mind flayers, possessors, or phrenic scourges?

[Geoffrey]

Gary Gygax's mind flayer has been with us since 1975.

Philip J. Reed gave us a mind flayer variant called possessors (published in Possessors: Children of the Outer Gods).

Ari Marmell gave us a mind flayer variant called the phrenic scourge (published in The Iconic Bestiary -- Classics of Fantasy).

Which do you prefer, and why?

 

[Kunimatyu]

I don't think that most of us know how those last two even work.

 

[jaerdaph]

I voted for Phil's Possessors for several reasons. It was the very first PDF product I ever bought (Christopher Shy's art really impressed me so much that I was willing to try PDFs for the first time, now I'm addicted), Phil was the first to have the idea of creating "replacements" for D&D monsters that weren't open content which I thought was cool, the possessor was still unique enough in its own right as a monster and not a knock off with the serial numbers scratched off, it works in other non-fantasy settings like modern horror or sci fi, there was much greater detail provided than you got with the mindflayer "out of the box", and I had a lot of fun using it in a Victorian horror campaign.

That said, Ari's book rocks on toast too!

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Aren't the other two OGC versions because the mind flayer really isn't?

 

[jaerdaph]

Aren't the other two OGC versions because the mind flayer really isn't?

I'd have to say the possessor is more of a replacement for the niche the mindflayer fills in D&D than a knock off of the actual mindflayer. The phrenic scourge however is a little more similar to the mindflayer, but it has some unique features as well. Both are well done.

 

[Drowbane]

Mind Flayer: simply because... "WTF are the other two?".

 

[Delta]

Mind flayers. Because.... dude, it flays your mind.

 

[Dark Psion]

All of the above

Aberrations, equal opportunity mutations.

 

[Baron Opal]

I voted for the mind flayers because I own the Illithiad. But, they're all cool.

 

[Neil Bishop]

I like all three but I have to give mind flayers the win simply because I have been using them since about 1982. 25 years of illithid-y goodness!