Mind Flayer Behaviors

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The illithids live in flesh and see flesh only as tools for their will. They shape minds with their thoughts. They do not know themselves, and they know how to make others not know themselves either. They are not tool users, they are slave users. They did not know what metal was, nor what it could be used for. They are great in knowledge, but blind to those things they think they control.

- paraphrased from the Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon

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Behaviors of the Mind Flayer:

The flayers walk oddly. With their levitate ability, they are only slightly more inclined to walk along the tunnel floor than they are to crawl along the ceiling.

They don't use their hands right; they don't open doors, pick things up, etc.

If they do pick something up, they tend to keep holding it. This means they tend to posses only one wand, Staff, whatever. Once they have a wand or staff in their hand, they use it with great skill. They don't skimp on the charges, and can use it as part of a standard action where they also attack or perform some other action. This use of the wand/staff/whatever draws attacks of opportunity. If dealt damage, the use of the item automatically fails, but still consumes the charges. A flayer can't use a magic item in this way during an action it uses to cast a spell or use a power, including its natural powers. A flayer does not conserve charges; it uses the item whenever it has the opportunity. If it drains the item, it tends to drop it and then obtain a new one over the course of the next few weeks. A flayer may also drop an item that it finds to be useless. It will almost certainly drops an item that harms it.

Flayer-made magic items tend to go in odd body slots or in no body slot at all (under the skin, for example). Most flayer items are unusable by other creature types. These items can be converted to be useable by other races by mounting them on another type of item, which goes in the appropriate body slot. This process costs XP and Gold as if the maker was creating an item of half the value. Most flayer made items are also cursed in such a way that they make the user more vulnerable to flayer-type attacks and abilities. These curses do not affect flayers.

Flayers are usually accompanied by at least one slave, who does those things the flayers find difficult, like opening doors, carrying things, etc. This slave may be of negligible CR compared to the flayer (first level commoner or some such). The slaves are the ones who find a new wand/staff/whatever once the flayer drops one. They are not able and do not try to persuade a flayer to switch items while it is still holding the previous one.

Flayer telepathy is an extraordinary ability. That's right, it functions in an antimagic or antipsionic field. Flayer telepathy is received by the subjects much as if they themselves had thought whatever the flayer sent. So if a flayer communicates "run away or I will kill you die" the recipient thinks "I need to run away of that thing will kill me." Flayer telepathy has the same effect as a suggestion spell with a save DC equal to the flayer's Cha bonus (so a flayer with 18 Cha will have a natural suggestion save DC of 4). Flayers do not normally try to be especially reasonable in their speech, so the recipients often don't even need to roll the save. Note that this too is an extraordinary ability.

As part of the above, flayers do not vocalize and seldom communicate directly with any creature. Also, flayers do not seem to communicate with other flayers. This is not to say they don't cooperate, they just don't seem to need to talk about it. When cooperating, flayers display a high degree of coordination. This appears to be instinctive in nature; any flayer seems capable of anticipating the actions of any other flayer, as long as they are in telepathy range.

Flayers occasionally kill each other. The victorious flayer is typically certain to be the victor before any actual battle begins; such is the position of strength they have maneuvered to, etc.

Flayers can concentrate on getting people to follow their dictums; this is the flayer's suggestion psionic ability. This use of telepathy is a standard action and is supernatural in nature.

Flayers are highly intelligent. They set traps, manipulate cults of common creatures, create powerful items, and breed strange and twisted mutants. They enslave other creatures and keep a retinue around them to do the things that they can't do. A high CR flayer, for example, likely has several slaves around it who can use wands and scrolls normally. 

Weak slaves are kept in line through suggestions and intimidation. Strong slaves are typically enslaved through domination crowns, the void mind process (MMIII), or some even less savory procedure. As the Gith uprising showed, flayers are slow to reassess the power level of their slaves. Slaves who were once weak but who gained in strength over the course of their enslavement have a decent chance of surprising the flayer, as long as a fellow slave does not betray them.

In combat, flayers are clever and resourceful. They almost never make tactical error, and if they do make one, it is fairly minor. A flayer does not pass up an opportunity to wipe out its opponents, and will take steps to separate its enemies so they can be taken down one or two at a time. If a flayer takes prisoners, it should take steps to control them appropriate to their power level, as noted above. When controlling flayers, DMs should play for blood (i.e., the DM should not let up on the party if the battle begins to go against them). 

Flayers do not throw their lives away. If a fight begins to go against a flayer, that flayer should retreat. A flayer typically has several escape plans. 

As part of the above, the DM should make sure that the Players have ample ability to modify the circumstances surrounding the flayer battle, by covering escape routs, finding a way to secure themselves an escape rout, etc. DMs should try to keep the end of the scenario as open as possible.

This article introduces the following:

• Flayers can use a single wand/staff/similar item as part of any standard action that is not used to cast a spell or manifest a power, including natural powers like mind blast. This item use provokes attacks of opportunity from foes. If an AoO does damage to the flayer, that use of the item is negated, but item charges are spent as normal.

• Flayer telepathy is Extrodinary in nature, and thus not affected by effects like antimagic field and antipsionic field. Flayers do not vocalize. Normal flayer telepathy has an extreamly weak suggestion effect.

• Flayer-made items are unusual, often cursed, and must be modified before they can be used by one of the common races.

Domination crown: 

Casts dominate person on the wearer. 

The creature who placed the crown on the head of the subject is treated as the caster for the purpses of controling the subject. The save DC is 17 (10 + 5(spl lvl) + 2(minimum 15 ability to cast). The crown can cast dominate person up to 2 times per day, should the subject somehow escape control. If the crown is removed from the subject's head, the dominate effect is broken. The crown must re-cast the spell once every nine days to maintain control over the subject. These castings count toward the dayly limit of 2. Even if the subject throws off the dominate effect, the crown remains afixed to the subjects head, and can try again the next day.

Only the controler can remove the crown normally. A remove curse spell will cause the crown to come off, and also breaks any currently active domination effect. If the subject passes two consecutive saves when the crown is first placed on their head, the crown never establishes a hold.

Price: 54000 gp

Spells required: Dominate Person, Bestow Curse