Soo.... it seems i've a tadpole in my head. Any suggestions to take it out?

[Karlosuno]

In a custom campaign I and another patry member have been reduced and the enemy has introduced a tadpole to our head. These tadpoles are connected to the boss mindflayer and little by little they will kill us. Any idea how to get these things out of our heads?

According to our DM if we kill the boss mindflayer these "little ones" will be defenseless and we could even expel them (I guess with some spells or will saves). But I would like to explore other options.
Of course, these "little ones" do not allow me or my partner to do any kind of harm to them or let others do it to them.

As you will understand, this is a character with whom I have been playing for a long time and I would not like him to die :)

[VoodistMonk]

Mindflayer tadpoles... oofta... ok.

Step 1, update your character's will, make sure your adventurers' life insurance is up to date and paid.

Step 2, find a way to break the link between the Mindflayer and his tadpoles, even temporarily.

Step 3, pay for a Wish.

Step 4 (assuming Step 3 is a no-go), find a doctor you trust... preferrably one with Signature Skill: Heal, a Healer's Kit/ Surgeon's Tools, Healer's Hands, and Incredible Healer.

This is all assuming that Remove Disease doesn't rid you of the infestation/kill the larvae, as it does for Botflies. Probably not that easy, though.

[avr]

Rub ears with a better target - royalty or something?

Sit down in an antimagic zone with a skilled surgeon.

Assuming it drinks your blood for sustenance, inject a near-lethal (to you) dose of drugs or poison.

Tell it bad puns until it runs away or eats its own tail, whichever comes first.

[doc chaos]

Find a really bad bard!

[VoodistMonk]

Retrain a feat to Leadership... build a dedicated surgeon as your Cohort. Retrain Leadership to whatever it was before once the worm is out of your brain.

[Zotpox]

Greater Restoration or Reincarnation your call.

[ErichAD]

This is plainly off rules, but I'll see what I can come up with.

You could try disrupting the communication between the tadpole and the illithid in some way. If there's no communication, the thing should act as if its parent is dead. Block the signal with a lead helmet or plane hopping. You could even try sticking your head in a bag of holding to see if that worked.

Send fake communication to the tadpole. Use telepathy or something to tell the tadpole that you are the boss and its time to leave.

Become braindead. Normal anti-worm treatments work by removing the nutrient source, like sugars or what have you. Since these things are feeding on your brain, you may be able to get rid of them by switching your brain off. Go into a coma or something. The drug adyton could be useful here as it moves the conciousness elsewhere.

Instigate a psychic duel with the afflicted. It may starve the tadpole, or it may bring the tadpole, target and caster all into the same mindscape.

[David knott 242]

One solution might be for a fellow party member to kill you and then have you brought back via a Reincarnate spell. Since you come back in a new body, the tadpole is left with your old body and can be destroyed along with it.

[avr]

One other thought. If you can cast spells it'd be hard to argue that you don't have line of effect to the tadpole and mind-affecting spells might be the answer (assuming it's an aberration and not vermin or something else mind-affecting immune). Or magic jar; not many people have seen the inside of their own skull and lived to tell the tale, and it can affect creatures immune to mind-affecting spells.

[Karlosuno]

avr wrote:

One other thought. If you can cast spells it'd be hard to argue that you don't have line of effect to the tadpole and mind-affecting spells might be the answer (assuming it's an aberration and not vermin or something else mind-affecting immune). Or magic jar; not many people have seen the inside of their own skull and lived to tell the tale, and it can affect creatures immune to mind-affecting spells.

I'd be great to do that, but unfortunately in this custom campaign diamonds are almost gone in the entire world... So wr cant afford to buy one...

[Karlosuno]

avr wrote:

Rub ears with a better target - royalty or something?

Sit down in an antimagic zone with a skilled surgeon.

Assuming it drinks your blood for sustenance, inject a near-lethal (to you) dose of drugs or poison.

Tell it bad puns until it runs away or eats its own tail, whichever comes first.

