spirit, via the ''[[Archaon]]'' book (leaked early in White Dwarf). Both have the basic fluff of being particularly advanced and crazed Khorne worshipers who have started to mutate into even more deadly fighters, complete with growing muscles so big they're starting to burst out of their Chaos Armor.

They're both Infantry sporting a Movement 4, Weapon Skill 6, BS 3, Strength 4 (Strength 5, for Wrathmongers), Toughness 4, Wounds 3, Initiative 5, Attacks 3, Leadership 8 profile. The differences are subtle.

Skullreapers are a 40pts per model Special choice who run around sporting paired weapons (+1 Attack), which they can upgrade to Paired Ensorcelled Weapons (+1 Strength, attacks count as magic, +1 Attack) for +5 points per model. Since the minimum size of a squad is five, even without taking a Champion (who gets another +1 Attack), a bare-bones Skullreaper squad with Ensorcelled Weapons is costing you 225 points for something that can dish out 20 S5 hits that will actually hit damn Ethereal troops at Weapon Skill 6. Not too bad at chewing up basic mooks, all things considering.

Wrathmongers are even madder than Skullreapers; they cost 55 points each and use up a Rare slot, thanks to their sporting Paired Wrath-flails (+1 Strength in first round of combat - yes, that means they're S6 during the first round, extra attack, Impact Hits D3). Again, bare minimum squad is 5 for 275 points, which is dishing out 5D3 S5 Impact hits on the charge and then 15 S6 hits directly afterwards... pretty damn choppy.

The later Age of Sigmar setting created an entirely new subset of Khornate-exclusive warbands known as the Bloodbound, who are essentially Khornate Warriors of Chaos in more thematically unified armour, with their beard fetishes enhanced. There are the Blood Warriors, who feel such unmatched fury that it becomes a physically tangible force that emanates from their bodies like a heatwave. They are apparently so manly that they can continue to hack their enemies into tiny bits even while they're in their death throes. Slaughterpriests, who are basically Khornate Evangelical priests. Bloodreavers, basically your bald, psycho meatshields (read: Chaos Maraduers) with forked beards that should remind you of Flesh Hounds of Khorne. Bloodstokers, fat lion-tamers who drive their fellow warriors to untold heights of rage by being insufferable pillocks. Bloodsecrators, portal carriers (read: your bread and butter).

{{Chaos Space Marines}}

==Non Warhammer Berserkers==
{{dnd-stub}}

The term "Berserker" comes from the [[Viking]] "Baer-sark", or "bear-shirt", referring to dreaded warriors who would dress themselves up in bearskins and likely worked as champions for a Lords or Jarls, fighting duels in their stead (Point of contestation, Baer is not perfectly translated and could mean bare as in no clothes at all). Some even believed they could transform into bears, similar to the Ulfsark or "Wolf-Shirt" were believed to be able to turn into wolves, making them a possible origin for the myth of the [[werewolf]]. Similarly frenzied warriors appeared in many European Bronze and Iron Age cultures, like the Celts and Picts, with multiple sagas and poems explicitly using the word berserker. A 13th century Norse translation of a French story: "Yvain, Le Chevalier au Lion", translates the french word for champion into the Norse word for berserker, which gives it secondary meaning.

The [[Barbarian]] roleplaying game class, particularly in [[Dungeons & Dragons]] and [[Pathfinder]] is based significantly on the concept of the common misconception of a Berserker, as well as on Conan (who himself by D&D lore is more of a [[Fighter]] with thief skills). Both games also have a Berserker-themed archetype for [[fighter]]s; the Berserker in Pathfinder, and the Battlerager in 4th edition.

