Mind flayers

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Mind flayers or illithids are a non-playable race of Aberration creatures. The Githyanki word for mind flayer is ghaik. Multiple specific creatures titled Mind Flayer also exist in the game and are, as their names would suggest, all mind flayers.

Overview[edit | edit source]

Psionic tyrants, slavers, and interdimensional voyagers that feed off the brains of thinking creatures.

Most belong to a hivemind colony devoted to an elder brain, and all work towards achieving the Grand Design - their dream of once more controlling empires that span the multiverse.

— in-game racial description

Mind flayers are psionic aberrations with a humanoid-like figure and a tentacled head that communicate using telepathy. They feast on the brains of intelligent beings and can enthrall other creatures to their will. Every mind flayer is connected to an Elder Brain, a colossal and powerful psionic brain that commands the mind flayers it is linked to.

Mind flayers reproduce by infecting other creatures with a tadpole that consumes its host from the inside, transforming them into another mind flayer in a process called ceremorphosis.

Thousands of years ago, mind flayers were a dominant planar power. Using massive flying vessels called Nautiloids, they traveled to hundreds of worlds, harvesting intelligent humanoids to consume, propagate their race, and use as slave labour. One of their enslaved races, the gith, rose up and destroyed their empire, leaving only small pockets of mind flayers behind.

Interactions[edit | edit source]

Mind flayers play a major role as antagonists throughout the game, from the prologue into the endgame. Though most are immediately hostile, in some cases a mind flayer can be friendly or downright ingratiating. Whether their pleasantness is genuine or a self-serving veneer on their psionic charms is often left for the player to contemplate.

Mind Flayer Characters[edit | edit source]

Concentration Icons.png Spoiler warning! This section reveals details about the story of Baldur's Gate 3.

Mind Flayer enemy variants[edit | edit source]

  • Mind Flayer (prologue): A unique mind flayer in the prologue has a slightly larger health pool than mind flayers encountered later in the game. It also does not gain Charm Charm on Tactician.
  • Illithid Arcanist

Attacks and abilities[edit | edit source]

Generic Physical.webp
  • Lash out with with your tentacles, dealing 2d10 + 4Damage TypesPsychic and possibly stunning your target.

Melee: 1.5 m / 5 ft

Action

Mind Blast.webp
  • Deal 4d8 + 4Damage TypesPsychic in a cone and possibly Stunned Stun targets within.

Range: 14 m / 37 ft

Action

Dominate Person.webp
  • Dominate a nearby humanoid. Allies are unaffected. Each time the dominated creature takes damage, it may repeat the Saving throw against your domination. Tadpoled creatures cannot be targeted.

Range: 18 m / 60 ft

Concentration Concentration

Action

Fly Illithid Power.webp
  • Float effortlessly to a destination.

Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Movement

Gallery[edit | edit source]

External links[edit | edit source]