It would be great but right now we don't count with any doctor/surgeon to make the operation and the time is runnin gout very fast(3-4 days before the tadpole kills us) sooo, the best idea is make a party member whom is not infected to do it, but we can't let anyone hurt this tadpole (because it is suggesting our minds...) so they have to come to this plan by themselves... orrrrr kill the mindflayer boss.

Also one important think to comment is that we already had entered the boss main facilities (underground) so i think unless the party forces us to drink INT afecting poison it'll be hard to comfront, or else kill the mindflayer.

[Mark Hoover 330]

In all seriousness... have a fellow PC cast Boiling Blood on you. Presumably, as AVR supposes above, it survives on your blood so this spell will affect the tadpole. You voluntarily fail your save, start taking 1 point of Fire damage per round until you outlast the brain parasite and it boils to death. You gotta love a game where you voluntarily boil the blood running through your brain to kill a parasite and it will do NO permanent damage to you by RAW.

Also if this is a "custom campaign" are there any in-setting solutions that wouldn't involve RAW? I mean, we could suggest things serious or silly all day but if they have no chance of success in this homebrew then our efforts would be for naught.

Finally, you could just find a better class of parasite to deal with THIS parasite. I hear worms from an old egg salad sandwich at a space truck stop work well...

[Wonderstell]

Karlosuno wrote:

I'd be great to do that, but unfortunately in this custom campaign diamonds are almost gone in the entire world... So wr cant afford to buy one...

I understand that this is just the GM trying to provide an in-universe explanation as to why they don't allow Raise Dead and similar spells, but those spells are ironically still linked to the monetary value of the diamonds, not the diamond itself. So if a 0.1 carat diamond is now sold at 5,000 gp thanks to the limited supply, that would be enough to cast raise dead even though the same diamond only cost 100 gp some millennia ago.

If you have access to Summon Monster V then you can summon a Remacera to Reincarnate you without the material component. That would require throwing a prayer to one of the Eldest, but surviving is probably worth becoming a follower.

But I get the feeling your GM has a very specific idea of how this will play out, and will veto any way to circumvent their tadpole infection.

[VoodistMonk]

The reason I bring up a surgeon relying on the Heal skill is because I think it has the least possible resistance from the GM.

Treat Deadly Wounds is what is used if you get shot in the face... removing a burning hot lead bullet from your skull is the most comparable treatment available.

Between a Healer's Kit/Surgeon's Tools, Signature Skill, Healer's Hands, and Incredible Healer... they could reasonably treat everything in the game possible that doesn't absolutely require magic (such as regrowing lost limbs, but they would be able to reattach a severed limb so long as it is intact and present).

Possibly replace Signature Skill with the Occult Skill Unlock for Heal to Treat Afflictions...

[Hugo Rune]

Remove Disease seems an obvious starting point as that kills some parasites. Assuming that doesn't work then cast Delay Poison, which only affects one person, so the parasite should not benefit (point this out to the GM if necessary). Then consume many doses of poison to kill the parasite. Finally cast neutralise poison so you're not killed as well.

If that doesn't work consult a sage. Ie ask the GM in game what will work.

[Meirril]

Oddest idea. Find someone that can cast decollate on you. Then find a master pickpocket to slight of hand the tadpole out of your decapitated head...

If that won't work, the series of surgery suggestions can be followed.

[Bjørn Røyrvik]

Canonically, you have one hour from implantation to the point of no return. During this time a Remove Disease might work, and Heal definitely should, and you would likely require some Restoration to make up for the brain damage.

Failing this, kill yourselves ASAP, get the tadpole out, cast Gentle Repose as many time as necessary while you find a Paladin with Ultimate Mercy for Raise Dead for no diamond cost. Alternatively, kill yourselves, be Reincarnated.
Or you can just go full undead. No living brain = no food for a hungry tadpole.

If 9th level spells are on the table, Miracle can be cast without diamond cost if the granting god wishes it.

[Asethe]

Gathering that this isn't a normal situation of ceremorphosis, otherwise you would have, at best, a day before it can't be reversed, and a week before becoming an illithid.

They feed on your brain, so poisoning your blood won't do much unless it kills you as well. Part of this is feeding on psychic potential which leads to...

