Not as brutal as I recall them in AD&D. But still a total nuisance.

Spoiler

And is there a way to resize a image post??

And oops, didnt see the MM thread below. ook!

Wow! I am completely impressed by this beastie. That's a scary mofo. Shame the rest of the previews haven't been as interesting. This Intellect Devourer is probably nastier than its 1e original.

That's not some creature to underestimate wow!

Cool!

AD&D:
AC:4
HD:6d8+6
att: 4
dmg: 1d4 x4 + psi power attack

Hide in shadow as a lvl 10 thief.
hit only by +3 or better. Immune to most spells, and lightning bolt does only 1 point per die damage.

5e:
AC:12
HD:6d4+6 (21)
att 1 + devour
dmg: 2d4+2(7) + devour for 2d10 psychic and possibly having INT reduced to zero.
Resistant to non magical weapons.
And effectively an instakill if it can beat someone unconcious in an INT vs INT contest.

While physically weaker and no longer immune to virtually everything... the new version is indeed damn scary.

Wrap the image with Spoiler, it will hide it, there's no autosizing.


Pull it's immunities and it's an easy to gang up and chop 'em to bits - the uber-creepy braineating isn't going to work against a party.

Pull it's stealth abilities, now you've greatly eliminated the chance that it's going to be able to get that party member one on one.

It *sounds* scary, but look at what needs to happen...

Intellect Devour
1. Fail a DC 12 Int save
2. The GM has to roll over your intelligence on 3d6.  Have a 19 or 20? You laugh it off.

Body Thief
Fail an Int contest against a creature with an Int of 12.

Granted, if your Intellect has been Devoured, then you're not going to be saving with an Int of 0, but still, this is far from the Unholy Terror it was in earlier games.  

This used to be a possible TPK monster.  If you're a total bastard and have the party encounter someone with the Intellect Devourer already inside their skull and allow the Intellect Devourer to use Intellect Devour from inside the body, then now we're getting into Thing level of Horror at least until someone casts a very basic spell to drive it out.

They managed to make it *sound* more creepy, since how an Intellect Devourer did what it did wasn't very well explained in the MM before, but by completely nerfing all it's physical capabilities, the only reason to fear this thing is if you get captured and tossed in a Mind Flayer arena and you dumpstatted Int.

Quote from: CRKrueger;786357Wrap the image with Spoiler, it will hide it, there's no autosizing.


Pull it's immunities and it's an easy to gang up and chop 'em to bits - the uber-creepy braineating isn't going to work against a party.

Pull it's stealth abilities, now you've greatly eliminated the chance that it's going to be able to get that party member one on one.

It *sounds* scary, but look at what needs to happen...

Intellect Devour
1. Fail a DC 12 Int save
2. The GM has to roll over your intelligence on 3d6.  Have a 19 or 20? You laugh it off.

Body Thief
Fail an Int contest against a creature with an Int of 12.

Granted, if your Intellect has been Devoured, then you're not going to be saving with an Int of 0, but still, this is far from the Unholy Terror it was in earlier games.  

This used to be a possible TPK monster.  If you're a total bastard and have the party encounter someone with the Intellect Devourer already inside their skull and allow the Intellect Devourer to use Intellect Devour from inside the body, then now we're getting into Thing level of Horror at least until someone casts a very basic spell to drive it out.

They managed to make it *sound* more creepy, since how an Intellect Devourer did what it did wasn't very well explained in the MM before, but by completely nerfing all it's physical capabilities, the only reason to fear this thing is if you get captured and tossed in a Mind Flayer arena and you dumpstatted Int.

What makes it scary from a player perspective is what happens if you do fail. It doesn't matter that the numbers are statistically on your side.

Quote from: hexgrid;786385What makes it scary from a player perspective is what happens if you do fail. It doesn't matter that the numbers are statistically on your side.

Right. Illusionism.  It reads scary, but doesn't play scary, players will squash that thing like a bug unless the GM works to give it a shot.

Quote from: hexgrid;786385What makes it scary from a player perspective is what happens if you do fail. It doesn't matter that the numbers are statistically on your side.

I plan on changing the 3d6 roll with a d20. With a max stat of 20, no one is immune.

On its own, even against level ones, it propably won't do much before getting squashed like the bug it is.

But a bunch, already in the head of some Thralls? Dangerous, one of them might get lucky.

The bunch above along with a Mindflayer leader and an umber hulk?

Scary. You could very well lose that high level fighter with intelligence as dump stat.

The thing looks designed with bounded accuracy in mind, I say.

They did a fine job on this one.

Creepy as hell, all kinds of potential plot hooks, and still iconic.

And we now have our second monster capable of what is essentially an ability drain. Nice thing though, is that it doesn't screw around. All or nothing.

I just thought of something pretty funny. What if someone were wearing a headband of intellect and their brain gets devoured.

Because of the magical headband the poor sap may not even realize that he's brain dead without it!

I now want a Mojo Devourer that drains your cool.

"Dwayne Dibbly!" *









*One for the Dwarfers out there.

That mind flayer quote at the top actually made me laugh out loud. I can't even remember the last time an official D&D rulebook actually seemed as fun to read as the 5E ones.

Quote from: Elph;786435That mind flayer quote at the top actually made me laugh out loud. I can't even remember the last time an official D&D rulebook actually seemed as fun to read as the 5E ones.

Yes.

I remember mearls posting an article on how humor has no place in D&D source- and rulebooks (I think in 4e developement circle, but I might be way of).

Let's just say I'm really glad that stance changed.