Interest in Starting or Ressurecting a Freeform Game?

Because, like you said, psionic energy is a product of the mind, body, and spirit. A sword has none of these. It's perfectly reasonable for a psion to be able to use their mind, body, and spirit to imbue an item with power, but when their mind, body, or spirit are absent, you really have to wonder where the power is coming from. Creation is different because there is no continual psionic effect. There's just a single expenditure of energy and then the object is there for good.

'weishan' wrote:

Heh. We should start a thread. I'd just like to bump the converstion back on track a bit to what it's suppoused to be about. Brainnnsssss!

How do you want us to get ready to start? Send you a character background/charsheet, something like that? And will we start in one place/be meeting with a shared NPC contact?

I so wish I had a copy of Unveiled Masters right now. For the prestige classes, to be specific.

I'm vaguely looking at ranger levels right now (though I may change my mind later). I'm looking at Horizon Walker as well, but that PrC is generally regarded as underpowered. (I'm thinking of something ranger-like, probably someone who has acted as physical muscle/guide for other flayers on extended journeys, and someone who has traveled much more extensively than a typical flayer.)

It's pretty clear that the idea for the ranger class was designed around non-Underdark-dwelling humanoids. I'm looking at two aspects of the class specifically -- ranger spells and animal companions. I'm thinking very, very few flayers outside the Venerator Creed would cast divine spells, and virtually none would cast nature-based magic. (Maybe replace that with limited psionic-warrior powers?) And I have trouble seeing a flayer with a dog/wolf/shark/baby seal animal companion. Unless thralls count as animal companions.

I'm not sure what Ilsensine thinks about resurrecting Maanzecorian. Hmm.

He doesn't have to know about it. Alternatively, just because you're working with people things who are trying to resurrect good old Manzy doesn't mean you can't have you own agenda. We'd hardly be a group of Illithids without some duplicity, after all.

I'd suggest staying clear of the weirder Prestige classes. Some of them, like Illithid Savant, simply were not intended for player consumption.

If ranger isn't your thing, you could always be a barbarian. They get some skill points. Plus, an Illithid barbarian would be hilarious.

There's actually a Dread Pirate prestige class, though I don't have the book for it.

Sent you a PM, Wei. Let me know if you like the character concept, and I can get cracking on a character sheet.

Sorry for the extended absence. Ill send the Character concept sometime latter tonight and ill bang out a character sheet tomorrow.

You know, I could post my character concept here too, since the PCs either know each other or at least have heard of each other...

Sometimes the character concept is simply very long.

Rassthilian, illithid of the Tamer Creed

First, the world of Gyrus:

Gyrus is listed as illithid-dominated on the majority of star charts, at least to those spelljamming nations that know of its existence. While the mind flayers are in fact the single most poweful political entity on that planet, their control is hardly absolute, for pockets of resistance and totally wild places are still easy to find.
The very oldest Elder Brains of this world claim to be able to remember the last days of the lost illithid empire, whether this claim is actually true or not. Starfaring lesser races believe that the mind flayers of Gyrus were able to preserve at least some of the technology of the ancient Penumbral Empire, and it is observably true that their level of (psionically imbued) technology is higher than that of many illithid nations.
While powerful, the illithids of Gyrus face multiple threats to their dominance: sentient oozes and slimes within the Underdark, humanoid resistance fighters, hordes of undead, the gith races, and even the Far Realms.

First, some of Gyrus’ native species include sentient underground oozes and slimes, many of whom show respect to Ghaunadaur or other elder, insane deities. Second, a mostly-human surface nation, eventually (mostly) conquered by the mind flayers, willingly embraced undeath as a major weapon of war, and large numbers of undead from that war (both free-willed and non-), in addition to some constructs, menace both the Underdark and the surface. Third are the gith races. The many, many wars of the githyanki have prevented them from throwing the kind of military force at Gyrus of which they are technically capable, but they have launched major military assaults in the past. The githzerai and gith pirates have also made trouble, but not to the same extent. On a smaller scale, Gyrus is also a popular destination for the most daring and reckless of githyanki hunting parties and githzerai rrakkma bands. Fourth, the remnants of various human, demihuman, and humanoid races occasionally form vicious guerilla bands to resist illithid occupation. Finally, the very lowest reaches of the world’s Underdark contain certain planar rifts and unstable, shifting portals to particularly far-flung areas of the planes, space, and time. (These are often called 'paradox gates' by local scholars.) Once in a while, something really weird comes through the portals, and there have been a few Far Realm incursions in the world’s history. Some of the Elder Brains claim that some of the illithids of the Penumbral Empire were able to get one of these portals stable for a while, thus bringing the original population of mind flayers to this world.

