Thanks for bringing those up, @
Leatherhead - I'm not really touching on the Chapter One stuff as much, so it's good to have it mentioned here.
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Almost the last of the Mind Flayer-themed entries, the
Mind Witness is a pretty strange customer. Created by a fusion of all that is nasty and wrong about Mind Flayers and all that is nasty and wrong about Beholders, it is a
Large floating tentacle eyestalk monster with psionic abilities.
The art in the book is really unpleasant. It has a sticky, moist quality to it, and the almost symmetrical alignment of its limbs just highlights how odd it is. The milky white eye also draws the gaze, and it makes it seem even more unpleasant. All in all, a well done horror image.
As I mentioned above, these creatures are a fusion of Mind Flayer and Beholder. They are created by stunning a Beholder and putting it through the same transformation that (when done on Humanoids) makes Mind Flayers. I can only imagine that it takes a lot of time and effort to pull that effort off, so presumably there are not many of these in the average colony. After the transformation - which, oddly, results in a creature weaker than either a Mind Flayer or a Beholder - the Mind Witness is an ultra-loyal blank slate which is primarily used for its ability to broadcast telepathic messages. In other words, they are used in the same way that my dad uses wifi signal boosters in his house: to strengthen the existing network. They must be especially useful around thralls, who would have less of a native connection to the Elder Brain.
One very intriguing idea is that if the Mind Witness gets seperated from the colony, it will attach itself to the first psionic creature it finds, taking on their world view. Some flumphs who have one of these as a protector is interesting, but flumphs are already so weird it might be overload. I'd be very interested to have one turn up as the totally-horrific-but-benign protector of an underdark psionic monk temple: especially since you could play with the idea of the Mind Witness starting to revert if Mind Flayers approach...
The combat options for this fella are almost an overload. It can either multiattack - for a surprisingly high damage routine that includes the option to grapple and stun its victims - or use eye rays, which are primarily rather than damage, and which also have a strong psionic theme. This makes the Mind Witness a really versatile monster, since it appears perfectly happy both at range and in melee, and it can do all sorts of things that will help its allies out in combat, able to
slow,
stun and and
restrain opponents, targetting just about every stat rather than just intelligence.