Elder brains and illithid-kin!

[BOZ]

bump! here are the stats for the elder brain (and others)! i'll see if i can finish it up...

psionics

 

[the Jester]

Hm, you forgot the elder brain's +4 to AC due to inertial armor.

Darn, and I just did that one the other day!

 

[BOZ]

right on. that can be fixed easily enough

 

[the Jester]

I also think you have the CR pegged a little high on the elder brain- a party of four characters of decent non-epic level will prolly tear through it with that poor AC and inability to move. I'd lower it a little bit.

My version, while similar, is a little tougher mentally and I set the CR at 14.

By the way, a couple other things I noticed: creatures with no dex suffer no dex penalty to initiative (I think??). Also, a creature with no dex always fails Reflex saves.

 

[BOZ]

Re: ELDER BRAIN

Elder brains are far from defenseless, but all the same they are useless in physical combat and prefer to allow illithids and servant creatures to fight for them. Elder brains can unleash the full arsenal of their psionic might on aggressors who threaten it, at twice the normal range. Anything capable of surviving this onslaught must deal with its defenders, and melee and ranged combat with the elder brain is inhibited by its submersion in the brine pool.
If the elder brain is aware that its massive psionic ability may be inadequate to stop intruders, it will grow brain golems in advance of combat. The elder brain needs sufficient warning for this, and this is a very rare occurrence. Despite all of these defenses, the elder brain has one last ditch ability if death is imminent. The elder brain can withdraw its mass entirely into the Astral Plane, permanently relinquishing its hold on the Material plane. Such rogue elder brains go on to an unknown fate, usually leaving their former community to quickly fall to pieces.
In addition to its psionics, the elder brain has a series of other innate mental powers. These mind powers all have a range of 2-5 miles, depending on the elder brain's age and size, and even work through solid rock.

first of all, anything that is not immune to psionics will have a very hard time with this thing. even were it not surrounded by servant creatures (a situation i ever doubt the PC's would be "lucky" enough to face) it is quite formiddable on its own. i don't know anyone else feel the high CR is unwarranted?

 

[the Jester]

Re: Re: ELDER BRAIN

first of all, anything that is not immune to psionics will have a very hard time with this thing. even were it not surrounded by servant creatures (a situation i ever doubt the PC's would be "lucky" enough to face) it is quite formiddable on its own. i don't know anyone else feel the high CR is unwarranted?

Keep in mind that the elder brain's servants shouldn't count for its CR, though they will definitely increase the EL. The brine pool makes things a little tricky, but a mid- to high-level party should be able to get around that as well. With a SR of only 25, it's going to always fall victim to spells cast by a 24th-level caster (assuming CR of 24).

I'd say its CR shouldn't really be that much higher than a high-level psion's- it has a lot of disadvantages in that it can't fight back if it's caught in an antimagic field (assuming that the campaign runs psionic-magic transparency) or an antipsionic field or whatever it's called.

I'm assuming that a 14th level party will be able to escape and return, deal with the brine pool via disintigrate, control water (which affects water "or similar liquid") or whatever, and hit it hard and fast. No save against those pesky reflex save type attacks makes it a sitting duck for heavy damage spells like fireball, lightning bolt, etc. A 14th-level party should also have the resources to divine a decent strategy assuming they have a wizard and a cleric. And if you don't give it Quicken Power, it's gonna have a hard time keeping anyone dominated against the dispels and break enchantments that high-level parties tend to throw around.

YMMV, of course- but I'm assuming an effective and optimized party of 14th-16th level and I don't think it'll take much for them to beat it down.

 

[BOZ]

hmm, well, i'll take this into consideration. yes, a well-prepared party who knows what an elder brain is and can do, and is expecting one, will have considerably less of a challenge to face. but i do contend that even the highest levels of parties would have a hard time in a final battle with one of these if they didn't know what they were walking into...

note, the same can be said for dragons, demons, and the rest.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Scry (Su): An elder brain can scry through the eyes of any sentient creature within range if the creature is willing, or psionically dominated.

This should probably be replaced with Sense Link. Besides, there is no psionic scrying, but there is psionic Remote Viewing.

Feats: Combat Casting, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will - (Psionic feats) - Body Fuel, Disarm Mind, Inertial Armor, Inner Strength, Mental Adversary, Power Penetration, Psychic Bastion, Talented

The first feat should be Combat Manifestation. Unless you give the Elder Brain psion levels, then Body Fuel, Inner Strength and Talented are all useless - they all affect power points one way or another.

You don't need to give the elder brain every psionic ability it had in 2e. You could always give it 20 manifester levels, the same way many celestials can cast spells as clerics.

 

[BOZ]

finally, someone who knows stuff.

how would i go about setting that up? does it really need levels, or can i just make it function as, say, a 20th level psion?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

No, it doesn't need to take 20 class levels.

You could give it the following abilities:

Innate Psionics (Sp): at will-[all of the free psionic powers]. These abilities are as the powers manifested by a 20th-level psion.
Attack/Defense Modes (Sp): [I don't have access to the Illithiad anymore, but I'm sure you do ]

Psionics (Sp): Elder brains can manifest psionic powers (except Psychometabolic powers) as 20th-level psions with primary discipline Telepathy.

[Note that the Psychometabolic powers that allow healing and Body Equilibrium would go under Innate Psionics]