The sun of this planetary system is small, red, and distant, and the atmosphere of Gyrus includes a significant amount of unbroken cloud cover. This means that the sunlight conditions of the surface, while unpleasant, are not immediately deadly for mind flayers. Even so, few mind flayers actually live on the surface full-time, for various reasons. First, the surface has a large concentration of wild, unconquered areas, including entire legions of undead, savage illithid-hating humanoids, native surface monsters, and other threats. Second, while it’s not outright deadly, excessive long-term exposure to the sunlight of Gyrus can still cause skin cancers, eye problems, and other very unpleasant health conditions for mind flayers. While brain raiding is very common – indeed, large stretches of the surface are essentially ‘wild game preserves’ for them – only small populations of mind flayers inhabit the surface for long, usually for scientific or military purposes.

The mind flayers of Gyrus are an active spelljamming nation (though their region of wildspace is on the remote side, as such things go). To a lesser extent, they also have maintained an interest in and presence on the Planes.

Now, Rassthilian himself:

In the conditions under which the illithids of Gyrus live – with the undead and other creatures that can’t be readily mind-blasted and devoured, along with the gith races, as significant threats -- the Tamer Creed has flourished. It was within the briny pool of the Elder Brain Vorax – an ancient mind even by the standards of this world – that Rassthilian grew as an illithid tadpole. When he reached maturity, he was inserted into the brain of a suitable host creature. Those who oversaw his ceremorphosis soon noted that he was already becoming larger and more muscular than an average mind flayer, but still, from a medical point of view, within the usual ceremorphosis tolerances.

As a young flayer, Rassthilian quickly discovered that while his psionic capabilities were merely average, he was unusually suited for physical combat. This might have embarrassed another illithid, but Rass was quickly taken up by the Tamer Creed and found himself happy in this role. Two things about himself were very apparent to him early on– he liked to fight, and he liked to travel.

The Elder Brain Vorax and older illithids had no trouble coming up with things for him to do. Rassthilian acted as bodyguard and escort for the various groups of illithids traveling through communities (Gatherer Creed flayers, Possessor Creed traders, Creative Creed researchers, and many others). He participated in numerous brain raids and ‘population management’ activities in the game reserves of the surface. He fought against the roaming undead and gith hunting bands of both major types, as well as some Underdark-specific menaces. On the surface, he battled the declining remants of humanoid civilizations. Life was good.

As an unintended side effect of these actions, Rassthilian became a rather wealthy illithid. He sold some of his trophies, and kept others. He picked up some interesting thralls, and sold some of those. He located some sources of unusually tasty brains – a hard to find resource on a relatively pacified world like Gyrus – and made a side business for himself. He would bring in exceptional thrall brains (still in the package, as it were) to sell to professional performance eaters, and accumulated a good deal of wealth in the process.

Things were looking bright for Rassthilian when his life abruptly, and unexpectedly, worsened. He joined an expedition, which included a close associate of his in the Creative Creed, to explore the most remote depths of the Lowerdark. In the course of various adventures, they discovered what appeared to be some interesting historical relics. The one of most interest to Rassthilian was a sword, clearly of illithid design, covered in some of the most elaborate psionic circuitry he’d ever seen. His Creative Creed friend speculated that while the level of psi-technology involved in the design suggested imperial times, the Penumbral illithids strongly disdained such physical weaponry for themselves. Perhaps it might have been created by one of the early generations of illithid colonists on this world? Or even by an illithid of some later period, who ended up here?

In any event, as the member of the inquisition most skilled in physical combat, Rass was quick to claim the sword for himself. He soon discovered both advantages and downsides…

First, the advantages. In a fight, it seemed powerful enough, as psionically enhanced weapons go, quick, balanced, and hard-hitting. With some testing, he learned that he could use it to extinguish most commonly-encountered light sources (campfires, magical gems, and such), even from a long distance. Once in a while, if he hit something with it particularly hard, it would literally render the opponent insane (and lend its brain a most interesting taste!).

That led to the disadvantages…

After he killed his first opponent, some nameless crawling thing in the Lowerdark, with the weapon, he discovered that the blade was sentient. Not terribly smart, but definitely sentient. It didn’t talk in words, but seemed able to communicate empathically. And its emotions were utterly bizarre, even by illithid standards, seemingly without referent in many cases. When its emotions were comprehensible, they seemed gleefully destructive.

Eating the first brain the weapon had rendered insane… that turned out not to be such a good idea. Rassthilian had… dreams. Increasingly, he began to hear the blade’s insane, incoherent whispering in his mind, both awake and asleep. He became increasingly uncomfortable being parted from the weapon for any length of time. The tenor of his conscious thoughts was beginning to change… His inquisition-mates began to remark on the changes in him.

