Help! Defense vs Mindflayers

[Shayuri]

I seem to recall that Mind Blast was treated as a 4rth level spell like ability.

Would not the clerical buff Spell Resistance apply to it? Since your spells will be totally useless against the mind flayers directly, it behooves you to prepare as many buffs as possible. If Spell Resistance works, you're in much better shape.

 

[Arbiter of Wyrms]

Neuroshield Helm

Dragon Magazine Issue 291 features gnomes. Bazaar of the Bizarre by Jonathon Richards and Brian Dunnell has a slew of cool new magic items, including the svirfneblin-designed helmet I described above. Only the wearer of the helmet is protected, and only so long as there is at least one 'empty' gem, and you only get one mindblast attack after you've absorbed three, but if you've got 46K gp to blow, that's the way to go.

 

[Sejs]

Undead. Seriously.

Not -you- being undead, no no.

You attacking them with Shadows. Flayers have low strength, shadows have no brain to eat, are immune to mind affecting effects, and can hide in the walls/floor.

You can take 'em out, it just hinges on you being prepared ahead of time and them not getting the drop on you.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

A lot of great info here.

Just to clarify, we are using magic/psionics transparency, FYI.

Thanks for the tid-bits, I'll post back and let you all know how we do.

(and I just want to add that right now, the Cleric wants to just go the the far side of the world and forget about the mindflayers... If my character weren't such a goody-goody, I would be booking passage for us on the next available ship... )

 

[noeuphoria]

Well, we've always played that Spell Immunity can protect against mind blast. If you look at the DC of mind blast, it's equivalent to a 4th level spell-like ability. Going up against mind flayers, we ususally had the big tanks with Spell Immunity to Mind Blast, Suggestion, and Confusion. But, we don' t use the XPH in our games.

 

[Wrahn]

-Range: Mindblast has a range of 60ft (if I recall correctly). Make a rolling ambush (shoot, run, shoot), keep out of mind blast range.

-Protection from Evil: They will try to dominate/charm (they have one of these, I can’t remember which) and in addition this will add additional protection from the mind blast.

-Allies: Lots of people hate the flayers, getting a group of Githzerai to help will make the fight a lot easier.

-Concentrate on one, take them down as quickly as you can. This is just sound tactical advice, 3 guys down 20 hit points each are still three mind blasts. 2 unwounded ones and one dead one is only 2.

-Summon things to slow them down if you are going with the rolling ambush, make them waste their mind blasts and other magic on the summoned creatures.

-Hit them from all sides, make sure if they are mind blasting you, they are going to catch one of their allies

-Traps, if you can make them chase you, make them regret it.

In short if you can control the situation, you will be in a lot better shape. I am not sure you are going to be able to do that, but that is the best suggestions I have to offer.

 

[Nail]

I'll be blunt: All of the advice here misses the mark by a mile.

These mind-flayers are the BBEGs flunkies! If so, killing them is a waste of time. After all, the BBEG will "just get more." Why go after the mind-flayers at all?

What you really need is a way to keep the BBEG from knowing where you are. After all: How did he send mind-flayers to your exact location? (Note: I am hoping that this was not because the DM is sloppy, or a big fan of deus ex machina. I am hoping there was/is a sound, reasonable mechanic.)

At your present level, there are a few ways to avoid detection. You'll have to wait for 5th level spells for you to be truely prepared. In any case, Avoiding Detection should be your chief goal. (Hint: The DM might have been using the encounter to "tell you something" about your current methods.)

(Shakes head) ....why are they going after the mercenaries.........

 

[Thanee]

With a good Will save, Mind Flayers are easy prey, the only thing to worry about is to first dimensional anchor them, so they cannot planeshift away.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Plane Sailing]

Another option for fighting them - summon creatures such as elementals which are immune to stunning and send them in to attack and give the mind flayers something to worry about.

 

[Shadowdweller]

While not a perfect defense, some scrolls of Mind Blank could certainly work wonders.