Feeblemind or equivalent to reduce you to a vegetable and maybe starve it out. Might not save your life if it decides to try to eat all your brain to make up for the lack of psychic potential

Otherwise, eat a Fireball and either get Resurrected after your head is well and truly destroyed, or Reincarnated, and make sure to well and truly destroy your head

Failing that, pray for a miracle and hope your god likes you a lot

[VoodistMonk]

I mean, what's so bad about being a Mindflayer anyways?

You get free Tentacles and Mind Blasts, can Extract Brains... you can still become a Lich (always awesome).

[Kimera757]

VoodistMonk wrote:

I mean, what's so bad about being a Mindflayer anyways?

You get free Tentacles and Mind Blasts, can Extract Brains... you can still become a Lich (always awesome).

The part where you lose your personality and become an NPC :)

[Neriathale]

Find a highly skilled lawyer (Asmodeus if you can afford him), have them argue the case that since Ilithids are WotC intellectual property they cannot possibly exist in a Pathfiner universe.

Watch as the big bad disappears in a puff of litigation and takes his tadpoles with him.

[Hugo Rune]

Just read the Forgotten Realms wiji article on Mind Flayers. Apparently the safest method of removing the tadpole is to crush the skull and then cast resurrection followed by restoration or heal to restore the personality that had already been eaten.

[Sysryke]

Not to throw a monkey wrench into everyone's ideas; but I think it was implied that the tadpole is already in enough control that it won't allow the infested character's to take any actions to remove it, or at the very least that they can't take or allow any actions to harm it. I admit I'm not super familiar with this subject matter, but doesn't that put the kaibosh on most of these "destroy your head" type plans? If the character's still have any agency in their attempts/desires to see these buggers removed, I'd guess you'd need to look into some form of phasing or plane shifting. Something that allows only the character or the tadpole to change density/locations, but not both. Or maybe illicit some type of a polymorph effect that transforms the hosts into a base enough creature that they don't have a brain (i.e. a jellyfish). Character walks into a pool, gets transformed, tadpole is left outside the brainless now much smaller bio-mass, both are swimming separate and safe, then character gets scooped out and transformed back.

[VoodistMonk]

That's why Step 2 is to "find a way to break the link between the Mindflayer and his tadpoles, even temporarily."

That should give you just enough time to tell your friends to get this freaking thing out of your head, and not resist when your homeboy clobbers you on the head to knock you unconscious.

Then, out comes the trusty T-handle holesaw and the tweezers... have someone awkwardly holding a mirror to reflect light into the gaping hole in your skull.

Got it. Nope, nevermind. What was it that I just pulled out then? Oh well...

[Goth Guru]

Seriously, a sleep spell or hold person on you should allow trepanning or head destruction.

[Albatoonoe]

I don't have anything to contribute, but I want to say that this is all delightfully Fromsoft. It is a situation that is not out of place in Dark Souls.

[Mark Hoover 330]

I think in all our urgency to either be super silly or target the removal with serious, in-game solutions, we've missed a couple obvious points:

1. the GM has already said slaying the mindflayer will end this nightmare

2. the characters have already been inside the mindflayer's facility

While the tadpoles won't let the affected characters do anything to directly harm the worms or perhaps their implanter, we have no idea if in-game the other characters even know their comrades are afflicted, nor do we know what kind of indirect actions these PCs can take against the mindflayer.

Can the characters sell the location of the facility to other opponents of the mindflayer? Can they make a direct assault? Could they leverage this knowledge in any other tactical way?

Perhaps the answer is as simple as it is difficult. I know the OP said they want other solutions but they may have to just bite the bullet and slay the mindflayer. If that's the case, they've already been to the creature's lair supposedly, so they may have the power level to pull this option off.

[Karlosuno]

Sysryke wrote:

Not to throw a monkey wrench into everyone's ideas; but I think it was implied that the tadpole is already in enough control that it won't allow the infested character's to take any actions to remove it, or at the very least that they can't take or allow any actions to harm it. I admit I'm not super familiar with this subject matter, but doesn't that put the kaibosh on most of these "destroy your head" type plans? If the character's still have any agency in their attempts/desires to see these buggers removed, I'd guess you'd need to look into some form of phasing or plane shifting. Something that allows only the character or the tadpole to change density/locations, but not both. Or maybe illicit some type of a polymorph effect that transforms the hosts into a base enough creature that they don't have a brain (i.e. a jellyfish). Character walks into a pool, gets transformed, tadpole is left outside the brainless now much smaller bio-mass, both are swimming separate and safe, then character gets scooped out and transformed back.