Eventually, when they returned to the community of Vorax, the Elder Brain promptly requested his presence. Much to Rass’s dismay, after thorough probing and testing, Vorax gently but firmly expelled him from the community. It believed that the weapon contained some form of imprisoned Far Realm entity – though at least it was a weak, minor one; noisy, but not especially clever or powerful. It concluded that the weapon had psionically bonded with Rassthilian to the point that psychic chirurgery seriously risked either killing the illithid outright or driving him permanently insane. The entity had relatively little strength of will, so there was almost no chance of the weapon ever taking direct control of him, but it was still able to subtly taint his emotions and thought-patterns.

Vorax was able to tell him that it believed the sword had a clear connection of some kind to Maanzecorian. Whether this was an actual avatar of Maanzecorian, a proxy of the god, a priest, or simply a very famous and devoted follower of Maanzecorian depended on which story or rumor one chose to examine. The god was definitely involved in its forging in some way. If Rassthilian was to have much hope of being successfully parted from the weapon, he would do well to look in that direction.

Small problem, of course… the god in question was dead.

After exhausting the leads he could track down on Gyrus, Rassthilian has taken to the planes in hope of reversing his condition. If he has to resurrect Maanzecorian from the dead himself to do it, that’s fine!

What Rass himself does not yet realize is that the experience of exile itself is changing him, in addition to whatever the entity in the sword is doing to his mind. Even if he achieved his goal, he might no longer be happy to resume his old life. He is very concerned with what will happen to his mind/brain after death, which is becoming another motivation for resurrecting Maanzecorian: Should he be successful, he may simply offer his afterlife to the god. His more recent experiences in non-illithid-controlled areas is changing his perspective on the thrall races, as well. He still considers them inferior and a tasty food source (naturally), but he is beginning to think they’re more interesting and capable than he would otherwise have believed, an opinion which happens to mesh well with Maanzecorian’s on the subject.

It should be noted that Rassthilian still maintains contact with the illithids of Vorax. While he is no longer permitted inside the community, he is still welcome to associate with its members if he and they so choose. The Elder Brain made it clear that he is not exiled ‘with prejudice.’

Skills: Melee combat, combined melee/tentacle attacks, getting around in wilderness environments (especially underdark), stalking (hide/move silently), tracking, geography. He is able to act in a crew capacity on a spelljamming vessel and understands the basics of wildspace travel. He knows his way around a bow/crossbow, but is not an archery expert, preferring to either slice opponents in half or forcibly extract their brains. When he wants to be, he can be extremely intimidating, even by mind flayer standards, especially to the ‘thrall races.’ He has a minor knowledge of illithid history, especially as it relates to Gyrus or the period of the illithid empire, but it wouldn’t compare to a scholar’s understanding of the subject. He has the rudimentary understanding of psicraft that any illithid from Gyrus would have.

Flaws: Yeah, he’s psionically bonded to some kind of gibbering, insane elder thing. That can’t be good. He’s fairly unsubtle for an illithid – has a decent Sense Motive, but not so hot on bluffing or diplomacy. Especially not diplomacy. He can be surly, blunt, ill-tempered, cynical, and scathingly sarcastic. For a mind flayer he is pretty honest and straightforward.

The sword (which he has somewhat unimaginatively named 'Darkener'): On a critical hit, the being struck must make a medium-high Will save or be rendered insane (probably as per the confusion spell in combat terms). Permanent unless fixed by remove curse, psychic surgery, etc. etc. (i.e. most mid-to high-level spells/abilities of the appropriate type can fix it). The user may, at will, extinguish any single nonmagical/nonpsionic light source, from a candle to a large campfire (but no larger, i.e., not a blazing building), within 200 feet. Up to four times per day, the wielder can use the power to extinguish any magical or psionic light source (gems of brightness, continual light globes, various spells and effects that replicate bright light/daylight) within 200 feet. If the effect was temporary (such as a spell), it is dispelled. If the effect was permanent (gem of brightness/continual light globe), its abilities to generate light are suppressed for 24 hours. In both cases, the sword must be drawn and pointed at the light source, and line of effect between the sword and light source is required. Obviously it doesn’t work on celestial bodies, artifacts, etc. Becoming bonded to the weapon, as Rassthilian is, can only occur if one is first wielding the weapon, then devours the brain of a being that the sword has rendered insane. (Non-wielders eating such brains merely report very interesting, bizarre, and contradictory ‘tastes.’)

