MIND FLAYER
This week we check out the well-recognised Mind Flayer for the monster of the week! The Mind Flayer is a very unique-looking creature for DND 5E and we’ve used them for many surprising encounters. The creature has a strong array of psionic abilities it can use which can be very handy for those Totem Warrior of the Bear Barbarians you may have in your campaigns! Here is the stat block for it.
Its combination of spellcasting, tentacle attacks, and mind-controlling features make it a challenging opponent for players – offering Dungeon Masters the ability to have them adapted into a whole range of scenarios. Dungeon Masters can use the Mind Flayer to create memorable and suspenseful encounters, especially when leveraging its thematic features like brain extraction and stunning Mind Blast. However, its vulnerabilities in terms of hit points, armor class, and limited use of certain abilities should be considered for a balanced and engaging confrontation.
HIghlights of the Mind Flayer
Innate Spellcasting (Psionics): The Mind Flayer’s innate spellcasting ability is a significant asset, enhancing its versatility in combat and manipulation. Spells like “detect thoughts” and “levitate” provide strategic advantages, while the powerful “dominate monster” and “plane shift” showcase their command over both minds and dimensions.
Magic Resistance: The Mind Flayer’s magic resistance gives it a substantial advantage against spells and magical effects. This resilience contributes to its longevity in encounters, making it a formidable adversary for spellcasting-focused parties.
Tentacles and Grappling Mechanism: The Tentacles attack, with its grapple and stunning effects, adds a layer of complexity to the Mind Flayer’s combat strategy. This ability not only deals substantial psychic damage but also restricts the movement of its targets, allowing for greater control on the battlefield.
Extract Brain: The Extract Brain ability is a terrifyingly thematic feature that showcases the Mind Flayer’s gruesome nature. This attack can potentially eliminate a target outright, creating a sense of urgency and fear among players.
Mind Blast: The Mind Flayer’s Mind Blast ability introduces an area-of-effect element to its arsenal. The ability to stun multiple creatures within a 60-foot cone can be a game-changer in encounters, providing the Mind Flayer with crowd-control capabilities.
Things to consider
There are a few things that are worth thinking about when bringing a Mind Flayer into a game.
With 71 hit points, the Mind Flayer falls within the mid-range for a Challenge Rating 7 creature. While its defensive abilities like Magic Resistance contribute to its durability, a determined and well-prepared party may find it susceptible to sustained damage. If you have several players in your party, it would be very easy for them to drain the Mind Flayer of it’s entire pool very quickly – so we recommend either enhancing the Mind Flayer with some magic items to boost it’s resistances, give it unique abilities to increase its survivability, or just give it a higher HP pool.
Mind Flayers also have an AC of 15 which is pretty standard and easy to hit for many players around level 7. Similar to the last recommendation, some better armour might help increase the Mind Flayer’s survivability as this combined with its average HP count will make it fall to a medium-to-large-sized group very quickly. Maybe using clever tactics on the Mind Flayers behalf to stay out of direct conflict with your party could be a strong improvement.
One of the coolest abilities the mind flayer has is it’s Mind Blast ability. Keep in mind, the Mind Blast has a recharge of 5–6, meaning it can be used once before you need to begin rolling to determine when the ability comes back. This limitation might lead to situations where the Mind Flayer’s control over the battlefield is less consistent, offering windows of opportunity for the players. While we don’t feel this is a weakness, it’s something that I have overlooked when designing encounters for players – keep that in mind!
Wrapping up
So that is the Mind Flayer! It’s a really memorable bad guy to have in your DND campaigns – let us know how you plan, or have run it in your own games!
Here is the stat block again if you want to check it out!
-KJ