As you say, my character is conscient of the tadpole but as my DM says "if anyone do anything against the tadpole you will defend it as it were you". so by my own i can't do much... and actually we're in the mindflayer's facilities so our resources are pretty limited... We are a 5-6 lvl party (arcanist(me), paladin, barbarian, monk, fighter and the last i dont remember...)

I like your plan to polymorph into a jellyfich and became a separate entity from the tadpole. As i just lvld up to 6 i can learn some 3lvl spells this could come very well to make the polymorph.

[Karlosuno]

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

I think in all our urgency to either be super silly or target the removal with serious, in-game solutions, we've missed a couple obvious points:

1. the GM has already said slaying the mindflayer will end this nightmare

2. the characters have already been inside the mindflayer's facility

While the tadpoles won't let the affected characters do anything to directly harm the worms or perhaps their implanter, we have no idea if in-game the other characters even know their comrades are afflicted, nor do we know what kind of indirect actions these PCs can take against the mindflayer.

Can the characters sell the location of the facility to other opponents of the mindflayer? Can they make a direct assault? Could they leverage this knowledge in any other tactical way?

Perhaps the answer is as simple as it is difficult. I know the OP said they want other solutions but they may have to just bite the bullet and slay the mindflayer. If that's the case, they've already been to the creature's lair supposedly, so they may have the power level to pull this option off.

1. He says i'd facilitate the expulsion of the tadpole, but not kill it instantly.

2. We are in fact currently inside the facilities so we can't really get any kind of external help...

As the Dm warned us; You SHOULD have the posibility to kill the mindflyer. This is the reason to fear that at some point in the fight the tadpole will take control and attack the allies ...

[Goth Guru]

Killing the source Mindflayer kills all the babies is a cinematic rule, so I suspect the adult Mind flayer has other weaknesses. Perhaps fire does double damage because of it's semi octopoid nature.

[Tacticslion]

A very, very simple, easy solution, available to many characters at all levels is: protection from evil. With that spell in place, you do not have to worry about any other suggestions, compulsions, or overriding influences. Well it does not automatically prevent you from having the suggestions that you currently have any i.e. the one that prevents you from harming it, directly – it will prevent any and all future suggestions, meaning that your characters cannot be taken over mid end combat, and thus you can send your full weight against the mind flayer.

To add to the pile of more wacky suggestions, teleport. Just, just teleport. Choose the option that lets you teleport just by yourself, with no tadpole. The end. (obviously that solution does not work, if you are treating the tadpole as if it were yourself. Also well out of your spell-level range. Hence, falling under the wacky suggestions umbrella. :D)

[Meirril]

Karlosuno wrote:

As you say, my character is conscient of the tadpole but as my DM says "if anyone do anything against the tadpole you will defend it as it were you". so by my own i can't do much... and actually we're in the mindflayer's facilities so our resources are pretty limited... We are a 5-6 lvl party (arcanist(me), paladin, barbarian, monk, fighter and the last i dont remember...)

I like your plan to polymorph into a jellyfich and became a separate entity from the tadpole. As i just lvld up to 6 i can learn some 3lvl spells this could come very well to make the polymorph.

Hold up. You're 6th level? The party is 6th level? And you're up against a MINDFLAYER?!?

Yeah. Ok, new plan. Get a druid, at least 5th level. Kill all of the infected players, reincarnate them. While there is a huge chance that you'll reincarnate as a different race, you won't come back with a tadpole in your head as it is an entirely new body.

Mindflayers were serious bad news in D&D. You really shouldn't be seeing even a single Mindflayer until you're party is 9th level or higher. Well, your GM is converting it to Pathfinder so it could be much weaker than I'd expect, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[zza ni]

Bjørn Røyrvik wrote:

Canonically, you have one hour from implantation to the point of no return. During this time a Remove Disease might work, ...

