Like the Lich and Death Knight feat paths from the Villainous Options earlier this year, the following feats allow you to make your character slowly turn into a Mind Flayer. Naturally, Mind Flayers are among the most iconic monsters in D&D, and the idea of a bunch of adventurers being implanted with Ilithid tadpoles is, of course, the central premise of Baldur's Gate 3.
What's interesting is that these feats give you various psionic abilites that work similarly to how the Psi Warrior Fighter and Soulknife Rogue do (as well as the upcoming Dark Sun Psion class). Let's check them out:
Tadpole Host
Prerequisite: level 4+
You have an ilithid tadpole in your body, the starting infection that leads to ceremorphosis. You get the following:
Ability Score Increase: Your Intelligence rises by 1, to a max of 20.
Mind Sliver: You learn the Mind Sliver cantrip, using Intelligence as your spellcasting ability.
Psionic Power: You get Psionic Energy Dice (PEDs) to fuel various psionic abilities. You have a number of PEDs equal to your proficiency bonus, and they are each a d6 (but they improve if you take more Path of Ceremorphosis feats). You can only use these specific PEDs for features you gain from this feat path. You can't use a feature from this feat path that expends a PED if you have used up all the PEDs you get from this feat. You regain all expended PEDs when you finish a long rest.
Psionic Overload: When you deal Psychic damage, you can expend a PED and roll it to deal extra psychic damage equal to the roll.
This is the big prerequisite for the feat path. The fact that it only buffs Intelligence could wind up very limiting, as it'd be hard to justify taking this on anyone but a Wizard, Artificer, or the upcoming Psion. It's also a General Feat, meaning that this is taking one of your precious 5 (really 4 given that you'll want an Epic Boon at 19) ASIs. On its own, I don't know if this is really that exciting, but we'll see what is built upon it.
Ilithid Thrallmaker
Prerequisite: Tadpole Host Feat
Your psionic abilities have made you a master manipulator:
Ability Score Increase: You can raise either Intelligence or Charisma by 1, to a max of 20.
Psionic Energy Dice: Your PEDs from this feat path become d8s.
Telepathy: You have Telepathy with a range of 10 feet, or if you already have telepathy, the range increases by 10 feet.
Persuasive Presence: You always have Charm Person prepared, with Intelligence as your spellcasting ability. You can cast it without a spell slot by expending a PED. You can also cast it with spell slots if you have them. When you expend a PED to cast the spell, roll the die and subtract half the result (rounded up) from the target's saving throw.
Again, you really want to be an Int-based caster for this feat path. Charm Person can be very helpful in certain adventures/campaigns, but if there are a lot of non-humanoid creatures with which you're interacting, this might feel like a waste. Again, I don't know that this really makes out for missing out on some of the more powerful feats (though admittedly, I think spellcasters are less feat-dependent).
Tadpole's Safeguard
Prerequisite: Tadpole Host
Ability Score Increase: You can raise Intelligence or Constitution by 1, to a max of 20.
Psionic Energy Dice: Your PEDs from this feat path become d8s.
Telepathy: You have telepathy with a range of 10 feet, or if you already have telepathy, the range increases by 10 feet.
Warding Backlash: You always have the Shield spell prepared, with Intelligence as your spellcasting ability for it (though does that matter with a spell that has no save or attack roll? I've never understood that). You can cast it without expending a spell slot by expending a PED. You can also cast it with spell slots if you have them. When you expend a PED to cast the spell and the attack misses, roll the PED. The attack then takes psychic damage equal to the amount rolled.
This, on the other hand, is really good. Really just getting Shield is always good, and while Wizards and Psions can get that anyway, having it always prepared is nice (and Artificers who aren't Battle Smiths or Artillerists will appreciate it). Also, we can buff the damage by expending a second PED if we want to, though I doubt that's optimal.
Ulitharid's Might:
Prerequisite: Tadpole Host
The tadpole you have is mutating you into an ulitharid, a more powerful and rarer type of ilithid.
Ability Score Increase: You can raise your Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution score by 1, to a max of 20.
Psionic Energy Dice: Your PEDs from this feat path become d8s.
