I've been reading Volo's guide and doing some google searches, but I'm getting kind of confused and can't seem to find a central source that really explains how lichdom - particularly in regards to Mindflayers - works. It's unclear whether an illithid needs to become an Alhoon with at least two others, and then it can become a lich, and if it would then need the Periapt of Mind Trapping and also a phylactery, or if it can skip being an Alhoon and become a lich, and how exactly a phylactery works. Most of the rules seem to just begin with after a creature has already become a lich, but I’m curious about the process of becoming one. For example, the players are forced to watch as a mindflayer/alhoon starts from scratch and becomes an Illithilich in front of their eyes. How would this work?
If you have any links or can explain of this process, I would be very thankful!
Normal Mind Flayer finds a spellbook and turns into,
Mind Flayer Arcanist (from Monster Manual) is banished from colony and wants to become immortal, so it becomes an,
Alhoon. That then has to learn how to become a true lich like any other mortal creature, creating a true phylactery and becoming an,
Illithilich.
If I was DMing a campaign where you want a recurring villain in a mind flayer, at low levels (levels 1-4) the players discover a mind flayer colony near their town. They have to stop the mind flayers from taking over their town, without directly assaulting the mind flayer colony, because they would die. Once they kill some of the thralls of the mind flayer colony, the mind flayer colony gets mad at the players, and sends a Mind Flayer (the one that eventually becomes the illithilich) to kill the players. The players can learn this before it appears from possibly an ally, or the elder brain telepathically telling them that it is sending a servant to dispose of them.
While the mind flayer is out of the colony trying to track down the players, it runs into an ally of the party, kills them. This ally could be a wizard. The mind flayer takes the spellbook, returns to the colony as a failure. The Elder Brain gets mad at him, finds out that the mind flayer has a spellbook, and orders the mind flayer to leave, or burn the spellbook.
The mind flayer leaves the colony, forced out for studying magic, and now starts to try to become an Alhoon. The problem is, a mind flayer on its own can't become an alhoon, it needs some partner mind flayer arcanists (at least 3 total) to help them make a Periapt of Mind Trapping. How it gets friendly mind flayers can be up to you, but they could be from the colony this rebel mind flayer came from, persuaded to leave by this mind flayer, or they could also be refugees forced out of their own colonies for a similar reason.
So, once they get friends to do the ritual, you determine how they make the Periapt of Mind Trapping. In my mind the ritual to create this item would require at least 9 brains from humanoids, a magic item rare or very rare (possibly stolen from the party or mind flayer colony), and the remains of a dead undead, ground up into a powder, and then burned.
You can have the players try to intervine in the ritual, try to prevent the mind flayers from getting some of the components, persuade a mind flayer to not do the ritual somehow. Possibly the players come upon the ritual as it is happening, and try to stop it in the process. You can have them succeed, or the mind flayers become alhoons halfway through the battle, making the players flee.
After they do this, the alhoons no longer need to stick together. They can scatter across the world, doing whatever they want, gathering spellbooks and magic items, or they could stay together if they want to be an undead colony. They can pursue lichdom on their own, or together, getting help from a death god (Vecna, Myrkul, or Raven Queen) or they could make a deal with Orcus or another lich (maybe Larloch).
This is how I'd do it. I hope this helps.
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This is pretty cool! I like the idea and definitely think I'd want to go through that process of a mindflayer becoming an alhoon with 2 others and then becoming a full-blown illithilich, perhaps by even betraying the other two and using their souls for its phylactery.
At the point it becomes a proper lich, would it still be beholden to the Periapt, or would it be free to dispose of it and hold only onto its phylactery, do you reason? An Alhoon doesn't seem to be truly immortal but instead just constantly refilling and extending its life through use of the Periapt, but once it becomes a Lich and successfully transfers its soul into a Phylactery, it wouldn't need the Periapt anymore, right? But it would still contain the souls/minds of its previous victims and the other two Alhoons. Perhaps if the players were to get that Periapt, they could use its remaining power or knowledge within to bring down the Illithilich.
