Dungeons and Dragons Lore: Neothelid

[@axepoison255]

(gets swallowed by a Neothelid) "Most Excellent. The bastard won't be getting away from me any time soon."

[@OckertvdW]

I like to imagine two adult neolithid achieving a mating age, at which time they create crysalis all zenomorph like which they seek to implant in living hosts.

[@coleconley6126]

Had an idea for a Neothelid BBEG. Essentially an Illithilich decided that a Neothelid is physically much more powerful, so he transferred his mind into the body of one. Shenanigans ensue.

[@troymathews9362]

Calm down Satan

[@AJPickett]

*takes notes*

[@volstad44]

Ilithids. Monstrous beasts, parasites of the lowest reconing. But these monsters..... I do not know Master scribe, a beast is a beast, but these creatures of monstrous birth. Best I think simply to destroy them, and save The Holy Lady's simple servants the trouble of such nightmares.

[@purplehaze2358]

Neolithids are basically octo-snek-slugs in terms of appearance.

[@mercaius]

I like to imagine that, given the lore of the neothelid, the illithid nation in Pathfinder's Golarion was destroyed by the aboleths in the ancient times, only for the process to backfire as the neothelids rose from the ashes and created their own society.

[@joshuazane3210]

Normally illithid tadpoles can't bind to creatures of great size. This makes me wonder if a neothelid could bind to a huge creature in much the same way. Can you imagine say... a storm giant undergoing ceremorphosis? The resulting creature would be truly terrible.

[@Licjr]

Joshua Zane I could see a mind flayer colony taking advantage of this, let a more mature tadpole grow a little bigger and implant it in an ogre. The resulting creature would have the strength of an ogre with the psionic power of a mind flayer. Plus Ogres would be easier to keep docile as slaves than any of the true giants, and they’re more numerous

[@zacharygadzinski3147]

@@Licjr Now that would be interesting. Yet illithid tadpoles can already take over dragons so its not impossible.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

THIS^

[@markusnavergard2387]

can one say that the Illithids as a race exist in a time loop? they have a huge empire in the future, that collapses and then they travel back in time to escape their slaves, in the past they build up said empire and so on and on it goes.

[@nimbus7239]

Yes ,that is indeed an accurate observation.

[@AJPickett]

Exactly so.

[@markusnavergard2387]

@@AJPickett so whean and where do they originate from? because there must have been a time and place they evolved from and whean and where did they start this whole eat brains and take over body thing?

[@AJPickett]

@@markusnavergard2387 The thing with going back in time is, they created themselves, we have no idea what their original origin was, they may have wiped out the species that originally experimented on them for whatever reason, they could have been trying to produce biological space ship components for all we know. The Illithid empire reached a level of power where they constructed worlds for themselves and they are truly a pan-dimensional race of super-beings, who also happen to be evil bastards. :)

[@markusnavergard2387]

@@AJPickett it would fit their arrogance to be their own progenitor race

[@epiccthulu]

Mindflayers are easily my favorite race, second only to dragonborn like races.

[@Babbleplay]

Never got much love, but, I always loved the AD&D MM2 wilderness mimic known as the Wolf-in-Sheep's-Clothing. It could disguise itself as a log, or tree stump, or similar, but, unlike the traditional mimic, it could decorate itself with a growth that looked like a rabbit, chipmunk, or other small, tasty animal.

[@justinbaskall8291]

Timestamps Below! 0:16 Intro, Become a Member 0:35 Mindflayers 2:11 The Elder Brain's pool, Tadpoles, and The Taboo of a Neothelid 3:37 Fall of the colony, ride of the neothelid 5:45 Deliberately creating a neothelid under Undermountain 8:21 Stats and Combat 10:51 Solitary Hunters and how to beat them 11:58 Tricking an Elder Brain 12:40 Drizzt 13:59 Idea for how to use one of these in your game Like, Share, Comment, Subscribe, Hit the bell icon, and join us on the discord

[@Immersion-rpg]

I'm digging this intro AJ! Your Illithid and co vids are epic. So many evil ideas!

[@AJPickett]

I call it the "Weeble Intro" :)

[@scottmcley5111]

Thanks for going into the details of the examples of this monster!

