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[WriterX]

Hello all!

 I am relatively new to Masterwork, but I enjoy the Mod greatly and I was pondering on one race that could be added, some time in the future, since I feel it could have some interesting gameplay mechanics and ideas, some of which are already used.

The Illithids I am thinking of are inspired the Forgotten Realms Illithids. Like Warlocks they do not "reproduce" through any standard means, but, let's start from the beginning.

Illithids is what we could call a Slaver and Psionic race. Similar, in some regards, to the Succubi. However Illithids are more interested in their research and world domination than a frivolous lifestyle. Since they lack any strength they tend to rely on Thralls that they capture and bend to their wills. No creature is safe. From the smallest kobold to giants and titans, Illithids will gladly capture anything that could be of use in their schemes.

Mechanically that is present in a few races already. I just do not know if it's possible to make a Thrall/Slave caste (Orcs, humans, goblins, etc.) and then the Illithid "Noble" race (like the Warlocks). Then, what about monstrous races that Illithids could technically use? Would they act as pets/defenders?

Another aspect is how Illithids "reproduce". There tends to be a cental Elder Brain which acts as the leader of the colony, and tadpoles swim in the pool in which it is located (if I recall correctly). In order to create a new Illithid a tadpole has to be implanted into a subject, and then over a certain amount of time a victim is slowly turned into an Illithid. That would mean that there would have to be a script that allows the turning of a Thrall/Slave into an Illithid... and I have no idea how that could work. Whether a thrall would "poof" and a no-stat Illithid would appear in his place?

It is a bit late as I am writing this so my thoughts are not fully coherent, but if somebody would like to add their own thoughts here on an "Illithid" race we could perhaps iron out just a "design" document, and if anybody ever felt adventurous perhaps all of this could be turned into a working race! I shall add a few more cents when my brain is fully operational again.

[Meph]

1. We are kinda swamped with new ideas for new races atm, I'd much rather see someone help with porting to 40.x or bugfixing or documentation than adding another race.

2. Illithids were in Masterwork, in V2. They were notorious for causing worldgen crashes. ^^ Otherwise cool race, the raws were copied from deon. He wrote a Illithid Empire civ for old Genesis.

3.

The illithid is considered "Product Identity" by Wizards of the Coast and as such is not released under its Open Game License.[1]

If someone comes by and writes a beautiful concept and scripts and raws and graphics and releases an Illithid race, I will gladly add it. I personally like the race as well, both the design and the brainwash concept. But they will be hard to write.

[draeath]

You mean like all the worldgen crashes we have now that seem to evade blame?

(hope that the work to move to DF2014 happens to fix this simply by shaking things up and all the loose screws falling out)

[Kodos343]

While I generally agree with Meph that there are already enough races at the moment that other things might be best prioritized, I do really love Illithids so much that I can't really say I wouldn't love seeing this done. Of course, the same is true of Skaven, although that's in no small part due to a desire to get some more warpstone fueled mad science in the mod.

[Illogical_Blox]

Heh, I'm trying to code Illithids for my mod currently.

[Mithril Leaf]

Mechanically Illithids are like half Nagas and half Necromancers, so you could probably hack together a halfway decent version by cobbling stolen borrowed stuff from each of those. I'd say it probably shouldn't be in main in that state, but it shouldn't be that hard to have for personal usage.
Also, never forget Ulitharids, which are both adept grapplers, and powerful psions.
Most of the best Illithid material comes from Lords of Madness, while Monster Manual 4 or 5 has the Thoon, which are a variant sect.
Ropers would be excellent to have even without illithids (do we already have them? I haven't seen them), and from there you could add Urophions which are Ropers implanted with the tadpoles that survive implantation.

Reproduction should be feasible if you go about it with a combination of necromancer and succubi castes and transformations.