Mind flayers are iconic monsters in Dungeons & Dragons that have appeared in numerous campaign settings and adventures. Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft brings to fifth edition another kind of mind flayer, one that lacks their intellect and sophistication but are frightfully strong and dexterous. Vampiric mind flayers are the undead creation of a dying elder brain that desperately clings to life. Find out how to bring vampiric mind flayers to your table.
Vampiric mind flayers: Vicious siblings to mind flayers
Vampiric mind flayers are physically and mentally unstable beings. Ghoulish creatures, they let nothing stand between them and their existential imperatives. Although they possess the telepathic abilities of mind flayers, their brains aren’t equipped to employ them. Instead, they bombard nearby creatures with a mental static of visceral visions.
Source: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
Vampiric mind flayers are animalistic predators that appear in Bluetspur, a Domain of Dread of cosmic horror and monstrous experimentation. They are the result of an elder brain that infects mind flayer tadpoles with vampirism. Reaching maturity, these mind flayers hunt down humanoids beyond the Mists and drain them of their cerebral fluid. Bloated and lumbering, vampiric mind flayers will return to their elder brain to be liquefied into a balm.
Vampiric mind flayers disturb their more intelligent and sophisticated siblings, mind flayers. They lack personality or desire beyond serving their elder brain. For mind flayers, these creatures are the stuff of nightmare — they are mind flayers that lack agency and have no sense of self-preservation except to return to the God-Brain to be destroyed.
Bluetspur: The Domain of Alien Memories
Bluetspur is an incomprehensible wasteland of floating mountains and violent storms. Few creatures roam the inhabitable surface world of this Domain of Dread, though many have taken refuge deep underground. There, mind flayers toil away in futuristic laboratories for a cure to an alien disease that slowly kills the God-Brain, the domain's Darklord. All the while, the God-Brain dreams up more terrible experiments and creations in its demented state, including the ravenous vampiric mind flayer.
If the inclusion of Bluetspur doesn't suit your campaign, you can include vampiric mind flayers in other ways. An ancient vampire might have sought more powerful minions and experimented on mind flayer tadpoles. Or a human scientist could have sought to weaponize these creatures, but instead was devoured when its creation reached maturity.
Vampiric mind flayers in combat
Vampiric mind flayers have a challenge rating of 5, making them suitable for a party of four 5th-level adventurers. If you want to raise the stakes, these creatures can be found with intellect devourers. One vampiric mind flayer accompanied by an intellect devourer represents a hard encounter, according to our Encounters tool.
With high Wisdom, vampiric mind flayers will be tactical when attacking enemies. Their high Dexterity allows them to sneak up on targets until they are in range of their bonus action ability, Disrupt Psyche. This ability targets Intelligence saving throws and can take down threats before they get a chance to act in combat:
Disrupt Psyche (Recharge 5–6). The mind flayer magically emits psionic energy in a 30-foot-radius sphere centered on itself. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or be incapacitated for 1 minute. The incapacitated creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Vampiric mind flayers have low Intelligence, so they might not properly assess threats. They might choose to keep a watchful eye on the barbarian with a bloody greataxe rather than the wizard with phantasmal force, for example. That said, you will have to decide whether the vampiric mind flayer's Wisdom score means that it will target an incapacitated creature and escape after draining it of cerebral fluid, or if it will attack those who are still standing.
For its Action, the vampiric mind flayer will need to use its Multiattack before it can take a sip out of player characters. Its Tentacles automatically grapple on a hit. The required DC 15 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) to break free is a high bar for spellcasters and neatly sets up the vampiric mind flayer's Drink Sapience Action:
Drink Sapience. The mind flayer targets one creature it is grappling. The target must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or take 14 (4d6) psychic damage and gain 1 level of exhaustion. The mind flayer regains a number of hit points equal to the psychic damage dealt. A creature reduced to 0 hit points by the psychic damage dies.
Imposing exhaustion is a nice touch for the creature's Drink Sapience ability. One point of it imposes disadvantage on ability checks, including those required to break a grapple. Meanwhile, regaining hit points off the psychic damage dealt could mean the vampiric mind flayer gets an extra turn or two before fleeing or dying. Unfortunately, Drink Sapience doesn't do anything if the target successfully saves.