You could also probably just assume a mind flayer arcanist hit sufficient level to be able to craft a phylactery (was level 12 in 3e, but most examples have 9th level spells so 18th is fair).
This is pretty cool! I like the idea and definitely think I'd want to go through that process of a mindflayer becoming an alhoon with 2 others and then becoming a full-blown illithilich, perhaps by even betraying the other two and using their souls for its phylactery.
At the point it becomes a proper lich, would it still be beholden to the Periapt, or would it be free to dispose of it and hold only onto its phylactery, do you reason? An Alhoon doesn't seem to be truly immortal but instead just constantly refilling and extending its life through use of the Periapt, but once it becomes a Lich and successfully transfers its soul into a Phylactery, it wouldn't need the Periapt anymore, right? But it would still contain the souls/minds of its previous victims and the other two Alhoons. Perhaps if the players were to get that Periapt, they could use its remaining power or knowledge within to bring down the Illithilich.
However you rule it is good, but this is what I'd recommend:
The Periapt of Mind Trapping is the main material component used to create the phylactery. The characters previously encountered the mind flayers in the ritual turning themselves into alhoons, and this Periapt is the pseudophylactery for all 3 alhoons. To become an illithilich, one of the 3 alhoons must take the Periapt from the others (maybe they hid it somewhere so none of them could have power over the others) and turn it into the phylactery, linking them, and only them, to it.
So, basically, a Periapt of Mind Trapping can link to multiple different minds/souls, but a Phylactery can only link to one, so the person who turns the Periapt into a Phylactery becomes the Illithilich, and the other Alhoons either are destroyed, must be destroyed for this to happen, or they are cut off from the phylactery, not being immortal anymore, if their alhoon form is destroyed, they are truly dead.
What do you think about this? The players could team up with the other alhoon to take down the becoming Illithilich, or whatever quest you want.
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Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Yeah I like this idea. I I like the idea of one of the Alhoons stealing the Periapt and the other two are greatly perturbed by this and their existence either fades or is threatened. I'd like for the players to have the opportunity to prevent the Alhoon from becoming a lich but it not to be easy, and if they fail, that alhoon suddenly jumps by like 12 CR and that's not a good thing for them haha.
Hey all,
I've been reading Volo's guide and doing some google searches, but I'm getting kind of confused and can't seem to find a central source that really explains how lichdom - particularly in regards to Mindflayers - works. It's unclear whether an illithid needs to become an Alhoon with at least two others, and then it can become a lich, and if it would then need the Periapt of Mind Trapping and also a phylactery, or if it can skip being an Alhoon and become a lich, and how exactly a phylactery works. Most of the rules seem to just begin with after a creature has already become a lich, but I’m curious about the process of becoming one. For example, the players are forced to watch as a mindflayer/alhoon starts from scratch and becomes an Illithilich in front of their eyes. How would this work?
If you have any links or can explain of this process, I would be very thankful!
This is how I would do it.
If I was DMing a campaign where you want a recurring villain in a mind flayer, at low levels (levels 1-4) the players discover a mind flayer colony near their town. They have to stop the mind flayers from taking over their town, without directly assaulting the mind flayer colony, because they would die. Once they kill some of the thralls of the mind flayer colony, the mind flayer colony gets mad at the players, and sends a Mind Flayer (the one that eventually becomes the illithilich) to kill the players. The players can learn this before it appears from possibly an ally, or the elder brain telepathically telling them that it is sending a servant to dispose of them.
While the mind flayer is out of the colony trying to track down the players, it runs into an ally of the party, kills them. This ally could be a wizard. The mind flayer takes the spellbook, returns to the colony as a failure. The Elder Brain gets mad at him, finds out that the mind flayer has a spellbook, and orders the mind flayer to leave, or burn the spellbook.
