Unsatisfying mind flayer encounter

[Kid Charlemagne]

You could house rule it to work like the 3.5 Hold Person - giving a ST each round to clear your head. Maybe let the subjects have to succeed at a Will save each round to act.

 

[Jeremy]

There are two things I fear in numbers in the Underdark. Beholders and Mind Flayers. Either alone is not much of a threat, but either in numbers is absolutely fearsome, and for mind flayers who don't have the "I'm the perfect beholder" syndrome this works especially well.

Illithid battles so far in my campaign have been quite exciting, as the stunned character(s) generally have tentacles wrapped around their head within 1 to 2 rounds. Watching the others try to save them, and the stunned character bite his finger nails generally keeps the adrenaline running.

But as they are self serving evil creatures, they generally plane shift out before they die, meaning that with the levels of damage a party that fights illithids can deal, it is rarely a long fight.

Short, deadly, high stakes combat where if you get stunned and your friend gets charmed could either end up with you lovingly sweeping illithid halls or rotting in a pile after your brain was a buffet.. If it's dull, you may be being too protective of your PC's character sheets...

Or maybe I'm just too bloodthirsty.

 

[Spatula]

Another problem with mind blast: there's no cure for it. It's an instantaneous effect,

It's not instantaneous, it has a duration of 3d4 rounds. Dispel would work, providing that it's a spell-like ability and not a supernatural one (I can't recall which it is).

 

[shilsen]

Here's one solution I tend to use when some PCs are taken out of commission early in a fight - let the player(s) do the dice-rolling for the bad guys. Not only does it give them something to do but for some reason it usually leads to much more tension than with me rolling. If you want to see fear and loathing at the D&D table, watch the group as a player prays that she doesn't roll a critical (for the bad guy who just mind-blasted her character) against the PC trying to save her.

 

[Urbannen]

It's not instantaneous, it has a duration of 3d4 rounds. Dispel would work, providing that it's a spell-like ability and not a supernatural one (I can't recall which it is).

According to the Expanded Psionics Handbook, it's an instantaneous effect.

If that's hard to get your head around, here's an example: bump your head against a heavy object. If done correctly, you will be stunned for a few seconds because of the pain. The head bump was instantaneous, but the afteraffects stick around for a while.

 

[The Souljourner]

I like the Hold Person idea... giving the player something to do every round, something to root for, some sort of hope, actually makes the game interesting. It's the classic battle of wills - a bead of sweat runs down the soldier's face as he struggles motionlessly to overcome the magical hold this foul creature has set upon him.

I liked the change to Hold Person, and I think it's a great idea for any long term incapacitating effect.

-The Souljourner

 

[0-hr]

Anything which makes the DM tell a player "Sorry, you won't be able to play for the next couple of hours..." is a poor design decision.

IMC, we've shortened the stunned duration to 1d4 rounds, and also made the Remove Paralysis spell cure a stunned condition.

 

[Urbannen]

Anything which makes the DM tell a player "Sorry, you won't be able to play for the next couple of hours..." is a poor design decision.

IMC, we've shortened the stunned duration to 1d4 rounds, and also made the Remove Paralysis spell cure a stunned condition.

A good, practical solution!

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I do not know about 3.5 but the 3.0 Mind Blast is horrible from a design POV. Putting aside the question of whether it is balanced, it makes the encounter too random -- too much hinges on a couple saving throws. Bad luck = TPK. Good luck = easy victory. In small parties, you will have a lot of variance in results due to small sample size. In large parties, there can be multiple flayers raking the party with Mind Blast and restunning the still stunned.

This was a huge problem with the 3.0 Psion IMNSHO. It may or may not have been balanced, but it was lousy to actually play.

The right way to do this in 3.5 is to give a new saving throw each round.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'll be using mindflayers as per XPH, so they will have a range of psion abilities and maybe it will work best if they mostly use their other abilities rather than the mind blast (although I love the idea of stunning someone, grabbing them and plane shifting away to munch their brains in comfort)