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Message: <blockquote data-quote="VelvetViolet" data-source="post: 7982739" data-attributes="member: 6686357">I bought a used copy of Slavelords of Cydonia a while back. I thought the lethid and sli'ess were kind of cool and I was surprised to see that, despite the rules being open game content, they weren't reprinted elsewhere. (They're open game counterparts of illithids and yuan-ti, respectively.) I'll be copying the rules into this thread, in case anyone want to use them or convert them to PF2 or D&D5. (I apologize for any formatting oddities. The forum software doesn't seem to like copying rich text.)To start with, here's the full section 15 for Grim Tales and Slavelords of Cydonia.Grim Tales uses its own variation of the d20 rules, hence the many references to different books. Since I'm only copying the rules for Lethids, I think this could be cut down to the sources relevant to that, but I don't know what they are. I assume that the relevant books are Possessors: Children of the Outer Gods, Grim Tales, and Slavelords of Cydonia, but without a full text comparison I can't be sure. (This is one of the more annoying aspects of the OGL, sadly.)Anyway, the rules for lethids are in Appendix B. This is divided into several sections, only some of which are strictly rules related.The first section is "the lethid campaign", which explains the origin, physiology, and psychology of the lethid. The name is derived from aboleth, as these are aboleth variants (although the text doesn't explain their relationship to the aboleth from the core rules, if any), and probably a play on illithid since the lethid are apparently supposed to be OGC substitutes for that monster we can't use (at least not without giving up our copyrights to DM's Guild).The lethid are basically the sentient shadows of a Lovecraftian deity created when it brushed against our plane. They have your typical plot to take over the world using their evil means. They don't have a hive mind, per se, but they do share a single will that allows them to coordinate harmoniously. Rarely a lethid might go crazy and need to be put down by its fellows.Cydonia is a post-apocalyptic pulp setting. In it's history, the lethid were at least partly responsible for the fall of Atlanis (which was ruled by the serpentfolk sli'ess) and other horrific events in Earth's history.They're your typical evil flying seafood from space with dark designs on the world and humanity. Not much else I can say about them.The second section is "lethid abilities", which introduces the OGC rules that I can now quote without fear of legal repercussions.The next sections are the lethid bestiary entries. Here we learn of the subspecies of lethid, which are mohldaleth, nihileth, rgleth, shibboleth, and (true) aboleth.The mohldaleth are burrowing parasites that enter a humanoid host and influence their behavior, so they work as spies, viziers, cult leaders and stuff. The nihileth are flying octopuses that engulf a humanoid host's head and control their body, who serve as lieutenants in the hierarchy. The shibboleth are giants who control large numbers of small animals, which they uses as spies on civilization. The rgleth are similar to the nihileth, but they only take large animals as hosts and thus serve a brute force role. The true aboleth are the most powerful and act as leaders; they're basically aboleths but with even greater powers, like their slime turning victims into living zombies.Here are the rules for the mohldaleth and its hosts. I omitted the description between the statistics and combat section, as they didn't seem rules related.So the mohldaleth fills a similar niche as the puppeteer from the 3.x psionics rules, except that it's far more intelligent and doesn't have complete control over the host. This introduces roleplaying opportunities due to its ability to act on its own and potential schisms between the parasite and the host.I'll post the nihileth, rgleth, shibboleth, and true aboleth later. After that, I'll post the rules for the sli'ess if anyone wants it. The next post will be about the nihileth and its origins, which are deeper than you would expect.Feel free to ask me questions or offer legal advice.</blockquote>

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