Your best fight vs. a Mind Flayer

[DrunkonDuty]

Now I never did manage to get psionics to balance back in the day. The system just didn't really go with the rest of AD&D. And I'll admit to not having read the 3rd ed rules (yet!) Nonetheless the good old Illithid is a fine and creepy secret master of the world type bad guy.

So please share your tales of creepy, tentacled ooginess.

I don't really have one of my own, Mind Flayers usually excite a flight rather than a fight response from me.

As always a cookie to the best tale.

 

[Switchblade]

Never fought one in tabletop (except as a Deus Ex, you get mindblasted into a coma, you wake up later…)

Fought something similar in a larp once. A “I can’t believe it’s not a mind flayer” That was a farce. (From my POV)

They can change their appearance, eat spell power (drain the mind) and are psionic. Psionics are almost totally unavailable to players, are rarer than balrogs and are can’t be counter spelled (in this game that makes them pretty grim). They bypass almost any immunity. Successfully infiltrated our faction and got itself assigned to the faction High Ambassador as a bodyguard by a member of our NPC command group. He does a conscientious job. The HA is a member of my group.

The group goes off to perform a magic ritual, just as we a raising the barrier on the ritual circle he crosses over and “accidentally” gets trapped within for the duration. He’s told to stay on the edge and the ritualist ensures he doesn’t go near the guard just in case. If the ritualist is up right they can use near unlimited power in a circle so someone getting in isn’t the threat it’s made out to be. After all, the ritualist can counter any spell and we could hold off anyone long enough for him to do his thang with the power.

Then it kicks off. Our ritualist drops, followed by several others for no visible reason. The ritual is ended, the barrier drops (we hadn’t built up enough power to cause a smoking crater, the ‘flayer timed it just right not to kill himself). Having blown off all his more powerful abilities he then fears the rest of us. People start running away from him. I am immune to fear. He has just announced his presence with the direction of screaming characters. I grin, draw my sword, and attack.

That was the theory.

I grin, get my bastard sword tangled in my cloak, catches in my scabbard and generally turn the easy trick of drawing my sword into an epic saga of incompetence.

My foe fortunately has an attack of stupidity. That sword in his hand, does he stick me with it or does he cast ANOTHER fear spell at me? It didn’t work the first time, maybe the second will work. (This is a rather binary system, either you take it or are immune, i.e. it works the first time or not at all).

I ignore the Fear and continue to fumble with the oversized excuse for a sword.

In complete bafflement that I dare be immune to such effects the ‘flayer tries it a THIRD time. Once more it fails.

I triumphantly draw my sword to attack….

to see the ‘flayer killed by two of my companions who recovered from the sleep/fear affects unnoticed while the ‘flayer was facing me.

I put my sword away and try to act like my “distraction” was an intentional ploy.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Best fight with a Mindflayer (and small backstory leading up to it):

The party had hired a powerful Psion a long time ago and continually delayed paying the guy time and time again. He kept tagging along and waiting for payment. Eventually one day, he started asking for money for every power he cast. When the party demanded to know why, he pointed out how much they had been stiffing him. In contrition, they agreed to travel to the old illithid city that the Psion and his comrade had destroyed long ago when the Psion escaped (his comrade did not). After wiping out the illithids and with his comrade dead, this guy was the world's only remaining Psion.

So the party descended to the former Illithid stronghold, which was having serious redecorating problems thanks to the incursion of random rifts to the Far Realms. After a series of fights with Pseudonatural Creatures and near-deaths due to random rifts opening up, the group faced their final encounter--

Within the ruined central cortex of the illithid city was a Pseudonatural Undead Illithid Hivemind, a Pseudonatural Alhoon, and the Pseudonatural Revenant of the Psion's former comrade. The battle was fought twofold, on both the physical and the mental realm, and the Psion brought the Wizard with him into a Mindscape to defeat the psionic power that trapped and threatened to destroy the Barbarian (their strongest party member and the most likely to be able to kill these things). Far Realms ichor flew, blades sang, and psychic powers battled for control, placing defenses and shattering them.

After all was said and done, all three opponents lay slain, and the Wizard used a carefully-worded Wish to restore the Psion's former comrade. This made the Psion happy, not the least of which because he was a hideously deformed freak, and the restored comrade was the only woman who had ever loved him. True love was found, and the party looted the illithids for an insanely large treasure, including certain items so expensive that the only buyer they could find was the evil empire they were fighting (so desperate were they for cash that they sold to the evil empire anyway--I'm not sure I understand them completely).

 

[Pinotage]

If I remember to come back to this thread, I'll tell you how my one and only battle against a mind flayer in 3.5e went. We're currently tracking one down in Age of Worms (Hall of Harsh Reflections) and we've not far to go now.

We did have a brief skirmish with the same one earlier. Stunned half the party with its mind blast, but a timely maximised fireball and a stinking cloud spell from our mage managed to keep it away until it fled. Now it's time for payback. Or stunback, whichever you prefer!

Pinotage

 

[shilsen]

If I remember to come back to this thread, I'll tell you how my one and only battle against a mind flayer in 3.5e went. We're currently tracking one down in Age of Worms (Hall of Harsh Reflections) and we've not far to go now.

We did have a brief skirmish with the same one earlier. Stunned half the party with its mind blast, but a timely maximised fireball and a stinking cloud spell from our mage managed to keep it away until it fled. Now it's time for payback. Or stunback, whichever you prefer!

Pinotage

Not to worry. This time the mind flayer's toast. Or so say I. Dunwar (my aforementioned wizar) isn't as sure.