[@Mare_Man]

Illithid Purple Worms eh? What're they called, Purpler Worms?

[@AJPickett]

Paisley worms

[@chazzwozzio]

Purplest wormest

[@stevenpeterson8582]

@@AJPickett Mauve worms... Universally recognized color for danger.

[@bleddynwolf8463]

in my setting, i've got a guild of underdark races that hunt aberrations by ridding neothelids, which are born from Ulitherid neothelids, which they get from taking any ulitherid tadpoles they find in brine pools of mind flayer settlements they destroy

[@mathewbelemont9146]

I am up at odd hours of the day just waiting for a new video

[@robinmcgee9277]

I like the nome Dune idea. I've thought about something around the lines of Tremors with rattler dragons

[@dragonballtalk8527]

Another good video for my dungeon and dragon playlist.I collect good vids on playlists

[@willynthepoorboys2]

Neothelid meets Abolith, I smell a new summer blockbuster here.

[@Ghastly_Grinner]

Mostly unrelated but Does anyone else think that Illithids soundtrack would be full of Theremin music?

[@AJPickett]

Oh, it is required.

[@strangent404a7]

I love idea of somehow sneaking a container of a tadpole into an illithid city, magically growing it into a neolithid, then running away to watch the chaos

[@Greenscyth22]

Something tells me you would need a fairly epic cadre of Psychic Warriors and Psionic Pyromancers to take down one of these. Either that or a TON of alchemical or Iron Golems as they have no intelligence scores and are resistant to acid damage. If push comes to shove try and banish it to an outer plane, see how it likes a few weeks in one of the lower planes or one of the elemental planes.

[@kronosshadow1554]

Wonder what would happen if the Cult of Thoon bath a Neothelid in their mystical brain Aether, or neothelid attacked an aboleth

[@MoronicMiner]

I like the Dune Reference with the halflings.

[@draxthemsklonst]

Purple spice.

[@AJPickett]

Delicious pink spice

[@draxthemsklonst]

@@AJPickett Ooooh!

[@dragonlord498]

a idea i just had is i would maybe try and make psionic item/s of some sort that maybe also attached to a specific type of construct that can be used to bait these then use them against mind flayer colonies and eventually lure them to a lethal trap of some sort like maybe a large volcanic cavern or something to kill the ones that had been lured off

[@AJPickett]

Brain golems! What we need is feeble but clever... *looks at kobolds, who start to yip nervously*

[@dragonlord498]

@@AJPickett one thing with kobolds though is they may get idas that may backfire or try and escape in a way that interferes with plans though if the items or such had some type of safeguards in place like if a neolithid or any type of mind flayer organism gets to close it blocks the mental signals of its wearer instead and a few other things

[@marthachampagne316]

like have a construct with acid resistance carrying a very intelligent magic weapon. just use mind shield, stay back a few hundred feet of so, and keep giving the construct orders. and why try to lure it to a trap anyways? lots of evil folk in the underdark. just go from mindflayer setlement to drow city to abolith lair etc. it will get itself killed off eventually through pure attrition if nothing else. might take a while but it would work. wonder how large a section of underdark could be cleared out before sheer numbers kill it.

[@That80sGuy1972]

Great video, AJ. I have pondered these monsters for years, being the "true form" of the Illithid. Illithids are created when their larval form enters a humanoid host and mutates them after eating the brain and setting up camp. But... their larvae need the brine of the big-ol-brain, something these monsters would eat when they got older... but they need Illithids to make that big-ol-brain. That makes me think that the evolution of an Illithid was not actual evolution, but engineering. Thoughts?

[@AJPickett]

Exactly so, the Mind Flayers are the thralls, worker bees and reproductive organs of the Elder brains, who are an artificial living construct host for a psionic being... it is a wild concept.