I was actually hoping for something involving an actual bow, for the concept of an illithid drawing and placing arrows with tentacles while pulling the string taut and letting fly with hands - sort of something fluid and synchronous for a cool visual depiction.

Perhaps I should just settle on something, lest we delay game start because of me.

I think I'll just go straight rogue with this one and focus on archery feats.

Don't want to prolong game start unnecessarily.

The thrall prod and your character looks awesome by the way, Zim.

Made a couple of edits to the thrall prod entry.

Sweet Vecna! I totally forgot about this thread. I'll get you a sheet tomorrow.

The Illithiad.

5 dollah.

Ah crap, I did it again. Sorry, this was the last week before finals, and I've been too busy to sleep (although that's really no excuse as I've posted in my own game).

OK, it's 2 AM where I am, but I'mma try to give you something to assuage your fears. The full stat block will have to wait til morning.

"Bloody" Xlizman Threetentacles
Class: [Illithid base] + Bard 5 + Marshal 2
Alignment: Neutral Evil

[Insert Abilities, AC, BAB, etc.]

[Standard Illithid racial abilities + lots of Illithid psionic abilities]

Skills:
* Able to command or man the helm of any psionically powered small or medium sized Spelljammer. Can serve as a crewman and navigator on most other spelljammers and airship. Gets horribly seasick on real boats and doesn't understand how sails work (he's good with ropes, he just doesn't get how you can fly in air and water).

* Is a competent navigator on land as well as in space.

* Knows how to scare the bepelor out of (Intimidate) people, especially humanoids.

* Can play the Bone Thriven, the rarely seen Illithid jaw harp, the harmonica (with no hands), and the accordion (although he doesn't like to admit the last one). He is also capable of thought-singing some of the bawdiest tunes to ever be telepathically broadcast between two beings.

* Knows a lot about piracy, spelljamming, and how to run a tight ship (which is especially difficult when you have a crew that is totally dependent on fresh brains).

* Knows the basics of gunpowder weaponry (although they usually prefer Mindblasts).

* Speaks space elven, space dwarven, space draconic, and space orcish, although not necessarily the languages of their non-space cousins. He also speaks space planar trade, which is exactly like regular planar trade but with weird jammer/pirate slang instead of Cant.

Equipment:
Full Plate,
Longsword/Cutlass,
A Firearm (I have to check the DMG)
A Psionically enhanced prosthetic tentacle that is powered by his self-control (which is why he has so little for himself),
A Portable Hole containing enough gunpowder and ammunition to stock an armory (or at least blow one up).

OK, that's all I have time for tonight, full bio and stat blocks are forthcoming.

Alrighty, here's his bio. Stat block coming soon.

History:
"Bloody" Xilzman Threetentacles was born implanted into someone's brain decades ago on some backwater prime. He doesn't remember where, because when he was three weeks old his clan taught him how to swab decks and stuck him on a spelljammer to go brain hunting among the stars. He's been a pirate ever since.

Over the next few decades he served on six different vessel and all his original mates died. That didn't matter though, because by that point they'd gathered plenty of new fleshbags to implant new mates into. Around that time, Xilzman and his mates raided a port belonging to the Giff* and were able to commandeer their very own nautiloid (as well as getting plenty of thralls to stock the larder). Captain Threetentacles (so named because he lost a tentacle to the space orcs** and had to get it replaced with a special Psychomechanical contraption) then began a reign of terror over the space elf shipping lanes that lasted for over a decade. Eventually, a whole fleet of hunter-killer jammers trapped then in a remarkably crowded asteroid field somewhere in Grayspace and, after a bloody fight, slaughtered all his mates. Xilzman managed to Planeshift to safety, but he had to abandon his ship and all its loot to those damn tree lovers.

Trapped on the planes without a ship, a crew, or even a colony to call home, Bloody Xilzman has had been reduced to little more than a mercenary working for various planar factions and Factions in the hopes of one day regaining his lost fame and fortune and seeking revenge on the space elves. He is a natural leader of men tentacled horrors and longs to work among his own kind again. Unfortunately, most shun him as a failure and disgrace and refuse to have dealings with him. That is why he has now joined up with others as fringe as he is on the quest to raise Maanzecorian. That and he always had a soft spot for the old bastard.

*Hippo guys with guns. Don't ask.

**Actual Spelljammer names have been ignored because putting "space" in front of things is funnier.

Can we have a thrall or two, Wei? And do we get any kind of residences?

Hey all, I've been absent for a long time due to travelling and sickness, but now I'm somewhat back.

However, I've decided to back out of this game - I simply don't think I can manage another one.

Your concepts look awesome, though, and I hope you have fun.