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Intellect Devourer
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<blockquote data-quote="NeverLucky" data-source="post: 6993325" data-attributes="member: 6809614"><p>I'm of the philosophy that character death should generally be the result of very poor decision making, or climactic fights against very tough enemies. Intellect Devourers are not supposed to be very tough enemies (hence CR 2), and they can kill you with very little decision-making on your part (they're small, easily hidden, it mostly comes down to the luck of the die). Save or dies, especially at low levels, don't really add to the strategy of the game, and it adds tension in the same way that, say, randomly killing PCs by striking them with lightning from the sky adds tension.</p><p></p><p>Note that I don't have a problem with Mind Flayers which can also kill PCs permanently. They're actually supposed to be powerful, iconic monsters, and their instant-death mechanic has a lot more strategic play to it than Intellect Devourers (you generally have a turn to break the grapple, and the ability needs to go through hit points to kill you). While there's still a lot of danger and tension with Mind Flayers, players are not quite as helpless there, and Mind Flayers have an appropriate CR for the danger level.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="NeverLucky, post: 6993325, member: 6809614"] I'm of the philosophy that character death should generally be the result of very poor decision making, or climactic fights against very tough enemies. Intellect Devourers are not supposed to be very tough enemies (hence CR 2), and they can kill you with very little decision-making on your part (they're small, easily hidden, it mostly comes down to the luck of the die). Save or dies, especially at low levels, don't really add to the strategy of the game, and it adds tension in the same way that, say, randomly killing PCs by striking them with lightning from the sky adds tension. Note that I don't have a problem with Mind Flayers which can also kill PCs permanently. They're actually supposed to be powerful, iconic monsters, and their instant-death mechanic has a lot more strategic play to it than Intellect Devourers (you generally have a turn to break the grapple, and the ability needs to go through hit points to kill you). While there's still a lot of danger and tension with Mind Flayers, players are not quite as helpless there, and Mind Flayers have an appropriate CR for the danger level. [/QUOTE]
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