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WJA
Warrior
244 Posts
    
 | | 05/28/2006 3:52 AM |
| Okay, so I really want to play an illithid savant, as detailed in the ever amazing savage speices book. On the one hand, it is supremely cool, effectively yoinking the abilities and class features from it's formerly fast food. On the other hand, this seemss like a very glass jaw PC. If I'm reading this correctly, I need to be a mind flayer (15 levels for 8hd worth of pc) and then to meet the prereqs, burn a couple of levels, and then start taking savant levels. The epic group I'm running with has at least one and probably more than one person who has vowed to kill him on sight because, well he's a mind flayer. This is not a very great reason to me. As an epic character, he should be able to overcome the "AHHH!!! Mind Flayer!!!" response of people right?
Ideas include - The interplanar ranger / horizon walker. The Savant is lawful neutral, and is a tool of a group of interplanar rangers, (ideally an agent of mechanus albeit indirectly). He is given tasks, and sets about accomplishing those tasks.
The abberant druid. The savant gives his prey the option once they have died, to be reincarnated, and give the information which the party desires, or to join with the brain of the illithid, and get the information that way.
Plus I'd get to use the line, "Dead or Alive, you're coming with me."
Others in my group have stated that a neutral good would be more believeable alignment, but Lawful neutral seems like the dispassionate calculating Savant personality.
What do you think of the savant? What do you think of the savage speices interpretation of the Mind flayer and it's HP/ ability progression?
Most importantly, this guy is created from scratch and I've got 21 levels to play with, what's your ideal build?
Thanks. | |
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wildmage
Sneak
123 Posts
| | 05/28/2006 8:53 AM |
| Consider that some races will have a really hard time as a PC. I would wager that the mind-flayer is one of these. For someone else in your group to say that they would attack this character on sight is not totally unreasonable. That PC is probably not the only one who will feel this way- most NPCs the party meets could have a similar reaction whether they're good, evil, or even neutral (for instance druids generally despise aberrations).
Also consider the fact that it might not make sense to your character to be an adventuring illithid travelling around with non-illithids. Mind-flayers are meant to be an alien race with their own outlook and agenda and a value-system that is probably totally foreign to any humanoid race. Your character would probably view the other PCs as mere slaves and might be inclined to have a taste of their brains, which is why its not unreasonable for the other PCs to react to your mind-flayer negatively.
Group dynamics are a very important part of the D&D experience. While it is not fair to you to exclude a character option that you would like to play for what seems like character racism, your character might also make it hard for the other PCs to feel comfortable and "get along" with him/her. However, if you can work out your differences with the other players and most importantly with DM approval, then it might work out ok.
I totally agree with the "glass jaw" of the proposed character. It might even be an entire glass body. Your sacrificing 7 HD right off the bat due to ECL issues. In effect you're paying for the challenge rating of the creature (with all its abilities), which is meant for the DM to use in a single encounter against a group of PCs. As a PC this mind flayer will have to survive multiple encounters each day and having low hit dice will make this harder, even with the cool abilities. So yes, I expect this character would be extremely difficult to both roll-play effectively and role-play believably. But if its the only thing that floats your boat for this campaign and the DM is willing, then good luck! | |
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kestrel.ca
Underboss
1678 Posts
| | 05/28/2006 10:04 AM |
| | Invest heavily in disguise and/or spells that disguise your appearance. | |
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Myth Master Jr
Sergeant
418 Posts
| | 05/28/2006 10:07 AM |
| I'd have to back wildmage on this one, he's pretty right on. I'm a DM as well and firmly believe in player creativity, so long as it doesn't destroy party cohesion. Just because you like something doesn't mean that everyone else will. Just because you want to play it, doesn't make any less disruptive to the party. In the end, everyone has to have fun playing.
Furthermore, the "Glass Jaw" your refereing too, will get you slaughtered in epic. Being 7HD behind the party will leave you high and dry after a full games worth of encounters. Even if you had a party cleric, hes going to have to focus solely on keeping you alive which in turn is going to hurt the rest of the party, especially your front line fighter. Thats kinda unfair as well, don't ya think? | |
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WJA
Warrior
244 Posts
| | 05/31/2006 9:55 AM |
| No love for illithid pcs, and no tolerant DM's... not quite what I was expecting, but it doesn't mean I won't try to play him. What about the planar ranger thing, that doesn't lend any credence? Most importantly, the savant strips the skills and feats off of characters they feed on, so Bringing this guy in at 18th level, do you think he should already have eaten/gained skills?
Thanks. | |
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Malin Lug
Sergeant
742 Posts
| | 05/31/2006 11:34 AM |
| quote:
Originally posted by WJA
No love for illithid pcs, and no tolerant DM's... not quite what I was expecting, but it doesn't mean I won't try to play him. What about the planar ranger thing, that doesn't lend any credence? Most importantly, the savant strips the skills and feats off of characters they feed on, so Bringing this guy in at 18th level, do you think he should already have eaten/gained skills?
Thanks.
I love playing some really bizare characters... but there are some things that just don't easily mesh in with a group. In most game worlds, the illithid are one of the most evil and despised races, even more so than the drow. Sure, you may get a good aligned one on a very, very, very rare occasion, but nobody that you will encounter has ever heard of any that doesn't eat the brains of anyone they can. Play what you will, but if you get a strong negative reaction from the other PC's and almost every NPC you run into, don't act all surprised and say "But I am good aligned!!" I have seen too many cool PC's killed for being too different.
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FeranEldritchKnight
Sergeant
385 Posts
Kansas City, MO USA
| | 05/31/2006 12:17 PM |
| While I agree that this PC will cause problems, IF you can get beyond the initial PC reaction, I think this creature has staying power as a supplemental part of the group. Play him like a wizard- from the back of the party and use mind blast a lot. If your DM uses psionics, make him a psion. If your DM doesn't allow psionics (and thus using the wizard variant Mind Flayer) put levels in wizard. Besides, the only prereq. you really have is 10 ranks in Know (arcana), which could be done without any class levels added.
But in the words of Sideshow Raheem, "I wouldn't." | |
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