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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BOZ" data-source="post: 111130" data-attributes="member: 1241">ELDER BRAINLarge AberrationHit Dice: 20d8+200 (290 hp)Initiative: -1 (Dex, Improved Initiative)Speed: 0 ftAC: 10 (-1 size, -5 Dex, +6 natural)Attacks: NoneDamage: NoneFace/Reach: 5 ft by 10 ft/5 ftSpecial Attacks: PsionicsSpecial Qualities: Create brain golem, detect living, telepathy, scry, SR 25Saves: Fort +18, Ref +1, Will +22Abilities: Str ---, Dex ---, Con 30, Int 24, Wis 27, Cha 28Skills: Bluff +15, Concentration +16, Diplomacy +15, Gather Information +15, Intimidate +16, Knowledge (any five) +14, Search +13, Scry +14, Sense Motive +15Feats: Combat Casting, Great Fortitude, Improved Initiative, Iron Will - (Psionic feats) - Body Fuel, Disarm Mind, Inertial Armor, Inner Strength, Mental Adversary, Power Penetration, Psychic Bastion, TalentedClimate/Terrain: Any undergroundOrganization: Solitary or community (5-30 mind flayers, 2-12 ulitharids, and 1-6 brain golems)Challenge Rating: 24Treasure: NoneAlignment: Always lawful evilAdvancement: 21-60 HD (Large)An elder brain is a colossal monstrosity of brain matter that rules as well as serves the purposes of a mind flayer community.  Most of its immeasurable mass is stored in an Astral node psionically maintained by the elder brain, leaving only a 10-foot diameter mass of this brain tissue on the material plane.  What is left of this being is a fibrous mass of cognizant tissue that floats in the mineral pool at the center of an illithid community.  This brain pulses and glows from the sheer power of the psychic energy flowing through it.  The brain resides in a briny basin which is 30 feet wide and 30 feet deep, where it floats about 10 feet below the surface, surrounded by illithid tadpoles.   Elder brains serve as their community's repository of all knowledge and psionic power, being the result of generations of merged illithids.  Every member of an illithid community has both a right and obligation to join with the elder brain after physical death, that its mind may live on.  Individual personalities and whims become one with the gestalt formed by the elder brain's consciousness, although illithids would like to think otherwise.   Elder brains are continually growing, though they never appear any larger than the 10-foot diameter brain in the community's brine pool.  All excess mass gained from feeding off the psionic energy of tadpoles and illithid brains is shunted into the elder brain's Astral storage.  Though the bulk of the elder brain's mass is stored on the Astral Plane, no Astral traveler has ever claimed to find an elder brain in part or in whole.COMBATElder 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.   Psionics (Sp):    Create Brain Golem (Su): An elder brain can grow brain golems by budding.  These golems serve as avatars to the elder brain, extensions of its consciousness.  The elder brain can grow up to three brain golems at a time, needing one full hour to create each one.  During this time, its psionic resources are tapped out, and the elder brain cannot use its psionics for more than communication.   Detect Living (Su): An elder brain can sense all sentient beings withing range, unless they are psionically shielded.   Telepathy (Su): An elder brain can communicate telepathically with any creature within range that has a language.  The elder brain is in constant mental contact with all illithids in its community.   Scry (Su): An elder brain can scry through the eyes of any sentient creature within range if the creature is willing, or psionically dominated.The elder brain first appeared in The Illithiad (1998).</blockquote>

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