Mind Flayer tactics?

[Lord Ben]

A few squirrel bodyguards transformed into humans wouldn't be horrible. I'm running Standing Stones next.

I'm cutting out the whole Grimlock encounter - it's a bit silly IMHO.

The main thing I want is something that can melee without worrying about mind blast. But that might be too difficult if everyone has to succeed at a DC17 every single round.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

He could have a (charmed) cleric (maybe drow?) that controls some undead. They attack the ones who still stand up, while the mindflayer eats the brain of the stunned ones. If he is low on hp, he just planeshifts away, possibly takin the cleric with him...

The Cleric could also engage in melee, or cast some Hold Person/Monster spells to those ones that aren't stunned...

If you have the Psionic Handbook, the allies of a Mindflayer should possibly be some Psionic Warriors or Psions. They can even possibly protect against his psionic attack modes...

 

[jasper]

Mr. Fred’s tactics

First I would not allow a flayer to have two bodies on the same plane. Or alternate prime material plane.

So from the attic of abyss Mr. Fred goes to sleep and roams the astral where he can invade Barry Bond Bard dream.

Now for Barry to wake himself up an opposed will check against Mr. Fred. Using detect thoughts, which the bard would get a saving throw, Fred would pick Barry’s brain.
“Tell Mr. Bond what did you do last summer”, questions Mr. Fred.
Barry, “Never,” However loses save.
“I know what you did last summer. Very interesting, I wonder if the king would like do know about you and his daughter”.
I would give saves to prevent Mr. Fred from totally picking the players mind.

Since my players defeated Mr. Fred from Speaker in the Dreams, I gave them full xp. I am planning of giving him half xp. And adding classes to bluff him up.

Coming from astral plane to prime. Blast the party four times a night especially to keep the spell casters from recovering their spells. I will allow a ten percent chance of the thread being broken. I would hit and run tactics for a week or two, then nothing. Leave alone for a week or two, during which time I would be advancing other plans. If I can successfully pick their minds, I would upset their plans. Gee Mr. Dragon do you know this party in Southfork is planning on raiding your lair. Just thought to be neighborly. Or pop in their home town, drain some brain. And call out that you did this for the glory of your master Mr. Barry Bond Bard.
Minions would depend on size and level of the party.
Grimlocks Kobolds, goblins, and hobgoblins with class levels.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Mr. Fred’s tactics

First I would not allow a flayer to have two bodies on the same plane. Or alternate prime material plane.

All depends upon your cosmology - I use the "winding road" from MotP, for Faerun or Greyhawk just pick something appropriate.

 

[Lord Ben]

If I use plane shift to send a PC to the plane of fire how do I determine what's around when he lands? There aren't maps or anything are there?

 

[James McMurray]

If he is sent to the Plane of Fire, you can basically assume that "what's around" is lots and lots of flames.

 

[Otterscrubber]

Plane shift not a good sneak attack spell

I've seen many examples above where people have suggested that the mind flayers plane shift for surprise purposes or as a means of travel. If you read the description of the spell you will see that it is not exactly a precise means of getting somewhere. You end up anywhere from 5-500 miles from your intended destination.

As mind flayers despise sunlight I would imagine the thought of them returning back to prime plane in full daylight on accident would make them think twice about using it in anything but the most dire of circumstances.

As for a surpise attack technique, forget about it.

 

[Dr_Rictus]

Mindflayers plane shift to an alternate material plane. They then astrally project to this material plane, forming a second body there for the purpose... so even if they "kill" the mindflayer, it is not actually dead - it's spirit simply returns to the other plane.

You, sir, are an evil genius. It does require a plane you're willing to travel to within the inaccuracy of plane shift, and where you feel comfortable leaving your mortal form while you use astral projection, and you have to be willing to make a trip through the astral plane, of course. But mind flayers ought to be able to take care of themselves through that sort of stuff.

Ick!

 

[Pielorinho]

In ]this thread, I detailed some of the ways that I tweaked Speaker in Dreams to make it make more sense to me.

When I ran it, the Ogre Mage survived until the end, by virtue of playing dead when he got knocked to negative hit points; when the PCs weren’t looking, he created some magical darkness and spirited himself (and several survivors of the ambush) away.

This was a great help to the Illithid in the end: the ogre mage turned the illithid, along with everyone else, invisible for the final battle. He still died bigtime, but the invisibility enabled the PCs to get off some good shots.

Daniel

 

[Theovis]

What about a well-trained pack of Blink Dogs? Dimension door away as a free action, and the mind flayer smacks down a readied STUN attack, the blink dogs charge.

Fun!