[@krispalermo8133]

" Yeah, the neothelid is the result of the illithid self-bioengineering. " Natural salt hot water springs are perfect spawning grounds. And there are parts of USA Illinois that have those salt springs, along with the sink holes in the USa south under the swamps hold salt plumbs. So an illithid mutated alligator is not out off of the possibility. Years ago at my last RPG shop, I ran a 3.5e campaign where everyone PC a smart stone tool using chimpanzee. Mostly ran as a hunter/gather game to take a break from high adventure fantasy. Ending of the campaign other than dealing with the movie and tv series " Tremors," and coastal sea base purple worms. A few of the chimpanzee PC while looking for shell fish in a coastal brim pool got infected by larva and turn into a primitive illithid over a coarse of a week. Couple of excited players, " Wait a moment, we are on the mind flayers home world ?!" Other player, " Can I write up my next PC as a psionist/sorcerer stone spear hunter mind flayer hunting apes and other nomadic tribes men along the coast line ?" ( A difficult campaign that most players did not like cost there was no gold coin treasure laying around for the taking or magic items laying around.) There was fun in developing psionist levels to preform Psychic Surgery to improve an ape's mental stats to create a better livestock to feed off of. They/PC created psionic apes to feed off of to improve their own psionic abilities. 2.) Next short mini campaign revolved around stone age tribes of illithids sorcerers and psionist contacting out planar animal/fiend totems and becoming 3rdE Liches laying the foundations of early bronze age city state god kings. Sorcerers figuring out written wizardry waring with psionic liches. a.) Low spin effect of creating a few dozen Telepathic control items such as Dominate Monster, Bestow Curse, along with casting Polymorph Other/ renamed as Baneful Polymorph on themselves to create the first Elder Brains cause they did not want lichdom, and early spelljammers to have river barges that float over the surface of rivers with Egyptian motifs. b.) Follow along the lines they were so early in development only had accesses to druid magic cause the elder gods were not about yet, only elemental lords and twisted Abbys energies. So one PC made a undead brain golem bond with his lich touch stone, Shape Changing himself into the first avatar of Call of Cthulhu elder god. c.) Then we ran a Time War campaign ripping off the Time Towers from the video game series " Soul Reaver," vampire campaign. ( KZbin Soul Reaver/ Blood Omen / Legacy of Cain full movie.) Resulting in the arcane and psionic illithids fleeting their home world in spelljammer fleets. Techno organic viruses wars of transmutations. Ran a good dose of body horror in the game, and once the player PC was transformed into a monster, they role played that given monster. So they had a base PC, which shifts into a different personality a few times, Keeping all their current equipment, and achieves lichdom through psionic or sorcerer means becoming the first fiend lords of the lower planes. With a Lovecraft mind flayer face theme. So when from time to time the DM pulls that fiend up, the players know how screwed they are. Normally the DM kills off or sticks the player's PC locked into a room and have that player ran his mind flayer lich devil against the other PCs in a game of cat & mouse leaving the party cripple and with ability damage to feed off a gain later. Or resulting in TPK if that fits the story drama plot better. d.) Later played around with crossing through the Far Realms and other short mini games into WotC Star Wars rpg mixing D&D magic/psionics with the Force. Ran a game where every player got five storm troopers with 4d8hp and a command officer, or a special tactical unit and it was a ship to ship clearing battle of around twenty Star Wars troopers vs twenty Gith in service to mind flayers with psionic wild talents, it was a very loop sided fight. Main reason cause it was a one shot horror game from the view of the storm troopers. The Gith soldiers blades have a oil/chemical that if you stab a person through the gut, it keeps the target from dying from shock or infection from containment blood so the mind flayers can feed from the captives later. e.) Of a side note, I do not like running or finding my PC going against mind flayers, cause I am a full blow power gamers and the first rule of war in life and battles are unfair and loop sided. You are not out to have fair balance honorable combat. War is the business of murdering to other side before they can murder you. But in regards to mind flayers, they want to take you alive, .. so they can feed off of you. Thralls have man catchers, shield walls, crossbow bolts through the legs, fermented urine/ammonia sprayed in PC eyes for blinding effects ( water pump super soakers water guns), metal wire lace through nets to carry electrical charges/taser nets, .. Since D&D went from high magic fantasy to space science fantasy with planar travel and D&D and Star Wars sharing the same dice system, it is not too far off that mind flayers would set up a lithium mine to does a local population with sedatives in the water supply and creating lithium batteries to run their smart phones, tablets, and taser rifles to capture prey. Look how WW II Germany had their own factory population hooked on meth. " cough, cough," .. PC tosses a taser rifle creak open lithium battery into the elder brain salt brim pool. Everyone rolls for evasion. With AD&D, they were more or less regard as arcanist wizards cause for a long time they lacked a core psionic handbook for the players/DM. So thrall/herd conditioning involved multiple Bestow Cures so your int/wis suffer a minus 4 penalty along with saving throws. Problem with mind flayers is that they are over kill, and they should be. They are cosmic horror.

