James Maliszewski has sent another virus running through the Old School blogosphere:This time, though, what I want to inspire are posts about how referees have re-imagined one or more iconic D&Dmonsters for use in their own campaigns.My old Kastmaria campaign didn't feature psionics. At the time, I saw it as unneeded and decided to ditch it, wholesale. But, I really liked Mind Flayers...
So, wanting Illithids in my game and wanting them to be rather tough, I gave them Illusionist Spells.
Illithids may cast the following Illusionist spells, at will: Color Spray, Hypnotism, Darkness, Detect Invisibility, Improved Phantasmal Force, Hypnotic Pattern, Invisibility, Suggestion and Dispel Illusion.
2/day they may cast: Minor Creation, Phantasmal Killer, Shadow Magic, Spectral Force, Confusion and Mass Suggestion.
1/day they may cast: Prismatic Spray, Demi-Shadow Magic and Astral Spell.
Illithids are immune to 1st and 2nd level Illusions. They receive a bonus of +2 to any Saving Throws against other Illusion/Phantasm magics.
Today, I like Psionics. And the above, certainly isn't ground-breaking. But my players hated these guys and I had a lot of fun with them, way back when. Prismatic Spray is a Bitch!
A good compromise. Psionics was always one of those, that's really cool, but never worked in the game. What system are you using these days for psionics?
ReplyDeleteVERY well done! This may actually be a more elegant solution even than using "simplified" psionics a la Realms of Crawling Chaos. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete@ Tim - I'm about to print out -C's Psionic PDF over at Hack & Slash. At first glance, it looks real spiffy! I'll be mentioning it in tomorrow's news, if you don't have the blog linked and don't feel like googling. :) The Hack & Slash downloads are on the right. I'd recommend checking out all of -C's stuff!
ReplyDelete@ Carter - Thanks! I still need to read RoCC!
That is a very cool illustration, where is it from?
ReplyDeleteNo idea. I know I've seen it somewhere. Just pulled it from Google Images.
ReplyDeleteThe image was from a third party Mind Flayers source book before WotC locked them down as part of product identity. (Edit: It is Unveiled Masters: Essential Guide to Mindflayers by Green Ronin.)
ReplyDeleteI like the illusionist take on mind flayers, very cool.
Thanks for the art info!
ReplyDeleteWell done! Good choice of monster and Illusions. They are underrated spells.
ReplyDeleteHi mortellan - I always wanted someone to play an Illusionist in my game. Maybe one day. :)
ReplyDeleteThe Todd Lockwood covers for these Green Ronin books were far better than their content.
ReplyDelete