3rd edition had the Frenzied Besererker [[Prestige Class]], notorious for being a prestige classes that actually makes you worse for taking it compared to not leveling up at all. This "honor" puts it next to the [[Blighter]] (who loses all [[Druid]] abilities to slowly gain back inferior version), most [[Book of Exalted Deeds]] prestige classes (which saddle the character with massive codes of conduct with penalties for violating beyond loss of class features), and a few [[Monk]]-like prestige classes (Which remove your ability to use weapons). Frenzied Berserker gets on that list by having the main class feature entail losing control of their character and attacking allies, and made worse (even though the first part is bad enough to make that list on its own) auto-failing dexterity base skill checks (meaning it is stopped by '''ordinary marbles''').

4th edition also has the Berserker as a [[Variant Class]] for the [[Barbarian]], trading the Barbarian's features for a completely new set of features. Weirdly, it's not technically an "Essentials Class", as it still uses the [[AEDU System]]!

''Berserker'' is also the name of a ridiculous song [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRbhNQUZYh0 performed] by Love Among Freaks that appeared in the movie Clerks in 1994.

Van Richten's Guide

2021-05-31T00:11:11Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:1CB8:28D5:11D3:C04C:

{{NeedsImages}}
'''The Van Richten's Guides''' are a series of monster-related sourcebooks written for [[Dungeons & Dragons]] and connected to the setting of [[Ravenloft]].

From an in-universe perspective, the Guides are, as their title says, treatises on monster-hunting written by the esteemed Dr. [[Van Richten]], the most prolific and well-educated monster hunter in all of the [[Demiplane of Dread]]. At some point, Van Richten disappeared, after which his legacy was taken up by the [[Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins]]. In addition to completing and publishing his own unfinished notes - the Guides to the Fiend, Vistani and Witch - they went on to create their own guides, which they published under the same name for legacy purposes and to ensure they would reach their target audience.

On the meta-level, each Guidebook examines a single creature type and expands upon it to make it both a better fit for Ravenloft's purported "Gothic Horror" goal (even if, in practice, it leans closer to [[Castlevania]] amongst most people who actually play it), providing an exhaustive examination of tactics that can be used to run that monster or fight that monster, variant "salient abilities", unique weaknesses, lore, and other aspects that flesh them out.

Van Richten wrote and published on his own the following books for the [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] system:
* Guide to [[Vampire]]s
* Guide to [[Lich]]es
* Guide to [[Ghost]]s
* Guide to [[Therianthrope|Werebeasts]]
* Guide to [[Fiend]]s
* Guide to the [[Mummy|Ancient Dead]]
* Guide to the [[Golem|Created]]
* Guide to the [[Vistani]]

These books were later reprinted in "collected editions" by the Weathermay Twins, known as the Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendiums. The third and last of these volumes also included the otherwise unprinted "Van Richten's Guide to [[Witch]]es", which, as the name suggests, examines [[Witch]]es, [[Warlock]]s and [[Hag]]s.

The Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins wrote two guides completely of their own for [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 3rd edition which saw print; one for the [[Walking Dead]] and a second for the [[Shadow Fey]]. A third guidebook, dedicated to "The Mists", which focused on anomalous and eerie entities born from the reality-binding vapors that wreathe the land, in addition to covering Outlanders (humanoids from other worlds brought amongst the ignorant natives of the [[Demiplane of Dread]]) and anomalous reality-zones that one might encounter whilst enveloped by the Mists, was completely written up... but, [[White Wolf]] lost the license before they could officially print and sell it. The PDF was set free onto the internet, and is now hosted on, amongst other things, the [[Fraternity of Shadows]] website.

Looking into adapting content found in these guides to later editions? Note that not everything written by White Wolf & Sword&Sorcery for 3-3.5e was converted entirely everything from the 2nd Edition, and- more intriguingly, the powers Liches are privy to in Guide to the Lich are still, 3.5 canon, such as the salient abilities Liches gain are in Monsters of Faerun, though only a small excerpt. Please note, that these make both liches and vampires essentially epic-level threats, whom are more dangerous depending on their personal holdings and age- a vampire patriarch for example, is essentially a demigod immune to sunlight, and probably only beatable if they gained additional weaknesses over their long-term existence, they can even fully heal themselves once per day through the use of their alternate form ability, which has an additional form of their choosing- essentially their second Castlevania Dracula Form- limited to no CR or cap or anything. They can even cheat themselves into becoming this strong. If you've ever heard of the epic-questline, the Quicksilver Hourglass in 3.5, a quest where you have to stop members of the Union of Eclipses using a deific artifact to age the world to death and rule the remainder, then failure would result in vampires like this popping up all over the material plane. Bullet dodged.

==Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft==
{{dnd-stub}}

A new Van Richten's Guide is scheduled for release in 18th May 2021, which will serve as the complete [[Ravenloft]] setting book for [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]].

For players, this book offers mechanics for [[Dhampir]], [[Hexblood]] and [[Reborn]] "races", new "horror-themed" Trinkets, tips on altering backgrounds to a more horror motif, the new (or possibly reprinted from [[Curse of Strahd]]) Haunted One and Investigator backgrounds, the [[Necromancer||College of Spirits]] subclass for [[bard]]s and the [[Undead]] patron for [[warlock]]s. A new mechanic in the form of "Dark Gifts" is also offered, possibly replacing the [[Powers Checks]] of old.

Most of the book is dedicated to DMs, however. The second chapter is devoted to the topic of ''Creating Domains of Dread'', and provides advice on building darklords and their domains, and discusses the major genres of horror useful to a Ravenloft 5e game, which it breaks down as ''Body Horror'', ''Cosmic Horror'', ''Dark Fantasy'', ''Folk Horror'', ''Ghost Story'', ''Gothic Horror'' and ''Other''.

Chapter 3 is devoted to providing details on '''Domains of Ravenloft'''. After discussing the mists, magic, metaphysics, daily life in the [[Demiplane of Dread]], facing [[Darklord]]s and building characters ''from'' these domains, it then provides a list of 39, of which 17 are 3-5 page long "in-depth" analyses and the rest are shorter and more perfunctory. Many of the returning domains have been heavily altered from their past incarnations.s

Still in chapter 3, it then provides major Ravenloft organizations (with the emphasis on the [[keepers of the Feather]] and the [[Vistani]] and prominent NPCs native to the Demiplane of Dread:
* [[Alanik Ray]] & Arthur Sedgwick (the Ravenloftian Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson)
* The Caller (obviously the [[Incubus]] known as the [[Gentleman Caller]])
* Erasmus van Richten (Dr. van Richten's previously dead [[vampire]] son)
* [[Ez d'Avenir]]
* [[Firan Zal'honan]]
* [[Jander Sunstar]] (heroic [[elf]] [[vampire]])
* [[Larissa Snowmane]]
* Dr. Rudolph [[van Richten]] (the iconic van Helsing expy)
* The [[Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins]]

Chapter 4 is short again, and is full of basic DM tricks, hence its title of '''Horror Adventures'''. Most of interest are new mechanics for curses, fear, stress, haunted traps, and survivors. There's also a short adventure set in the infamous House of Lament.

Finally, chapter 5 is all about the '''Monsters of Ravenloft'''. Whilst there are some new critters, most of these are actually returning beasties from old! A major detail, however, is that [[FAIL|none of the entries bother to list the creature's alignments]], so for all we know, that [[Berserker|Relentless Killer]] [[Trap|could just be a Neutral Good softie]]!
* [[Bodytaker Plant]] (originally called the Doppelganger Plant, an expy of the pods from Invasion of the body Snatchers)
* [[Boneless]]
* [[Brain in a Jar]]
* [[Carrion Stalker]]
* [[Carionette]]
* [[Death's Head]]
* [[Dullahan]]
* [[Gallows Speaker]]
* [[Gremishka]]
* [[Jiangshi]]
* [[Loup Garou]]
* [[Necrichor]]
* [[Nosferatu]]
* Priests of [[Osybus]]
* [[Relentless Killer]]
* [[Star Spawn]] Emissary
* [[Strigoi]]
* Swarms (Maggots, Scarabs)
* Ulmist Inquisitors
* [[Unspeakable Horror]]s
* [[Vampire|Vampiric]] [[Mind Flayer]]
* [[Wereraven]]
* [[Zombie]]s (swarm of zombie limbs, zombie clot, zombie plague spreader)

