I started working on an athasian illithid project but got bugged down with an inability to come with an exotic, alien and athasian way of seeing them at the level of personnality, motivations, social life and societal structures.
I'm searching for new and great ideas on those subjects and I decided also to post what I have done already in the hope of getting the ideas geared in the right direction. I have rules for an athasian illithid character race, which is central to the project. Exposed in its fluff and abilities lies a good portrayal of the way I want illithids to be on Athas.
I'm also searching for great new alien names for classes, PrCs, family structures - if any - and others. Think of the uhrnius term for a dwarven leader...
Also a series of numbered questions below will help define the areas in which racial information needs to be fleshed-out if illithids are to be made a fully athasian race, not just a D&D port to DS.
Also below is a section dedicated to bridging the gap between Pennarin's Illithids and Jihun-Nish's Athilids, if at all possible.
Index (one post each):
Illithid character race
Fundamentals of athasian illithids
Exisitng rules for the project
Preliminary timeline of great events relating to illithids
Unanswered questions
Illithids/Athilids bridging effort
DISCLAIMER #1: I will update those posts as my brain will start functionning again. Especially the questions section and the fundamentals section.
DISCLAIMER #2: I wanted an illithid character race that wasn't a master race but rather in par with the other Rebirth races. I didn't want a 8+ HD creature, with instant-kill powers. I rather chose to make them of equal power to the strongest character races we have out there. The LA of +2 maybe wrong, I'm not an expert. To leave the potential to have illithids with powers similar to those of D&D mind flayers, I created a racial class called 'illithid'. Any illithid can take levels in that class, just like taking levels in fighter. But instead of gaining class abilities, the class develops your racial abilities: better mind blast, better telepathy and other goodies. Its probably similar to playing a 8HD illithid from the get go, but I don't like having extremely powerful innate abilities just being handed like that to a character race. ECL is there for that, but fluff-wise it sucks. That's my opinion.
Illithids might be mistaken for humans with braided beards at a distance, due to their mouth tentacles. However, closer inspection reveals illithids to have gray, marble-like skin, moist and rubbery like that of an oasis’s amphibious creature. Four tentacles surround a round mouth filled with hundreds of obsidian-sharp teeth. A half-dozen small patches of body tentacles cover the illithid and help it smell, to compensate for the absence of a nose. Their eyes are striking, as they are entirely white. Illithids are called “mind flayers” by other races, and for a good reason―they nourish themselves by cracking open a creature’s head and siphoning out the brain inside. One major difference between illithids and most intelligent races of Athas is their asexual physiology. Illithids are genderless and possess no sexual characteristics or roles.
Personality: Illithids communicate among each other through a combination of telepathy, bitings and scratchings that express dominance and physical stances that convey mood and support telepatic exchanges. An important part of the stance as communication is the positionning and actions of the sensory and mouth tentacles. Sensory tentacles also serve to perceive the changing sent of an illithid as part of exchanges. These elements are disturbing and frightening to other races who only see aggressive illithids, dozens of writhing tentacles flailing around or poiting to or even touching other creatures. As creatures that function in utter silence, seeming to communicate without addressing each other and executing unfathomable activities, other races see illithids as alien. All the races that have heard of them fear them and those that have dealt with them despise them. Illithids are greeted with universal fear and loathing in their dealings with intelligent creatures, since their brain extraction and the nourishment they take from it are objects of horror to other creatures. Their reputation for enslaving intelligent creatures makes the latter flee even the rumored presence of a nearby illithid encampment. This tendency to enslave Rebirth races is more myth than fact; illithids rarely take slaves among them, preferring instead to produce their own specialized slave races from inferior beings they awaken to sentience, or avoid the need for them altogether by manifesting unseen constructs. As nocturnal creatures, illithids have ancestrally extended their activities underground, making communities of all sizes spring forth in the soft rock and dirt.
Physical Description: When encountered on the surface at night or anytime in their subterranean communities, illithids move naked. On the rare times they are encountered on the surface during the day they are always wearing a specialized skin graft or carapace symbiont that protects them from their heat vulnerability. Some rare naked illithids can be encountered during the day, members of the community brainwashed and exiled for murders or graver crimes.
Relations: Illithids look down upon other races, which are loath to trade with them from illithids’ reputation as slavers. Most illithids sincerely believe their race has embarked on a superior life path, and look at others as childlike or mere savages, still embracing the passions of beasts.
Alignments: Illithids tend toward law and evil. Living in biologically structured communities, illithids embrace the order that comes from the overmind’s gestalt. They pour their energies into psionics and the betterment of their species, focusing on constants like racial identity and personal achievement. Illithids concede no intrinsic valor to the laws of the other Rebirth races.
Illithid Lands: South of the Sea of Silt lies a plateau, the Hiriman highlands, that is surrounded by salt fields, the remnants of inland salty marshes. East of these lands is dromite territory, and to the west lies the vast Obsidian Plains of the undead. The south is blocked by the Red Peaks, a chain of jagged volcanic mountains that makes passage quasi impossible.
Religion: The elder brain is the center of an illithid’s spiritual life. They venerate them as the source of their life and its ultimate culmination. Although this veneration is not as strong as for the gods of old, illithids defer to the elder brain’s wishes on all things.
Psionics: Illithids are profoundly psionic beings, whose potential for mastery is amongst the highest of the Rebirth races. An illithid will undoubtedly take levels in a psionic class in its life or take illithid racial levels. Everyday life confronts them with problems that can be solved with hard labor or psionics, the latter they prefer out of love and respect for its power.
Magic: Their pride in their strong connection with the Unseen Way makes them disdain sorcery, which their society condones. A telltale ash circle will get the attention of illithids in a war party and make them converge on the unfortunate. The brains of those victims are considered subsistence food for their propensity to ‘taste’ bad.
Language: Illithids speak Common, but communicate telepathically with one another. Their own language, Qualith, is in written form only. Illithids dabbling in symbiont lore know ancient halfling from the rhulisti texts they decipher.
Names: As telepathic beings, illithids rarely use names. When forced to talk, they refer to one another using a combination of prefix and suffix that conveys a general description of an illithid’s personality.
Adventurers: Since the great events of recent memory, like the apparition of the Cerulean Storm and its spin-off storms, illithid society and its elder brains have decided it is time they try and get a level of control over the events that befalls them. Lone illithids are sent far and wide to try and understand the causes of these events. Amongst them are individuals trained in the ways of the desert and able to track down quarry. Missionary groups with malinarint among them are also deployed, staying in touch psionically with the community.
Illithid Racial Traits
● –2 Constitution, +4 Intelligence, +2 Charisma: Illithids are very intelligent and confident, but lack in resilience.
● Type: Aberration. Illithids are not subject to spells, powers or effects that affect only humanoids, such as charm person or dominate person.
● Size: Medium. As Medium creatures, illithids have no special bonuses or penalties due to their size.
● Illithid base land speed is 30 feet.
● Darkvision: Illithids can see in the dark up to 60 feet.
● Light Blindness (Ex): Abrupt exposure to bright light (such as sunlight or a daylight spell) blinds an illithid for 1 round. In addition, illithids suffer a –1 circumstance penalty to all attacks rolls, saves, and checks while operating in bright light.
● Heat Vulnerability (Ex): Abrupt exposure to heated air (as experienced on the surface during daylight hours) sickens an illithid for 1 round. In addition, illithids suffer a –1 circumstance penalty to all attacks rolls, saves, and checks while exposed to the hot air of the surface during the day.
● Soft Skin: Illithids have a rubbery skin like that of amphibious creatures and take a –1 penalty to armor class.
● Naturally Psionic: Illithids gain 3 bonus power points at 1st-level. This benefit does not grant them the ability to manifest powers unless they gain that ability through another source, such as levels in a psionic class.
● Improved Grab (Ex): As in Monster Manual.
● Natural Weapons: Tentacles. See Savage Species.
● Extract (Ex): As in Monster Manual.
● Mind Blast (Ps): A creature targeted by this psionic attack must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + ½ illithid’s character level + illithid’s Charisma modifier) or be stunned for 1d4 rounds. The save DC is Charisma-based. This ability is the equivalent of a 1st-level power. An illithid can muster such an attack only once per day.
● Telepathy (Su): Illithids can communicate with one another telepathically if within 60 feet of each other.
● Automatic Language: Common and Qualith. All illithids are literate in Qualith. Bonus Languages: Any (other than secret languages, such as Druidic). Most illithids have no access to languages spoken in the Seven Cities besides Common.
● Favored Class: Illithid.
● Racial Levels: Unlike most races, illithids can take a few levels in “illithid” as a class to develop their racial qualities more fully.
● Level Adjustment +2
When more than one illithid are in close proximity to each other, they gain access to abilities that stem from their interaction with the overmind or from a gestalt effect in their psionically active groups, in the latter case as long as every individual is at least 10 feet from another illithid, or unless stated otherwise:
● Multitask (Su): Whenever part of an overmind (see below), the character can take more than a single mental action during his turn. Once per day, an illithid can spend a power point as a free action to gain a free standard action that the illithid can use to take any purely mental action. The mental action may be using a Knowledge, Psicraft, or other skill check requiring only mental cognition. The mental action could also be the manifestation of a psionic power; however, the illithid can only manifest a power with its extra mental action if the normal actions allowed the character during the round do not also involve manifesting a power.
● Oracle (Su): Whenever part of an overmind (see below), an illithid is granted a daily precognitive edge. Essentially, the edge translates into a floating +2 insight bonus that the illithid can apply at any time either to an initiative roll, an attack roll, or a saving throw. In the case of an attack roll or saving throw, the illithid can elect to apply the bonus to the roll or save after he determines whether his unmodified roll misses. Only one precognitive edge may be applied by the illithid per day.
● Overmind (Su): When within 5 miles of an illithid settlement hosting an elder brain, an illithid becomes part of the overmind and can tap into a racial network of knowledge and information. An illithid can spend one power point as a free action to gain a +2 bonus to any Knowledge or Psicraft check he makes. An illithid can still tap the network if part of a 30+ strong group with at least one malinarint in its midst. The range of this diminished overmind is half a mile. Malinarint are also their own overmind and can tap the network without being part of a group. When not part of an overmind, illithids suffer withdrawal on a permanent basis, suffering a –1 morale penalty to Knowledge and Psicraft checks, as well as to Will saves.
● Power Resistance (Ex): Illithids gain power resistance from a gestalt effect in their psionically active group. The group starts with power resistance 5, and each individual adds another point with a limit equal to the highest-level illithid in the party. For example, a party of five would have power resistance 8: base power resistance of 5, + 5 (1 for each member) with a limit of 8 for the highest-level member of the party (an 8th-level character). A malinarint counts for 5, an elder brain for 20 and those numbers can bring the power resistance beyond the limit. A maximum of four malinarint can be counted in this way, any more are counted as normal illithids. When a group comprises an elder brain, malinarints part of the group are counted as normal illithids. This ability does not require illithids comprising the group to be part of an overmind.
Illithid Levels
Illithids can take up to three levels in “illithid” at any time. Each level represents the illithid focusing on mental discipline and exploring racial qualities. Not all illithids take racial levels (or all three of them). Illithid levels stack with a manifester class level for purposes of determining manifester level for powers. If the illithid has two manifesting classes, the illithid levels add to the higher of the two class levels.
Hit Die: d6
Skill Points at 1st Character Level: (2 + Intelligence bonus) x 4
Skill Points at Higher Levels: 2 + Intelligence bonus
“Class” skills: Autohypnosis (Wis), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Knowledge (psionics) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Psicraft (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Use Psionic Device (Cha).
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Illithids with levels only in illithid (no actual class levels) are proficient in the use of all simple weapons but no armors or shields.
Innate Psi-Like Abilities: Use the illithid’s character level to determine the manifester level. DC is Charisma-based (DC 10 + power level + Cha modifier).
Psionically-Active Mucus (Su): The skin produces a coating of mucus with psionic properties that gives the illithid a +5 circumstance bonus to Escape Artist checks when not wearing armor or clothing. It also focuses its powers and psi-like abilities, increasing their DC by 1. The illithid must from now on wear a specialized form of protection (carapace symbiont, sunwise skin graft or psychoactive skin of the daywalker) on the surface during the day or see this ability become ineffective as the mucus dries out. When wearing a carapace symbiont or skin graft the illithid no longer receives his bonus to Escape Artist checks. The mucus renews itself after 24 hours in an indoor illithid structure or a suitably moist environment.
2. Champion: In the past, a Champion had been sent to destroy the illithids: Barien, Mind Flayer Dessicator.
3. Reproduction: illithids are sterile (it wasn't always so). Elder brains produce tadpoles through an orifice. They grow in the pool around the elder brain until they can be taken care of by an adult illithid. An elder brain has a reproductive cycle that allows it to produce youngs once in a while, in batches. Each elder brain can produce a certain, fixed amount of tadpoles each reproductive cycle, depending on its HD. Elder brains can choose to produce a tadpole that will mature into an illithid (or even a prestige illithid) or into a symbiont (life-shape); it also has a fixed amount of free XP per reproductive cycle to spend on their creation.
4. Ceromorphosis: a speeded up, boosted process of maturation for a tadpole developped during the Cleansing Wars and currently pretty abandonned. Pick an intelligent humanoid, put a modified tadpole in it and it will mature in 1/3 the time and be more powerful (it gains the Ceromorph template).
5. Overmind: All illithids within a certain distance of an elder brain, or in the presence of a malinarint (prestige illithid), are connected through an overmind. Many of their abilities come from such a connection, while some others come from simply puting enough illithids together, overmind or no overmind.
The overmind re-enforces the illithid racial imperatives, allows the elder brains to perceive the ebb and flow of the race.
6. Society: Illithids trade for salt, since they are made to drink salt water and need to salt the fresh waters collected from underground sources.
7. Society: When an illithid endeavors to create a new psionic power and succeeds, it must confer knowledge of the power to an elder brain.
8. Society: There are farming operations are set-up in underground and aboveground locations that raise pulp bees that produce a pasty substance and a nutritious fluid. The pasty substance is treated and made into a form of hardened paper and traded. It is later treated again to make it resistant to humidity. The nutritious fluid is harvested and fed to the tadpoles in their briny pools, until they mature and can nolonger eat it and must start ingesting brain matter.
9. Society: Illithids write Qualith on polished chitin pieces using thick colored inks or on pressed paper sheets. The paper sheets that store knowledge are usually folded into origami shapes as an art form (the paper most be treated to resist the humidity of a subteranean community).
10. Society: Small farming groups make monthly trips in the desert to collect liquid crystal from the bodies of crystal spiders, which they farm. The liquid crystal is traded and used in the making of psionic tattoos.
11. Symbionts: Grafts are accessible to the general population on a need-to-have basis. As for cerebral and carapace symbionts, I leave it open to someone else's imagination. Surface and roaming communities usually are too small to boast an elder brain and usually cannot produce or take care of symbionts more complex than grafts.
12. Trade: Illithids do not use currency but achieve the same result using trade. Trade is made between individuals, creeds and communities, sometime with other Rebirth races, in the form of exchanged ideas, research material, new found powers or trade goods. Many calligraphy and origami artists have amassed favors and great 'wealth' in trading their craft to other illithids.
