D&D 5E Preview: Intellect Devourer

[trystero]

Lesser Restoration should be able to cure it.

Lesser restoration only undoes diseases and the blinded, deafened, paralyzed, and poisoned conditions, and this isn't any of those as far as I can tell.

 

[Boarstorm]

Anyone else planning ahead?

Town mayor, brain eaten and being puppetted by an intellect devourer, hires low-level heroes to investigate that "minor disturbance" in the nearby underdark, promising waaaay too much money, and thereby feeding the mind flayers a steady stream of foolhardy snacks.

 

[Roger]

Anyone else planning ahead?

Between these things, cambions, succubi, incubi, etc, it seems like we've seen quite a lot of these sorts of political monsters. Maybe it's just a fluke of how the previews are coming out. Anyway, yeah, lots of good reasons to gank Mr. Johnson.

 

[Mistwell]

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.

Greater Restoration Spell.

This monster is terrifying. If your healer doesn't have GRS prepared, you could be doomed. Cure spells won't work. Revivify won't work. Raise Dead won't work (doesn't restore missing body parts - brain is a body part). Regenerate probably won't work (says limbs, and your brain isn't a limb). Resurrection (restores missing body parts) should work. But that's a 7th level spell.

Shiver....

I think the healer should carry a scroll of greater restoration with them, if you're going somewhere that might have these beasties. Of course, they are a CR 2 creature, and greater restoration is a level three spell (so 5th level caster)....

I may have to send a pack of these things at my fifth level party tomorrow.

 

[Tormyr]

But a greater restoration spell will not save a character from the body thief action. If the intellect devourer wins the contest, that is it barring a wish spell. Why bother with the other actions? All it takes is winning the contest and it is all over for that character.

Essentially a Save or Die from a CR2 creature. 40 feet of movement so it is hard to stay away from it. If I was a player, I think this would scare me as much as a dragon.

EDIT: Doh! Missed that the target has to be incapacitated.

 

[TDarien]

But a greater restoration spell will not save a character from the body thief action. If the intellect devourer wins the contest, that is it barring a wish spell. Why bother with the other actions? All it takes is winning the contest and it is all over for that character.

The Devourer can only use the Body Thief action against a character who is incapacitated.

 

[Wormwood]

Actually scary monsters oh how I have missed thee

 

[Primal]

I seem to remember that magic weapons only did damage equal to the '+' of the weapon, lightning bolts did 1pt damage per die and so forth. They were almost unkillable!

I don't like the idea of them being mind flayer doggies though. I prefer to have them with their own intellect, plans and so forth - which makes their puppet making skills more fun/useful/interesting.

Like the intellect devourers of High Ilvarandin, perhaps?

 

[Fion]

Wow, it's Half Life style headcrabs, except that these guys actually get inside your head.

That would be a pretty easy variant to create. Instead of magically eating the brain perhaps these are ones that were separated from their Illithid masters and learned to magically reproduce. Instead of magically eating a brain they leap on top of a creature and implant their limbs to devour them.. turning them into Headcrab Zombies.

 

[Thaumaturge]

I may have to send a pack of these things at my fifth level party tomorrow.

I don't usually read many after action reports, because they get too lengthy. I'd read this, though.

I expect it to be quite short.

Thaumaturge.