Creature Sense.The dragon is aware of the presence of creatures within 5 miles of it that have an Intelligence score of 4 or higher. It knows the distance and direction to each creature, as well as each one's Intelligence score, but can't sense anything else about it. A creature protected by a mind blank spell, a nondetection spell, or similar magic can't be perceived in this manner.
Innate Spellcasting (Psionics). The dragon’s innate spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 17). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components:
At will: detect thoughts,levitate
1/day each: dominate monster, telekinesis, plane shift (self-only)
Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the dragon fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.
Magic Resistance. The dragon has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Spider Climb. The dragon can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Telepathic Hub.The dragon can use its telepathy to initiate and maintain telepathic conversations with up to ten creatures at a time. The dragon can let those creatures telepathically hear each other while connected in this way.
Multiattack. The dragon can use its Frightful Presence. It then makes two melee Claw attacks or one melee Tentacle attack.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 19 (3d8 + 6) slashing damage.
Extract Brain. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one incapacitated creature grappled by the dragon. Hit: The target takes 55 (10d10) piercing damage. If this damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, the dragon kills the target by extracting and devouring its brain.
Frightful Presence. Each creature of the dragon’s choice that is within 120 feet of the dragon and aware of it must succeed on a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the dragon’s Frightful Presence for the next 24 hours.
Madness Breath. (Recharge 5–6).The dragon exhales a pulse of psychic power in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that cone must make a DC 18 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 45 (13d6) psychic damage and is [status]incapacitated[/status] until the end of its next turn. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage and isn't [status]incapacitated[/status].
Psychic Link. The dragon targets one incapacitated creature it can perceive with its Creature Sense trait and establishes a psychic link with that creature. Until the psychic link ends, the dragon can perceive everything the target senses. The target becomes aware that something is linked to its mind once it is no longer incapacitated, and the dragon can terminate the link at any time (no action required). The target can use an action on its turn to attempt to break the psychic link, doing so with a successful DC 18 Charisma saving throw. On a successful save, the target takes 10 (3d6) psychic damage. The psychic link also ends if the target and the dragon are more than 5 miles apart, with no consequences to the target. The dragon can form psychic links with up to ten creatures at a time.
Sense Thoughts. The dragon targets a creature with which it has a psychic link. The dragon gains insight into the target's reasoning, its emotional state, and thoughts that loom large in its mind (including things the target worries about, loves, or hates). The dragon can also make a Charisma (Deception) check with advantage to deceive the target's mind into thinking it believes one idea or feels a particular emotion. The target contests this attempt with a Wisdom (Insight) check. If the dragon succeeds, the mind believes the deception for 1 hour or until evidence of the lie is presented to the target.
Tail. Melee Weapon Attack: +11 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8 + 6) bludgeoning damage.
Tentacle. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 30 ft., one target. Hit: 20 (4d8 + 2) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a Huge or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 15) and takes 9 (1d8 + 5) psychic damage at the start of each of its turns until the grapple ends. The dragon can have up to four targets grappled at a time.
The dragon can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action option can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The dragon regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Tail Attack. The dragon makes a tail attack.
Tentacle Attack. The dragon makes a tentacle attack.
Telekinetic Fling. The dragon chooses a Small or smaller object that isn’t being worn or carried that it can see within 60 feet of it, and it magically hurls the object at a creature it can see within 60 feet of the object. The target must succeed on a DC 17 Dexterity saving throw or take 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage.
Sever Psychic Link. The dragon targets a creature within 120 feet of it with which it has a psychic link. The dragon ends the link, causing the creature to have disadvantage on all ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws until the end of the creature's next turn.
Description
This creature resembles a powerful draconic monstrosity, but even a biref glance shows it is not -- or may be is more than -- a dragon. Its tiny pale purple scales might be the dragon-thing's most normal feature. Its wings are hardly more than fleshy layers of skin, and four long tentacles grow out of the neck where its head should be. Two white bloated lidless orbs behind the tentacles serve as the creature's eyes.