13. Undeads: illithids have to deal wth the usual undeads from their own ranks, like any other races: dhaots, racked spirits and wraiths.
14. Thralls: the term comes from the Cleansing Wars, a derogative, propaganda term developed by the troops to aleviate any remaining guilt in using other Rebirth races for ceromorphosis. After the wars the practice has been abandonned, but some slave taking still takes places. Those slaves are brain-washed and made into a warrior force. Most of those are Rebirth races or dromites from the eastern regions. Hard labor is still done by astral constructs, though.
15. Dromites: I decided to include dromites (from the XPH) into the athasian sphere of alienness because dromites are too cool. They were so primitive and inward fighting that Rajaat never bothered to send a Champion: all dromites would drown in the coming Blue Age. The eastern dromites were taken as warriors during the Wars when the humans came from the west. Now some dromites have escaped and civilized their lands. Dromites are now making a gorrila war against their illithid neighbors.
16. Astral Constructs: outside of the few thralls that exist, the brute strenght necessary for digging the underground towns and cities, erecting the aboveground installations, hauling things around....are all done by animals, if possible, or by astral constructs. As such, many illithids take levels in the Constructor PrC from the Mind's Eye. Half the visible population in large cities is composed of constructs.
17. Chitin Armor: communities too small to boast an elder brain, or roaming communities, cannot usually provide the trade necessary to obtain symbionts or to care for them. Without symbionts, these illithids are forced to live at night and to protect their bodies using alternative solutions. In these cases illithids use chitin to make armors. Contrarilly to the Rebirth races of the Seven Cities, illithids do not make chitin armor out of interlocking hexagonal bits of chitin but use giant insects’ carapaces, at varying stages of growth, to obtain fitting pieces. No cutting or shapping is involved. The result is the same as the chitin armor described in Chapter 6: Equipment, in the DS3 Core Document.
18. Readjustment: an illithid is sent to readjustment (to receive a dose of a psionic power from an elder brain or a dedicated representative) whenever the following happens.
- aura alteration: when a symbiont takes control over an illithid
- mindwipe: when an illithid discover talents that makes him a renegade. The elder brain erases the illithid’s mind of the knowledge, if the illithid was prompt in reporting the offending abilities
19. Items: Illithids use symbionts in conjunction with psionic items. Also, they have nearly no metal, but instead use crystal (use the rules in the XPH).
20. City life: Illithid cities are called city-nests and smaller towns are called nests. They are not unlike modern many-leveled underground parkings. There are vertical passageways that link the levels, some have stairs, although most are huge tunnels in which illithids levitate or wallwalk. Astral constructs move around through small holes drilled in the walls and ceilings.
21. Building techniques: The underground facilities have walls covered in organics, the product of special industrial-strenght symbionts. The go through tunnels like hug slugs, slowly spiraling in it and depositing this material that isolates the walls perfectly, keeping the moisture in. Humidity and driping water are constant in those installations. Seals to the outside keep in the moisture.
22. Environmental effects on illithids: they need moisture. Always had. As the world changed and dried up they went underground, cloistering around water sources. If illithid skin makes contact with dried hot air or sunlight, it will dry up. All illithids on the surface need to wear specific psychoactive skins or skin grafts or carapace symbionts. They can go out at night with layers of clothing without problems.
Pennarin's Note: Under 'Warriors' below is found 'rangers'. I initially decided to use a magicless ranger - an earlier iteration from athas.org - for the illithids. But since I have no idea weither this is a feasible way of doing things for a project like this one, if you don't like it simply remove it. I wanted a base class with tracking abilities and a magicless ranger was the one. A magical ranger would be unacceptable for illithids, they would fall in the 'Exiles and Outcasts' category.
I also included NytCrawlr's psi-monk to the 'Unseen Adepts' section.
Warriors
Fighters, brutes, rangers, rogues.
Warriors play an important role in illithid communities by serving in the defence of the nest. Aside from using tentacles, hand to hand combat is frowned upon by illithids―the extensive use of psionic powers by unseen adepts insures that. Most warriors will develop their ranged martial skills (rogues may take the Accurate Shot feat to increase their sneak attack range, see Skills), although warriors trained for close-quarter combat in the nest will hone their melee skills. Many such illithids will specialize in their own natural attacks.
Unseen Adepts
Psi-monks, psions, psychic warriors, soulknives, wilders, erudites (Dragon Magazine #319).
The greatest calling of an illithid, the Way of the Unseen has many adepts in all walks of life. Most unseen adepts are evenly distributed among psions and erudites due to the high academic levels found amongst most large communities. Wilders are more present by far in smaller, subsistence communities, were the task of survival is so great extensive schooling is not an option. As those smaller communities grow toward one day having their own elder brain, their fraction of psions and erudites steadily increases.
Soulknives and psychic warriors hone their ranged martial skills to an art form, but unlike warriors, can hope to gain higher status in the community through dedication and personal achievement due to their use of psionics.
Loremasters
Experts.
Illithids value knowledge and artistic talent nearly as much as they value psychic abilities, and the larger the community the more experts it can train and support. These illithids can reach great status in the community, rivalling that of the greatest unseen adepts.
Exiles and Outcasts
Clerics, druids, wizards.
For historical reasons and for pride in their own psionic affinities, illithids despise wizards. Members of the community that even show a modicum of sorcerous talent are sent to readjustment. Those that hide or do not report readily their newfound talent are expeditiously judged and exiled.
Affinity for the elements or the land is frowned upon nearly as much as sorcery, but judgment always leads to outcast status. They are condemned never to come in proximity of an overmind under pain of death. Any interference with nest activities results in a hunting party dispatched by the for the express purpose of the elimination of the offending outcast.
Those are the direct wishes of the elder brains.
Prestige Classes
Pennarin's Note: Many of the PrCs below have names of creeds in them. I chose not to remove them so you would at least get a feeling of how illithids in DS deal witth these PrCs.
Complete Warrior
- Master of the Unseen Hand (the psionic version does not yet exist): called Hand Cenobite by illithids.
Hand cenobites delight in crushing their foes with telekinetic force, disarming enemies with a single thought and flinging creatures and objects away.
Illithid wilders are the most common hand cenobites, expressing with telekinesis what is in their hearths. Some few have attained the same mastery based on an innate ability to use telekinesis, such as those with telekinetic psi-like abilities.
Because their abilities are suited to melee combat, hand cenobites are often found in the thick of the fighting, disarming opponents with telekinesis and using it to hurl them to the ground―or even high into the air.
- Mindspy (the psionic version does not yet exist): called Mindwalker by illithids.
Assassins and soulknives with access to detect thoughts as a power or psi-like ability often take levels in mindwalker to facilitate their attacks by reading the minds of their enemies.
Dungeon Master's Guide
- Assassin
Taken nearly exclusively by rogues, this class is a favorite of the Protector creed for infiltration missions. Most illithid assassins are solemn individuals who chose to protect it from outside threats.
Expanded Psionic’s Handbook
- Elocator
Illithids who explore this path are nearly exclusively from the Protector creed. They use their abilities to sidestep enemy flanking maneuvers or phalanx formations, or to transport themselves directly in their midst.
- Metamind
Metaminds strive to unleash as much psionic power as they can muster. Adherents to this philosophy often develop more brain matter, increasing the size of their skull. Such an illithid is referred to as a “head”.
- Psion Uncarnate
Uncarnates strive for the dissolution of their substance, freeing their essence to unbound potential. Such illithids are the culmination of Thinker creed contemplation on the possibilities of the psyche. An uncarnate can be devastating in times of conflict, bridging its psyche between enemy creatures, disrupting their essence with each jump. Their increased immunity to weapons and power or spell effects also makes them terrible opponents. Uncarnates possess a special status in illithid communities, similar to that of the Crystal Proselyte.
