The Most Dangerous Pet in All of DnD

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Intellect Devourers are absolutely crazy in 5th edition, these little guys run around Baldur's Gate 3 not knowing how much potential they have. I mean for all we know, half the characters have a little dude chillin in their brain in addition to the tadpole. Neat stuff, enjoy a video.
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[@FirstLast-cg2nk]

Just a reminder, in the original Neverwinter Nights, a single rogue Intellect Devourer took over a prison and turned it into his own little kingdom within Neverwinter just by taking over the warden's body, and constituted the final boss of that mini-arc. Just one was enough to cause some pretty major chaos in the city. The fact that Mindflayers use them as guard dogs largely demonstrates the utter incompetence of Mindflayers.

[@Bluecho4]

Or, well, the incompetence of WotC. A problem that will only get worse, now that a bunch of workers from the company just got laid off (and will apparently be joined by a bunch more in January). Taking what institutional knowledge they had with them. Capitalism: the ultimate Intellect Devourer.

[@gideonmele1556]

@@Bluecho4except that neverwinter nights idea was born of capitalism but ok

[@nathanfivecoate5848]

Glad to see someone else who remembers this!

[@AL-lh2ht]

wait untill you learn there would be no dnd without capitalism.

[@ihaveproblems9779]

I remember being such a bitch and a half to fight. Made me scared as shit of them.

[@charliehiggins7876]

In the D&D game I run, one of my players is a plasmoid that keeps a human skull in her head. Recently, an intellect devourer tried to eat her brain. But since plasmoids don't have brains, the intellect devourer just teleported itself into the empty human skull instead.

[@archmagemc3561]

Had the same thing happen to mine. Except we ruled until the intellect devourer got out, it was taking acid damage each turn. xD

[@maxthepaladin2147]

For some reason I glossed over the word "plasmoid" and at first I was like "the player keeps a human skull in her head? Don't...we all?"

[@yaboi3210]

​@@maxthepaladin2147 having a human skull is so last eon, all the cool kids have elk skulls now.

[@Beepers559]

I wonder what the plasmoid did to the skull after the devourer teleported into it. It just a bit chuckle some to be imagining a devourer attempt to eat a plasmoid’s brain when… slimes don’t have brains

[@calebsmith4530]

“… Did we just become best friends?” “Yup!”

[@gildedbear5355]

Just give all players a card that says, "you are not secretly an intellect devourer" at the beginning of the game.

[@caveychip7510]

Thats great

[@sephikong8323]

And now imagine they are fighting an Intelect Devourer and just as he is about to hijack them he sees another one already in place and the poor thing just has an error 404 moment

[@velvetdraws3452]

let the paranoia ensue

[@drewforchic9083]

In one of my games, the party's low INT fighter went and got himself Intellect Devoured in the sewers during some solo play. So I had him continue to play, now playing as the intellect devourer puppeting his body around, gathering intelligence for the mind flayer. He played it really well, now playing a smarter evil character under cover as his old one, coming up with cover stories for he wasn't using his good-aligned weapon anymore, and actually optimizing some of his characters gear that he had previously roleplayed his character wasn't smart enough to optimize. The party noticed something was off, but had no clue what, and didn't think too much of it. Eventually, while they were struggling in a fight against a rival party, he texted me and asked if he could use the intellect devourer abilities to abandon ship and jump to the body of an unconscious rival. The dice rolled in his favor and the fighter died, the player switched sides and started playing the rival NPC, now fighting the party mid battle. The rest of the party was so confused, but managed to take him out, and finally squished the Intellect Devourer once it popped out of the dead rival barbarian. Only then did they start to piece together what had happened, as they tried to raise the fighter and failed, since he was still missing his brain. But they soon managed to get Resurrection cast one him and the player returned to his original character, now with better gear and no memories of the last several weeks.

[@caveychip7510]

OMG thats hilarious!

[@who3730]

That sounds awesome

[@NICK....]

Considering the mindflayer's greatest flaw is constantly thinking that they are better than anything they make having the lowest of the low in their society be strongest makes a lot of sense

[@Feu_Ghost]

Imagine the chaos an intellect devourer could cause by eating the Brain and replacing an Illitide, Mindflayer are pretty okay, but intellect devourer are like a godtier concept and i love them

[@marcogenovesi8570]

@@Feu_Ghost aren't illithids always mind-controlling these things

[@Feu_Ghost]

@@marcogenovesi8570 and only human sized humanoid should be able to become Illitide, and there is dragon Illitide. I think that if they Fuck up Bad enough (which they may), it could be able to happen

[@qwormuli77]

@@Feu_Ghost Elder Brain Dragons exist, for example, so large and powerful creatures aren't immune to the illithid.