Brainstealer dragons combine the worst features of mind flayers and dragons, stunning creatures of the deep world with their mind blast and devouring brains with their dreadful tentacles. The resemblance of these monstrosities to two dangerous predators of the depth leads some sages to speculate that their alien appearance is not coincidental. Mind flayer breeding programs occasionally create terrors even elder brains cannot control. Brainstealer dragons seem to be among those misbegotten progeny.
A brainstealer dragon is created when Mind Flayers make a special project of creating one over decades and centuries, and mind flayer ceremorph breeders consider such an achievement to be a crowning opus of their art. A newborn dragon, usually from a stolen dragon egg, is raised in the colony until it reaches an appropriate size for ceremorphosis as young dragon. From that point on, it becomes a powerful and valued member of the colony, defending the Elder Brain and assisting it in running the colony. Almost inevitably, however, the dragon reaches adult or mature age and throws off the control of its elder brain master and, depending on how it was treated, either devours the elder brain and supplants it, or acts as a ulitharid to found a fresh colony elsewhere.
Lair and Lair Actions
A Brainstealer Dragon’s Lair
Brainstealer dragons make their lairs in the deepest depths of the illithid colonies that spawned them. If they serve their Elder Brain, they lair with it, protecting it from any enemy. If they have broken free of the Elder Brain and devoured it, supplanting its control over the colony, they maintain the brine pool to preserve their colony's ability to reproduce. A Brainstealer Dragon's innate draconic selfish hoarding instinct is blended with the Illithid communitarian hive-mind into a controlling but nurturing instinct as the colony becomes its 'hoard' and the colony's health, well-being, size, population and power become the focus of the dragon's obsession.
Lair Actions:
On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties), the dragon takes a lair action to cause one of the following effects; the dragon can’t use the same effect two rounds in a row:
- The dragon casts wall of force
- The dragon targets one friendly creature it can sense within 120 feet of it. The target has a flash of inspiration and gains advantage on one attack roll, ability check, or saving throw it makes before the end of its next turn. If the target doesn’t or can’t use this benefit in that time, the inspiration is lost.
- The dragon targets one creature it can sense within 120 feet of it and anchors it by sheer force of will. The target must succeed on a DC 18 Charisma saving throw or be unable to leave its current space. It can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
- The dragon targets a creature within 120 feet of it that can hear and understand it. The creature must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be charmed by the dragon until initiative count 20 on the following round. A creature charmed in this way obeys to the best of its ability any command the dragon issues that isn’t directly harmful to itself.
Regional Effects
The territory within 5 miles of a brainstealer dragon's lair is altered by the creature’s psionic presence, which creates one or more of the following effects:
- Creatures within 5 miles of a brainstealer dragon sometimes have incomprehensible alien dreams, which are quickly forgotten and which leave the dreamer disturbed and unsettled.
- The brainstealer dragon can overhear any telepathic conversation happening within 5 miles of it. The creature that initiated the telepathic conversation makes a DC 18 Wisdom (Insight) check when telepathic contact is first established. If the check succeeds, the creature is aware that something is eavesdropping on the conversation. The nature of the eavesdropper isn’t revealed, and the brainstealer dragon can’t participate in the telepathic conversation unless it has formed a psychic link with the creature that initiated it.
- Any creature with which the brainstealer dragon has formed a psychic link hears faint, incomprehensible whispers in the deepest recesses of its mind. This psychic detritus consists of the dragon's stray thoughts commingled with those of other creatures to which it is linked.
- Low-intelligence sentient creatures (with scores below 9) will on rare occasions get a blinding but momentary headache and see terrifying hallucinations of writhing tentacles in shadows, dark shapes and strange colors that make no sense. These episodes last only a few seconds.
- Very high-intelligence sentient creatures (above INT 15) will also get sudden blinding headaches, but with them will come flashes of dark insight into twisted alien concepts that they had never before imagined, sometimes inspiring them to delve into madness-inducing studies on their own.
If the brainstealer dragon dies, these effects immediately end.
Comments