[@nvfury13]

I have to wonder if a Neolithid produced tadpoles...would they create normal Illithids if implanted? Given how different the Relms are from their original origin point, would they be different (especially given the weird magical radiation)?

[@AJPickett]

They would create Illithids, however, without the domination of an Elder Brain.

[@AliasEliahus]

what I'd like to know is how exactly did they go from neolithid to ilithid, like was it evolution or a mad experiment? and thinking on it further is it possible to create a deific tadpole with the intent of using it on a god?

[@AJPickett]

Time travel weirdness, so, they might have originally been created by experimentation by another species, then, the Elder brains discover time travel later on, go back to before they were created, and invent the species themselves, and to put a twist on it, destroy the race who originally created them.

[@mikewaterfield3599]

Its really fun when your PCs get one to attack a Drow city. XP bonus for creative thinking. Granted you didn't kill it in combat and you guys ran like hell out of the under dark before anyone figured out who led the brain eating worm to town.

[@AKNeal81]

Everything one needs to run a Matrix style campaign!

[@LurkerDaBerzerker]

*Screaming Geometrically Intensifies*

[@shrek6723]

Mind flyers are just *_Worms off the string._*

[@iaini8080]

This is why the string exists, it keeps them bound to our world, in the rules of our reality. Best not to think what may happen if the strings break.

[@hangingwithhermes]

Could a Neoillithid enact ceramorphasis on the brain of a sufficiently large creature? If so, what might emerge from that?

[@AJPickett]

Interesting concept.

[@nvfury13]

A cerebromorphosis with a Great Wyrm or Tarasque? Something terrifying.

[@litchqueenasenath5995]

@@nvfury13 You might be able to get All of the outer planes working together to stop that fucking thing.

[@nicholasmorgan7609]

That'd be interesting. The sheer power neothelids have with a dragon or giant making some insanely powerful, even more powerful psychic predator.

[@robertwilson2516]

Now this is a monster it might seem to be a simple giant worm but the real meat of this nightmare incarnate is the adventure you can build around it like my plans to use an awoken Neothelid as the guard dog to an ancient and insane Netheres mage living in the ruins of a skycity on a Mountain.

[@AJPickett]

Let us not forget, that awakened Neothelid is going to be insane.

[@michaelkelligan7931]

Crazy AJ,these monsters keep getting weirder and weirder! Great vid Kiwi,keep cranking them out! Id love to see a video on the Meezle and the Dune Stalker. 😁

[@taurvanath]

Another Spicy video just as I'm getting off work. Thanks for the video AJ as always

[@AJPickett]

You are most welcome :)

[@acrylicchemist1432]

Anyone who dislikes this video is a mindflayer thrall. Great video!

[@RandMantearTheDragon]

The spice must flow! Also Bbrrraaaiiinnnsss!

[@definitelynotawizard2828]

I've always found it weird that Neothelids are part of the OGL when Illithids are not. Neothelids in Pathfinder exist entirely without Illithids which is a very interesting thing. Does D&D have their Seugathi servants or is that a Pathfinder only thing? I'm guessing no since they weren't mentioned.

[@AJPickett]

Correct

[@definitelynotawizard2828]

@@AJPickett That's what I thought but I could see Paizo taking two similar but unrelated creatures and putting them together to make up for copyrighted lore they couldn't use so I thought there may have been a chance they existed but were an unrelated creature. Also for anyone reading my comment above and wondering how Neothelids can exist without Illithids, I looked through my Pathfinder books because I didn't actually know this off the top of my head but they just added in their Cthulhu Mythos inspiration and made them spawn of the Outer God Shub-Niggurath.