[@Feu_Ghost]

@@qwormuli77 yes, they exist, they are also EXTREMELY rare in lore and need a very spécial process. Dragon need very special process for the weird transformation human Can Do/be inflicted with (it is also the Case for the Dracolich lichdom). So maybe other kind of illitid Can be make with some more complex technic (there is one for gnome and it has chance to fail horribly) but using the basic method, if it isn't medium sized humanoid, it will most likely die

[@Nate303]

I had a party member become comatose from an intellect devourer without a way to cure him so the party polymorphed him into a horse because the horse had its own intelligence. They rode their comatose friend back to a city where they got him cured.

[@activekiwi1221]

Okay, that‘s great. Sounds like a story you remember for eternity😂

[@sidecharacter7165]

Save the Headband of Intellect just in case going forward would be my plan.

[@tatersalad76]

An Intellect Devourer can, in fact, be a BBEG. And my proof of this is Kenjaku from Jujutsu Kaisen. Dude's a body-hopping brain that is the grand manipulator type of villain

[@cutcutado]

Kenjaku is just the average intellect devourer once they get to be free

[@Broomer52]

@@cutcutado Us really opened a door to possibilities. The moment we realized an Intellect Devourer could go rouge under certain circumstances suddenly people have tons of ideas

[@WittyDroog]

I'll admit, the first time I saw an Devourer in the game I had a panic attack due to my D&D knowledge of them and their abilities, I just thought Larian was NOT messing around out of the gate.

[@casualmarkit9969]

first playthrough, I crushed the one in the skull, as I recognized it irl, my character recognized it by passing the int roll, and they gave me the option to try killing it. I picked the highest chance of success. My Durge later killing the dying mindflayer himself is not likely going to help himself later on either 😂

[@Brainwav]

Same. I was sneaking around the nautiloid for a while until I realized the IDs were docile. And then I crushed Us, assuming it was a trap.

[@Broomer52]

@@Brainwav I feel like their was a storyline with Us Larian never finished. Us looks different in Act 2 with a green tint to its under side. I wonder if it got hurt during the crash and whatever injury it took broke it’s connection. Like a character with amnesia becoming a different person or like a blunt force lobotomy.

[@Amy_the_Lizard]

Me too, but I was doing a "friendship run," so I ultimately opted to help it via medicine check in the hopes I could get it to be my friend and behave itself (plus my character's Intelligence score is 14, so the odds of Devour Intellect taking her down weren't very high...

[@ilik3pi32]

Ring of Mind Shielding also protects from their detection. Such a niche item but I'm a big fan.

[@Bluecho4]

It's always the seemingly insignificant magic items that have so much potential, when the right situation arises. I'm still of the opinion you could do a really sick villain death fake-out, just by giving them a Periapt of Wound Closure and not having the party roll to notice they're dead unless they specifically ask. And then not telling them what the medallion-looking thing they looted off the villain is until they spend a rest examining it. A rest they'll presumably have away from the "corpse" they just left.

[@papierowyszczur9234]

I gave it to a rakshasa NPC in my game. Mostly because it lived in a city filled with paladins, so the divine sense wouldn't work on it.

[@zacharylona]

I came up with Feeblemind and a Headband of Intellect. 🤔

[@samueldacruz989]

4:37 "I'M INCREDIBLY R*CIST NOW!!!" -The little guy walking out 😭😭😭

[@Trivial_Whim]

I actually played that idea once. I was an intellect devourer from the start in a high jacked barbarian body. I was charging every combat, doing reckless actions all over the place, waiting for when I went down and popped out in my true form. I was the only party member that never got KOed in the whole campaign, let alone killed. I think the dm didn’t know how to run the idea and just avoided me having any reason to do it. It was a total waste.

[@ConstantChaos1]

Don't forget lead helmets stop psychic/psyonic powers in game mechanics so you can protect yourself with a (lead lined) foil hat

[@nicolaselizalde3312]

This is perfect

[@sidecharacter7165]

Old edition rules, new rules allow it to cross even most magical barriers.

