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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AngryMojo" data-source="post: 4812486" data-attributes="member: 83096">If you can find it, the 3.5 book Lords of Madness really helped flesh out aberrations.  I remember reading the mind flayer chapter in-depth, and it really helped me with my illithid encounters.For example:  Illithids in and of themselves have a completely alien mindframe.  While the basic goals may seem similar to any other villain (slaves, power, rule the world, etc.) their means and motivations are completely different.  Mind flayers feel no positive emotions whatsoever, to the extent of not even understanding what positive emotions are.  Happiness means nothing to them, because they have no understanding of it.  Imagine this cold, clinical approach to a race that lives off human brains, and you'll have some truly frightening experiences.It's been mentioned that you can alter something PC's take for granted, like floors being underneath you, or dungeons being mostly on a level field.  I like playing around with writing.  When creatures are so odd and obscure, their written language is likely to be undescernable as such.  Going on with the mind flayer example, you can throw in a scenario where the PC's need some arcane lore to continue a campaign, and it happens that the only holders of that knowledge are mind flayers.  And suddenly, those odd crystalline formations on the wall are actually mind flayer writings.  One room where some thralls were kept just has some odd way of treating humanoids, like having them face the ceiling for several hours a day.  If a mind flayer is questioned, he alludes that crystal is like a cookbook.Aberrant is more of a descriptor for tone and mood than mechanics.  Many people have referenced Lovecraft, read some of his stuff for inspiration.  Barnes and Noble has a large hardback of his complete works for under $20.  I'd call it a must-have for any gamer's library.</blockquote>

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