D&D 5E Preview: Intellect Devourer

[Mouseferatu]

I like it as a glass cannon option. If I want a glass cannon for an encounter, this is a good one. If I don't, I use a different creature. ... Intellect devourers will be very scary, especially for that 8-Intelligence / highest-hp-in-the-party / resistance-to-all-weapon-damage barbarian who laughs off waves of incoming ogres. I need something in my toolkit for that guy. I'm not going to kill him with it arbitrarily, but I certainly want to be able to worry him.

"Must spread around some XP before blah-blah-blah."

But yes, this, absolutely.

 

[Mouseferatu]

That quote at the top really bugs me. Mind Flayers talk to their vitcims? And make lame b-movie jokes?

While I like the intellect devourer itself, and even found the quote amusing in its own right, I have to agree with this. My view of mind flayers has always been cold and alien. They don't do humor; they aren't even capable of grasping the concept, as we understand it. They're too different. It'd be like one of Cthulhu's star-spawn cracking one-liners.

And thus they shall remain in my campaigns.

(But then, I never approved of how mind flayers were portrayed in FR novels, nor could I stomach the Spelljammer version, so it's not like I'm unaccustomed to the rules getting them wrong. )

 

[jadrax]

"Must spread around some XP before blah-blah-blah."

But yes, this, absolutely.

Covered.

 

[Uchawi]

Can anyone remind me what the rules are for healing ability damage? I'm away from book and I'm trying to figure out how devastating this critter is going to be.

I had the same question, i.e. what spell lets you recover from ability damage or gaining back a point of intelligence. The other question is how does a character protect itself from another sub-system introduced in the game, i.e. 3d6 versus an ability score.

 

[Pickles JG]

Interestingly, I've found that the best creatures to scare and fascinate my group are the seemingly "unfair" ones. My players yawn at giants and most demons, and even most dragons. They know that those creatures are largely about damage expressions. There are ways to mitigate lots of attacks rolls or high incoming damage. The things that scare my players are the creatures that kill you in ways other than pure damage. And here's the weird thing: the things that scare them are also the things that get them excited, and create the most memorable stories.

Medusae are scary (petrification). Wraiths are scary (max hp reduction or level draining, depending on edition). Mind flayers are scary (whether it be domination, mind blast or brain-boring). And intellect devourers...? Intellect devourers will be very scary, especially for that 8-Intelligence / highest-hp-in-the-party / resistance-to-all-weapon-damage barbarian who laughs off waves of incoming ogres. I need something in my toolkit for that guy. I'm not going to kill him with it arbitrarily, but I certainly want to be able to worry him.

I depends how they are handled. One monster with a "death effect" or something else really unpleasant that goes off on one dice roll - not very exciting. I remember fighting a series of wights or some other drainy undead in 3e - they take a couple of rounds to chop down & the fight was standing around chopping hoping not to get the unlucky hit/failed save. Totally boring to me but presumably fun for people who like playing slot machines or other pure chance games. Similarly the time I got assassinated by a Wight assassin - make spot check fail, make fort save fail, roll up new character.

This guy has the ratcheting tension effect that characterised a lot of good 4e effects (like ongoing damage at the simplest). Once someone gets stunned you have a round to get rid of the Devourer before he kills you - that can be exciting.
Note the brain dead guy is still knackered for an indefinite amount of time so I am not sure he is going to have much fun & also they scale terrifyingly - if they are in a pack of 8 & one guy gets stunned then another Devourer will be eating his brain.

Mind Flayers are one monster that can be scary but being stunned for 8 rounds by mind blast is not very exciting IME.

 

[Hand of Evil]

[3D][/3D]I wonder if they swarm being tiny now.

 

[amerigoV]

[3D][/3D]I wonder if they swarm being tiny now.

For some reason Larry The Cable Guy popped into my head (I am not sure if that is better or worse than having an ID do it):

"I'm happier than a Zombie in a swarm of Intellect Devourers!"

 

[Pandamonium87]

Can anyone remind me what the rules are for healing ability damage? I'm away from book and I'm trying to figure out how devastating this critter is going to be.

Same question here, I can't find it on the PHB

 

[Dausuul]

Yeah, these guys are nasty customers. Not sure I agree with that CR 2. Anybody who dump-stats Int to 8 has a 45% chance to be permanently taken out by a single shot of Devour Intellect. Even if your Int is 10 (and it's very likely at least one PC is going to have a 10), it's still close to 30%, and you need a 5th-level spell costing 100 gp to fix it; pretty tough for a 2nd-level party to come by. And the devourer can do it every round! Body Thief is just adding insult to injury; now instead of a 5th-level spell costing 100 gp, you need a 7th-level spell costing 1,000 gp.

Not that I think there's anything wrong with having some effects that target your Int save. In fact, I'm glad to see that Int seems to be a big deal for psionic monsters. There should be consequences to dumping any stat, Int certainly included. I just think a monster with a near 30% chance to permanently disable a PC every round is a big deal if the party is nowhere close to having the resources to fix it. CR 2 implies you can throw these guys at a 2nd-level party without too much concern, where in reality you want to use them very carefully.

Perhaps that's why Wizards made sure they were tied to mind flayers. If the PCs are tackling mind flayers, they probably aren't level 2, unless they have a truly sadistic DM. In which case, Devour Intellect is just par for the course.

 

[jadrax]

CR 2 implies you can throw these guys at a 2nd-level party without too much concern, where in reality you want to use them very carefully.

No, it implies that if you throw one of these at a 2nd-level party, you probably will not kill them. Fighting things that are the same Challenge as your party is a big deal. Most of the Challenge 2 monsters we have seen are more than capable of dropping a Level 2 Character in a single lucky round.