Astral Form. The astral stirge can move through other creatures and objects as if they were difficult terrain. It takes 5 (1d10) force damage if it ends its turn inside an object. Additionally, if it is subjected to an effect that would sever a creature's silver cord, the astral stirge dies.
Innate Spellcasting (Psyonics). The astral stirge can cast mage hand at will (the hand is invisible).
Mind Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 1 piercing damage and 8 (1d10 + 3) psychic damage, and the stirge attaches to the target. While attached, the stirge doesn't attack. Instead, at the start of each of the stirge's turns, the target takes 5 (1d4 + 3) psychic damage and, if the target isn't immune to psychic damage, must make a DC 13 Intelligence saving throw. On a failure, the target's intelligence is reduced by 1d4. This reduction lasts until that creature takes a short or long rest. If the creatures intelligence is reduced to 0 by this effect, the stirge detaches from the creature and that creature forgets anything that happened to it in the last 1d4 hours and falls unconscious for one hour, after which it's intelligence returns to normal.
The stirge can detach itself by spending 5 feet of its movement. A creature other than the target can use its action to make a DC 13 Strength check, detaching the stirge on a success.
Description
When spells are being created by high wizards, they often test them on animals. In the ancient days of magic when astral projection was being tested and experimented with, a wizard accidentally sent a swarm of stirges into the astral plane, never to have them return. Over the millennia, the rouge beasts adapted to that strange environment with the help of the latent magic of the spell. Rather than drinking blood, they harvested latent psyonic energy from the residents of the plane, such as the gith and the mind flayers, and their form became less and less physical until they were only held together by their own mental abilities.
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