The vampiric mind flayer might flee
Vampiric mind flayers are psychically linked to the elder brain that created them. If the God-Brain exists in your adventure and the vampiric mind flayers want to flee, then the Mists will roll onto the battlefield, opening a gateway to Bluetspur. This can trigger an adventure if the player characters pursue the vampiric mind flayer, which uses its high bonus to Dexterity (Stealth) checks to lose them before returning to the God-Brain.
Playing with vampiric mind flayers at your table
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft offers a variety of adventure hooks that lead player characters to Bluetspur. Player characters might be unwittingly abducted and returned with only scattered memories of experiments conducted on them in Bluetspur. These serve as a talisman to the domain. But if you want an adventure set in the Material Plane that involves vampiric mind flayers, you can tweak the following to suit your party's level:
A mind flayer seeks the party's aid
In the bustling city streets, you see an older man dressed in robes lumbering forward, his eyes blankly staring into yours. He beckons you forward with a crooked finger. "A private ... audience ... if you will," he says, his voice strained.
He walks backwards, bumping into others who pay little mind to him, his unblinking eyes locked on you. He rounds a corner to an empty alleyway and stops to point at an open sewer grate on the far end. "He ... seeks ... your aid," the man says, bowing stiffly.
A mind flayer known as S'lthell has traveled to the surface seeking a cure for vampirism. A decade before, its colony's elder brain was afflicted with vampirism. Illithid tadpoles placed in the spawning pool where the elder brain dwells have similarly been afflicted and become vampiric mind flayers. Over the years, these creatures have overrun the colony. Because the elder brain attacks any mind flayers who oppose its growing army, S'lthell fears the colony will collapse with no new mind flayers being born.
Making a deal with the illithid
Player characters who enter the sewers will be telepathically contacted by S'lthell, who has set up a base of operations nearby. It explains the blight of vampirism on its colony and offers a deal to the adventuring party: Help it cure the elder brain of its vampirism and it will see that humanoids trapped in the colony are released.
To accomplish this task, the party will need to research and concoct a balm that can cure the elder brain's vampirism. Further, the party will need to apply the balm themselves. S'lthell has been banished from the spawning pool after arguing against the elder brain's continued creation of vampiric mind flayers. However, S'lthell can ensure the party is tasked with looking after the elder brain, and that they are safely taken to and from the colony.
Refusing to help: Should the party refuse to help, a vampiric mind flayer will attack a commoner in the city in the following weeks. Following this attack, S'lthell will approach the party once more, explaining that the elder brain now seeks to extend its domain to the surface world, and that this attack was simply to measure the city's response.
Despite the risks involved in invading the surface, no other mind flayers have risen to S'lthell's cause. Should the party still refuse to make a deal with S'lthell, the city will be attacked by a mob of vampiric mind flayers and intellect devourers. In the chaos that ensues, two mind flayers will attempt to sneak into the city's castle or other center of power and gain control of high-ranking officials.
Finding the cure for vampirism
Landwell Tikrite, a nonbinary halfling alchemist who dwells in the city holds the secret to ending the elder brain's ailment. During their off-hours, Landwell studies the undead, believing that science can uncover the secrets to their unending lives — and use those secrets for good. In what way, Landwell isn't entirely sure. In exchange for creating the balm required to heal the elder brain, Landwell asks the party to bring back a sample from the creature for experimentation.
Creating the balm requires material components costing 15 gold, in addition to the fang of a vampire or vampire spawn. At night, one of these creatures can be found terrorizing commoners who live near the city's graveyard. During the day, the creature takes refuge in one of the graveyard's crypts. When Landwell has the necessary components, they produce the balm after three workdays.
