Mind flayers

Mind flayers or illithids are a non-playable race of Aberration creatures. The Githyanki word for mind flayer is ghaik. Multiple specific creatures titled Mind Flayer also exist in the game and are, as their names would suggest, all mind flayers.

“

Psionic tyrants, slavers, and interdimensional voyagers that feed off the brains of thinking creatures.

Most belong to a hivemind colony devoted to an elder brain, and all work towards achieving the Grand Design - their dream of once more controlling empires that span the multiverse.

„

— In-game racial description

About Mind Flayers

Mind flayers are psionic aberrations with a humanoid-like figure and a tentacled head that communicate using telepathy. They feast on the brains of intelligent beings and can enthrall other creatures to their will. Every mind flayer is connected to an Elder Brain, a colossal and powerful psionic brain that commands the mind flayers it is linked to.

Mind flayers reproduce by infecting other creatures with a tadpole that consumes its host from the inside, transforming them into another mind flayer in a process called ceremorphosis.

Thousands of years ago, mind flayers were a dominant planar power. Using massive flying vessels called Nautiloids, they traveled to hundreds of worlds, harvesting intelligent humanoids to consume, propagate their race, and use as slave labour. One of their enslaved races, the gith, rose up and destroyed their empire, leaving only small pockets of mind flayers behind.

Involvement

Mind flayers play a major role as antagonists throughout the game, from the prologue into the endgame. Though most are immediately hostile, in some cases a mind flayer can be friendly or downright ingratiating. Whether their pleasantness is genuine or a self-serving veneer on their psionic charms is often unknown.

Mind Flayer Characters

• Omeluum
• The Emperor
• In the endgame, it is possible to transform a character completely into a mind flayer:
  • Player character
  • Karlach
  • Orpheus

Mind Flayer enemy variants

• Mind Flayer (prologue): A unique mind flayer in the prologue has a slightly larger health pool than mind flayers encountered later in the game. It also does not gain  Charm on Tactician.
• Illithid Arcanist

Combat

Attacks and abilities

 Tentacle Whip ()

2d10 + 4 (6~24) Psychic

Lash out with your tentacles and possibly Stun your target.

INT Save

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5  ft

 Mind Blast ()

4d8 (4~32) + Spellcasting modifier Psychic

Spew forth a conical wave of psychic energy and possibly  Stun targets within.

INT Save

AoE: 14 m / 47 ft (Cone)

Recharge: Long rest

 Mind Flayer Domination ()

Dominate a nearby humanoid. Allies are unaffected. Each time the dominated creature takes damage, it may repeat the Saving throw against your domination.

INT Save

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Levitate (Illithid Power) ()

Float effortlessly to a destination.

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

Recharge: Per Turn

Gallery

• 

  A mind flayer in Early Access

• 

  Mind flayer consuming a brain

• 

  Render by Nikolai Chugunov

• 

  Render by Nikolai Chugunov

• 

  Shirtless Render by Nikolai Chugunov

External links

Mind flayer on the Forgotten Realms Wiki