Brainstealer dragon

He steals hearts as well as brains.

Brainstealer Dragon

3e

3rd Edition Statistics^[1]

Size

Wyrmling	Medium
Very young	Large
Young	Large
Juvenile	Large
Young adult	Huge
Adult	Huge
Mature adult	Huge
Old	Gargantuan
Very old	Gargantuan
Ancient	Gargantuan
Wyrm	Gargantuan
Great wyrm	Colossal

Challenge rating

Wyrmling	4
Very young	6
Young	9
Juvenile	10
Young adult	12
Adult	14
Mature adult	16
Old	17
Very old	20
Ancient	21
Wyrm	23
Great wyrm	25

General Information^[1]

Movement

Flying

Vision

Blindsight, darkvision, low-light vision

Diet

Carnivorous

Intelligence

High (as wyrmlings) to Supra-genius (as great wyrms)

Favored terrain

Underground

Appearance^[1]

Skin color(s)

Pale purple

Eye color(s)

White

Distinctions

Four tentacles, illithid–dragon hybrid

A brainstealer dragon was a hybrid of illithid and dragon, combining the best, or worst, features of both.^[1]

Description[]

Like most illithids and their creations, brainstealer dragons had four lengthy tentacles in place of their jaws. Above and behind these, they possessed two white, bloated and lidless orbs in place of eyes. Their draconic bodies were covered in small pale purple scales and their wings were reduced to fleshy flaps of skin.^[1]

Personality[]

Brainstealers possessed the conniving personalities and manipulative minds of their mind flayer creators. Most saw life as a game, and one they planned to win. To advance their schemes, they would use and influence the minds of underworld denizens. A few great wyrm brainstealers even had whole illithid communities under their control. They were more skilled in deception, intelligence gathering, and survival than their normal dragon counterparts.^[1]

Abilities[]

The brainstealer's powerful draconic build was aided by its diverse array of mental abilities. Like their illithid kin, they could use a mind blast to mentally debilitate their prey. This replaced a dragon's breath weapon, and got longer and stronger as the brainstealer aged, and they were immune to such powers used against them. They retained a dragon's aura of fear.^[1]

Depending on their stage of development, brainstealers above the age of wyrmling had all conventional illithid psionics, being capable of making suggestions, levitation, charming their enemies, detecting thoughts, projecting their minds into the Astral Plane, and shifting between planes (in either magical or psionic forms). Moreover, they were capable of telepathic communication to any language-using creature up to 100 feet (30 meters) away. Like dragons, they could learn to cast spells as sorcerers, or manifest psionic powers as telepaths.^[1]

Their skin was immune to acid, and grew in resistance to non-magical means of attack as they grew older. The downside to their transformation was that their "wings" were far less powerful, and so their flight was clumsy and more difficult.^[1]

Tactics[]

At the start of a fight, brainstealer dragons typically used their mind blasts to stun their prey for ease of consumption. They then grabbed them with their tentacles and commenced brain extraction, a process that took about 30 seconds, and usually killed their victims.^[1]

Unlike regular dragons, brainstealers could not bite or use their wings as weapons, but they could still use their dragon's claws with which to fight. While their tentacles were comparatively weak, they were long and capable of grabbing victims.^[1]

Ecology[]

Brainstealer dragon MtG — *A black dragon brainstealer.*

They were found underground. While they were capable of removing brains with their tentacles in the manner of illithids, it was unknown if they required brains as food.^[1]

History[]

Their origin was unknown, but obvious: scholars of the underworld believed brainstealers to be the product of an illithid breeding program, and likely one that not even their elder brains could control.^[1]^{[note 1]}

Appendix[]

Notes[]

↑ As illithids are parasitic creatures that take over their hosts, in the process of ceremorphosis, this may be the result of an illithid tadpole being implanted into a dragon.