D&D 5E Could a Mind Flayer (Illithid) devour another Mind Flayer's brain...?

[Olgar Shiverstone]

They can -- they're great with a side of fava beans and a nice Chianti.

 

[discosoc]

I imagine it would be incredibly tough for one to attack another. They aren't really physically powerful and generally rely on mental domination to make the victim copacetic with the whole brain-eating thing, which probably doesn't work too well against other Illithids.

 

[Dausuul]

The thought crossed my mind that if Flayers find brains tasty, perhaps a Flayer MIGHT try chowing down on one of its fellows!

I think that results in a stack overflow error.

 

[El Mahdi]

The thought crossed my mind that if Flayers find brains tasty, perhaps a Flayer MIGHT try chowing down on one of its fellows! Naturally, the cannibalistic Flayer would be a wanted fugitive from justice in its own society if this came to light... story seed!

...I would say they are perfectly capable but it is frowned upon in their society for survival reasons. There are some that would do it anyway i guess much like people but then have you seen a mindflayers stat block just try and eat his brain without him stunning you.

I'm with Azurewraith. I'm thinking it's possible for them to feed on eachother, but it's likely a societal taboo. Probably for species survival, like Azurewraith said, but maybe there's also other considerations.

Maybe a Mindflayer feeding on another Mindflayer brain can lead to some sort of Illithid Prion-Disease; Mad-Mindflayer Disease if you will.

Sure, Vampiric Mindflayers are bad - mindless, feral killers - but maybe a cannibalistic Illithid goes insane. Still intelligent and calculating, but utterly insane - something even worse than a Vampiric Illithid.

Let's say that it makes them homicidal to their own (a hunger for more Illithid brains - maybe the only thing that keeps adverse effects of Illithid Prion Disease at bay), makes them immune to the Elder Brain's control over them, and a real threat to the Elder Brain itself. A calculating hunger to devour the Elder Brain and take control of the society, in order to cultivate their fellow Illithids as a continuing source of Brain-Food...

 

[Scorpio616]

Was there not a Vampire Illithid back in one of the older editions?

Yes 2E, Ravenloft Module Thoughts of Darkness IIRC.

The original write up was slightly vague on their energy drain. Sure they were worth 2000xp more than a normal vampire, but I'm not so sure that is equitable for being able to beat 8 levels off someone a round!

Their powerful negative energy essence allows them to drain two life energy levels from anyone they strike.
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Thereafter, it attempts to hit an adversary with each of its four tentacles each round, inflicting 1d6+4 points of crushing damage per hit, in addition to its life energy drain.

Later uses of the monster in 2E went and specified every hit knocked off two levels, making it pretty much the worst level drainer in the system.

 

[iltharanos]

The thought crossed my mind that if Flayers find brains tasty, perhaps a Flayer MIGHT try chowing down on one of its fellows! Naturally, the cannibalistic Flayer would be a wanted fugitive from justice in its own society if this came to light... story seed!

I can totally see this. In the Dragonlance version of mind flayers, there were two different castes, the elite (which were basically standard mind flayers), and the savage (more physical and less mental versions). Given they dwell in dark, steamy, isolated jungles, you could totally go with a standard pulp jungle trope of cannibalistic elite mind flayers feeding on their savage kin whenever the visitors run thin.