[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-509748-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-509748-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","creature-cohorts-the-mind-flayer","Creature Cohorts: The Mind Flayer","","A guide to playing creature cohorts drawn from the Monster Manual and converted into playable races with associated classes. It explains how to create a cohort like a character using Player’s Handbook rules, while adding flexibility for Dungeon Masters such as sidekick replacements, party-leveling recurring enemies, familiars, and animal companion substitutes. It also details Mind Flayer (Illithid) racial features, including ability score increases, age, alignment, size, speed, darkvision, aberrant nature, telepathy, mind reader, and psionic tentacle attacks.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/story-novel/","Story & Novel",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/creature-cohorts-the-mind-flayer/509748/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/creature-cohorts-the-mind-flayer/509748.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"EvelynWrites","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-05",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",10,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What is a creature cohort and how is it created?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"A creature cohort is a monster converted into its own race and associated class. You create a cohort much like making a character, using the same rules as the Player’s Handbook.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How can Dungeon Masters use cohorts in gameplay?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"DMs can use a cohort as a sidekick alternative, as a monster that levels with the party, or as more powerful familiars/substitutes for animal companions. Cohorts are intended to be flexible rather than fixed-role.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What are the key racial features of the Mind Flayer (Illithid)?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Mind flayer features include Intelligence-focused ability increases, telepathy to speak within 120 feet, mind reader via detect thoughts without spell slot, and psionic tentacle attacks that deal psychic damage.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},509748,1791316186,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,87,91,95,100,105,110,115,120,123,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":85,"slug":86},90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":88,"show_sort_weight":89,"slug":90},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":92,"show_sort_weight":93,"slug":94},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":96,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":112,"show_sort_weight":113,"slug":114},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":116,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":117,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":119},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":118,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":121,"show_sort_weight":118,"slug":122},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":125},"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":96,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":22,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":118},687212989558,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","Creature Cohorts: The Mind Flayer  \nMind Flayer Cohorts  \nC  \norax the Brute was a man known for murder most callous. His hairy forearms carried small but visible scars, each line marking atally of his victims slain. The warden stared at him from across the darkened room.  \n\"It's clear the usual rot won't flinch your kind.\" The warden's ample brows curled in  \ndispleasure. \"So we brought in a friend. Done some fine work for us in years past. I'm sure he won't disappoint.\"The warden left with a smirk. Corax just snorted.  \nThe door open and closed again, and soon there was another man standing in the darkness. Just beyond the lantern's light the figure crossed its arms... then its tentacles.  \nCorax grinned. \"Seen that trick before. Apprentice level sorcery, that. You remember to make your skin the right shade of purple, too?\"  \nThe creature sat down in the opposite chair. Its eyes lacked pupils, and mucus glistened upon its flesh. If this was a ruse, it was a damned convincing one.  \n\"You will tell me,\" said a voice in Corax's head, \" precisely where you hid their corpses.\" Then the criminal began to sweat. He had only heard tell of telepathy. Either this was a mage of some talent... or this was no joke.  \n\"If I do not hear the words I seek, then through your thoughts I will find them. If I do not find them, then I will taste them, brigand.\"  \nart by Henrik Rosenborg cover art by Gabriel Cassata  \nWhatis a Cohort?  \nIn short, a creature cohort is a monster, perhaps from the Monster Manual that has been converted into its own race and associated class (which are designed to be taken together) . You create a cohort much like making a character, following the same rules in the Player's Handbook. One difference, though, is that cohorts typically don't pick a character background unless the monster in question had a prior profession.  \nCohorts are designed to be flexible, so that DMs can do some of the following:  \n DMs can use a cohort in place of the normal \"Sidekick\"rules from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, allowing an iconic monster to act as a friendly NPC or even as a party member  \n A cohort can be used as a monster that levels with the party (as a recurring enemy or rival, for instance)  \n Cohorts can act as more powerful familiars, or as substitutes for animal companions (or similar class abilities)  \nNote: despite being mentioned above, you do not need to own Tasha's Cauldron of Everything to use cohorts.  \nKeep in mind that as of the time of this writing, creature cohorts are not designed for multiclassing nor balanced for such.  \nMind Flayer Racial Features  \nAs a mind flayer (also known as an 'Illithid') you are but one part of a fractured empire, one member of a race that once ruled the known multiverse. Hunted to the brink of extinction, mind flayers rely on their psionic abilities and multifaceted thinking to survive in a world hostile to their kind.  \nAbility Score Increase. Your Intelligence score increases by 2, and one other ability score of your choice increases by 1.  \nAge. An illithid starts its life as a tadpole, which must borrow into a humanoid's brain in order to begin the process of ceremorphosis, the transformation into a true illithid. A newly formed mind flayer is essentially an adult from the moment they finish transforming. In their bipedal form, illithids can live to be over a century old, with the oldest members of their kind regularly living to 120 or 130 years of age.  \nAlignment. Unlike most humanoids, few mind flayers have the ability to truly think for themselves. Most illithids are under the control of a mind flayer colony's elder brain, an entity with psychic abilities that rival all but the gods themselves. Mind flayers linked to an elder brain are virtually always lawful evil, following the directives set out for them by their masters.  \nThose illithids fortunate enough to break away from a colony have another obstacle to deal with--the suspicion and hostility of most other races. Lone or exiled mind fl","cbCaimHdjkzoUyGg","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaimHdjkzoUyGg","pdf",3406709,13,"English","# Whatis a Cohort?\n## Mind Flayer Racial Features","[{\"question\":\"What is a creature cohort and how is it created?\",\"answer\":\"A creature cohort is a monster converted into its own race and associated class. You create a cohort much like making a character, using the same rules as the Player’s Handbook.\"},{\"question\":\"How can Dungeon Masters use cohorts in gameplay?\",\"answer\":\"DMs can use a cohort as a sidekick alternative, as a monster that levels with the party, or as more powerful familiars/substitutes for animal companions. Cohorts are intended to be flexible rather than fixed-role.\"},{\"question\":\"What are the key racial features of the Mind Flayer (Illithid)?\",\"answer\":\"Mind flayer features include Intelligence-focused ability increases, telepathy to speak within 120 feet, mind reader via detect thoughts without spell slot, and psionic tentacle attacks that deal psychic damage.\"}]","Creature Cohorts: The Mind Flayer | PDF",1791237118]