#Dnd mind flayer beholder full

Without a food supply, the tadpoles must adapt or perish. When a mind flayer city is destroyed or abandoned, hundreds of surviving illithid tadpoles may reach maturity without being implanted into a host or consumed by an elder brain. It uses its four tentacles to slowly consume brains. Ī tadpole which somehow avoids destruction and develops to the size of around two feet in length is sometimes referred to as a larval flayer. Failure to implant a mature tadpole is taboo among mind flayers, and they will intentionally destroy such creatures.

Failure to implant Ī mature illithid tadpole which is not implanted will continue to grow and develop until it is too big to be implanted. A single dose lasts one week, but only effective in 40% of cases. This condition is known as 'partialism', and mind flayers who become aware of the existence of the memory fragment often attempt to remove it by any means necessary.Ī herbal concoction called laethen allows an individual to retain their identity and memories in the event that they are subjected to transformation into a mind flayer. On occasion, a small fragment of the original host's memory survives the ceremorphosis process. Īdult mind flayers themselves are physiologically incapable of being subject to ceremorphosis.Ĭomplications Retained host memories Such unusual forms are sometimes called ceremorphs, or flayer-kin. Rare successes include the urophion, created by the implantation of an illithid tadpole into a roper the mindwitness, from a beholder, the tzakandi, from lizardmen and mozgriken, from svirfneblin. Įxperimental hosts are occasionally chosen, which almost always result in failure. This inevitably results in the death of both the illithid tadpole and the host. The optimum physical range is between 130 and 270 pounds in weight, and between 5'4' and 6'2' in height.Īn illithid selecting a creature too large or small, such as an ogre or halfling, will fail to develop at the correct rate. Common victims of ceremorphosis include humans, elves, githzerai, githyanki, and grimlocks. Successful hosts are almost always mammalian humanoid species of approximately the height of an adult human. The process is highly sensitive to factors such as height, weight, species and even brain chemistry, and only the healthiest captives are chosen. Mind flayers are highly selective when choosing hosts for ceremorphosis. The host will also be struck with with a psionic blast, in order to render it docile.

The host is strapped to a table to prevent injury to the body. The process typically takes place in birthing pods, special round chambers for the purpose.

#Dnd mind flayer beholder full

Following ceremorphosis, a mind flayer takes up to 21 years to reach full maturity. The transformation into a mind flayer is complete after seven days. The circumstances surrounding this apparent discrepancy are explored in that game. In Baldur's Gate III, characters subjected to ceremorphosis appear to be able to survive and act normally for several days or weeks without transforming into a mind flayer. The process of ceremorphosis is irreversable even by magical means after one hour. All traces of the original creature's mind are erased by the process. Over the next few days, the body undergoes a massive physical transformation into the recognizable form of a mind flayer. Implantation is complete within only three minutes. The tadpole attaches itself to the brain stem, melding its mind with the creature's body. It quickly consumes the brain and grows to fill the creature's skull, leaving the lower brain stem intact. The mature tadpole is inserted into the ear of a living humanoid, where it burrows into the creature's brain. A fully-grown tadpole is three inches long and resembles an octopus with four tentacles forming its tail.

Only one tadpole in a thousand survives to maturity, with most consumed by the elder brain who inhabits the central pool. The eggs hatch after one month, and begin a ten-year process of growth, during which they are fed a diet of carefully prepared brain slurry by the mind flayer community. A mind flayer will only produce spawn in this manner only two or three times in its lifetime. The mind flayer is an amphibious species, and its life cycle begins as a tadpole hatched from a clutch of tiny eggs.Īn adult mind flayer spawns around 1,000 tiny eggs, which it deposits in a spawning pool located in the center of a mind flayer city.