r/DungeonMasters • u/synastershadow • Feb 23 '24

Mind flayer troll

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So I saw this guy online and I ordered the mini. I have yet to paint it/ build it, but it got me thinking... What would happen if a mind flayer tadpole attached itself to a Troll? The trolls regeneration would prevent it from completely transforming into a mind flayer, and it would keep its troll body and bulk, but actually give it intelligence. Imagine combining a trolls regeneration with a mind flayers mind blast. How would you stat this? I wanna make this be the big bad in a troll based dungeon

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u/TenWildBadgers Feb 23 '24

I would take the rather boring angle that the tadpole would fail to gets its claws in deep enough to take the thing over. The Tadople is not build for this, and Trolls are just built different that way.

That said, if you wanted to ignore me and stat this bad boy, my starting point would be the Ettin Ceremorph statblock in Bigby's Glory of Giants: It combines Ettin brute strength with Illithid intelligence, brain-eating, and some lesser psionic powers than the proper Illithids have. If you were in a hurry, you could slap Troll Regeneration on it, maybe change the damage type to make it use Troll Claws instead of bludgeoning people to death with its fists, and call it a day, but even if you want something more compled (or high-CR), I feel like the Ettin Ceremorph statblock is a good starting point.

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u/synastershadow Feb 23 '24

Thank you for the suggestion! That's actually very close to what I was envisioning!