The mind flayer leaves the colony, forced out for studying magic, and now starts to try to become an Alhoon. The problem is, a mind flayer on its own can't become an alhoon, it needs some partner mind flayer arcanists (at least 3 total) to help them make a Periapt of Mind Trapping. How it gets friendly mind flayers can be up to you, but they could be from the colony this rebel mind flayer came from, persuaded to leave by this mind flayer, or they could also be refugees forced out of their own colonies for a similar reason.
So, once they get friends to do the ritual, you determine how they make the Periapt of Mind Trapping. In my mind the ritual to create this item would require at least 9 brains from humanoids, a magic item rare or very rare (possibly stolen from the party or mind flayer colony), and the remains of a dead undead, ground up into a powder, and then burned.
You can have the players try to intervine in the ritual, try to prevent the mind flayers from getting some of the components, persuade a mind flayer to not do the ritual somehow. Possibly the players come upon the ritual as it is happening, and try to stop it in the process. You can have them succeed, or the mind flayers become alhoons halfway through the battle, making the players flee.
After they do this, the alhoons no longer need to stick together. They can scatter across the world, doing whatever they want, gathering spellbooks and magic items, or they could stay together if they want to be an undead colony. They can pursue lichdom on their own, or together, getting help from a death god (Vecna, Myrkul, or Raven Queen) or they could make a deal with Orcus or another lich (maybe Larloch).
This is how I'd do it. I hope this helps.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
This is pretty cool! I like the idea and definitely think I'd want to go through that process of a mindflayer becoming an alhoon with 2 others and then becoming a full-blown illithilich, perhaps by even betraying the other two and using their souls for its phylactery.
At the point it becomes a proper lich, would it still be beholden to the Periapt, or would it be free to dispose of it and hold only onto its phylactery, do you reason? An Alhoon doesn't seem to be truly immortal but instead just constantly refilling and extending its life through use of the Periapt, but once it becomes a Lich and successfully transfers its soul into a Phylactery, it wouldn't need the Periapt anymore, right? But it would still contain the souls/minds of its previous victims and the other two Alhoons. Perhaps if the players were to get that Periapt, they could use its remaining power or knowledge within to bring down the Illithilich.
You could also probably just assume a mind flayer arcanist hit sufficient level to be able to craft a phylactery (was level 12 in 3e, but most examples have 9th level spells so 18th is fair).
However you rule it is good, but this is what I'd recommend:
The Periapt of Mind Trapping is the main material component used to create the phylactery. The characters previously encountered the mind flayers in the ritual turning themselves into alhoons, and this Periapt is the pseudophylactery for all 3 alhoons. To become an illithilich, one of the 3 alhoons must take the Periapt from the others (maybe they hid it somewhere so none of them could have power over the others) and turn it into the phylactery, linking them, and only them, to it.
So, basically, a Periapt of Mind Trapping can link to multiple different minds/souls, but a Phylactery can only link to one, so the person who turns the Periapt into a Phylactery becomes the Illithilich, and the other Alhoons either are destroyed, must be destroyed for this to happen, or they are cut off from the phylactery, not being immortal anymore, if their alhoon form is destroyed, they are truly dead.
What do you think about this? The players could team up with the other alhoon to take down the becoming Illithilich, or whatever quest you want.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms
Yeah I like this idea. I I like the idea of one of the Alhoons stealing the Periapt and the other two are greatly perturbed by this and their existence either fades or is threatened. I'd like for the players to have the opportunity to prevent the Alhoon from becoming a lich but it not to be easy, and if they fail, that alhoon suddenly jumps by like 12 CR and that's not a good thing for them haha.
Illithiliches are CR 22, so very hard to kill. I've ran a few Alhoons in my games, and they're very deadly.
Please check out my homebrew, I would appreciate feedback:
Spells, Monsters, Subclasses, Races, Arcknight Class, Occultist Class, World, Enigmatic Esoterica forms