[@ConstantChaos1]

@@sidecharacter7165 no? Lead still blicks psychic powers divination, and the like lol Also you do know that in 5e lore 3.5 3 2 and A are just matters of the the past right? Since its a lore object and not a defined mechanic but rather a law of physics from the foundations if the realm lol. 5e couldnt be bothered to write descriptions fo you think they would have bothered to include a piece if trivia from everyones 4th-5th favourite casting type/source (arcane, divine, pact, shadow, truename, blade, ritual, and incarnum are all better and easier to use and that's coming from a crunchlord 3.5 main who willingly ends up with a -6 mod for initiative calculatuons (total of -1) for spice level crunchlord. Also its besides thr point but they straight up tried to put an entire system into one class what fucking idiots, they used the 3.5 warlock progression style but with caps this time (a bug i love exploiting in 3.5, metamagic spell like ability feats exsist and metamagic just costs more castings... of unlimited per day invocations. If you think to use the flaw system to pick up a few extra feats you can do 216 damage a round every round after the 5th round of the day, then at your next feat you pick up either quickened or twined (the one you don't have yet) and thats up to 432 by lvl 3 and with persistent that becomes.... 1,036,800/round after a day lol so much fun and clearly i never use that, its my oh shit buttonnuncase the new players are gunna die)

[@dragonheart1236]

6:05 i have a character concept that is literally just this. Bartholomew the Amazing. A mage who accidentally wanders his way into the Underdark and gets his mind munched on by an Intellect Devourer. Bartholomew was originally a wild magic mage, so as he dies, the Weave distorts the process. The ID consumes all of his skills and memories, but believes itself to be Bartholomew, and becomes a(literal) Aberrant Mind Sorcerer.

[@GKplus8]

Love it.

[@LordDragox412]

Behold, BartholoNEW! Now twice the Amazing!

[@rootyful]

That Intellect Devourer is more or less a character idea I had lmao. Just... an Intellect Devourer with a bit of amnesia who only learns later that he is actually a Devourer and oops how do you feel about when your identity is a lie and you're kind of your own murderer.

[@spykeking1989]

So, fun story. I had 4 of these patrolling an entrance hallway in a Christmas themed one-shot I ran a few years ago. I had 6 PCs, one of which was a shockingly intelligent path of the ancients barbarian. One of them got him before the party could kill it and took over his brain. He proceeded to wipe almost the entire party. Such a good brain doggo

[@kylienielsen6975]

Why did you use them it a Chrisman one shot? Why for Chrisman?

[@spykeking1989]

@@kylienielsen6975 because intellect devourers are the gift that keeps on giving.

[@user-se9fb8cr9o]

I love the idea of a massive, bloated and swollen intellect devourer that's consumed many brains and has a vast amount of knowledge, and the party has to deal with it to get information required for a quest or something.

[@DimaJeydar]

One of a few dnd monsters who still retained their “save or die” ability.

[@user-hs1xb9tv6e]

Those things are both dumb looking but absurdly deadly in the same time, and I love them for it.

[@SuperParkourio]

My DM in our first campaign homebrewed an intellect devourer that lost his identity to the victim's memories as you described. When the intellect devourer was revealed and killed, the twist was lost on me because my reaction was "What the hell is an intellect devourer?" Even then, the villain having been replaced by an intellect devourer didn't really change anything because he still had the exact same motives and memories as the villain and was doing exactly the same things the villain would have done.

[@LawfulBased]

I'll never forget the first time when I first entered the room in which _"Us"_ was trapped in, years ago. The subtle and calm voice which could come straight out of a horrormovie creeped me out so much. 😨

[@Reddotzebra]

"We are he-eere!" "We are trapped!"

[@alpacaofthemountain8760]

Years ago?

[@Ewafingmyth]

@@alpacaofthemountain8760 Baldur's Gate 3 came out in early access form in 2020

[@onyxrose4349]

@@alpacaofthemountain8760 Early access

[@nordos]

@@alpacaofthemountain8760 early access, mate

[@dragonicdoom3772]

I very nearly lost my Barbarian to one of these (Poor guy has an Intelligence of 4) and despite getting his brain slurped we had some NPC supporters who were able to pull a Deus Ex Machina for me (It was Waterdeep Dragonheist and we were level 4 so there was no way the party could reverse it on their own). Bit of a cheap save from the DM but it did incur a debt we had to pay a pretty high price for later on (a favour for them and over a dozen barrels of gunpowder).