[@Answerisequal42]

What happens when a neothelid feeds on an ancient green dragon (as the dragon with the highest Intelligence)? BRB gonna homebrew a cthulhu dragon.

[@bait668]

It's been done, look up brainstealer dragon.

[@Answerisequal42]

@@bait668 already done.

[@dragonturtle2703]

Can neothalids reproduce normally (possible even accidentally undergoing cerimorphasis if a creature falls into a brine pool filled with eggs, but only one latches on. Why does the Neolithic tadpole now undergo cerimorphasis with its food? Why don’t the gith just call up a strike force or two from the astral? How can an elder brain flee? Was it carried?

[@AJPickett]

Neothelids would spawn on a regular basis just like the Illithids do, however, brine pools are few and far between in the Underdark, they may also eat their own young. Ceremorphosis may not occur naturally at all. Not sure what you mean by the food question. The Gith are two distinct cultures, the Githzerai live in the Astral and are mercurial, often contradictory beings who usually start some grand project and don't even get halfway through it before moving on to the next impulse or fad. Elder brains exist in an astral as well as a physical form, the physical form can certainly be transported in a purpose-built enclosure and moved by the Mindflayer thralls.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

As far as i understand it, the gith do occasionally hunt and definitely hate mindflayers. But the cosmos is very big, and ilithids are very deep underground. But they don't have unlimited resources and they have nuanced multifaceted lives to live as a scentient race. Much akin to the drow.

[@dragonturtle2703]

@@AJPickett The food thing was an assumption that Neolithids might drop an unlucky soul into the brine pool (though in hind sight eating their young if they stick around too long is probably more likely), or they may just fall in. The idea was that a tadpole might crawl into the head, eat the brain, and bam, cerimorphusis. Though, your right: there might be more too it than that. Thank you.

[@krispalermo8133]

@@dragonturtle2703 Chimpanzee falls into a tide pool, the rest is history. My game shops did run a few campaigns of stone tool using chimpanzee that were multi class 3.5e rogues/rangers/ fighters. So we had chimpanzee with weapon specialization on club and fire harden stake/ spear. And hand scrapers were used as knives during flank attacks on larger predator animals. Bamboo monkeys have the balls to steal lion clubs right in front of their sleeping mothers to kill and eat in the safety of trees. So why not have a group or single chimpanzee jump a sleeping male lion with a stone scraper knife. Large neolithids eat chimps and chimps eat small neolithids. Elder brains were created when mind flayers became sorcerer or psionist that could Metamorph/ Polymorph Self " Other " themselves into a new life form. Just a game theory.

[@dragonturtle2703]

@@krispalermo8133 I like it, though the cerimorphasis seems more like a natural ability (either mutation or there all along), so probably a chimp one day trying to raid the nest but getting one to the eye instead.

[@AureliusDux99]

Another great video AJ! Could you do one on the drow created spider species know as the chitine and choldrith? I find them super interesting and would love to learn more about them and plan on using them too, thanks again for another listen on my way to work!❤️👌👌

[@AJPickett]

Yes, they are on my Volo's video list, so you should see a video on them very soon.

[@AureliusDux99]

AJ Pickett awesome I can’t wait! Love your work AJ ❤️😁

[@thedarkmaster4747]

2:04 i bet they don't even know "it's" in the room do they? This to me is a great case of even monsters have monsters. 😬🧠🕷

[@asaenvolk]

Them not being intelligent must be a new 5th ed thing, in previous editions, they were smart, nearly as smart as illithids themselves. I have to wonder though, what if a rare ulitharid larva managed to mature into a neothelids, though this is less likely as they are both rare AND take twice as long to mature as a normal larva (drastically reducing their change to grow into a neothelid adult)

[@AJPickett]

They have always been ravingly insane though.

[@asaenvolk]

@@AJPickett Well that is true

[@thelvadam3249]

The dnd universe has some serious potential for a good horror movie setting.

[@brightglory5734]

I liked the outro sir.

[@benthomason3307]

do neolithids retain the ability to ceremorph things? assuming of course we're dealing with a creature with a big enough eye socket for a neolithid to crawl through, such as a gargantua.

