*everyone is here* - character who stands to fulfill a non-serious, comedy role (billy bob joe-overalls) - character made to fulfill a certain name or play-on-words (shrimp fried bryce) - character who is just a blatant meme, and no effort has been put into hiding it (magnum dong) - character whose blatant over-influence from one source has led to them basically just playing exactly what they were influenced by (sandra bullock)
@@defensivekobra3873 The party consists of a Necromancer, a Duergar Fighter, a GOOlock with psionic protection and that one dipshit druid who uses all of his spell slots every fight to summon like 12 elementals per round
I highly recommend the book “the monsters know what they’re doing.” Or if you’re short on cash, it is based on a blog of the same name that isn’t as extensive but is free
Hobgoblins and Duergar use similar tactics since they both are unrepentant slavers. Unless war, they go for subdual over murder unless they face too much of a resistance.
@@WolfBoy-om6dw Feeblemind? But if you can cast 8th level spells then 1. You're probaby a Wizard so decreasing your int is a horrible idea 2. You probaby have a powerful enough spell that could do more damage anyway.
Ok so it’s gonna sound stupid. TL:DR In our homebrew mess barbarian stopped a Mind Flayer cult single handily by using a kind of useless item to transport their souls to a plane (for now at least). Long exhaustive summary trip to memory lane below. Essentially our GM created a plane that can only be entered by sacrificing something “core” to you, with a nifty item we get to choose it instead! (Barbarian decreasing his intelligence made him roleplay as an animal essentially) which could only happened with a little item. After that we rarely went into that plane so the item became kind of useless, but in one of our favorite little towns our homeboys heard of a little cult worshipping Mind Flayers (imagine Genestealers). Barbarian tell the GM he has a plan. Since Mind Flayers thirst for some of that big brain energy, he wish to disguise himself as the wizard. A 6 foot muscle bound bear of a man wishes to disguise himself as a frail man. While we were setting up this horrible horrible plan that took months, the cult managed to grew big enough that they throw a revolution that caused the city to fall to chaos and ruled by… purple people. Our merry band waltz in (barbarian now in with a new magical makeover) fought with the slaves cultists for a bit, realized that they are connected to their respective Flayers and Squidward is probably wondering why a frail old man is bludgeoning his minions to death with a club as big as him. We took the normal cause of action and massacre everyone that looks “suspicious” or purple in the vicinity, we then took a little safer and wizard starts casting illusion spells. Eventually we got caught in a brutal melee where we were captured so our brains can be sucked. They took us to their dungeon and the closer we get the more Lovecraftian bullshit happens that makes our brains ouchy wouchy. Wizard disguised himself as a fallen NPC which was “accidentally” killed during a battle above, the Flayers bicker for awhile when they realized they caught a certified Big Brain Man, they treat us pretty lavishly until the moment we are going to be eaten, and as one of them comes up to eat his meal. The item activates, giving his whopping 6 intelligence to -1. This made the Mind Flayer PHYSICALLY SICK when the only memories he saw is what a senile earthworm thinks. This causes him to go on like an allergic reaction, but it’s psychic but since it’s a hive mind other mind flayers feel the pain mentally too, and so did their slaves making a giant psychic scream as the mind flayers’ souls are ripped away. The slaves and cultists were suddenly freed from their masterminds, realized what crimes they have done, what horrific forms the Flayers had transformed them. The city’s government and major corporations and other important stuff were burned down and killed, the city now has a minority hated for crimes they didn’t done and it’s buildings were heavily damaged by the Big Loud™️. So good run The All Helping Church, you lasted 6 months. (We were level 8 this cult was meant to make us level 10 why did it took that long)
@@funnyswangoosething5088 That's actually pretty inventive. Too bad the Flayers can just nope out of the material plane and return a few decades later whenever they want. Also you have inspired me to name the Ulitharid I plan to have in my new campaign Squidward.
There are some reddit and discord groups that you could use. I think there's also a few apps for finding groups. Or, heck, you can start your own group with people you know, not necessarily friends, just people with a common interest, though that last option is the hardest.
