I am setting up an encounter with mind flayers and intellect devourers. What I am curious about is how can someone realize that a character has had their brain swapped out with an intellect devour. The body thief ability on the creature does not say anything about how to detect a body thief.
How would you go about it so that players aren’t powerless. Are there any checks or something that you would find useful that did not seem a little lame? I know that if they were to cast a spell that could detect the creature type maybe that would work. However I don’t know what would ever give them the idea to do it since for all intents and purposes the character would be its normal self if the creature wanted it to.
im trying to not remove player agency by just saying “oh that toon is a puppet.”
Also would mind flayers work above ground ground in water deep or only in the underdark?
The scary thing about mind flayers is that the players would have no idea.
You might introduce the idea of intellect devourers with a hostile creature that the players are forced to kill, then, as it dies, describe the scene of the brain appearing next to the body and skittering away.
If you can find a way to describe the intellect devoured the right way, it will put the idea in their head that ANYONE could secretly be an intellect devourer.
And mind flayers could work anywhere, as long as they have a stronghold that is not easily detected. You could have them operating out of the back room of a church as long as they kept their presence secret.
Or, have the players follow a guide NPC. Suddenly the NPC shudders, rights themselves, and continues onward, denying anything being wrong. Then have them turn on the party.
It all depends on how kind you want to be as a DM, or how much you want your players to know that someone has been taken over. Previous comments are correct that by rules there's no easy way to know an Intellect devourer has struck, but as the DM you can offer your players a variety of chances to figure out something is wrong.
As evil aberrations I would let any character who has a way of sensing those kind of things get a heads up. So a Ranger with the right favorite enemy, or a cleric or paladin who would have a reason to be in tune with sensing evil or aberrations.
Also while the Intellect devourer knows everything the host body used to know, that doesn't mean it's perfect at mimicing/acting as that person. Their charisma is just 10, so maybe I have the creature make a Performance check versus the players Passive perception and tell any player who beats the check that the "person" seams off.
I am setting up an encounter with mind flayers and intellect devourers. What I am curious about is how can someone realize that a character has had their brain swapped out with an intellect devour. The body thief ability on the creature does not say anything about how to detect a body thief.
How would you go about it so that players aren’t powerless. Are there any checks or something that you would find useful that did not seem a little lame? I know that if they were to cast a spell that could detect the creature type maybe that would work. However I don’t know what would ever give them the idea to do it since for all intents and purposes the character would be its normal self if the creature wanted it to.
im trying to not remove player agency by just saying “oh that toon is a puppet.”
Also would mind flayers work above ground ground in water deep or only in the underdark?
The scary thing about mind flayers is that the players would have no idea.
You might introduce the idea of intellect devourers with a hostile creature that the players are forced to kill, then, as it dies, describe the scene of the brain appearing next to the body and skittering away.
If you can find a way to describe the intellect devoured the right way, it will put the idea in their head that ANYONE could secretly be an intellect devourer.
And mind flayers could work anywhere, as long as they have a stronghold that is not easily detected. You could have them operating out of the back room of a church as long as they kept their presence secret.
Or, have the players follow a guide NPC. Suddenly the NPC shudders, rights themselves, and continues onward, denying anything being wrong. Then have them turn on the party.
It all depends on how kind you want to be as a DM, or how much you want your players to know that someone has been taken over. Previous comments are correct that by rules there's no easy way to know an Intellect devourer has struck, but as the DM you can offer your players a variety of chances to figure out something is wrong.
As evil aberrations I would let any character who has a way of sensing those kind of things get a heads up. So a Ranger with the right favorite enemy, or a cleric or paladin who would have a reason to be in tune with sensing evil or aberrations.
Also while the Intellect devourer knows everything the host body used to know, that doesn't mean it's perfect at mimicing/acting as that person. Their charisma is just 10, so maybe I have the creature make a Performance check versus the players Passive perception and tell any player who beats the check that the "person" seams off.
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Dungeon Dudes just released an excellent video on Mind Flayer tactics this week. One of the tactics they talked about was the idea of having the mind flayer send out its minions to confront the party before it even shows up. When the minions are struck down and the mind flayer appears, the heads of the fallen minions could break open and out jumps one or more intellect devourers right there on the spot. Nasty stuff!
"Not all those who wander are lost"
I like this. With my players, just knowing a brain thief was about will get them suspect.