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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Trit One-Ear" data-source="post: 8434432" data-attributes="member: 6678017">This is what I think I needed to hear. Thanks everyone. I keep looking at all the ways this will disrupt my party's "regular" tactics without considering the various other tricks they all have to recover. This tendency is probably why I have yet to really challenge my party with a Deadly encounter.[USER=20323]@Quickleaf[/USER] thank you for the fantastic suggestions. My thoughts and responses to some of them below.Definitely going to factor this in. The joy of them investigating a mystery is the Elder Brain has been able to watch them for days on end, and will absolutely know they're coming. I just have to be sure to reflect this in the plans it makes.Very helpful to mark this (thank you to [USER=5889]@Stalker0[/USER] as well for seconding that). I'll think about what kind of obstacle makes the most sense... honestly, probably a psionic field or barrier will be enough.This will also probably inform the defenses the Brain has. Maybe the screaming pillars break concentration? I'll probably cherry pick a feature from a different aberration and use it as a mechanic.I absolutely love this. I always like to use an in-world reason for a creature to have legendary resistance. Using the psionic energy of some captured locals to protect itself feels great, and it gives the heroes something to do if they'd like to strip away those LR charges without using spell slots. I recently learned loss of memory etc. is a Yellow Card/Veil for one of my players... so I'm already having to tip toe around this carefully, and as such am allowing many of the victims to be rescued with enough time, healing, and NPCs casting greater restoration, so I'm adjusting the lore a bit to make Mind Flayers a little less permanently-fatal.I have definitely been planning on having some conflict between the two factor in. My reasoning for the two working together is they both recognize the need for the other while the colony recovers from near-annihilation. That doesn't mean they work well together though. The ulitharid is absotlutely going to plane-shift away once it feels truly threatened, and I will build up to this with some RP in advance. Our party's Bard especially loves non-violent solutions, and if he wants to try and divide the two, by all means.I've been worried about this and will definitely play with some ideas. The dreamscape idea is interesting, and could maybe factor in to how the players are able to free the thralls. Maybe during their stunned rounds they have to overcome some kinds of obstacles with skill checks, and after enough of those (using the <a href="https://bladesinthedark.com/progress-clocks" target="_blank">Clocks System</a> from Blades in the Dark), boom free a thrall.Thanks again everyone for the help and advice. I feel a lot more clarity on how I can design this big encounter now.Trit</blockquote>

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