[@recognizablebrandname]

How did you have an intelligence of 4??

[@lorddukealayeneclipse3317]

​@@recognizablebrandname 4 ones. No grace rolls. Or like 3 once and 1 two.

[@dragonicdoom3772]

@@recognizablebrandname I had insane rolls for my stats. The 4 was the only bad roll, the others were 17, 17, 16, 15, 15. I told the DM if he thought that was too strong or would make the other players feel like I had an unfair advantage I was happy to reroll them but he thought it was hilarious and let me use those stats. After the Lineage ASI he had an 18 Charisma so I play him as a total himbo

[@recognizablebrandname]

@@dragonicdoom3772 so you rolled 3 1s and a 2?

[@recognizablebrandname]

@@lorddukealayeneclipse3317 oh you already pointed that out (it’d have to be 2 ones and a two because you roll 4d6 and remove the lowest number)

[@jasonrobertson9618]

I was THIS close to doing that to my party... The Paladin was off sneaking around alone, one of these fun little guys was hiding in the room with him creeping closer. And then the Pali saw the grin on my face and cast Protection from Evil on himself. Damnit.

[@Nyghtking]

This opens many possibilities, and has almost as drastic the implications as leaving a illithid spawning pool intact. I can imagine the Mind Flayers keeping a tight leash on these things because of the potential they have if let loose.

[@sidecharacter7165]

The Sleep spell, Mind Blast Stun, and Stunning Strike can be brutal with them. That’s when the body swap can happen besides the failed Int save. They also have a +4 stealth when free, but could get a Rogue or Ranger to get much higher and just Psionically attack from unseen places.

[@Danothyus1]

At first i was skeptical of Us in Baldur's gate 3, but decided to help on my main playthrough. I was pretty happy when i found Us later and they joined my party.

[@CatboyRanger]

We were doing a campaign, and while in the sewers, our bard got infected by an intellect devourer. We ended up sidetracked to go find some god sword for a temple and almost all died to save him, should've just let him die

[@EPadraigM]

2:13 One of my favorite jokes in the film I really hope we get a sequal

[@kaelang12]

it's even funnier when you realize that none of the party members are INT-based classes

[@piedpiper1185]

There is one other ability that I know of that can protect from an devourer's detection. Great Old One warlocks get Thought Shield at level 10 which prevents there minds from being read by any ability unless they specifically allow it.

[@Mader-vz1zy]

I want to believe that mindflayers have the same ability, but think they are above it, with their fancy psychic abilities.

[@alexandercross9081]

So, in my settings, I have like a bajillion custom mind flayer variants, but the big takeaway is the normal squidy mind flayers are aquatic in nature, and their intellect devouerers can swim really fast, so they'll go up to the edge of the water or as close as they can while still being out of melee range, use Devour intelect, and swim away. They're super terrifying hit and run combatants.

[@sidecharacter7165]

Underground tunnels 2 or 3 feet deep or the walls. They see the minds and attack from unknown places indefinitely without issue.

[@alexandercross9081]

@sidecharacter7165 Alternatively, just give them a burrow speed, and it doesn't have to be fast, just like 5-10ft.

[@yamato9753]

Honestly, just having a bunch of rogue Intellect Devourers with a Leader who just posessed an Artificer as the BBEGs is an awesome Idea for a Campaign. And Tortles are a Thing in DnD... And the DMG has modern and futuristic Weaponry. Just give 1 of the Guards and Constructs an Anti-Matter Rifle that hides behind 6 Bandits with melee weapons can cause a strategic battle to happen... Or chaos. Usually chaos.

[@aethyr4006]

I mean, a party of 4 Tortle Monk (with different multiclass) against a Rogue teaming up with an Intellect Devourer inside a Construct as the BBEG, with Beastfolk Henchmen. That could work.

[@vincentpapmeder9463]

Dude, I didn't realize that each brain puppy has the potential of being a Kenjaku. What if one makes a flesh golem that has the body parts from all its previous host (or similar enough) and then takes over the Flesh Golem with the memories and now physical/magical potential to do all the abilities it has collected over years of doing it. Thank you I have a new villain now for one of my campaigns. If y'all want to do it or add to it; by all means. Just share please.