Venturing into the Underdark
When the party returns to S'lthell in the sewers, it reveals its plan for getting them into the colony: S'lthell will need to take control of them in order to dupe any mind flayers who might read their thoughts when they first arrive.* Once inside, S'lthell will relinquish its control over the party and assign them various tasks around the colony until the elder brain accepts them as caretakers. Such tasks can include the following:
Tasks in the mind flayer colony
1 | Protecting a herd of rothé from an umber hulk spotted in the area. |
2 | Cleaning fighting pits where nightly duels are held. |
3 | Putting on a performance that entertains other mind flayers and showcases the party's strengths. |
4 | Collecting decorative flowers, which are protected by swarms of rot grubs. |
* If loss of agency makes any of your players uncomfortable, the adventuring party might instead be tasked with learning and reciting phrases to successfully dupe any suspicious mind flayers.
Caring for the elder brain
When the party is permitted into the elder brain's chambers, they find the creature partially submerged in a spawning pool filled with innumerable infected mind flayer tadpoles. The elder brain is protected by two vampiric mind flayers that keep watch over the caretakers. Changed by its vampirism, the elder brain is lethargic and frequently hungers for cranial fluids.
Every couple hours, the elder brain demands to be fed, at which point a mind flayer brings in servants to be drained by the vampiric mind flayers on guard. Afterward, the vampiric mind flayers enter the spawning pool and are liquefied. During this time, the party can safely apply the balm and take a sample of the elder brain as it is unguarded and distracted.
Alternatively, the party can make a group Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) or Charisma (Deception) check to safely apply the balm and take a sample. If they fail, S'lthell will enter the chamber and distract the elder brain and vampiric mind flayers long enough for the party to accomplish these tasks. S'lthell dies in doing so.
Curing the elder brain
When the balm is applied to the elder brain, a psychic pulse resonates through the colony, disrupting the mind flayers' psychic abilities and causing vampiric mind flayers in the area to enter into a frenzy. The elder brain is incapacitated for 1 hour as it heals from its vampirism.
As the colony erupts into chaos, S'lthell takes one of three courses of action, depending on its attitude toward the party:
- Friendly: S'Ithell uses the opportunity to help the party and other servants escape. Doing so draws the attention of other mind flayers, who are too distracted to attack but will later have S'lthell exiled from the colony.
- Indifferent: S'Ithell is true to its word and is later exiled from its colony for providing aid. However, S'lthell doesn't trust the party and has them followed by intellect devourers to ensure that they do not reveal the location of its colony when they return to the city. If they do, the intellect devourers attack. Otherwise, they stop tracking the party after a few days.
- Hostile: S'Ithell refuses to help the party but does not interfere in their escape, or if they help servants escape.
When the party and freed servants return to the surface, word quickly spreads of their deeds, and the city launches a project to find and seal off any entrances into the Underdark. In the months that follow, the party hears rumors of humanoids in nearby towns going missing. In truth, S'lthell's colony has returned to normalcy and begun replacing the servants who escaped.
Watch your head!
Vampiric mind flayers are another terrifying addition to D&D in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Whether you take your party to the alien domain of Bluetspur or inject these creatures into an adventure rife with vampires, vampiric mind flayers can make for a challenging encounter with surprising and horrifying abilities. Happy hunting!
Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft is available to purchase on D&D Beyond! It offers two new subclasses, lineages, all-new monsters, and more! Master-tier subscribers can share content they purchase in the marketplace with players in their campaigns.
Michael Galvis (@michaelgalvis) is a tabletop content producer for D&D Beyond. He is a longtime Dungeon Master who enjoys horror films and all things fantasy and sci-fi. When he isn’t in the DM’s seat or rolling dice as his anxious halfling sorcerer, he’s playing League of Legends and Magic: The Gathering with his husband. They live together in Los Angeles with their adorable dog, Quentin.
I got here within a minute of posting :o
EDIT: Great article! I'm going to find a way to implement this!
Wow, 2nd comment. Great article. Also, Quentin!
3rd post. Also, this seems like a great mid game boss. Though is seems weird that it can infect a creature with vampirism and becoming a mind flayer, that seems a little weird. Also, why has their not been a mind flayer warrior yet. That seems like a simple feat to do. Just give it plate armor and a longsword. Also, why does vampirism make the mind flayer weaker?
Wow, this is such a cool monster, wouldn't it be great if someone made an Encounter of the Week featuring it, don't you think?
Great article with lots of great plot ideas to steal!