^this

back in 2nd edition there was more then one case of parasites in the big monster manual book (i think the one i remember most were worms used by assassins) all had "use cure disease in X time" as the major way of dealing with. some had other things (like pouring alcohol on wound to draw it out etc).

also lead helmet -block most divination spells. might help blocking the mindflayer control on the tadpole (if your not playing a caster id consider a lead covered helmet a basic gear items to get)
i think telepathy is said to work like detect thoughts (if im not mistaken) only with a two way option. detect thoughts is blocked by lead.

[Karlosuno]

Meirril wrote:

Karlosuno wrote:

As you say, my character is conscient of the tadpole but as my DM says "if anyone do anything against the tadpole you will defend it as it were you". so by my own i can't do much... and actually we're in the mindflayer's facilities so our resources are pretty limited... We are a 5-6 lvl party (arcanist(me), paladin, barbarian, monk, fighter and the last i dont remember...)

I like your plan to polymorph into a jellyfich and became a separate entity from the tadpole. As i just lvld up to 6 i can learn some 3lvl spells this could come very well to make the polymorph.

Hold up. You're 6th level? The party is 6th level? And you're up against a MINDFLAYER?!?

Yeah. Ok, new plan. Get a druid, at least 5th level. Kill all of the infected players, reincarnate them. While there is a huge chance that you'll reincarnate as a different race, you won't come back with a tadpole in your head as it is an entirely new body.

Mindflayers were serious bad news in D&D. You really shouldn't be seeing even a single Mindflayer until you're party is 9th level or higher. Well, your GM is converting it to Pathfinder so it could be much weaker than I'd expect, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Yeah, i'd be a great alternative... but in "our" homebrew lore there are no diamonds to bring people back from death,so i'ts pretty impossible to do the druid stuff and so...

Yeah we are aware thet mindflayer is a little big for us. (this weekend we had a game sesion and two familiars were killed and one party member was almost one-shoted by one mindflayer). Now we have the final fight against 3 mindflayers (we assume one of those is the leader). Any tip to bypass the confusion spell or similar (like dominate person)?

[VoodistMonk]

I think it may be time to embrace the inevitable ceremorphosis, and ready yourself to be welcomed into the flock of Mind Flayers.

With any luck, you will become a Ulitharid, the "Noble Devourer"... and someday, you may even live to become a new Elder Brain.

Resistance is futile...

[Sysryke]

Spread out (preferably come in from different entrances/angles), attack hard and fast, pray a lot. You're facing seemingly overwhelming odds anyway; so try called shots and screw up their brains early. A brain damaged psychic is at least somewhat handicapped.

If you have a chance to prepare, try to set the battlefield. Maybe make some mundane traps that are well disguised, but with no magic auras to give them away. Try and make a kill box, and plink the buggers down with ranged attacks. None of this may be an option. But superior tactics and a lot of luck seems to be your only hope.

[VoodistMonk]

Daylight spells? Don't Mind Flayers suffer from Light Blindness or some such crap?

Spread the party out so WHEN you get dominated, there's no one immediately next to you for you to attack.

Don't hold on to any trump cards... don't dare die with special arrows still in the quiver, use your biggest spells right out the gate, screw subtlety, go out with a bang...

[Meirril]

Karlosuno wrote:

Meirril wrote:

Karlosuno wrote:

As you say, my character is conscient of the tadpole but as my DM says "if anyone do anything against the tadpole you will defend it as it were you". so by my own i can't do much... and actually we're in the mindflayer's facilities so our resources are pretty limited... We are a 5-6 lvl party (arcanist(me), paladin, barbarian, monk, fighter and the last i dont remember...)

I like your plan to polymorph into a jellyfich and became a separate entity from the tadpole. As i just lvld up to 6 i can learn some 3lvl spells this could come very well to make the polymorph.

Hold up. You're 6th level? The party is 6th level? And you're up against a MINDFLAYER?!?

Yeah. Ok, new plan. Get a druid, at least 5th level. Kill all of the infected players, reincarnate them. While there is a huge chance that you'll reincarnate as a different race, you won't come back with a tadpole in your head as it is an entirely new body.