[@ChilleBruh]

Doooooooope 😮

[@blakeriley8546]

Especially in a setting with dinosaurs. A trex jaw armed golem with a genius level intellect

[@vincentpapmeder9463]

@@blakeriley8546 oh that's smart!

[@sidecharacter7165]

I believe 5e says humanoid so it can’t be a construct by RAW(Nor Tarrasques unfortunately, no instance-killing them sadly)

[@adamwelch4336]

I could see rouge intellect devours trying to destroy their masters from within their victims! Maybe the mind flayers have to ask their enemies to help!

[@deltarno7502]

So a Intellect devourer, a doppleganger, and a changling, make an adventuring party...

[@camaradearthur3531]

In fact it was a party of only one

[@phalamy9180]

One single Intellect Devourer can literally have every single spell in the game, including wish, quite easily

[@tyrannosaur219]

In a campaign some friends of mine are a part of, one of their number’s body got taken over by an Intellect Devourer over the course of an extended TPK situation, and for a while the B team that was working to bring the first group back was trying to find them, then take them down and remove the parasite puppeteer so they could be resurrected. From what I’ve heard, it was quite an ordeal.

[@Someone_you_may_know69]

Currently arguing with my party over having one as a pet. For context, my previous character was obsessive over having pets; he had a griffon, a horse, and an ox.

[@ryangentry2003]

I’m imagining a Tarrasque sized intellect devourer that’s multiple millennia old. Smarter than any beholder.

[@UndercoverSuperEarthOprative]

Im having balders gate flashbacks rn

[@HallowedKeeper_]

I wonder if I can convince a DM to just let me play an intellect Devourer who stole the body of a Wizard

[@AnnePackrat]

If you read the books left by the “processors” left behind in the moonrise mindflayers colony there is a possible origin for Us. One of them was a necromancer who was doing experiments and one had a favorite tadpoled subject she had stolen who she was forced to send out on a ship after it was discovered. One of the experiments talks about it resisting the tadpole when injected with certain things.

[@ASquared544]

One note I would take when running Intellect Devourers is this: As stated by Austin, DM of Live Play Podcast Rolling With Difficulty featuring Red and Indigo OSP, the fact that they have Dog Legs is stupid, as dogs aren't in the underdark. Give them Spider Legs.

[@FireFlamazo]

I love Us, best part is when they disguise themselves as a kitty lmao

[@quaranteeth]

The hypothetical you went through actually happened to me in dungeon of the mad mage, I was a very weak npc for a little while and got caught by myself. It died in the cloudkill that killed my character and everyone at the table was just like ??? HEY

[@paperwatt]

"Oh my gosh, what a cool idea for an NPC! A friendly Intellect Devourer! No way anyone's-" (I know nothing about Baldur's Gate 3. Well, I *used to* know nothing about the game. "Us" is such a fun idea!)

[@MrChupacabra555]

While I wouldn't give every I.D. Monster (hah 😅) this ability, I could certainly see an 'aberrant' one becoming a BBEG for the group, maybe some Mind Flayers secretly hire the PCs to take it out, as it is becoming a threat to their own Elder Brain.

[@inyrmind]

hoo boy, I put the fear of god(s) into my players when I had them encounter them for the first time. Granted they were accompanied by a few mind flayers, some hijacked hybrid crab creatures, and a mind flayer dragon but these little bastards scarred my players and especially the paladin. It got to bad that the second time they encountered them the paladin instantly stated that the intellect devourers be targeted first and then the mind flayer

[@TheAngmarbucket]

One never forgets their very first intellect devourer horror story. Or their second. 😢 Or third.

[@BokoKnight69]

Now imagine this killing a false hydra the moment it wakes

[@azathoththe3rd]

I decided to run mind flayers for my campaign so this is perfect timing!

[@TheDukeofCheese12]

I now want to play an Aberrant Mind Sorcerer who’s a guy whose body is inhabited by an intellect devourer. He just goes around and is like “hello fellow humans, it is I, another fellow human doing human things.”

[@Josef_Bugman]

he's just a silly lil guy.

[@Itachi45481]

Making notes for my spell-jammer Champaign

[@ramacoppolaro1493]

We'll never know if he saved that seagull from jumping...