[@AJPickett]

Probably not.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

Would but they did though... 🧠😈🤓

[@nvfury13]

Just as interesting, could a modern Neolithid produce tadpoles that would create normal Illithids if they implanted? Or would they end up different given the differences from their original origin world?

[@plotholedetective4166]

I want to cast awaken on one of these

[@MySerpentine]

I suspect they're not exactly stupid, just crazy as fuck.

[@johnunterzuber329]

Fun thought for a plot hook feeble mind reduces ones intelligence to zero. Meaning the neothelid can't detect them anymore. Sure it has its blind sight but if the individual were to flee, while the rest of the party fought he could end up surviving the encounter because the beast couldn't sense his presence for the next 30 days.

[@sanguiniusonvacation1803]

You know what would be fun ? If you did a video of the monsters from the old GamesWorkshop white Dwarf article . We got stuff like the Grell,Hook Horrors , and Gith from those old article .

[@thomasgeise5745]

Awesome! The Tsoschar as well!

[@chriscalvin5083]

great video AJ

[@nullvoid4063]

Thanks for making making more videos about my favorite type of monsters, aberrations. I’m currently running a homebrew Underdark campaign for currently 11th level characters. I think I know what they will be fighting soon... >:D To AJ and the comment section, any other suggestions on what I should throw at them?

[@AJPickett]

I have some more Underdark critters coming up soon, level 11, try a Deep dragon, a tribe of Troglodytes who are possessed by demons, a cabal of Ropers who consume mind flayers in order to boost their own intellects, evil flumphs who guard an ancient network of dimensional portals, a Fomorian trying to turn a part of the Underdark into the Feydark and an Aboleth that lives in a construct containing a water tank and seeks a way to flood a huge part of the Underdark and turn it into an extension of its nightmare empire from the deep.

[@nullvoid4063]

@@AJPickett Woah! I love all of those ideas! thanks. I've been trying to figure out how to include an Aboleth in the campaign, and you just gave me a great idea. I'm thinking maybe something like that one awesome picture of an elder brain in a massive levitating crystal chariot being pulled by thralls.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

An intire tribe of tramatized friendly & desturbingly hospitable quest giving drow apostates who've fled from an abandoned and now "infested" city. And one hostile underground storm gaint, attempting to escape the "inevitable" by achieving death in combat by anyone who is strong enough to kill them. The gaint dosen't sleep obviously. And as for the tribe of drow, they have near acid proof coffins they "sleep" in, when "the worms swim through the hollows in the stoney sky." At random times ofcourse, because both the neolithids and the drow are going endlessly in attrition trying to catch each other out with irregular sleeping/hunting cycles. Nethertheless, the coffins aren't perfect, and each night - although the neolithids never mannage to dent the drows population when they've "anticipated" them, they netherless have to forcefully sleep too each others screams, helpless, alone and petrified. Like clams being hunted by octopuses. Maybe even have a culture in the tribe of never mentioning the liquified after the fact, as to keep moral up. So that's neolithids and ilithid purple worms.

[@chandlerpearce6213]

As someone with a broken basal ganglia, I take offence

[@CassiusDrake]

How can you so casually mention the existence of Brain Golems without giving me any information? Is it equivalent to a Flesh Golem, or something else entirely?

[@MySerpentine]

Pretty much. Guy made of brains for some weird reason. I think they have a few psi powers?

[@metholuscaedes6794]

the elder brain sacrifices parts of itself to create them as servants.

[@brightglory5734]

Wonder if we will see any in Baldur's Gate 3.

[@theredneckunicorn9752]

Heres hoping

[@AJPickett]

No idea, but it would be cool!

[@themightymoose5047]

AJ - any plans for a video on the eladrin?

[@AJPickett]

At some point, not sure when.

[@draxthemsklonst]

Do Ulitharid tadpoles ever turn to Neothelid? Neoulitharid?

[@AJPickett]

I'd go so far as to say that would likely be the tadpoles which survive to eat all the others, if there were any Ulitharid tadpoles present in the brine pool.

[@draxthemsklonst]

@@AJPickett Would you, as a DM, keep the base Neothelid stats for that?

[@zacharyweaver276]

@@draxthemsklonst it wouldn't be any different I think

[@AJPickett]

@@draxthemsklonst yes

[@afngary]

So do the Neothelid have a reproduction cycle?

