Intellect Devourers, or how I learned that even anti-wizard monsters are designed to kill my Fighter
Ah, the intellect devourer, a classic, well-loved monster that has been a staple of Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, a well liked creature employed throughout all levels and is a fair challenge in whatever encounter you face it in. No wait, I'm talking about the Orc. Frack this thing!
So, the first question when dealing with the Intellect Devourer is which one? Because depending if you are playing Pathfinder or 5th edition, you are facing too very different beasts.
The 5th edition Intellect Devourer is a Challenge Rating 2 Creature, with 21 Hit Points, an Armor Class of 12, with no natural attacks, Blindsight, and the ability to detect creatures with an Intelligence score above 3 up to three hundred feet around it. Initiative is +2. It's main abilities are two-fold. First it forces a character within 10 feet to make a DC 12 Intellect Saving Throw. If you fail, you take 2d10 psychic damage, and then the Dungeon Master rolls 3d6, and if it exceeds your Intelligent score, your Intelligence score is reduced to 0, and you are stunned until you get a point back. But wait, it gets better! Now that you are stunned, it can replace your brain, take over your new corpse as a puppet, and when it gets forced out you die.
The Pathfinder one is essentially the same deal, except with a lot more defensive and offensive abilities packed in and being a much higher Challenge Rating of 8. It lacks the ability to reduce your Intelligence score to 0, instead using spells Confusion and Daze Monster which it can cast At-will to make you helpless so it can take you over. It can also cast Inflict Serious Wounds, Invisibility, and Confusion at-will, and three times per day it can cast Cure Moderate Wounds and Globe of Invulnerability to protect itself. It also has a lot of defensive abilities, Damage Resistance 10 only bypassed by Adamantine weapons and Magic, Resistance of 20 to Cold, Electricity, and Sonic, immunity to Fire and Mind-affecting abilities, and also Spell Resistance of 23. Also and Armor Class of 22 and 84 hit points. Also Initiative +10, Perception +19, and Blindsight.
So, both of these monsters are essentially save and die spells in the form of creatures, and each have their own special flavor of unfairness. The 5th edition one I consider more unfair as the guidelines of the monster manual say this thing is fair to spring on parties as early as level 2, when it's abilities are capable of completely disabling characters of much higher level than that. It needs isolation or at least other monsters to keep different members of the party busy, but it's not too hard to do that, and if so in two turns this thing can kill most party members that haven't invested into their intelligence and don't have proficiency on that saving throw. The only saving grace is that it's not that hard to kill them, but they are tough enough to take some blows before dying.
The Pathfinder one is slightly better because it at least suggests that 8th level parties should be fighting it, but that's somewhat negated by the fact that it has a large number of defensive abilities to keep it alive. It doesn't outright strip your intelligence, but it can be a lot more deadly especially combined with other creatures with the ability to turn itself invisible and walk around hitting people with Confusion and Daze Monster on lower HD players. It at least lacks a reliable way to make party members helpless, so it's not as bad as the 5th edition version
My suggestion to Dungeon Masters? Don't use these. The Pathfinder one is slightly less of a pain to deal with but the 5th edition one is a walking weapon to strip martial characters of their Intelligence score then outright kill them. The possibility isn't that large, at least not as large as most other monsters, but those monsters aren't typically one-trick ponies. The exception is the Intellect Devourer already possessing someone, which can be a neat variant on the typical doppleganger infiltrating the group plot.
So, the first question when dealing with the Intellect Devourer is which one? Because depending if you are playing Pathfinder or 5th edition, you are facing too very different beasts.
The 5th edition Intellect Devourer is a Challenge Rating 2 Creature, with 21 Hit Points, an Armor Class of 12, with no natural attacks, Blindsight, and the ability to detect creatures with an Intelligence score above 3 up to three hundred feet around it. Initiative is +2. It's main abilities are two-fold. First it forces a character within 10 feet to make a DC 12 Intellect Saving Throw. If you fail, you take 2d10 psychic damage, and then the Dungeon Master rolls 3d6, and if it exceeds your Intelligent score, your Intelligence score is reduced to 0, and you are stunned until you get a point back. But wait, it gets better! Now that you are stunned, it can replace your brain, take over your new corpse as a puppet, and when it gets forced out you die.
The Pathfinder one is essentially the same deal, except with a lot more defensive and offensive abilities packed in and being a much higher Challenge Rating of 8. It lacks the ability to reduce your Intelligence score to 0, instead using spells Confusion and Daze Monster which it can cast At-will to make you helpless so it can take you over. It can also cast Inflict Serious Wounds, Invisibility, and Confusion at-will, and three times per day it can cast Cure Moderate Wounds and Globe of Invulnerability to protect itself. It also has a lot of defensive abilities, Damage Resistance 10 only bypassed by Adamantine weapons and Magic, Resistance of 20 to Cold, Electricity, and Sonic, immunity to Fire and Mind-affecting abilities, and also Spell Resistance of 23. Also and Armor Class of 22 and 84 hit points. Also Initiative +10, Perception +19, and Blindsight.
So, both of these monsters are essentially save and die spells in the form of creatures, and each have their own special flavor of unfairness. The 5th edition one I consider more unfair as the guidelines of the monster manual say this thing is fair to spring on parties as early as level 2, when it's abilities are capable of completely disabling characters of much higher level than that. It needs isolation or at least other monsters to keep different members of the party busy, but it's not too hard to do that, and if so in two turns this thing can kill most party members that haven't invested into their intelligence and don't have proficiency on that saving throw. The only saving grace is that it's not that hard to kill them, but they are tough enough to take some blows before dying.
The Pathfinder one is slightly better because it at least suggests that 8th level parties should be fighting it, but that's somewhat negated by the fact that it has a large number of defensive abilities to keep it alive. It doesn't outright strip your intelligence, but it can be a lot more deadly especially combined with other creatures with the ability to turn itself invisible and walk around hitting people with Confusion and Daze Monster on lower HD players. It at least lacks a reliable way to make party members helpless, so it's not as bad as the 5th edition version
My suggestion to Dungeon Masters? Don't use these. The Pathfinder one is slightly less of a pain to deal with but the 5th edition one is a walking weapon to strip martial characters of their Intelligence score then outright kill them. The possibility isn't that large, at least not as large as most other monsters, but those monsters aren't typically one-trick ponies. The exception is the Intellect Devourer already possessing someone, which can be a neat variant on the typical doppleganger infiltrating the group plot.
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