[[Category: Dungeons & Dragons]] [[Category: Ravenloft]] [[Category: Game Books]]

Van Richten's Guide

2021-05-31T00:10:06Z

2603:8001:3500:CB:1CB8:28D5:11D3:C04C:

{{NeedsImages}}
'''The Van Richten's Guides''' are a series of monster-related sourcebooks written for [[Dungeons & Dragons]] and connected to the setting of [[Ravenloft]].

From an in-universe perspective, the Guides are, as their title says, treatises on monster-hunting written by the esteemed Dr. [[Van Richten]], the most prolific and well-educated monster hunter in all of the [[Demiplane of Dread]]. At some point, Van Richten disappeared, after which his legacy was taken up by the [[Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins]]. In addition to completing and publishing his own unfinished notes - the Guides to the Fiend, Vistani and Witch - they went on to create their own guides, which they published under the same name for legacy purposes and to ensure they would reach their target audience.

On the meta-level, each Guidebook examines a single creature type and expands upon it to make it both a better fit for Ravenloft's purported "Gothic Horror" goal (even if, in practice, it leans closer to [[Castlevania]] amongst most people who actually play it), providing an exhaustive examination of tactics that can be used to run that monster or fight that monster, variant "salient abilities", unique weaknesses, lore, and other aspects that flesh them out.

Van Richten wrote and published on his own the following books for the [[Advanced Dungeons & Dragons]] system:
* Guide to [[Vampire]]s
* Guide to [[Lich]]es
* Guide to [[Ghost]]s
* Guide to [[Therianthrope|Werebeasts]]
* Guide to [[Fiend]]s
* Guide to the [[Mummy|Ancient Dead]]
* Guide to the [[Golem|Created]]
* Guide to the [[Vistani]]

These books were later reprinted in "collected editions" by the Weathermay Twins, known as the Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendiums. The third and last of these volumes also included the otherwise unprinted "Van Richten's Guide to [[Witch]]es", which, as the name suggests, examines [[Witch]]es, [[Warlock]]s and [[Hag]]s.

The Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins wrote two guides completely of their own for [[Dungeons & Dragons]] 3rd edition which saw print; one for the [[Walking Dead]] and a second for the [[Shadow Fey]]. A third guidebook, dedicated to "The Mists", which focused on anomalous and eerie entities born from the reality-binding vapors that wreathe the land, in addition to covering Outlanders (humanoids from other worlds brought amongst the ignorant natives of the [[Demiplane of Dread]]) and anomalous reality-zones that one might encounter whilst enveloped by the Mists, was completely written up... but, [[White Wolf]] lost the license before they could officially print and sell it. The PDF was set free onto the internet, and is now hosted on, amongst other things, the [[Fraternity of Shadows]] website.

Looking into adapting content found in these guides to later editions? Note that not everything written by White Wolf & Sword&Sorcery for 3-3.5e was converted entirely everything from the 2nd Edition, and- more intriguingly, the powers Liches are privy to in Guide to the Lich are still, 3.5 canon, such as the salient abilities Liches gain are in Monsters of Faerun, though only a small excerpt. Please note, that these make both liches and vampires essentially epic-level threats, whom are more dangerous depending on their personal holdings and age- a vampire patriarch for example, is essentially a demigod immune to sunlight, and probably only beatable if they gained additional weaknesses over their long-term existence, they can even fully heal themselves once per day through the use of their alternate form ability, which has an additional form of their choosing- essentially their second Castlevania Dracula Form- limited to no CR or cap or anything. They can even cheat themselves into becoming this strong. If you've ever heard of the epic-questline, the Quicksilver Hourglass in 3.5, a quest where you have to stop members of the Union of Eclipses using a deific artifact to age the world to death and rule the remainder, then failure would result in vampires like this popping up all over the material plane. Bullet dodged.

==Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft==
{{dnd-stub}}

A new Van Richten's Guide is scheduled for release in 18th May 2021, which will serve as the complete [[Ravenloft]] setting book for [[Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition]].

For players, this book offers mechanics for [[Dhampir]], [[Hexblood]] and [[Reborn]] "races", new "horror-themed" Trinkets, tips on altering backgrounds to a more horror motif, the new (or possibly reprinted from [[Curse of Strahd]]) Haunted One and Investigator backgrounds, the [[Necromancer||College of Spirits]] subclass for [[bard]]s and the [[Undead]] patron for [[warlock]]s. A new mechanic in the form of "Dark Gifts" is also offered, possibly replacing the [[Powers Checks]] of old.

Most of the book is dedicated to DMs, however. The second chapter is devoted to the topic of ''Creating Domains of Dread'', and provides advice on building darklords and their domains, and discusses the major genres of horror useful to a Ravenloft 5e game, which it breaks down as ''Body Horror'', ''Cosmic Horror'', ''Dark Fantasy'', ''Folk Horror'', ''Ghost Story'', ''Gothic Horror'' and ''Other''.

Chapter 3 is devoted to providing details on '''Domains of Ravenloft'''. After discussing the mists, magic, metaphysics, daily life in the [[Demiplane of Dread]], facing [[Darklord]]s and building characters ''from'' these domains, it then provides a list of 39, of which 17 are 3-5 page long "in-depth" analyses and the rest are shorter and more perfunctory. Many of the returning domains have been heavily altered from their past incarnations.s

Still in chapter 3, it then provides major Ravenloft organizations (with the emphasis on the [[keepers of the Feather]] and the [[Vistani]] and prominent NPCs native to the Demiplane of Dread:
* [[Alanik Ray]] & Arthur Sedgwick (the Ravenloftian Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson)
* The Caller (obviously the [[Incubus]] known as the [[Gentleman Caller]])
* Erasmus van Richten (Dr. van Richten's previously dead [[vampire]] son)
* [[Ez d'Avenir]]
* [[Firan Zal'honan]]
* [[Jander Sunstar]] (heroic [[elf]] [[vampire]])
* [[Larissa Snowmane]]
* Dr. Rudolph [[van Richten]] (the iconic van Helsing expy)
* The [[Weathermay-Foxgrove Twins]]

Chapter 4 is short again, and is full of basic DM tricks, hence its title of '''Horror Adventures'''. Most of interest are new mechanics for curses, fear, stress, haunted traps, and survivors. There's also a short adventure set in the infamous House of Lament.

Finally, chapter 5 is all about the '''Monsters of Ravenloft'''. Whilst there are some new critters, most of these are actually returning beasties from old! A major complaint, however, is that [[FAIL|none of the entries bother to list the creature's alignments]], so for all we know, that [[Berserker|Relentless Killer]] [[Trap|could just be a Neutral Good softie]]
* [[Bodytaker Plant]] (originally called the Doppelganger Plant, an expy of the pods from Invasion of the body Snatchers)
* [[Boneless]]
* [[Brain in a Jar]]
* [[Carrion Stalker]]
* [[Carionette]]
* [[Death's Head]]
* [[Dullahan]]
* [[Gallows Speaker]]
* [[Gremishka]]
* [[Jiangshi]]
* [[Loup Garou]]
* [[Necrichor]]
* [[Nosferatu]]
* Priests of [[Osybus]]
* [[Relentless Killer]]
* [[Star Spawn]] Emissary
* [[Strigoi]]
* Swarms (Maggots, Scarabs)
* Ulmist Inquisitors
* [[Unspeakable Horror]]s
* [[Vampire|Vampiric]] [[Mind Flayer]]
* [[Wereraven]]
* [[Zombie]]s (swarm of zombie limbs, zombie clot, zombie plague spreader)

[[Category: Dungeons & Dragons]] [[Category: Ravenloft]] [[Category: Game Books]]