As for best mind flayer fight, the PCs in my Eberron game had a memorable one, which involved a lot more than a mindflayer. They were fighting to rescue the party alienist, who had been captured by the mind flayer leader of a segment of an ancient city now overrun by aberrations. The PCs snuck into the place and found the now-dominated alienist about to perform a vile ceremony for the mind flayer on the top of a giant ziggurat, with scores of watching aberrations. The PCs promptly attacked.

After a few seconds of a horribly chaotic battle, made even more so by the appearance of a swarm of mini-beholders (think of a mobile antimagic field), the mind flayer latched onto the orc druid berserker, who's dedicated to fighting aberrations, just as they'd been enveloped by the beholder swarm. With none of his magic working, the berserker flew into a fury and threw himself off the top of the ziggurat, holding onto the mind flayer.

As the other PCs watched in horror, the two of them bounced and rolled down the ziggurat's sides, the mind flayer boring deeper and deeper into the druid's skull and the druid trying to batter it against the stone as they fell. Finally, the two entwined enemies hit bottom with a sickening thump.

For a moment, the orc thinks he's succeeded, but then the bloodied and beaten mind flayer stirs and digs its tentacles into his brain. The druid collapses and the illithid lurches upright, about to mind blast the PCs. But one of the adventurers has already been casting, and as it straightens, a pseudonatural bison appears on either side of it. And then smash together. Scratch one mind flayer.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

Pinotage: Good hunting.

Thanks for the tales there guys. They made me grin. I hope they made other folks grin too.

any more battles to the death with Mindflayers out there?

 

[sckeener]

My best fight against one was in Expedition to the barrier peaks...

 

[Donovan Morningfire]

Only fought a mind flayer three times in my years of playing D&D, and none of them have been "best"-type encounters, because in a lot of cases it's an either/or type of fight (at least from what I've seen).

Either you get the drop on them and wipe the floor with their slimy behinds in the opening round, or they mind blast and the heavy-hitters are out of the fight.

Maybe the GM (three different ones) were just being bastards on those occasions. Granted the opening round "drop 'em fast" was my Warblade and another player's Rogue setting up a combo of flanking Sneak Attack and Bonecrusher + Punishing Stance, which I doubt is typical. Yeah we kicked its butt in short order, but that was half the problem.

Then again, maybe with how they're being changed in 4e, I might one day have a "best fight" story against a Mind Flayer.

 

[Voadam]

We're in the banewarrens and allied with a group of church paladins.


SPOILERS BELOW

There is a portal into the otherwise sealed underground warrens that the paladins are guarding. Multiple bad guy groups want in bad to loot the powerful evil stuff held within. One of the paladins was killed by an invisible bad guy assault squad including a mindflayer, an ogre mage, and a bunch of nasty brute monsters including flyers. He got mind blasted then had his brain ripped out while on guard duty. They couldn't open the portal and retreated after being frustrated at not getting in before the next paladin came down for shifting of the guards. We expect them back. The church sets up a full paladin team (many multiclassed) to guard the portal but are worried about the powerful assault team they expect to return and ask me and the PC paladin to help.

Evaluating the team and the expected opposition I concur with their assessment that even with me and the other PCs help we are heavily outclassed and would probably all die in a straight up fight with the assault squad.

The PC paladin and I agree to help them out. The paladins grimly feel they will die fighting here and are resigned to their duty hoping to take out some bad guys before they all go down.

I have a plan though.

My ranger1/monk1/wizard/harper mage has just turned 8th level as a spellcaster so I choose illusory wall as one of my new 2 spells.

This is an underground dungeon with the portal as a choke point. We roughly know they will be coming down through the dungeon and plan to wipe out any guards at the portal on their return effort. We expect them to come in relatively soon but don't know exactly when.

I have the NPC paladin sorcerer set up alarm spells a specific distance out that will give us a couple rounds to prepare and buff after he senses them.

I have the 1 NPC cleric prepare invisibility purge.

I cast illusory wall about two feet out from a corridor end near the portal so that the illusion merges with the real side walls and looks normal at a cursory glance. The fact that the wall there is now two feet closer would not be immediately obvious.

I explain the nature of the illusion, have everybody interact with it until they can see it as an illusion and see through it.

We wait.

When the alarm goes off we move into position behind the wall, buff spells being cast (I activate my winged boots and cast thunderlance, the cleric casts bless and bull's strength, the sorcerer shield, etc.) The paladins activate detect evil and await with weapons drawn. When the detections are triggered the cleric casts his invisibility purge revealing the enemy and we unleash our assault, I unload with a lightning bolt, the sorcerer does a truestrike with a reach polearm using power attack and smite, and the paladins all charge to smite focusing on the mindflayer and the ogre mage. We catch them by surprise and put the smack down hard.

The mind flayer died on the surprise round. The ogre mage didn't last to his turn on the initiative in the first full round. Then we had a brawl with the not so magical brute minions. Nobody died on our side.

It was the most satisfying ambush I've ever participated in.

 

[amethal]

Only had one encounter with a mind flayer so far in 3rd edition, and it was set up for the sole purpose of "introducing" a new githzerai PC to the rest of the party.

[Party meets a githzerai and a githyanki locked in combat, mind flayer happens along at same time, PCs watch in amazement as the two gith break off their fight to jointly attack mind flayer, PCs hopefully join in, githyanki dies in battle and githzerai joins party.]

What made it memorable was the novice player in the group. On meeting the mind flayer he obviously didn't have a clue what it was, so we told him it was a dreaded mind flayer.

Then it hit him with its psionic charm, and he thought it was hilarious to attack the party member he liked least (in character - they are great friends out of character) on behalf of "My friend, the mind flayer(!)"

It's become one of my favourite D&D quotes.