[@AJPickett]

Good question! They must do.

[@Yentz4]

I would assume so, my guess would be they lay the little tadpool things. The first Illithid were probably Neolithid tadpools that merged with another species of Humanoid and thus created the Illithid race.

[@Answerisequal42]

@@Yentz4 some even speculate they were aboleths that come from the future and mutated horribly. Tinhat theories can go a long way with these ones.

[@florenmage]

A great way to work mind flayers into a story.You could have the old wizard or who ever the patron is talk about how he led a force into a mind flayer lair and destroyed them years ago.Unfortunately they were unable to destroy the mind flayer tadpoles because the cavern colapsed and now there are nolithids around and he needs you the party of adventurers to go destroy one.

[@ProfessirRay]

Does this mean you have completed all the Illithid and friends lore?

[@AJPickett]

Brainstealer dragons, yet to come

[@Scortch-lo3xy]

awesome

[@backroomgaming3305]

Amazing video now I have to fit it 8n my game somehow

[@worthbygrades]

How long would you say would it take for a mind flare tadpole to become a neothelid

[@AJPickett]

The tadpoles grow to housecat size inside the abandoned brine pool and only one of them will survive to around the size of a dog, this takes as long as it takes based on the number and health of the tadpoles in the pool, could be months, could be many months, could be hampered or enhanced by climate and of course they must attack and eat each other, so its a matter of attrition. The surviving tadpole is now hunting in pre-existing tunnels and can grow up to the size of a purple worm but, until it finds and consumes a sapient brain, it will be a Proto-Neothelid, its mental development doesn't progress until the proto-neothelid consumes a smart brain, at which point ceremorphosis kicks in and the proto-neothelid becomes a fully sapient neothelid, capable of dissolving a body with acid breath while leaving the victims mind intact to consume it.

[@snforde4603]

Say AJ, what do you suppose would happen if a slaad was implanted with a mindflayer tadpole? I assume not much considering mindflayer tadpoles can only turn medium humanoids into mindflayers, but I assume there would be some form of effect. What would a Slaad ceremorph even look like?

[@AJPickett]

Spooky, and yet buff.

[@AJPickett]

Turns into a Froghemoth maybe? :)

[@bleddynwolf8463]

@@AJPickett that'l be the lore in my world now, i had them as fiendish frog monsters, but thats cooler

[@markrinehart1124]

0.33 I own that book

[@Emil-Tiger02]

Yay!

[@eablount0]

Evil thoughts came to mind for my players.

[@Zasek2112]

oh god. Bodak Neothelid...

[@thedarkmaster4747]

Here we go... XD It would be ever better/worse if it could shape shift to resemble objects too.

[@davidfletcher6703]

What would happen if a Neothilid managed to devour an Elder Brain?

[@AJPickett]

Hmmm, good question. I don't know, might be toxic to them, might give them some intelligence boost?

[@davidfletcher6703]

@@AJPickett, sounds like it could be destructive either way, either it dies or becomes more dangerous than it already is

[@jaredbledsoe-sams9827]

Go go Dracolithid?

[@Derinma]

Where do the elder brain come from?

[@AJPickett]

Originally, nobody knows exactly who created them or why, but in the current timeline, Illithids travel back in time and so, they are their own origin.

[@draxthemsklonst]

@@AJPickett Which still means, before the time cycle was closed, there was an actual origin of those first Illithids that closed time into the loop.

[@Gryphon2026]

Wow the answers to this question are AMAZING! 🤯😱❤🤓🤓🤓

[@AJPickett]

@@draxthemsklonst Yep.

[@tomkerruish2982]

Outstanding video as always, but it seemed like you sometimes said "neolethid", possibly due to the word "illithid". Or maybe it's just a kiwi thing. :D

[@AJPickett]

Ah, sorry, I used to pronounce the name wrong from years of not reading it correctly, so you are hearing what I used to call them, my mistake.

[@tomkerruish2982]

@@AJPickett Lovecraft is not known for easily pronounceable words. Plus, it seems a "natural" mispronunciation, like saying "puhsketty" for "spaghetti".

