Exploring Dungeons and Dragons: Mind Flayers 

Well, they feed on plenty of underground creatures, they just prefer surface creatures. Not all of them are onboard with the extinguish plan, but the ones that are assume the elder brains will sort out any problems.

@@TheExploringSeries ah, I see

you again.

Remind me of elder scroll's vampire

Step 1: extinguish sun Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profit!

I award you one internet. You earned it.

I shall award you two internet

the neothelid though is too big to enter even a giant ear

@@dragonlord498 What about a storm giant

@@dukedevlan5457 neothelids are gargantuan so even a storm giant couldn't have one crawl into it's ear

So what happens when an Ulitharid casts the hive away and becomes magically inclined? Does it become an Alhoon or does it become an "Ulihoon"?

@@the11382 I think it would just be killed, because the Ulitharid is already a god in its own view, as it will become an Elder Brain, who are themselves immortal beings that exist on two planes at once and live forever (unless killed). It has no need of arcane magic, it just needs to mature, gather followers (as in dominate them with its godlike mind) and set out to live its best life as a new Elder Brain for the rest of eternity. Illithid also veiw arcane magic as a lesser form of power than the psionics their whole society is based on. Remember, they use Psionics for everything. Giving up psionics is like giving up your arms and legs for prostetic ones, instead of going to the gym to bulk up like the rest of the hive. That is why those who do are killed or kicked out like deviant freaks, since their society and technology could not function without psionics. Hence an Ulitharid would have no use for arcane magic. If anything its dabbling in arcane magic is just a stupid distraction, like having 21 Intelligence, 15 strength and 16 levels in Wizard, then deciding "I wanna be a barbarian!" at level 17 "because fuck 9th level spells, I'm gonna melee and rage, magic is for nnnnnnnneeeeeerds!" Odds are its followers euthanize it because it's obviously had a stroke, gone insane, and become a threat to the whole community. They'd be giving up godhood to become worse at everything... I don't see why anyone of them would ever do that. The Ulitharid are the only winners in Illithid society (along with the Elder Brains) as they actually get to become immortal. Also, odds are that roughly a hundred Illithid would instantly cry out in psionic confusion and slay the abomination. TL;DR: It would become a "Al hoon", a "dead abomination". Slain in "xalli", disgust, by the other Illithid and the Elder Brain that spawned it. :P

@@probablythedm1669 So I'm guessing when BG3 comes out you will be allowing your character to become an illithid for experimentation purposes just like me huh :P Do you think think the transformation will still work in Astarion seeing as how he's a vampire spawn, an undead. Quite frankly I don't even know why he was abducted in the first place since the source material keeps saying that the illithids fear the undead. 🤔

@@Swarthy144k I might and I agree that sticking a tatpole in a vampire is odd. His brain should be dead. But then as a vampire he has some mimicry of life, unlike most undead he's not rotting, so maybe he counts as a fermented snack? Or a canned one? :P

I thought Deep Speech was their primary language, and they learned Undercommon from their consistent diet of Underdark races who speak the language.

I’ve considered something similar, but instead it is a normal infant mind flayer artificer that hasn’t started transforming the human body it hijacked yet so that they could infiltrate human society to discover new methods of cultivating brains and to research Magic’s that could destroy the sun.

I'd suggest making that Illithid the most dreaded thing in in their culture: one who remembers who and what they were before cerebromorphosis. Effectivelu the host creatures mind having taken over the illithid tadpole, rather than the other way around. This is why the mindflayers kill any who show deviant behavior, such as those who study magic. Hence, you've got a lore friendly (possibly friendly) illithid. Sure, the original creature is dead, but also lives on as the dominant mind in the mindflayer. Could be cool. As for infiltration, they've got psionic mind-control for that. Or, if they want perfect slaves, can just replace a persons brain with an intellect devourer. This makes rhem extremely nasty threats, as anyone could be working for them. Your friend, or even your spouse, could be long dead, taken over by an intellect devourer. But you'd have no idea... unless you caught them doing something strange or used magic to reveal the truth.

@@probablythedm1669 to be honest, my idea was not to have him remember who he was, by all means he's just your average illithid, an anticonformist one for sure, but with nothing special about himself. He's just as cold and calculating as they come, but has arrived to the conclusion that either his race stops being evil and creepy, or gets eradicated by the surface dwellers, hence his efforts in finding a replacement for human brains.