- Thrallherd
Thrallherds are preeminently present amongst the Tamer creed, using their enhanced powers of domination to ensure the obedience of thralls. These creatures are usually elitist enthusiasts, believing that they express through control the true nature and purpose of the illithid race―domination.
Hyperconscious: Explorations in Psionics (Malhavoc Press)
- Astral Dragoon: called Mindrider by illithids.
Mindriders are illithids that live and train on the outside, learning to control their thoughts, manifesting a unique unseen construct to ride on, a construct of pure thought.
Most mindriders are scouts of the community, continually patrolling the borders of illithid lands on their swift constructs. They are paid back the sacrifice they made when they steped away from the overmind by a deep respect from their peers whenever they stop at a community.
- Cerebral Rager
Cerebral ragers are those who feel strongly the fury within and have learned to harness it.
Some become ragers for the calm that stems from self-control―to learn to rage is to learn control. Others seek to unleash their fury to fuel their psionic abilities.
- Chakra Savant
A reminder of the mental prowess and the advances of the sciences of the mind that were achieved in the Green Age, chakra knowledge is the oldest psionic science known to the illithids, older than psionic tattoos. There are few adepts of this discipline, but those that remain hold great power.
- Crystal Proselyte
Illithids who take on this class are considered sacred by individuals of their race and are respected for the conviction of their beliefs, which are made material by the transformation of their flesh into crystal. Those of the proselytes that do not live outside of the community are activelly involved in crystalline research for their own sake. All are contemplative and calm to a high degree.
- Pattern Master
Psionic tattooing is a deeply ingrained part of illithids’ culture, of which the greatest adept is the pattern master. To them the aestethics of their craft blend with its utility. Creations of these masters of the art attain great power.
- Psychic Chirurgeon
Many amongst the Caretaker creed progress in this class so they can help in healing their community in times of need. The most talented of them serve as channelers for when new psionic powers are created and need to be communicated to the elder brain for safekeeping.
- Astral Zealot: called Unseen Zealot by illithids.
One of the great findings of the Thinker creed, unseen zealots are versatile manifesters able to deal with more situations than the usual combatant. They can duplicate themselves to deal with numerous foes, shroud themselves into ectopic suits to resist the environment and can ultimately even cheat death on occasion.
The Mind’s Eye on the WotC website
- Arch Psion
Illithids who attain great mastery over the Way of the Unseen often take levels in this class, sharpening their mastery in over a half-dozen possible ways.
They most often become leaders and teachers for the community.
- Constructor
Constructors are those illithids who discover a preternatural affinity over unseen constructs. They can mold them into any shape and infuse them with great power. They work closely with elder brains to better serve the community.
- Psychic Weapon Master
Psychic warriors often take levels in this class to increase their weapon’s abilities.
Psionic’s Handbook messaging board on the WotC website
- Skinwalker
Pennarin's Note: here is an extract from the class. Since it was designed by a guy that can't be reached anymore, I will limit myself to the three fluff chapters.
Every psion as heard of psychoactive skins. Some have even worn them. A skinwalker is a person who as developped a talent for manipulating his skins and brought the idea to the next level.
Illithids are the most common skinwalkers from the sheer concentration of psychoactive skins in their communities. In the Seven Cities, hermits are the most common skinwalkers after psionic academiy teachers.
Skinwalkers can be found anywhere. Some are loners, using their skins for personnal gain, while others seek employment or enlightment in the cities’s psionic academies. In illithid lands, skinwalkers are respected members of their community, often part of the Creative or Protector creeds.
Skills
Craft (Int)
Special: To determine how much time it takes to make an item, find the item's price or have the DM set the price for an item not listed. Put the price in bits for non-metal items. Unless you have the Crystalsmith feat, you suffer a –5 penalty to Craft checks made to create crystal items, and it takes 10 times longer to craft crystal items (put the price in ceramics for crystal items). 1 gp = 10 sp = 100 Cp = 1,000 bits.
A masterwork component costs 300 Cp. Its price is put in bits regardless of materials used (crystal or non-crystal).
Craft (calligraphy) (Int;Trained Only)
Writing Qualith is an art form that as evolved closely with the knowledge of origami. A widespread form of poetry is the haiku, inscribed almost exclusively with calligraphy. Great prestige can be had in owning origami works inscribed using delicate calligraphy, and status within the community can be achieve by the masters of the craft. Qualith can be written on two-dimensional surfaces without any knowledge of calligraphy using the simplified form of the language reserved for those surfaces, but that is never done when the medium is origami paper. Doing such a thing is considered bad taste. The greatest masters of this art can even create calligraphy with so great a precision they can achieve the feat blindfolded.
-13,920 Illithids settle the salt-water marshes south of the Sunrise Sea. They lay eggs in the water and feed the tadpoles masticated food while adults hunt at night.
-12,895 With their increasing mastery of psionics comes domestication of insect colonies that can produce food for the tadpoles, freeing the adult population for other activities.
-12,885 Illithid psions discover on the Hiriman highlands a Nature-Bender retreat from the Blue Age.
-12,884 When those studying the base do not report back, a group is sent to investigate.They find the brains of their comrades absorbed into a rhulisti construct, which is now imprinted with the illithid’s intelligence and personality. Illithids bow to the great intelligence and wisdom of the construct and make it their greatest leader, the Orekam.
-12,801 The Orekam makes great strides in the Way of the Unseen and starts deciphering the lore contained in the retreat, written in the ancient halfling language. An illithid civilization rises up from the marshes and highlands.
-12,698 The Orekam creates the first elder brains, inspired from its own structure and budding from its substance, as a means to produce life-shapes. The experiment is a success.
-12,315 Trading roads are constructed through the marshes, opening economic ties with the rising powers of the Green Age, leading to fruitful cultural exchanges. Illithids emigrate to the centers of Green Age civilization.
-11,154 Start of the height of illithid civilization; will end with the advent of Barien.
-10,912 An enormous earthquake rocks the land as fire and ash can be seen rising north in the Sunrise Sea. Parts of the highlands collapse and the Nature-Bender retreat, the anchor point for the Orekam, is lost.
-3,542 Cleansing Wars begin. Barien starts his war on illithids everywhere.
-3,535 The sea begins turning to silt, rain makes itself increasingly scarcer and the marshes are drying up. Illithids begin a massive construction project and exodus to subterranean nests cloistered around sources of water.
-3,306 Barien’s war machine reaches the former marshland’s area.
-3,301 Elder brains devise ceremorphosis as a mean to bring tadpoles faster to maturity to increase soldier numbers. Over the years all other Rebirth races in the region become known as thralls as illithids enslave all that do not flee and capture enemy soldiers to obtain living bodies for ceremorphosis. A vast program of enslavement is carried on the neighboring savage dromite clans, whose members make formidable psionic warriors.
-2,310 The Sea of Silt expands and swallows part of the ancestral lands.
-2,012 Illithids are slowly but surly losing the war. In an attempt to find a weapon that could decimate their enemies, the greatest elder brains delve into the Nature-Bender memories the Orekam left them. They accidentally unleash a terrible plague-weapon that spreads far before dying off, but not before rendering sterile all intelligent creatures in the region.
-2,011 In the chaos and confusion that ensues the plague, Barien pierces the front’s defenses and makes his way to the greatest city-nest, Oshul. In desperation the elder brains of Oshul make a last attempt at salvation: they pool all the illithid’s minds of their city-nest together and connect them to their own, forming a hive mind. Their combined psionic might decimate Barien’s army and mortally wounds the champion. With his last breath Barien curses the illithids with powerful sorcery. The curse makes its way through the hive mind to all its components who waste away in the ensuing days.
