Monstrous Arcana: The Illithiad
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Backgroundband (englisch) mit umfassenden Informationen zu den Mind Flayers¸ optimales Sourcebook für die Mind Flayer Abenteuertrilogie A Darkness Gathering¸ Masters of Eternal Night und Dawn of the Overmind
This book covers the Illithiad race¸ also known as mind flayers because of their psychic abilities¸ as well as their penchant for eating the brains of living creatures. While the Monstrous Manual and its appendixes has information on these beings¸ the Monstrous Arcana expands on so much more so.
This book gives a complete ecology of the Illithid race¸ including religion¸ social interaction¸ eating habits¸ anatomy¸ genetic deviations¸ alliances and hatreds. Diagrams include a typical Illithid village and disection. New Illithid-only psychic powers are in here to¸ including the harmless¸ but no less freaky¸ ability to project the taste of food to another living being (considering these things eat brains like cans of Spam¸ and that the victims of their brain-eating are alive when the feeding commences¸ you can see why it can be disturbing) and the ability to negate the magic that animates lesser undead creatures¸ such as skeletons and zombies. Game stats cover the different variation of the mind flayer¸ brain golems (avatars of their god) and other creatures used by the illithids.
The only disappointment I had was the lack of humor. The first Arcana book I read¸ I¸ Tyrant¸ had a few funny passages (What is the best way to kill a beholder? Hire someone far stronger than you to do it.). This book was completely serious (well¸ as serious as a role-play game can be).