@@jacopoarmini7889 that works too. Illithids are only forced to act evil while part of the collective under the Elder Brain. I'd suggest keeping in mind your Illithid no longer gets eternal life by joining the Elder Brain on death, since this is why they don't have religion (even if this is a lie and the Elder Brain actually just absorb their memories), as this is core to their sense of superiority over all others. This is why those who realize this often try to become liches, to gain actual immortality. Also, you can just grow brains to eat from non-humanoids. It's probably not a great food source, since you still need to wreck a creatures brain into becoming a little eddible monster... But that way you can bring along some pickled ustilagors as rations (basically baby intellect devourers), in case you're in a place without brains to eat.

I have had that idea for a few months now. Even made my own homebrew race on DnDBeyond (haven't made it public though).

You haven’t been a regular viewer until recently have you?

He does a bunch of stuff. If you look at his whole channel he's done LotR, DnD, SCP, Lovecraft, Elder Scrolls, etc.

Thats all im saying when he started doing these i felt an energy emanating from my 20 sided die tattoo and realized that the cosmos alligned and delivered greatness upon youtube.

Seriously love the dnd stuff!

What is SCP it makes no sense to me

They have nuts?

@@Crankerization Apparently, yeah. Or something resembling them. When an Illithidn had Drizzt in its grasp, there was a quick deduction: They have two legs. We know what most of two-legged humanoids have between those legs. So Drizzt kicked it right there. Illithid's sight became murky and its grasp loosened, so it clearly worked. And since Drizzt already tried punching and other forms of defence to no avail, a conclusion is simple: They have something very sensitive between their legs.

@@TheHalogen131 Fascinating

Yes it was funny to read

They are supposedly sexless, according to the lore. But they still all lay eggs, so it'd make sense they'd have something replace the genitals of the host creature. Even if they just have a tube for laying eggs, odds are good that a kick in the groin still hurts a lot. :P

I would think they would be able to sense if you are stunned, but it would still be a surprise you could so easily brush off the attack. It is easily one of their biggest tactical advantages.

Thats the thing about a mindflayer, you cannot ever surprise them, because they probably sensed your thoughts before you even got close(unless you had some means to avoid it). Stll, even if you find a way to shield your mind, he would probably sense your companions thoughts.. and they are REALLY intelligent, so they would pobably be prepared for any possible scenario in which they had to escape if needed. Mindflayer is the kind of enemy that you simply cannot bruteforce to victory, they are always 2-3 steps ahead and should be very well prepared even in situations that dont exactly go as planned for them. Short answer is: if you surprise a mindflayer, the DM is probably doing it a disservice. Unless ofcourse the party came up with some very creative ideas, but still it should be extremelly hard.

@@brunohommerding3416 Fair enough, but it would be pretty cool if you manage to find a way that doesn't clash with the campaign's story :)

@@Tengu125 Oh deninitely, thats why i said it would depend on the creativity of the party. Which should always be rewarded imo :)

Bruno Hommerding I think the Mindflayer would be more curious as to why they can’t read your thoughts. Since if you remember, a great old one warlock gets thought shield at level 10 which makes your thoughts unreadable and I highly doubt you’ll face an illithid before that level.

Just as I sit on the toilet at the gym ready to drop a deuce this video dropped #Blessed 🙏🙏🙏

no doubt....freakin love this channel

I’m making dinner as I watch

Me using vicious mockery "Not today you Squidward knock off"

Mind flayer: *laughs in 90% magic resistance

For sure, I wait every week for this channel and the Volgun has good stuff too. However, the Volgun does a subjective rather than objective point of view.

“Volgun does a subjective POV” - Doesn’t Volgun just read straight from the article itself, with only a brief intro/outro indicating a lecture-room setting? How does that make it “more subjective”? :/

@@UGNAvalon I wouldn't disagree with that statement at all. The Volga does it "in-character" as Dr. Miller. Taking it further to make side remarks about the privileges he has in comparison to others within the SCP foundation staff. Here, it is just a straight up shot at the lore. I enjoy both for their unique way in which the narrative is laid out. Then there is the SCP Eastside Show, I like to listen to it as well. Also, each channel covers different SCP's. . .and it is really great when they happen to cover the same. Idk. . . let me know what you think.