-2,010 With half of what remained of the race annihilated, the remaining illithids and elder brains relocate to farther areas. Of the nests that existed, only a handful remain and their oldest and greatest cities are gone. A few dromite thralls escape to their lands and spread civilization to their race.
-2,002 The end of the Cleansing Wars.
-1,990 In the ensuing years, the surviving elder brains devise a mean to procreate again by creating new tadpole-producing elder brains. The old elder brains divide their own gray matter amongst the new, imparting knowledge. The populations of the other Rebirth races in the area slowly dwindle to nothing after a few decades as their members grow old and die without progeny.
-1,923 The illithid race rises from the ashes of destruction. With the help of the elder brains the illithids try to recreate their pre-war society, but much knowledge as been lost. Illithids will never again be as great as they were. Over the hundreds of years that follow, they maintain isolation from the other Rebirth races even as their feelings of hate fade away.
-1,752 Dromite clans become united castes that initiate savage gorilla warfare to protect their borders from further illithid intrusions.
-1,737 Illithids build fortified camps on the border between illithid and dromite lands from which they lunch punitive strikes and collect dromite thralls.
[...]
2. Was the current form of illithids - tentacled and capable of eating brains - always so or was it life-shape tampering on the part of elder brains, or even wearing lifeshaped tentacles for so many thousands of years those have now become part of the illithid's natural make-up?
3. What exactly is their diet? I have it young tadpoles eat masticated food from their parents (or pulp bee honey) until a certain age when they have to switch to brain food. Does it have to be intelligent brains or not? Will animals do?
4. Illithis now live eclusively on the Illithid Ancestal Lands. It wasn't always so. Basically, those Lands are a new region to explore, not unlike the Dead Lands. In the past, illithids explored and lived amongst the Rebirth races during the Green Age in small numbers. They probably traded favors for money, wich in turn they exchanged for animals they could extract the brains from for sustenance. Maybe I should add that they can also live on PPs given by someone else? (i.e. one brain a week and 10 PPs per day, expanded from themselves or someone else)
5. What are and were the racial motivations and imperatives of illithids? World domination, psionic perfection, empire building...
D&D illithids want to bloth out the sun. Definately not DS, IMO, but with a good fluff explanation for it it could still work.
6. Do Elder Brains totally run illithid society? Are there "concords of elders" and "creeds"? Something else? (yes! yes!)
7. I have it the Orekam had been running the DS equivalent to a eugenic program on the illithids, making them more powerful, reinforcing their psionic nature (the racial levels are a result of such pushing of the envelope). The elder brains have been contiuning on the project. Such efforts have resulted in malinarints and trigrammatons. What should such a program entail for the illithids themselves and their society? Maybe the ability to live partially off of consumming PPs comes from that program...
Too contrived for my tastes, much like most of the SS progression stuff.
Don't like the fact that they are dumbed down quite a bit either, kinda like you are making them a mutated human or something with an LA.
Let me get the whole picture though, I'm sure I'm missing something....damn calls.
I find SS too contrived as well. I thought I had made it flowing and unimpeded with racial levels...especially only 3.
Maybe its because I'm one of the few who owns a copy of Arcana Unearthed: A Variant Player's Handbook (Malhavoc Press). After the 12th racial class following a race, you get to see the point and the potential.
The new version of that book, Arcana Evolved, has epic racial progressions for every race. I'm eager to see those.
As for being dumbed down, if you mean they don't have a +8 to Int, well that's intentionnal. The rhulisti did what they did without a +8 or even a +2, so...
I find it great for D&D, but that much brain power is a little off for DS. +4 to Int is enough IMO. That makes them powerful manifesters anyway. Plus 'illithid' levels stack with a manifester class level for purposes of determining manifester level for powers.
Anyway, of course they're meant to be different form D&D mind flayers, how much is up to the community to decide. I pointed where I thought I wanted it to go, what with overminds and gestalt abilities.
Maybe its because I'm one of the few who owns a copy of Arcana Unearthed: A Variant Player's Handbook (Malhavoc Press). After the 12th racial class following a race, you get to see the point and the potential.
The new version of that book, Arcana Unearthed Evolved, has epic racial progressions for every race. I'm eager to see those.
Guess I need to take a look at that book then, always thought it was more SS sillyness, sounds like it's something totally different at this point.
As for being dumbed down, if you mean they don't have a +8 to Int, well that's intentionnal. The rhulisti did what they did without a +8 or even a +2, so...
I find it great for D&D, but that much brain power is a little off for DS. +4 to Int is enough IMO. That makes them powerful manifesters anyway. Plus 'illithid' levels stack with a manifester class level for purposes of determining manifester level for powers.
Nah, dumb-downed in the sense that they are nothing but mutated humans, something the Illithiad from 2e more or less did for their history, and it wasn't something I really liked all that much and especially don't like for DS Illithids.
However, I read through all the history and such (skipped the PrCs and Feats) and noticed that they weren't that at all, so nice job there.
Especially like the nature bender and life shapped influence that is part of their society.
I still would like to see them have some psionic capability like they have in the MM and the XPH, other than some PPs and the ability to get more psionic power if they take their racial class.
Other than that I like most of the fluff stuff I see.
1. Is Barien dead or still alive, borgized by the illithids into servitude?
Why do you think the Dromites are what they are today when in the past they weren't worth a Champion??
Just a thought since I'm not sure what yoiu did with their history.(Dromites's)
Does it make sence??
Of course there is still the mystery of when did he went to the Kano swamps during the cleansing wars to come back later: or did he started his war against the Illithids in the K" swamps??
Thoughts??
Of course there is still the mystery of when did he went to the Kano swamps during the cleansing wars to come back later: or did he started his war against the Illithids in the K" swamps??
He starts his war against all illithids, but he needs to physically move himself and his army to a local to eradicate them.
The Hiriman highlands, and the swamps surrounding it, are the farthest lands occupied by illithids, so the last to be touched. They are also the ancestral lands. The Kano swamps (where are they again?) would have been dealt with before the illithid lands.
Why do you think the Dromites are what they are today when in the past they weren't worth a Champion??
Just a thought since I'm not sure what yoiu did with their history.(Dromites's)
There's half a dozen, intelligent critters, even some who are humanoid and using tools, in th DSMCs. Yet none of them have a Champion for them. Like the giths for example. The mental discipline of army life, and the illithids exploiting the psionic potential of the dromites to its fullest, are reasons why deserters managed to change their society back home.
(If you haven't guessed already, the dromites are pretty much the same as the race of gnomes the drow enslaved. Although in FR the drow transformed them, made them better, I have it the change in dromites is purely psychological in nature. Their conscription/enslavement was, litteraly, and eye opener.)
There's half a dozen, intelligent critters, even some who are humanoid and using tools, in th DSMCs. Yet none of them have a Champion for them. Like the giths for example.
Except most of those are mutations that happened after or during the Cleansing Wars I think.
After the major threats were destroyed then they would be re-assigned to get rid of the mutations/monsters/lesser threats. I would think as the Champions were successful in eliminating their races they were reassigned. Wyan may have been successful and then sent out to eliminate Gith and Belgoi. Dromites may have just been low on Rajaat's list of priorities.
This is great work. Well thought-out and developed. Definitely one to get knocked into shape and posted. Nice one!
I am a fan of SS, so I might have handled the illithid race itself differently and broken out a 15-level monster-class progression. However, I also like your AU approach as well (it's an awesome piece of work, Nyt ,but wait for Arcana Evovled in Feb instead). A base illithid race, with paragon classes and racial prestige classes is also a very cool way to reproduce the MM illithid. It was neat to see the prestige race as well - I really like that rules-set. And your treatment of skills and feats is well-fleshed out too - a great read.