[@user-yh6rq8kj3k]

bbeg turns out to be an intellect devourer who just stole some dudes body

[@kingskelett6265]

I love Intellect Devourers, they are like Brain Puppies. Very deadly Brain Puppies that could cause a lot of damage while being perhaps even subtler than their supposed masters and honestly considering everything have probably a much higher efficiency rate than their masters. But Brain Puppies nevertheless. And yes, this was mostly formed by Us from BG3. Love the little guy.

[@guitarhausdoesntknowwhatac3285]

My favorite story involving Intellect devourers was the one time I was able to insert one into the party without anyones realization; I had lured the player away from the others both in character and out of character, he failed his save and then he spent *two months* in game just continuing to be himself until the party was sent to murder a mind flayer, at which time he ~a cleric of light~ revealed himself and proceeded to fireball the rest of the party. The best part was when my one buddy of 30 years asked aloud "wait, is he betraying us?" Also, in the ensuing fracas, the half of the party that had gone on this side mission managed to murder the cleric, but they were so beat to piss that the mindflayer was able to dope smack most of the party into unconsciousness, leaving only the wizard to flee for his life. Not being an asshole and this being late into the module, I ruled that the players who were abandoned got fresh intellect devourers inserted into their noggins... one of which was actually the one that had been inside of the cleric.

[@eedwards2859]

I love it when throwaway jokes in one point in a story leads to a major plot point, so I hope the next dnd movie has mindflayers explain why the intellect devourers spared the HAT party.

[@Theology.101]

I wish that after rescuing Us from Moonrise towers you could take him with you as a little pet. Us, Owlbear (I call him Chik) and Scratch just having a good time with Volo

[@Vrikrar]

I have Us as a little pet, it follows me around and it gave me an item to summon ghem if its ever lost or killed

[@Beepers559]

I’ve never played a D&D campaign, but I loved the stories and lore of the creatures and whatnot, so I love these videos too. Wonder if there will be a video on the phase spiders

[@imperialtrooper927]

Great video! Enjoyed that short scene at the end too!

[@flare8089]

The idea of a player character just being an intellect devourerer that joined an adventuring party is so funny to me

[@Rufus555]

One of my players (in my ongoing WaterDeep campaign) got taken over by one of these in session 1... I had him turn when the Mind flayer attacked the party after they got the gold. The Mind flayer is now the main bad guy.

[@borderlands10]

My fiance calls them "brain puppies" because they're literally brain-shaped dogs, she loves to freak her players out by throwing them at the party but doesn't actually have them try to eat our brains, she instead likes to have them try to talk to the party.

[@tysondennis1016]

Intellect Devourers are the definition of glass cannons. Encounters with them are over in two turns tops, for better or for worse.

[@yvonnewilson2242]

Been working on a campaign with tthe body snatcher concept. This is the semi NPC prologue: An alhoon , a mind brute and an intellect devourer walk into a temple (think Shaolin) and stumble upon 3 monks who are levitating in the "Lotus position, in deep meditation. practically masters (think Pei Mei or Hattori Hanzo of Kill Bill, or the stereotypical master/sensei trope you've seen in every martial arts movie ever---long silver hair, beards and one has the classic "Fu Manchu" mustache). One is master in the Way of the Shadow, the other is a master of The Way of the Astral Self, and the third is a master of the Way of the Long Death. And throughout the temple are the masters of the other monk subclasses. My three hapless illithids have to fight and defeat Every. Single. Master. In that temple. What they DIDN'T know was the fact that they were participating in Mortal Kombat, and their stumbling here was of the monks' very design. I have this set up like The 36th Chambers of Shaolin. Of course our illiithids defeats them all and devours them. But something is wrong. Very wrong. The combination of all the monk masters' brains had such a high level of ki, that the very mindflayers that feasted upon them *became* them. Their memories, abilities and personalities were melded and absorbed in the same way the Elder Brain does when it devours the brains of their illithid thralls. Thousands of years of knowledge and enlightenment. These three *new* masters now have it all. And many seek them for their collective knowledge and wisdom. The monk masters live in *them* now. I'm still working out the kinks like deciding how and why these three find this temple. Maybe the alhoon feeds on ki or they just couldn't resist the detectible mortal brains they sensed in the temple. But I'm going with this.