Telepathy: You have telepathy to a range of 10 feet, or if you have telepathy already, it increases in range by 10 feet.
Extended Tentacles: Two long tentacles sprout around your mouth. You can use these tentacles to make an Unarmed Strike, and when using them, your reach increases by 5 feet.
I think it's clear that you're only intended to take one of these last three feats. This could be good on a Monk or perhaps a character built around grappling. Being able to grapple from more than 5 feet away is actually quite powerful, as you might hold a foe far enough away that they can't attack you back.
Full Ceremorphosis:
Prerequisite: Level 12+ and at least two Path of Ceremorphosis feats.
You've grown four tentacles around your mouth, have an elongated skull and purple skin slick with mucus. You're a mind flayer at this point.
Ability Score Increase: Your intelligence raises by 1, to a max of 20.
Psionic Energy Dice: Your PEDs from this feat path become d10s, or if they're already d10s, they become d12s.
Aberration: Your creature type is Aberration.
Ilithid Specialization: You pick one of the following benefits:
Brain-Seeking Tentacles: When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike as part of the attack action on your turn, you can use both the damage and grapple options. You can expend a PED when you use htis benefit to roll the expended die, and the creature takes extra damage equal to the number rolled plus your Intelligence modifier, and then subtracts half the number rolled from their saving throw to avoid the grapple (rounded up). If the target is reduced to 0 HP from this benefit, the PED isn't expended. You can use this benefit once per turn.
Ok, before we move on, let's go over this. There are elements here of the Grappler feat, though again, we're now spending three feats to get here and probably need to be an Intelligence-based character, which means that we might not be great at grappling (not sure if the Psion Metamorph gets to use Int to set their grapple dcs, but if they do, these feats would be quite good for them).
Mind Flayer Spells: You always have Detect Thoughts, Levitate, and Mind Blast (a new spell) prepared. Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for these spells. You can cast these spells without expending a spell slot by expending a PED to cast them. You can also spend spell slots on them as normal.
We've got to go into Mind Blast, but it's a 6th level spell, which is actually kind of nuts to get to cast nearly for free several times per day. Especially given that this feat path really leans into Int-based spellcasters as the ideal candidates, this feels like the best thing to grab.
Repeatable: You can take the Full Ceremorphosis feat multiple times, choosing a different options for Ilithid Specialization each time.
So, we'll have to be level 12 for this (even if we're a Fighter or Rogue and can get a third general feat before then) and fully invested in this path. Is it worth it?
Well, flavor-wise, I think it delivers decently. I certainly think you'll only want to take one of the three middle feats: I think a Psion/Artificer/Wizard going Tadpole Host, Tadpole's Safeguard, and Full Ceremorphosis taking the Mind Flayer Spells feels like the best version of this. You could grab a second Full Ceremorphosis at level 16, but frankly, I think we'd be ready to grab something like War Caster at that point.
Like the Lich and Death Knight, the tricky thing here is that feats are so precious that you've got to make a really strong case to invest not just one but several into one of these paths. Does this do enough? Maybe...? There's a lot of storytelling potential here, but boy will you need real buy-in from both the DM and your fellow players.
Now, let's look at the Mind Blast spell:
Mind Blast:
6th level Evocation (Psion)
Casting Time: Action
Range: Self
Components: S
Duration: Instantaneous
You unleash a concussive burst of psionic energy. Each creature in a 60-foot cone originating from you makes an Intelligence saving throw, taking 6d8 psychic damage and having the stunned condition until the start of your next turn. On a success, they take half damage only.
Using a Higher-Level spell slot: The damage increases by 1d8 for each spell slot level above 6.
The damage isn't anything to write home about for a 6th level spell (27 average, which is less than a 3rd level Fireball) but an AoE stun targeting a saving throw that a lot of monsters aren't terribly good at is quite powerful. As someone playing a Wizard who recently hit level 11, I can tell you that 6th level spell slots are very precious. But this, then, makes the Full Ceremorphosis feat look way more exciting, as you'd have as many as 4 (and eventually 6) free castings of this per day. A hell of a way to start of an encounter if you can avoid hitting your friends.
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