> Weldon Dodd > > > And if I have to rework the encounter > > from scratch so I can use a real Illithid, why did I buy it > > in the first place? > > Will this situation change once the D20STL allows you to make specific > references to the MM?
<snip> > It seems to me that you would be able to use the Mind Flayer effectively > this way. You wouldn't be able to create the "Slayer's Guide to the Mind > Flayer" but you could throw them into an encounter without too much > trouble. In most cases this would work, but I don't think it works well enough for a Mind Flayer. In WotC literature, Illithids are described as a highly intelligent, malevolent and social creatures (at least, within their own species). They make a poor choice for a random encounter. According to the assumptions one must make as a 3rd party developer, you could not (for example) describe its lair as a mad scientists' lab nor a human-style prison, because you can't know that a Mind Flayer is humanoid. You can't know that they favor psionic classes, nor that they sometimes keep 'lesser races' as slaves. You can't know that their primary goal in life is to subjugate (for food and amusement) all lesser races. This severely restricts the sorts of plotlines you can create for your mind flayer encounter. Being able to specify the section on Mind Flayers in the MM helps the player understand the link and flesh out the encounter properly, but it does not give the author any rights whatsoever in the material they distribute. If you DID describe your Mind Flayer's setting and behavior in such a way that it was consistent and similar to the one in the MM, you would likely have infringed on WotC's IP. The draft SRD restricts Mind Flayers so much that, like the Gith, I'm not sure they are worth including. -Brad _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