[@derpbeholder1905]

Thank you for giving me new ideas for my next game. (Insert devilish laughter here). And of course your cat made it difficult because that's their job. Happy late birthday. And seagulls are evil

[@TamTroll]

i've been wanting to play an intellect devouter hiding in a PC party ever since i first heard about them. it never occurred to me that maybe it wasn't aware of it's true nature, that could be neat.

[@iacobuseurus509]

The best use of these buggers was that mind flayers were using them to gather artificers to build nautiloids and escape the Planescape

[@brettonalwood4173]

I was running a game last year where the party watch had a pact to a great old one but didn't know why. The player gave me the freedom to do what I want with with his only other backstory being that he used to be a merchant sailor but after defending off done late attacks their ship was damaged and he tried to Cannibalism to survive. So I revealed to them over the game they they were actually an intellect decorate l devourer whose nails ship was attacks by space orks (the player chose half ork for their race). Which caused the ship to start going down. He ended up going into an orks brain though and the ork so crash landed on the planet catching basin damage making it loose it's memories. It still retained a connection to the elder Brian on the natualoid though. He ended up psychically hearing the distress beacon the ship emitted which caused the party to investigate. They found the ship, helped the mind flayers out and got some sweet laser rifles from it.

[@zacharyhawley1693]

This is one instance where pathfinder completely fleshed them out as an underground enpire of fleshsuits.❤

[@adambartholomew6575]

I have a game set in Eberron, and in Eberron there's a celestial called a radiant idol. Basically it's an angel that's been kicked out of the celestial realm for being so vain as to believe it's worthy of mortal worship. So he's currently in the underbelly of the city of Sharn, building a cult. What makes this relevant is his most loyal follower is a mind flayer who's become entranced by the celestial's power. They've concocted a plot where they're removing the brains from some of their most loyal followers and turning them into Intellect Devourers, who are then targeting high members of society and authority in the city in the hopes of taking over

[@justanaverageferret]

I actually had a character (technically still have, but the campaign kinda went on indefinite hiatus) who is exactly as Runesmith started theory crafting on a rogue intellect devourer. His name is Gary (real name is longer, but it's the only nickname he could remember), and he's a dark elf who was assailed by one of these things, but it became injured before it devoured him and thus was damaged (he has an intelligence of 8) led to believe he hit his head and needs to find his mother. It was also separated from the hive mind and can not communicate with it, and something is very wrong magically. We were going to use the Grim Hollow transformation rules for aberration for him to mutate over time into something different. As far as it thinks, though, it is Gary, a psionic sorcerer who has no idea what a cat is. He was fun to play while I could.

[@Vir0la]

My party got a draegloth companion in our last campaign, we used a item that create a memory to make memory of us being his bests friends in the world.

[@benthomason3307]

And keep in mind that if you play badlur's gate 3 as Wyll, rescue your dad, become his heir, and survive the ending, then the head of Bladur's gate's entire military/law enforcement has one of these things as an extremely loyal pet.

[@Jane_8319]

I had a halfling town that was being taken over by Mind Flayers. I three in an Intellect Devourer guard dog because that’s what the book called them. Foolishly, I trusted the low CR and I didn’t read their abilities over ahead of time. The Ranger died. Immediately. It was terrifying for everyone else. They had to kill him again and flee with the body using a botched teleport. They landed in the ocean and had to swim back with the body to shore while they searched for someone who could resurrect him. They ended up having to get a Night Hag’s soul bag and swipe his soul in the Shadowfell to put it back in his body. Super cool adventure I spun out of my mistake. Shadowfell Depression was also nearly fatal though.

[@ThePigguUwU]

"My cats made recording this video very hard" LMFAO

[@mattherring3196]

LOL, I think that is first compliment of Psionics from 3.5 that I have heard in a Vid.

[@samwhary5498]

I loved Us. They're so cute! And quite a good friend to have in the nautaloid

[@lovelycrimeboy8368]

Omg I just got back from the Seattle Aquarium. You went to the Animal Crossing collaboration! Worth it for the Animal Crossing immersion.

[@freedy191]

I have actually used one of these in my newest campaign at the very beginning going with a stranger things vibe. By the second session it killed one of my players and took over its body and the player has been playing as this devour the whole entire time until the players found a very important item and the elderbrain told him to get the item away from them.

[@tonsu646]

remember, if an Intellect Devourer is next to your downed party member and you dont think you can kill the Intellect Devourer before it can do its thing, you have advantage on the party member, and any hit is a crit thats damage will carry over when the Intellect Devourer takes over.