@@Grinnar That's almost the problem - tons of people everywhere makes it difficult to find a decent party that aren't just a bunch of murderhobos and a GM that's not a raging control freak heh
I love to see an encounter that gets as logical as it can get in a fantasy setting that goes like "you can't win this", but at the same time it's so frustrating
This party you mentioned could probably covertly take on the mind flayer hive by using a combination of nondetection, mind fortress and pass without trace to sneak in and use magic/ gunpowder to cause the roof of their lair to collapse
Would make for an excellent role play experience, encountering something in the world that's beyond your control, the only logical solution being just trying to escape
I like to homebrew that they could choose to do non-lethal psychic damage with their mind blasts, if needbe. Makes sense for being able to kidnap commoners.
these encounter videos are my favorite parts of your content. I run a roleplay focused group and don't do combat often, so it's fun to watch these what-ifs.
Looking at the stat block for an Elder Brain it seems to imply that the hivemind only functions within a 5 mile radius of it, and it can detect the location and intelligence score of all creators in that same range, so if the party is close enough that the raid is part of the hivemind then they already knew exactly where everyone was before arriving
I wanna say I love seeing more of these. It kinds of give me an idea (at least on the side of the enemies when I'm going to run a similar game) how encounters like these should go. Please make more of these I beg you.
Woot, nicely done. Now I kinda wanna see a story from the mind flayer perspective, a small hive trying to make their way in a cold, cruel world. Raid wise, hoping for some fire giants. Keep up the good work.
I ran this encounter and it became a defining moment for the campaign as it wiped half the party, losing them several powerful magic items and their healer. It set the remaining party on a warpath that fueled the remainder of the campaign, thx runesmith
I might be the luckiest person alive. I ran your bandit encounter right before running a dungeon where I gave hints that mind flayers have infiltrated the town and then this video comes out. You're the best!
Both them and Beholders narratively at least should be unstoppable. One can read every thought form all its fellows so they coordinate in a way that can be beat without a tactical nuke. While the other has a godly 4d chess brain that no in lore should be able to out think and you would need a whole as army, godly intervention, or the ability to scare through absurd logic to put out of commision.
These raids are brutal. I assume settlements near an opening to the Underdark would lead to residents captured or leaving the area. And you say the Illithid don't lose, but don't all their slaves eventually become a race that hunts them?
Illithids don't lose battles. Wars are another matter. When your only food source is communal (near) apex predators, and your reproductive method requires more of the same, plus an immobile facility, sustainment becomes a really big issue.
04:50 It seems that everyone believed that Sandra Bullock was going to be sleeping with the others, but when Billy Bob woke up he discovered that Sandra went to sleep in Bryce's bedroom and that he was supposed to sleep alone... mmm... suspicious.
Only missed opportunity is a lack of Intellect Devourers. Send 2-4 of those critters to body snatch the tavern keepers and all of a sudden you got another card to play
Please make more raid videos. It’s super interesting to see you break down the different strategies of different antagonists, plus I find it more engaging when the monsters seek the player out rather than vice versa
Yea, Mind Flayers are right up near the top among 'monsters that can't lose if played correctly.' They can see your thoughts, share information instantly at great distances, command armies, strike in a way most beings aren't prepared to defend against, implement highly complex plans with extreme precision, and will do absolutely anything for their goals.
It shouldn't hit anyone because you cant target creatures behind full cover but Runesmith is "interpreting" those rules differently because Psionics, I guess.
/\ to be fair theres no reason a wall should stop Psychic energy. Fire, Lightning, kinetic energy(force) and cold are all stopped by walls, tho. So I can definitely see why the rules should be different for Psionics then most cone attack spells. IMO this is the correct ruling
@@agentchaos9332 If a sorcerer casts Chaos Bolt and rolls a 7 and gets psychic damage, they should not be able to shoot through a wall. Also, force damage is not kinetic, that's bludgeoning. Force is more like raw arcane force, which is why it can hit creatures in the ethereal plane from the material.