I do think that your LA for the illithid base race is on the low side, though. I would go for +3 or even +4. The weaknesses do off-set some of the bonuses but +2 seems just a bit too low to me. YMMV, I guess
.Cool templates, too. You haven't listed a level adjustment for either of those, though. I'd suggest +3 for the ceromorph and +4 or +5 for the trigrammatron. Although, those are just first guesses. (Edit: You might wanna make a note about save DCs for the templates psi-like powers and state what ability score they would be based on.)
Good work, too, on incorporating feats, classes etc from other sources. Everybody likes to rip and plug from other settings and it's really useful to see all the hard hunting work already done :D.
Yeah, really impressed by this. Have some more c
kies...You could also rationalize that the slightly more primitive illithids you have presented were hit by the same mind bomb that left the Githianki near mindless but effected on a lesser extent.
Just my two bits.
I have no issue with illithids being on Athas, but I wouldn't think of them being native. Githianki came from the outer planes to Athas. It could be rationalized that they were there to spy/destory illithids that fled to Athas after their great revolt. The flayers could have found sanctuary in the Hiriman highlands that you detailed.
You could also rationalize that the slightly more primitive illithids you have presented were hit by the same mind bomb that left the Githianki near mindless but effected on a lesser extent.
I'm debating going this way with them myself, but I'm a bit torn between that and having a full-fledged psionic race just like the one in the MM but with some differences.
I'm debating going this way with them myself, but I'm a bit torn between that and having a full-fledged psionic race just like the one in the MM but with some differences.
I have them on the other side of the Sea of Silt IMC. They keep pretty much to themselves. Slowly plotting against the peoples of the Sundered Regions (what I call the other side of the silt sea). I have them as pretty straight forward illithids from the MM though. Some are a bit tougher due to having muls and half-giants to pick from for their illithid tadpoles and Ceromorphosis. Very few half-giants sized flayers are spawned this way due to the low survival rate with such an uncommon host.
I have them as pretty straight forward illithids from the MM though. Some are a bit tougher due to having muls and half-giants to pick from for their illithid tadpoles and Ceromorphosis. Very few half-giants sized flayers are spawned this way due to the low survival rate with such an uncommon host.
Should be templates at that point then, something I've been exploring as well since I like that part of the Illithid which they described very well in the 2e Illithiad.
There is a template that exists for that, the Half-Illithid, if I remember, either in the MM2 or Fiend Folio.
FF I think, and thanks, forgot about that.
Should be templates at that point then, something I've been exploring as well since I like that part of the Illithid which they described very well in the 2e Illithiad.
Good point. I'll have to take a look at MM2 and/or FF for that template.
You'd asked for some way to make them weird and alien...well, long ago, I considered that if they did exist, they were like some sort of soldier-warriors for an Aboleth menance lurking in vast caverns beneath the northern parts of Athas.
This Athasian "Underdark" would be located beneath a lifeless, barren wasteland stretching along the equatorial ring. This would be the main reason the illithid were not hunted during the Cleansing War and thus survived it: Rajaat had no clue they (or anything else) was there.
What are the Aboleth? Evil lifeshaped creations run rampant, or perhaps experiments of the nature-benders, perhaps even the nature-benders themselves, evolved and mutated after eons of terrible experimentation and life-shaping as they hid from persecution in the deepest caverns and black seas found below the world's surface in that sole region -- simply, a perfect place for them to hide.
The Athasian "Underdark" would not have drow or derro or anything, though, just weird stuff -- escaped or rejected life-shaped creations -- likely insectoid things, like umber hulks -- sightless cavern drakes, non-humanoid elemental creatures, vicious crystal constructs, slimes, jellies, molds, and other terrors I haven't thought of.
However, the regions ruled by the Aboleth would be slowly expanding southwards through centuries-long exploration and expansion. Suppose the Great Earthquake was not the result of the Messenger striking Athas, but the result of the Aboleth expansion finally weakening the crust of the surface enough that a massive collapse occured.
As well, consider the whole "illithids want to destroy the sun" plot common in most other fiction about the creatures. Hey, works for me here, too. The Aboleth are steadily working towards the complete dimming of the world's sun.
What if...they are responsible for the Pristine Tower? What if the Aboleth are a race surviving from the Blue Age? And they seek the destruction of the sun because it is hateful to them...the Brown Tide? Them. Rajaat's dreams of magic and the Blue Age? Them. The arrival of the gith on Athas, and the subsequent psionic bomb? Them...Psionic minions are more useful, and make better hosts for the illithid larva.
Not directly responsible, but lurking in the shadows, nuding and whispering, kidnapping, brainwashing, devouring. A world of dark seas beneath a burnt-out ember.
Suppose the Silt Horrors are servants of theirs as well, or escaped mutations from the begining of the Cleansing Wars, when they found their seas turning to dust.
Anyways, that's my two cents (the toddler isn't letting me type anything else! She's stealing the mouse!).
You'd asked for some way to make them weird and alien...well, long ago, I considered that if they did exist, they were like some sort of soldier-warriors for an Aboleth menance lurking in vast caverns beneath the northern parts of Athas.
*bigohhugeSNIP*
Not sure what is scarier, the fact that you came up with that, or the fact that I really like it.
:D
Illithids are innately predatorial, and their society is not unlike that of an intelligent bird of prey: opinions are shared telepathically but also through dominance stances. They bite each other and other nasty things like that. They dart nastily at each other, continually affirming their dominance. (Oh and btw, don't think of illithids as humans with tentacles but as literal aliens, with joints in the wrong places and such. Also they don't wear clothing at all, so they're either naked and freaky, or carapaced with a full-body lifeshape and freakier)
In the Green Age, when they made contact with the main civilization, they found themselves plagued with an inability to communicate. So a few years later started appearing lone illithids accompanied by an intermediary, a kind of translator. This guy was an unfortunate human or other who got snatched and transformed into an half-illithid, in a process similar to what the yuan-ti use to make their quasi-yuan-ti slaves.
Those intermediaries are telepathic but can easily talk their native tongue and look partially illithid. They barely remember their former lives. They would be induced telepathically to express what the illithid wants, insuring there is no dominance play or biting or any such thing involved that might confuse the other party or convey the wrong impression. Any contact between a member of another race and an illithid is made through these intermediaries. (If you've ever seen the first few seasons of ST:TNG, you'll remember that guy who was deaf, speechless and telepathic and needed two translators with him)
(If you've ever seen the first few seasons of ST:TNG, you'll remember that guy who was deaf, speechless and telepathic and needed two translators with him)
I vaguely remember him. Do you know the character's name?
I vaguely remember him. Do you know the character's name?
Looking at my trusted collector's TV Guide Star Trek: 30 Years :D I can see he's called Mediator Riva. The actor really is deaf and also originated the story line. He's in Season 2 episode 5, Loud as a Whisper.
Awsome post guys!
Many more could be developped.
Also, seeing the movie AVP (Nyt, Mach,
) I thought some of the scenes fit very well the athasian illithids. Also there's DarthCestual's comment of "consuming them in grand harvests of cities in the night".As such, what if the evil of the illithids is not unlike the halfling's evil, a categorization of the way they act, not the way they feel? They could get out of their cities periodically, scourging the countryside in a kind of blood revel, like intelligent ants who need to expand and send forth millions of warriors to kill and eat everything everywhere before retreating and creating new nests.
Although they're intelligent and barely sociable in a way the other races understand, the illithids are not 'EVIL evil' but rather obey strong instincts, including eating brains and occasionnal brain fests. They could also kill anything that isn't illithid or absorbed within the illithid way of life: plants, people, creatures. Pulp bees are domesticated and so are left alone. Illithid lands could be huge watelands were only the things that the illithids need and want would live and grow.