[@sfvmexe]

Maybe if an intellect deveourer gets powerful enough, it'll consume an Elder Brain (since it's pretty much a giant brain) and take over it's colony. Imagine the surprise of a party when the big ass brain sprouts legs.

[@sfvmexe]

Or, better yet, the vessel of the devourer becomes a lich, with Alhoon minions, and when it's Phylactery is destroyed and the lich body is defeated, the intellect devourer puppeteering it flees, swearing revenge on the party and becoming a bigger problem later on.

[@gaidencastro9706]

Please do the Inevitables

[@clericofchaos1]

I've actually done the thing where one of my players have died and i had a confused brain devourer just fall out of their corpse. It was a huge twist for everyone, including the guy i did it to. He was actually pretty pissed about it but i just thought it was a fun idea.

[@chrisg8989]

Yeah... that's definitely something you should only do with consent...

[@darknico321]

Done this last week, same story but the dude was so cool with the whole "i didnt know it and now how do i react" thing, sometimes you must know your players i guess.

[@clericofchaos1]

@@chrisg8989 but that ruins the surprise. Everything you thought you knew about your character was wrong. His goals, his dreams, even his memories. Your character died in session 0....that isn't much of a twist if you have to tell the player beforehand.

[@chrisg8989]

@clericofchaos1 that's not a twist. That's just being a twat... if the player told you he wanted that to be part of his characters story that's one thing. But you essentially spit on his dead characters body.

[@clericofchaos1]

@@chrisg8989 it was cool though. Besides we brought him back, (death in dnd is really more of a minor inconvenience than a real consequence for failure) he just didn't have any memories of his time between the original death at the beginning of the game and now. Didn't lose any exp or levels, i attributed that all to muscle memory. The only lasting consequence is that it made the rest of the pcs question reality...which is a good thing for roleplay purposes.

[@andragonm8932]

I love how one of these guy’s created the entire plot of JJK.

[@classytree4128]

New campaign villain idea: An intellect devourer that ate a lich while he slept.

[@BleydTorvall]

I love the idea of playing as an Intellect Devourer inhabiting the body of an adventurer. Like, none of your party would even have to know what you actually are, and I'd expect that you'd have the abilities of whatever class the adventurer was. And you'd have the unique ability to know when you're within range of something with a brain which could prove very useful to the party, and if you ever die, you get to just pop out and try to find a new host. Sounds like a great time!

[@donovanboyle5949]

I needed a fun pick me up after seeing what happened to Jocat. Hope you're doing well too Runesmith

[@martinrobert6709]

These are potentially the most powerful psi threats in the game. The old 2nd edition creatures were more intelligent with greater powers , and with little work can become force on the level of the mind flayers. Shame they reduced to mere flunkies.

[@dissed125]

Intellect Devourerers can become forklift certified instantly. Its game over, guys.

[@anthonybernard8819]

It feels like intellect devours were made for AD&D, but were never revised for 5e

[@nariopolus]

I was recent;y in a cmapiagn where I played as basically an intellect devourer; I was an octopus/illithid hybrid but had the features of one. it was very fun

[@orandor6249]

Ahh yes…the monsters that made our Princes of the Apocalypse a living hell and basically trashed us. As a whole - our party was a joke when facing any mind flayer encounter, and I even lost my character during an encounter with a group of mind flayers and intellect devourers. Fun times!

[@nytecrow6452]

I have had an idea for a long time of making an Illithid Drakewarden/Beastmaster Ranger but substituting the Beast/Dragon with an Intellect Devourer. I think it would be a blast...A Mind Blast one could even say...

[@spacesheep69]

"Abomination has no idea it has replaced protagonist so it just goes on to be a hero" is actually a plot point in my favorite book (not giving the title to spoil the twist.)

[@12oshinko]

For real. Intellect Devourers can make a tier 3 party run

[@TheDuelManiacs]

One of my new characters is an intellect devourer, piloting their host body like a meat mecha

[@drive_6665]

6:26 this is some Soma shit right there

[@thembill8246]

I can't see intellect devourers without also seeing the werebutts from Doom Patrol.

[@ladymushroom9485]

I 100% believe that US broke free of mind flayer control because he was shown kindness by the player character during a formulative moment in his life, and that the power of friendship is stronger than mind flayer mental domination.