I've always enjoyed the articles in here for ways of boosting my D&D games/char. However the recent wave of "Articles", which is basically just highlighting the different domains and topics in "Van Richtens guide to Ravenloft" is getting to a point where I'm feeling forcefed this material. Can we please get back to the nuanced articlestream that we are used to? THose that actually enhance our games and characters and bring value to our memberships? Otherwise I could just be a member on Roll20, and buy any specific books physically.
In advance thanks. And sorry for the rant, but I do feel we are moving away from a value developing community to a profitchasing subscription.
I really loved Encounter. It was so helpful. I wish they brought it back.
:) I love it! BTW, thanks for an entire adventure! These articles have been getting better and better! I love the idea of an elder brain becoming a darklord, as it opens possibilities for even more nonhumanoid darklords. How about a shadow dragon darklord who rules over a realm constantly under destruction and siege. The horror of this world would be that of never being safe, as the people constantly fear for their lives and homes, and the dragon constantly fears the heroes who rise up to topple her.
Or how about a giant darklord who rules over a realm that is haunted by enormous ruins and skeletons, full of the fear of being lost amongst the mazes and devoured by the ravenous skeletons within. This article really got my creative juices flowing, and I love it when they do that.
Thanks!
You answered your own question. If a mind flayer warrior is so easy to make, just make one yourself! You're the DM, you can do anything you please. Who's to say mind flayers don't have a +4 Strength?
I’ve been asking them if they have plans to bring it back for the last three articles and no one will answer me! Come on people, how hard is it to say "Yes" or "No"?
I get the frustration, but when there’s new material out, you’ve gotta expect that writers are going to explore that. Both because the site needs people to buy books so they make money, and because it’s just the new shiny toy to play with.
The vampiric mindflayer is the only thing you’d actually need the new book for, and they practically give you the stat block and tactics for it here. Pick any CR 5 monster with good Dex, and add the two special abilities, there ya go. An entire encounter with tactics, branching story, and characters for free, right here!!
edit: I do think people should buy the book if they dig the material; I just don’t subscribe to the school of thought that these free articles are only useful if you have the material
I could be wrong about this, but I recall reading an article not too long ago from one of the newer writers who did address the question at the time and (if I recall correctly) the answer was something to the effect of "very likely, at some point in the future" (paraphrased). So now the public has made several requests for updates in recent weeks, let's see if the powers that be at DDB will dain to to provide an answer -- with perhaps a degree or two of less uncertainty.
GREAT article and I like the adventure hook. As a player in such a campaign, I would look at yet another option: act like an ally to S'lthell, gain the trust of the colony and the Elder Brain, and then after administering the anti-vampiric balm to the elder brain (during which time it is otherwise incapacitated and all of the other vampiric mind flayer tadpoles are getting figuratively toasted), the party would work towards the goal of destroying the elder brain and its tainted spawn! After all, knowing what horrors a mind flayer colony can inflict on the nearby denizens of the underdark as well as the surface dwelling races preyed on by the colony of brain eaters, you would think that putting together a consortium of mind flayer enemies (such as one of the Gith or the Duergar - the enemy of my enemy is my friend)...well, you get the picture.
This is an amazing adventure— really, really good, but for one thing. It seems like not quite enough on its own to end up what’s essentially the undoing and resolution of a long-published Domain. As a second or third act of a longer arc, maybe. Not on its own as a side story in another campaign unless you’re never touching Ravenloft again, though. Still, it’s A+ chef’s kiss good content.
I just wanted to be the 14th commenter.
But this new sort of mind flayer is great and now I want Van Ritchens guide to Ravenloft
I believe that the adventure in this article is a way to use vampiric mind flayers without needing to go to Bluetspur rather than set in the domains of dread
Vampiric Mind Flayers: When saying "F*** You" to your players isn't enough. XD
Great, I don't think my DM for the CoS campaign needs any ideas like this. I can see Strahd experimenting on Mind flayers, god knows he's bored lol.
Oh i like it when these come with an encounter to run for your players.
Oh god that’s horrifying.
great job.
You're correct. I think the biggest hurdle to the vampiric mind flayer is feeling as though you might need to involve Bluetspur in some way. I wanted to show that you can include them with some minor tweaks to lore!