This would explain why illithids were not really present amongst the Green Age civilizations, but rather limiting themselves to southeastern lands. No one is crazy enough to cross their borders, and the only way to make contact with them is to hunt down a voyaging illithid and his intermediary, or to go to small half-illithid outposts outside of their frontiers to get yourself escorted in with the equivalent of a white flag.
So the Illithids (like the well used analogy of humans and ants) act as they want, without any regard for any other races, which they consider are no different from animals. At best the other races are regarded as pets/cattle, sure the family dog is cute, and got some tricks - but if he gets rabies its shotgun time.
They dont have human ideals of greed, love and honour(not that a lot of that is present on Athas), and act for the good of the hive - their position in the 'hive' dictating their actions. So the Super-Illithids arent megalomaniacal, they act for the good of the hive, just on a more powerful level than normal illithids.
Maybe they are also like the Kreen, with a well defined hierarchy that they can move up/down with successful/failed challenges? This would probably only cover leadership of a coven, since there are built in plateaus of power with the prestige classes, and elder brains.
The illithids eat brains for food, any gain of knowledge from this consumption is regarded as Illithid intuition/learning and not related to eating the brains of a human/elf/dwarf. This might also cover why some illithid become mages/clerics etc. They eat the brain of a preserver or a fire cleric, and gain knowledge, effectively multiclassing. Other illithids dont know why, since they dont realise its possible to gain knowledge from animals. I'd also think they can eat the brains of anything, its something in brains that they get nourishment from. To illithids the brain of a sparrow is the same as of a human, just different size.
Also to add conflict between the Illithids (rather than having them all unified), i thought maybe some of the hives have decided a single elder brain is too risky. These (newer) hives have split the Elder Brains (willingly of course, it is the Brain's idea) into 'commander' illithids - like the white daleks :D
These illithids lose some of the benefits of the elder brains, but gain more immediate benefits from the close presence of the commander illithids, making them more capable away from their hives. Each of these commanders is a lesser brain, giving the hive greater survivability. The older, traditional Brains reject this idea and battles have broken out between the factions. The younger hives are consistently successful against the old illithids away from the hives, but when they get near the Elder Brains the superior mind of the Elder Brains wins out. This leads to stalemate.
How about the Illithids just don't get the concept of other creatures been intelligent? They are aware of the other races, and notice cities, caravans, the annoying sounds they make between each other - but they just cant comprehend the idea of these races been as intelligent.
So the Illithids (like the well used analogy of humans and ants) act as they want, without any regard for any other races, which they consider are no different from animals. At best the other races are regarded as pets/cattle, sure the family dog is cute, and got some tricks - but if he gets rabies its shotgun time.
You mean kinda like the kreen are with all other intelligent life?
;)
I just had a look at the new Villichi in ToA, and it has psi-like abilities, upgradable power resistance, more than good stats, all with an LA of +2.
I could redesign the illithid so that the character race has the powers it normally would get by taking levels in its racial class, using the villichi as a guide. Considering the other abilities coming from the gestalt effect, the overmind and the natural attacks, I might up it up to LA +3 or +4.
Also, I could thus remake the racial abilities it gets from taking levels in its racial class.
Any suggestions?
Illithids and Athasian dolphins should be natural enimies (if there are bodies of water in thier homeland, of course)
Also, someone else wrote up a thing on 'alithids' which was kinda a unique take on the whole illithid thing - something worth looking at.
Hey Pennarin, great work. My two bobs:
Illithids and Athasian dolphins should be natural enimies (if there are bodies of water in thier homeland, of course)
Also, someone else wrote up a thing on 'alithids' which was kinda a unique take on the whole illithid thing - something worth looking at.
That would be me
and they are called the Athilids: they live in the Keno Swamp situated between the Koshack mountains and the Jagged Cliffs all linked together by the Great River. I was simply inspired when I saw the Half-illithid template in the Fiend Folio.(Of course their history is not the same. You can read all about it here includingthe very short paragraph concerning Barien the Champion.As for the Illithids vs Dolphin! Well, could you elaborate on this.
Now onto the dolphins.... see, i had this concept that Athasian dolphins are exceptionally psionic - even for athasian creatures - and that thier brains are somehow even more potent (even for an unusally psionic athasian creature) as food for illitids - kind of like Werewolf blood to vampires in Vampire the Masquerade. So, in little lakes and sea's on the continent / land mass dominated by the illithids on the other side of the sea of slit, they hunt the athasian dolphins as treasured prey and prized food... except the dolphins have evolved really, really, nasty defence mechanisms (part of which is not contacting thier less evolved breathern in the "last" sea). It's an endless cycle, the illithids try and hunt them as a coming-of-age-ceremoney for powerful illithid families, the dolphins, in repsobse, kill many of these illithids (and some more) as they struggle to retain thier own civilization against the illithids....
That would be me
As for the Illithids vs Dolphin! Well, could you elaborate on this.
Illithids have secret masters, the athasian aboleths!
The athasian dolphins, on the other end, have been oposing the aboleths in their bid for world domination since way before the rhulisti became sentient...
:pile:
I've partially read the Illithid project thingamajig and the rest of the thread and there were parts I liked and parts I didn't like. I'd like to list them, if ya'll don't mind.
- Why do the Illithids have to live underground? Part of the beauty, as I understood it, of the Dark Sun campaign was that it took the races to a whole new level. Why not leave them above ground?
- I really liked the suggestion of having a conflict with the overmind or elder brain thing. It could be a reason for illithids to venture out on there own and explore the world.
- I don't get why they would need a champion to exterminate them. Under the assumption that they aren't numerous and thus have remained out of the history annals, they really wouldn't need one. Like someone claimed: Only the successfull or numerous creatures were assigned champions. If the Illithids never grew in great numbers and never got to be successfull they wouldn't need a champion...right?
- I really liked the idea of their behaviour being dictated by their emotions rather then intelligence. Also the not understanding they aren't the only intelligent race would be a very nice touch. Let them have an occassional brainfest or something similar every once in awhile. It just spices things up. IMO.
- I also like the ideas for all these sub-races to help them out. Though they would definetly require some fine-tuning.
Eah...if someone could answer these questions, I guess that is what you'd call them right?
Keep up the work.
Heh heh!
Illithids have secret masters, the athasian aboleths!
The athasian dolphins, on the other end, have been oposing the aboleths in their bid for world domination since way before the rhulisti became sentient...
:pile:
Exactly. Makes the 'cute' dolphins take on another mask... kinda like that simpson episode....
"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish !"
"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish !"
:D
Uhm...this will be my first post on these boards, so, like, y'know...don't hold me responsible or anything.
Well hello and welcome then!
- Why do the Illithids have to live underground? Part of the beauty, as I understood it, of the Dark Sun campaign was that it took the races to a whole new level. Why not leave them above ground?
To keep some pre-existing illithid flavor, and because DS is anemic when the time comes for underground races since we don't have an underdark.
If you consider real-world humans, as soon as our cities became big enough and complex enough we started living in them as if in a small world, a closed system. That we are diurnal or nocturnal doesn't matter anymore at that point: the city is father and the city is mother (to quote Bester).
- I really liked the suggestion of having a conflict with the overmind or elder brain thing. It could be a reason for illithids to venture out on there own and explore the world.
Yes, internal strife would make a great new element, although how to approach that is a mystery to me. Did I say there were areas of design I'm not good at?
/me checks the name of the thread again ;)
- I don't get why they would need a champion to exterminate them. Under the assumption that they aren't numerous and thus have remained out of the history annals, they really wouldn't need one. Like someone claimed: Only the successfull or numerous creatures were assigned champions. If the Illithids never grew in great numbers and never got to be successfull they wouldn't need a champion...right?
