As a full-round action that provokes an attack of opportunity, an intellect devourer can reduce its size, crawl into the mouth of a helpless or dead creature, and burrow into the victim's skull to devour its brain. This is a coup de grace attempt that inflicts 8d4+3d6+8 points of damage. If the victim is slain (or already dead), the intellect devourer usurps control of the body and may use it as its own.
This creates a new creature, using the body's statistics as if alive, with the Intellect Devourer's alignment and access to the Intellect Devourer's SLAs and any class abilities it may possess from its own class levels. The body loses all spells and spell-like abilities.
For the purposes of spell targeting, the creature is treated as if alive, however spells which specifically target dead bodies also work.
An intellect devourer inhabiting the body with levels in a 'fallen' class may dedicate themselves to a new god and gain new abilities. A devourer inhabiting the body of a Summoner summons a new eidolon with new evolutions that must be re-chosen when first inhabited.
A host body may not have been dead for longer than 1 day for this ability to function, and even successfully inhabited bodies decay to uselessness in 7 days (unless this time is extended via gentle repose). As long as the intellect devourer occupies the body, it knows (and can speak) the languages known by the victim and basic information about the victim's identity and personality, yet has none of the victim's specific memories or knowledge. Damage done to a host body does not harm the intellect devourer, and if the host body is slain, the intellect devourer emerges and is dazed for 1 round.
The intellect devourer can voluntarily depart its inhabited body as a move action.
Raise dead cannot restore a victim of body theft, but resurrection or more powerful magic can.
