As part of “Masters of Eternal Night” the Thralltakers – a group of mind flayer bounty hunters – pursue the party and eventually attack them. In the original adventure, it was a trio of standard mind flayers – Noth, Vour and Skwusch. Here are their 5e stats with upgrades/customisations to complement each other. Since their goal is to capture and disable I made them more stealthy than brutal.
MIND FLAYER THRALLTAKERS
Noth, Vour, and Skwusch
Medium aberration, lawful evil
Armor Class 15 (leather armor)
Hit Points 117 (13d8 + 13)
Speed 30 ft., fly 20 ft (levitate only)
| STR | DEX | CON | INT | WIS | CHA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 (+0) | 14 (+2) | 12 (+1) | 18 (+4) | 17 (+3) | 17 (+3) |
Saving Throws DEX +8, INT +7, WIS +6, CHA +6
Skills Arcana +7, Deception +6, Insight +6, Perception+6, Persuasion +6, Stealth +4
Damage Vulnerabilities lightning
Senses Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 16
Languages Deep Speech, Telepathy 120 ft., Undercommon
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)
Magic Resistance. The thralltaker has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Stalk the Senseless. The thralltaker is invisible to stunned or dazed creatures (and/or creatures that have suffered psychic damage in the last round).
Sneak Attack (1/Turn). The thralltaker deals an extra 13 (4d6) damage when it hits a target with a weapon attack and has advantage on the attack roll, or when the target is within 5 feet of an ally of the shadow flayer that isn’t incapacitated, and the shadow flayer doesn’t have disadvantage on the attack roll.
Innate Spellcasting (Psionics). The shadow flayer’s innate spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 15). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no components:
At will: detect thoughts, levitate
1/day each: dominate monster, phantasmal killer (Noth only), baleful metamorphous (Skwusch only), plane shift (self only), reinforce (Vour only, summons a thoon hulk),
ACTIONS
Multiattack. The thralltaker uses Mind Clouding Blast if available then manifests a psionic power. It then uses bladed tentacles or the extract brain action.
Bladed Tentacles. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature.
Hit: 15 (2d10 + 4) psychic damage and 24 (7d6) poison damage. If the target is Medium or smaller, it is grappled (escape DC 15) and must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or be stunned until this grapple ends.
Extract Brain. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one incapacitated humanoid grappled by the mind flayer.
Hit: The target takes 55 (10d10) piercing damage. If this damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, the mind flayer kills the target by extracting and devouring its brain.
Mind Clouding Blast (Recharge 5-6). The thralltaker manifests psychic energy in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area takes 22 (4d8 + 4) psychic damage and must succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence saving throw or be stunned for 1 minute. The target is dazed even on a successful save. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.
Shadowcloak. A thralltaker can draw on its own inner stores of quintessence to briefly become invisible. By expending a bonus action and taking 5 points of damage, a shadow flayer becomes invisible for 1 round. Unlike with the invisibility spell, shadowcloak doesn’t end when a shadow flayer attack.
REACTIONS
Mind Cloak. The thralltaker teleports up to its speed, and it becomes invisible until the end of its next turn.
TACTICS
Their goal in any combat is to disable the party and kidnap the seal bearer for interrogation. Vour will summon a thoon hulk as soon as possible while the other flayers will disable as many PCs as possible using mind clouding blast, baleful metamorphous and phantasmal killer.
DESCRIPTION
In the shadows, you see a creature with jet-black skin. Four tentacles extend from its face, and two milky white eyes stare forth from the darkness of its form.
With the failure of the Yharnam (was: Stormport) conditioning effort, the illithids of the subterranean community of Abstemious are concerned. The mind flay& of Abstemious are responsible for assimilating a certain number of cities-in step with illithid communities throughout the many worlds and planes-and Yharnam was one of the more important on this list. The illithids of Abstemious, in consultation with their elder brain, believe that the Adversary, an ancient and almost mythical enemy of the mind flayer race, may have had a hand in the defense of Yharnam. In response, the mind flayers have sent out an elite group of Thralltakers to investigate.
This tracking unit consists of 3 mind flayers named Noth, Vour, and Skwusch. These illithids have brought along their personal thralls, Elissa, Jon, and Zebulon (each of whom was once a powerful adventurer who now serves only the goals of his or her illithid master). In addition to their thralls, the mind flayers have enlisted the aid of a specially trained intellect devourer, called Bluntfell. This creature possesses the unique ability to find and track a psychic scent.
Dazed Condition
- You grant advantage.
- You can take only one action and lose reactions and cannot takes opportunity attacks.
- You can’t flank an enemy.