Illithids were extremely successful, and quite powerful as a race. Still are. But they were pretty much confined to their own south-eastern lands, like the fey were to their southern forests. Every forest held fey, and so every metropolis would contain a few wandering illithids. A few communities also around salt lakes, now dried up. Plus the Kano Swamp athilids of Jihun's (maybe the athilids appeared as an adaptation to the new harsh environment steming from the dark sun, and split from the original race when part of the population went underground where they could maintain humid conditions).
As a powerful race they got a Champion, since when the Blue Age would start to come back it was sure they would not "go gently into the night".
- I really liked the idea of their behaviour being dictated by their emotions rather then intelligence. Also the not understanding they aren't the only intelligent race would be a very nice touch. Let them have an occassional brainfest or something similar every once in awhile. It just spices things up. IMO.
I'm rereading Lilith's Brood, by Octavia E. Butler (omnibus of Dawn, Adulthood Rites and Imago). In there is the alien Oankalie, quite the illithid in appearance but Spock-like in every other way. They are incapable of not sharing their genes, to the greater despair of humanity. Their biology is, in a sense, their own master. I want something like that for the illithids, although I have strong reservations against a lack of understanding that other races are cognizant. Unless you're a lower planar demon full of pride, I don't see how you can come to such a blind-folded conclusion about people who can do things as good as you, or even better. Biologically its also difficult to explain (although there is no real Darwinian evolution on Athas, it does seem that the survival advantages given by the Pristine Tower are of a darwinian nature, meant for competition).
- I also like the ideas for all these sub-races to help them out. Though they would definetly require some fine-tuning.
I want more variant illithids, above and beyond the trigrammaton, ceromorph and malinarint. Ideas?
Just wanted to say, i think it's really good of you to consider including the alithids in the whole project, they were a really cool concept, and i think having two derivitives of the same specicies in DS is just... well... really dark-sun-ish, with all the random mutations etc. How would Alithids and Illithids react to one another i wonder? similar to Thri-kreen and Toska?
Hey Pennarin,
Just wanted to say, I think it's really great of you to consider including the alithids in the whole project, they were a really cool concept, and i think having two derivitives of the same specicies in DS is just... well... really dark-sun-ish, with all the random mutations etc. How would Alithids and Illithids react to one another i wonder? similar to Thri-kreen and Toska?
Thanks a lot for the apreciation of my(our) view on Athas's Illithid's. Though,
I'd like to mention that I also would like to mention Mach3.5's Illithids(the one who can ''swim'' in the desert's sand, or at least melt into it, as if it was water) I would see them as even more secretive then the other two and rarer:compared to the Athilids and the Far-Illithids they would be merely considered a myth. But in fact, would be much closer then the athasians of the Tyr region would like to admit. (if they only knew their paranoiaque existance.) Anyway this sub-race belongs to Mach... So I'll shut up and let him elaborate on his own idea.
Darksun gets a tentacle slapping fun re-vamp!
Thanks a lot for the apreciation of my(our) view on Athas's Illithid's. Though,
I'd like to mention that I also would like to mention Mach3.5's Illithids(the one who can ''swim'' in the desert's sand, or at least melt into it, as if it was water) I would see them as even more secretive then the other two and rarer:compared to the Athilids and the Far-Illithids they would be merely considered a myth. But in fact, would be much closer then the athasians of the Tyr region would like to admit. (if they only knew their paranoiaque existance.) Anyway this sub-race belongs to Mach... So I'll shut up and let him elaborate on his own idea.
Hey Pennarin,
How would Alithids and Illithids react to one another i wonder?
I'll have to admit that the Illithids of the Sea of Silt would be superior in knowledge and probably in numbers because the Athilids(and please stop being dislecsic: It is Athilids not Allithids
--think Athas, athilids--)To survive, the athilids hadd to ''change'' for they couldn't rely on their elder brain since they were all dessicated by Barien. They can no longuer rely on their encient writing system(they simply lost that knowledge through the years. Then again, most of them are psionisist only a few are masters. the majority are dual classed.( psionisist/ any:even gladiator) Although a athilid gladiator is called a Puppet Master.
On the other end The far-Illithids still possess Elder Brains hence what explains their superiority. Need I say more.
Also, and this is a small point, Pennarin's Illithids are not exactly as far as the Far Lands (I don't recall who first named his project that) located on the other side of the Silt Sea, the eastern side. The illithids are between the two shores, south of the sea.
I will give Psi-like Abilities to the illithids.
I already have for the racial class the following:
Level 1. At will―read thoughts, wall walker.
Level 2. At will―psionic levitate, psionic suggestion.
Level 3. At will―conceal thoughts, psionic dominate.
So do I keep some or all of those powers for the base illithid, but with 3/day and 1/day instead of at will? or do I give other powers for the base illithid and keep the above powers for the class?
If the class powers are made base, then what powers do you see being given to the class instead of the current ones? or should the base powers be made "at will" when you take levels in the class?
Right now I'm thinking:
Psi-like abilities: 3/day―burst, chameleon, defensive precognition; 1/day―hustle, vigor. Manifester level is equal to ½ Hit Dice (minimum 1st). The save DCs are Charisma based.
Also I came up with this:
Sensory Tentacles: Illithids have patches of sensory tentacles on their bodies. These sensory organs are gray, slug-like writhing filaments that help it perceive smells since it has no nose. The tentacles give the scent ability. Smells can also be perceived underwater if the tentacles are immersed.
...I also changed the first two paragraphs of the illithid racial fluff to accomodate the addition of sensory tentacles, and their part in communication.
Call to ideas on a game-related bit:
I will give Psi-like Abilities to the illithids.
I already have for the racial class the following:
So do I keep some or all of those powers for the base illithid, but with 3/day and 1/day instead of at will? or do I give other powers for the base illithid and keep the above powers for the class?
If the class powers are made base, then what powers do you see being given to the class instead of the current ones? or should the base powers be made "at will" when you take levels in the class?
I think it is in The savage Species book(I'm at work at the moment) where a lot of ''monsters'' were converted into PC/NPC possibilities. The more level a creature gains, as a race, ( PC or NPC) the more he gains all the said creature's full potention.
exemple: an NPC could be Illithid level3/ psion lev. 10. I do beleive the Illithids is there. Maybe we could go along those line for our Athasian Illithid. I mean not all humans are alike. Why should Illithids be any different especialy with the Illithid's vast potentiel.
Edit I'm not saying to use the exact level advancement table in the book. Just use that as an exemple to create our own athasian mind flayer and its various abilities advancement to athas's tentacle heads.
I've been wanting to stay clear of the Savage Species build for the illithid racial progression. Anyway the psi abilities are the same as those found in the MM, which are way inapropriate for a DS illithid (i.e. plane shift). That's why I only kept some of them and changed the rest to new, more appropriate powers.
See my editing in previous post
I plan to have the Pc met the Wanderer and travel to this place.
The original 15 (or more) Champions that Rajaat created were probably assigned to the 'successful' races of the Rebirth. Those ones that had developed advanced societies (say elf, dwarf) or that had become numerous (goblins, tari).
After the major threats were destroyed then they would be re-assigned to get rid of the mutations/monsters/lesser threats. I would think as the Champions were successful in eliminating their races they were reassigned. Wyan may have been successful and then sent out to eliminate Gith and Belgoi. Dromites may have just been low on Rajaat's list of priorities.
The other races in the GReen Age might not have been organized in anyway that would present a threat to Rajaat's plans. But then again, he didn't care about Thri-Kreen either. It is in cannon that he only cared about races that sprung fromt he rebirth. And races that spontaneously sprung up or races that existed in the blue age were ignored. Dromites (and centaurs apparently maybe centaurs = wemics) were were ignored along with gith and Thri-Kreen because they were not Rebirth races.
I really like your take on them though!