[@AngelRaivan8579-xh4fr]

Well now thats unpleasant.

[@N-cromancer]

How about a kuotoa BBEG that worships a neolithid god into existance?

[@Redrung]

can Neothelid notice sleeping person?

[@jacobfreeman5444]

I personally would rule yes. The brain is still active while in slumber. In some ways it is more active while asleep than awake.

[@AJPickett]

Yes.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

YAASSS! 😈🐙🧠

[@llewelynshingler2173]

Why do Ilithids make Brain Golems?

[@studcummings230]

Llewelyn Shingler It’s the smart thing to do.

[@llewelynshingler2173]

@@studcummings230 You could just eat all the brains. Or make lots of Intellect Devourers.

[@AJPickett]

To be honest, it is mostly just thematic... for the fun of it.

[@llewelynshingler2173]

@@AJPickett Great... Artistic Elder Brains...

[@evankurasu3190]

That actually reminds me... where do intellect devourers come from again?

[@razzelmire2008]

Gotta love Salvatore ignoring all game sense. Elder Brain supposed to be an endgame mighty enemy for a high level party to deal with and yet one gets easily killed by a magic cat. 😑

[@lonestarbob5519]

If you think that's horrible, lmfao, wait until the books hit the "5e switch" and devils become FREQUENTLY described as "demonic"; where demons and devils make pacts together and such. Which would NEVER happen due to them being diametrically opposed forces of creation(law and chaos). Also Drow apparently lose dark vision at some point and it becomes "advanced low light vision" lmao. Honestly, don't blame Salvatore. Blame Wizards. Or more specifically, Disney. This is shaping up to be a nice "satanic panic 2.0" if things keep spiraling down like they are in the name of "diversity" and "player agency". *eyes rolling so hard they fall out of my skull*

[@vindicareassassin271]

Neothelid vs Godzilla

[@thedarkmaster4747]

Which version of godzilla, at what age?

[@vindicareassassin271]

@@thedarkmaster4747 all of them

[@thedarkmaster4747]

sean drake Then the godzillas win, and possibly crack the planets crust. ☣💪🐱‍🐉 Godzilla has always had the bioweapon trope connected to him.

[@vindicareassassin271]

@@thedarkmaster4747 then ever thing is ok then.

[@thedarkmaster4747]

Give me shai hulud any day, turn the whole planet into a desert, and a mortal melange addiction before i ever see one purple worm ilithid. Think about it, sand worms can't move through solid rock, thats how you survive and build on dune. Purple worms eat through rock. Sand worms might conduct electricity, but they can't fly. Neolithids can. You've made an utterly heinous monster that would in swarms devour/melt/break down intire cities. People would be puppet walking out like in the film: skyline, into acid pools in open spaces in the streets. Screaming and powerless to help themselves as they melt. *P.C. Kneels down and prays to a verifiably real deity in order to avoid insanity*. Infact, they could collectively sink whole cities via tunneling, soviet russia inversion style: "when underdark come to you, ilithid is walking street, and you are hidding underground and are becoming mad scientist to survive, dreaming of reconquest of past glorious comrad" *ilithid adventurer party kicks the lair door in... And doesn't kill anyone... they just keep the door open... while everyone is dragged out screaming by brain golems in silence because they're to scared to make sounds* 🌍🧠🍽🤤😵🐙

[@Vilquor85]

A like for Dune refference xD

[@thehangryphalangite739]

Well...atleast there aren't ilithid dragons

[@Derinma]

...There are. Oh the woe

[@thehangryphalangite739]

@@Derinma Eh?

[@Derinma]

@@thehangryphalangite739 They're called Brainstealer Dragons.

[@draxthemsklonst]

@@thehangryphalangite739 "Ruh ro, Raggy." - Scooby Doo

[@thehangryphalangite739]

This game really is satan then

[@AlexLopez-xo1tc]

Whenever you curse in your videos over the names you read, it really serves to further humanize yourself.

[@AJPickett]

It took me four tries to get that name right! lol

[@distracted_rogue]

I cant be the only one who clicked the video just to know how the fuck to pronounce it

[@floppa2154]

мне понравилось ! накрутка лайка и комментарий , для алгоритмов ютуба =)