The answer is... it's inconsistent. Page 77 of Volo's Guide To Monsters has a picture of a partially-dissected mind flayer corpse that's got a radial mouth, but other artwork shows them having a more human-like mouth, sometimes with teeth and sometimes with a beak.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I always go with beak, simply because of the whole eating-brain thing. Got to be able to crack open the skull to get at the brain somehow, and their mouths aren't magic.
I read somewhere that they have lamprey-like mouths. (Circular with rings on rings of sharp teeth.)
In Baldur's Gate 3, they have sideways mouths with a handful of sharp teeth. (The mouths are hinged vertically.)
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
I always go with beak, simply because of the whole eating-brain thing. Got to be able to crack open the skull to get at the brain somehow, and their mouths aren't magic.
I thought they sucked out the brains with the tentacles?
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"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
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What kind of mouth does a mind flayer have?
Is it a beak like an octopus?
Is it radial like a sea urchin?
Are the tentacles all little proboscises so they don't have a "mouth" part?
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
The answer is... it's inconsistent. Page 77 of Volo's Guide To Monsters has a picture of a partially-dissected mind flayer corpse that's got a radial mouth, but other artwork shows them having a more human-like mouth, sometimes with teeth and sometimes with a beak.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
I've always played them something akin to Davey Jone. Humanoid mouth, with sharper teeth. If i want them extra scary i give them the beak.
|| Sol Night-Arrow, Tabaxi Ranger ||
||Currently DMing a Homebrew Campaign ||
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^^^Those are Links BTW^^^
I like the radial teeth because that is much spookier to me.
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"Play the game however you want to play the game. After all, your fun doesn't threaten my fun."
I hope that worked because my tech at work blocks random images.
That's a big negative.
|| Sol Night-Arrow, Tabaxi Ranger ||
||Currently DMing a Homebrew Campaign ||
Guides or Important Threads of Mine ----- || List of ALL Official Familiars || My Homebrew Monsters ||
Level 3 One Shot Character Concepts ----- || Fist of the Gods || Triple Tap Hunter || Bullseye Dartmaster || Captain America ||
^^^Those are Links BTW^^^
In that case <insert zoidberg face>
I always go with beak, simply because of the whole eating-brain thing. Got to be able to crack open the skull to get at the brain somehow, and their mouths aren't magic.
Fact is, mind flayers are aberrations, so their morphology could be very variable.
I read somewhere that they have lamprey-like mouths. (Circular with rings on rings of sharp teeth.)
In Baldur's Gate 3, they have sideways mouths with a handful of sharp teeth. (The mouths are hinged vertically.)
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
I thought they sucked out the brains with the tentacles?
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale