This may sound like a stupid question, but one of my players put me on the spot when I said there were Illithid runes inscribed on a door to a dungeon. He said that Illithids don't have their own language, citing in the MM (which a player has no business citing at my table IMHO) where it says that mind flayers speak undercommon but communicate with eachother telepathically. He was upset because he has taken undercommon as a language and is frustrated that I am perhaps not letting him use his abilities to full (he ought to just be happy that I let him take the abjurant champion prestige class in the first place *wink*)
My immediate and final ruling was that mind flayers needed a written language for various reasons like any other intelligent species (and so the doors and other works of art or symbolic locations would be inscribed in alien, Illithid runes), but spoke undercommon for trade, ordering around thralls and communicating with adventurers unfortunate enough to encounter them. A point which I hope to drive home with him soon when his dominated self is running around being commanded in undercommon.
In my heart I believe I have seen Illithid listed as a language, but didn't want to interrupt the game to look through the books for something to support my belief. Can anyone help me out here?
P.S: I don't mean to sound like a jerk DM, and I hope I don't. I just get frustrated and appreciate the help and clarification I can find here. IMO, nobody is perfect (even DM's) and I can always use the input one way or another.
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Unless it is called out someplace else, like in Lords of Madness, the books are mute on the topic of Illithid as a language. The real point here is that if you, as DM, say the runes are in Illithid, then they are. Your reasoning is perfectly sound and no player has the right to trump your rulings on any point by referring to a book. If your mind flayers are chess-playing sophisticates that enjoy fine English tea with their brains, then they do. It doesn't matter if the MM contradicts that or not, you are in control of the world.
Although the issue has never come up IMC, you can be certain that my mind flayers will have weirdly-glowing runes etched onto stone or sheets of hammered metal in their cities and the language and character script will be Illithid.
It is interesting to note that Illithid will be one of the very few languages that is written but almost never spoken, since the language is communicated telepathically rather than through speech.
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It is interesting to note that Illithid will be one of the very few languages that is written but almost never spoken, since the language is communicated telepathically rather than through speech.
I agree that Illithids having their own language is perfectly valid. Also, due to the fact that it IS a telepathic language, the runes and symbols they use will likely be pictographic (like heiroglyphics) since the runes are basically conveying images instead of words. Of course, this is just a suggestion.
I agree with Lich, players shouldn't try to trump the DM with what the book says, because DM can always trump the book. Especially when it comes to monster details.
As far as Illithid as a lang. I know it was its own thing in 2ed, but even then it was never spoken because of the whole telepathy Mindflayers use. Mindflayers being the primary sentient Illithid. But it could also be used as a written. I know also in 2ed Mindflayers still also spoke Undercommon to order the other idiots they haven’t mind eaten around. In 3x they had Illithid as lang. go the way of the Dodo for simplification, or some such reason, but it can always be brought back for flare by the DM and thus under whatever rules he decides.
Thanks for the great input y'all! As for me, I definitely enjoy a spot of tea with my brains... er Carr's Ginger Lemon Biscuits *grin*
-Syl-lithid
P.S: I would never relegate as useless the choice of a player. Sometimes players make useless choices, however.
Page 71 of Lords of Madness goes into a little bit of detail regarding language of the Illithids. Its true they have no spoken language but, as has been mentioned on this thread, they have a written one called Qualoth. The runes are made of lines, dashes and dots. Indentations and protrusions dominate and are meant to be read by touch and should be read four lines at the same time. Their virtually unbreakable by any non-Illithid (DC 35 Decipher Script) and would be fairly common in places where Illithids frequent.
Page 71 of Lords of Madness goes into a little bit of detail regarding language of the Illithids. Its true they have no spoken language but, as has been mentioned on this thread, they have a written one called Qualoth. The runes are made of lines, dashes and dots. Indentations and protrusions dominate and are meant to be read by touch and should be read four lines at the same time. Their virtually unbreakable by any non-Illithid (DC 35 Decipher Script) and would be fairly common in places where Illithids frequent.
Thanks for the clarification and reference. I might have to pick up LoM as Illithids will be reappearing from time to time in the next campaign arc and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole grimlock/aboleth/beholder/abberations-in-general Cthulian flavor of this last leg of the journey. Do you think it is worth it?
LoM is a pretty good book overall, although I distinctly like a lot of the fluff about the origins of the various major aberrations. Aboleths being creatures almost from beyond time, I can more or less handle. Mind flayers being from the future? No, thanks.
However, that's all very easily overlooked and your enjoyment of the rest of the book won't be radically affected by such dismissals.
Page 71 of Lords of Madness goes into a little bit of detail regarding language of the Illithids. Its true they have no spoken language but, as has been mentioned on this thread, they have a written one called Qualoth. The runes are made of lines, dashes and dots. Indentations and protrusions dominate and are meant to be read by touch and should be read four lines at the same time. Their virtually unbreakable by any non-Illithid (DC 35 Decipher Script) and would be fairly common in places where Illithids frequent.Thanks for the clarification and reference. I might have to pick up LoM as Illithids will be reappearing from time to time in the next campaign arc and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole grimlock/aboleth/beholder/abberations-in-general Cthulian flavor of this last leg of the journey. Do you think it is worth it?
My opinion completely echoes Saern's. Each creature is given a chapter to itself. I thought a lot of them were really cool and well written but a few of them were a little over the top for my tastes and the Mind Flayer one was the most extreme in this regard. That said removing 'from the future' and replacing with anything else more to your tastes is pretty easy and does not invalidate anything else involved in this book. Personally I'd have liked to have seen a couple of the more obscure monsters removed and just a tad more detail for each of the creatures but all in all this is one of my favorite WotC books. Its light on crunch and heavy on flavor however and there ain't much here for your PCs so that might be a factor in your purchasing.
Personally if your a fan of Cuthuluesque type material I'd check it out.
... I distinctly like a lot of the fluff about the origins...
Meant to say dis-like.
Anyway, yes, the book is good. It has something for everyone, too. Lots of good DM advice, creature background and info, and player options like feats and PrCs (even some psionic ones, if that's your thing).
And, it just occured to me that there's even advice in the book on how to run an aberration-heavy game, and its central theme is horrifying the players. This was brought up in the Heroes of Horror thread, but if you want to add a little horror to your game, Lovecraft or otherwise, this book has some tips on how to scare your players. It's designed for the Mythos-style, of course, but you can replace "aberration" with evil outsiders or undead or anything else spooky or scary and it still works.