@@arcadiusrex215 eh...if you classify it that way then it too should be able to hit through walls. Hitting things in the etherial just supports that. But regardless I don't see a problem with Chaos bolt since it's a small chance you get a damage type you can't even plan ahead to shoot someone behind cover cuz it's random. I'd just rule you have to pick a target before you roll damage type and stick with it.
@@agentchaos9332 If you really want to homebrew it so that psychic damage ignores full cover, go ahead. TBH, it's a kinda cool idea, but my issue is that Runesmith presented it as an "interpretation" of RAW when it's just not. You cannot target a creature behind full cover. There aren't special rules for psionic powers or psychic damage. The ONLY rule that gives a special property to ANY damage type is Force, and that's tucked away in the back of the PHB in appendix C. And yeah, trying to cast chaos bolt at a rock to hit the person behind it is kinda silly but it was the most extreme example I could come up with, cause most spells dont deal psychic.
One weakness is ranged attacks. The other weakness is a teleporting sorcerer flying in like a torpedo with teeth and a lightsaber. Right up until the DM gets sick of your shit and bans half of your abilities, despite none of them being homebrew.
This was excellent. I'd like to order a full Series creature tactics and reasonings. Also videos on Space Marines and Space Jedi and how they earned these names. ty Runesmith ily
levitate is a Vertical Movement not Horizontal Movement, unless they have a way to push them selves around in the air, or just bobbing up and down the whole time.
I've heard the term "xanatos gambit" used. No matter what happens, every outcome benefits you (or the Flayer hive) in some way. If the raid is a total loss, that's 3 less mouths to feed and the hive has identified a new threat. If the raid succeeds, the hive has plenty of food and there are no survivors to blow their cover. If the raid semi-succeeds, like it did in the scenario above, the Hive didn't send anything they couldn't afford to lose. They STILL have knowledge of a new threat, they still managed to drag off some meals, and they have a new asset: fear. Now all the survivors will be talking about the squid monsters that stole their friends & defeated a bunch of level 10 adventurers. The hive can potentially turn this from "failed raid" to "show of force", simply by staging a few more raids on nearby homes and settlements. Then, approach an Authority Figure in the region and say "hey, the raids will stop if you send us victims."
The freakiest thing happened: when you started saying "if you know where a mind flayer lair is-", the youtube app on my phone glitched and closed. By itself
Loved the video. Only problem i have with the video is that a mindflayer colony of 100 is improbable (feel free to correct me, i barely run mindflayers as is.). I believe a colony usually consist anywhere between 1 elderbrain and 10 to possible 15 mindflayers.
No, you're correct, mind flayers are almost never found in numbers above 50, because it turns out that mind flayers need a lot of food and people dont breed that quickly. Your average colony would be 15-20 mind flayers max, and a massive colony could sustain at MOST 50.
I'm about to run a 3.5 underdark campaign and I'm running psionics like flavored magic because of the amount of confusion between the Cleric and Psion in the party
5:09 this is nice and all but the editor seems to have forgotten that enemies cannot enter a PC’s square unless it has an ability that states otherwise. Thus the enemies in the video wouldn’t be able to pass by the barbarian blocking the hallway.
No opportunity attacks? I mean, not that it would've been a game changer, but surprised Shrimp Fried Bryce just kinda...stepped aside for the quaggoths
Every time I see one of your encounter videos i foam from all the dopamine. Its SO useful to have a visual representation off an encounter sometimes. Thank you tons. Also do ya think you could do one of these with like, devils sometimes? Its for a thing
How tough are these merchants if they survived the 4d8+4 damage of the Mind Blast? Also, didn't realize until I checked, but it's an all or nothing - passing the save completely blocks the damage and the stun
It's because all other editions didn't, and where Illithid are considered, even 5e says it's mind powers and not magic for the Illithid. (It's still just magic to me...) Mind Flayers have a stigma against using magic. (Read Volo's Guide to Monsters, if you don't believe me.)
Here’s a quick question: I also agree that psionics are not magic, but I feel like they are associated with Abberations. If this is true, how does one explain the abberant mind sorcerer subclass?