For Volgun, I personally miss the days when he adapted Tales, or made semi-original works based on existing lore (his D-Class Orientation vid comes to mind). It was a way for him to exercise/display his creative talents (esp voice work), and was much more engaging than the comparatively-“boring” method of just reading straight off the wiki. (At least nowadays he adds self-made 3D illustrations with the readings.) For me, if a channel is doing straight readings, they should add some kind of personal flair to make their vids stand out from all the other “just another reader” channels out there. SCP Illustrated comes to mind (self-made illustrations with all the articles/logs , reading Descriptions before Containment Procedures). Volgun’s current flair is his superb audio work, especially when there’s multiple characters involved. (Then there’s his special ending to “Where the Dragons Went - Object Class: Neutralized(?)”

The last part seems pretty ridiculous. After like the 4th brain, unless the guy is not only mad but also an idiot, the guy should figure out that he's not actually absorbing any knowledge. Also how do you deal with the fact that Ilithids need to, you know, brutally kill people every 2 weeks to feed, when they're played by a player?

@@boianko my setting has a whole bunch of stuff different, its mostly based AROUND D&D concepts and changing or messing with them to make a new experience. Also Ibecause I'm a weirdo who wants to be 'different' and wanted to have a change for a player to be a neautral good Illithid thief so nya. also I didn't actually know that about D&D mind flayers so that's why. and yes the dude IS an idiot, I mean he's the dude who decided "OBVIOUSLY if I'm not getting knowledge from eating brains I'm not trying ahrd enough or eating enough brains". I never said he was actually a genius, just a crazy dude who ate brains.

Or gaming hardcore through the night to distract myself from this horrid reality.

OR POOPING

Cool story.

You checked RU-vid and found a RU-vid video? Insanity.

There is more depth he could have covered, for example he was talking only about the most common and dangerous metamorphoses, but there is more to them. This is a nice video covering some of the more Uncommon variations: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WWJ73FELjiY.html

You are the greetest?

@@sarafontanini7051 Yes.

I understood that reference.

I am swelling with patriotic mucus

If I remember right the minds of adult mindflayers are at least particularly connected by their psychic powers. So one mindflayer might put itself above another one, but in the way that a person puts their dominant hand above their non-dominant hand. If you can only save one the answer is obvious, but it wouldn't make sense to go out of your way to hurt the other outside of some extreme circumstance. I think.

Basically they usually don't seem themselves as wholly separate. More like extensions of their elder brain. Sometimes an exception shows up but they are usually driven out. Or do things that cause them to flee. Those that remain all pretty much think the same on the issue.

What Jacob Freeman said. They are a collective, dominated by their elder brain. Any deviant is driven out or killed. Even an Ulitharid eventually leaves, as they are the only form of illithid not under the elder brains control, to form their own illithid community and become an elder brain themselves.

I always understood them as pretty much a hive mind, no room for politics in the swarm.

@@EcclesiastesLiker-py5ts They can have some individuality, but it is always in service to the community. Those that don't do so are either exiled or killed. No room for those who would pursue individuality for the sake of the individual. Thus if you meet a lone mindflayer it could be one that got lost from its community or it could be an exile whose heretical thoughts had to be purged.

Considering how there’s containment teams maintaining a masquerade as opposed to adventurer parties roaming around openly.....

They also put a flayer tadpole into a fucking beholder of all things and even a DRAGON AND THEY BOTH WORKED! Mind flayers are scary man.

Also that vampire mind flayers lose their intelligence and become feral beasts hungry for brains and blood.

We must appease the great elder zoidbrain with ANCHOVIES!

Woopwoopwoopwoopwoopwoopwoop!

I now want a Zoidberg Mind Flayers D&D series.

They may need to look into producing an alternative before the lack of food becomes well known and they start fighting over the slim pickins.lol.or I wonder if idiot brains are for mindflayers trying to lose weight?

The poor thing.

Its mind won't be able withstand such immensely alien imagery, and it will either start ripping off its own tentacles while letting out agonized screeches, or keel over dead frothing at the mouth.

@@Tengu125 It'll become a fan of tentacle hentai... ...and it has tentacles

I meant to say they are doing this but auto correct is annoying

Forgot to say; Im obsessed with SCP so don't stop that, but my comment still stands lol

Sounds interesting.

Yes

Tell me, have you seen the Yellow Sign?