Mindflayers were serious bad news in D&D. You really shouldn't be seeing even a single Mindflayer until you're party is 9th level or higher. Well, your GM is converting it to Pathfinder so it could be much weaker than I'd expect, but I wouldn't bet on it.

Yeah, i'd be a great alternative... but in "our" homebrew lore there are no diamonds to bring people back from death,so i'ts pretty impossible to do the druid stuff and so...

Yeah we are aware thet mindflayer is a little big for us. (this weekend we had a game sesion and two familiars were killed and one party member was almost one-shoted by one mindflayer). Now we have the final fight against 3 mindflayers (we assume one of those is the leader). Any tip to bypass the confusion spell or similar (like dominate person)?

Technically speaking, Druids use 1000 gp in ointments to reincarnate someone. However, its obvious that your GM just doesn't want people to be raised from the dead.

Maybe convince the GM that you can kill the tadpole by drinking enough alcohol to knock yourself unconscious ... which should be enough to kill smaller creatures that get your blood.

[Tacticslion]

Yeah, ask your GM if he just wants out of the game or if he is specifically trying to bring it to a BadEnd(tm).

(Also ninja’d on the druids using ointment thing.)

But protection from evil, nova hard, and coordinate to focus-fire on individual targets.

Mindflayers don’t normally have confusion, but your GM may be using however considering your in Pathfinder.

Now, I’m about to go into meta information, but it’s worth knowing as a player even if you don’t as a character.

Charm and suggestion are covered by protection from evil.
Detect thoughts is mostly irrelevant.
Levitate is annoying but with ranged you’re good.
Plane shift is the real killer (unless being on a different plane kicks your tadpole): dimensional anchor or similar is a must for that.

More than anything else, mind blast is the worst because it stuns everyone within the cone for a minimum of 3 rounds all the way up to 12; and you’re going to be making what is probably three sets of will saves (one from each). If everyone is stunned, the mindflayers can kill three creatures guaranteed. This creates a death spiral where it becomes impossible to deal more damage than the people they kill.

Now, mindflayers were CR 8 in 3.5, but their DCs are lower than in PF (though marginally: 17 instead of 18 for the “high” DC). Their hp are MUCH lower (44 vs. 100), AC 15 (or 24, but see below) vs expected 21, an SR of 25. Outside of the SR you’re looking at something like CR 4 to 6 by stats (though that mind blast could be much worse).

This is important because it means you can kill them quickly.

Now, there are other stat blocks for mindflayers, including one with sorcerer levels (though pre-printed it also doesn’t have confusion; the variant AC is 24, 109 hp, SR 34, DCs are 21) and there are variant related creatures, but those two are the main stats. The CR on a mindflayer sorcerer was CR 17 but statewide it’s closer to CR 10 in Pathfinder (probably CR 11, but some things are lower than 11).

SR is problematic. You’ve likely got atop make a 19 on the d20 check for overcoming SR for the standard one and a 28 on the d20 roll against the sorcerer stat block (these are presuming a CL of 6).

Now, there are spells that ignore SR and those will be useful if available. If you can obscuring most and hang out in the edges, you can stealth in the concealment along the edge without suffering from miss chance against the villains themselves even though you gain concealment from them.

[Tacticslion]

Regardless, I hope that helps! Good luck and let us know how it works!

[Goth Guru]

Horrible idea. Maybe early in the adventure something or someone put the whole party into a mindscape, and it wears off. They wake up on trial for killing half the town thinking they were trying to fight mindflayers.

[Mark Hoover 330]

Goth Guru wrote:

Horrible idea. Maybe early in the adventure something or someone put the whole party into a mindscape, and it wears off. They wake up on trial for killing half the town thinking they were trying to fight mindflayers.

… only to realize that THIS TRIAL is the mindscape and the mindflayers are real!

… only to THEN wake up and realize it was all a dream.

… only to THN see the dreamworld melt around them into a nightmare, realizing that they've ACTUALLY been being ridden by Night Hags this whole time!

… and so on, ad nauseum, until the players get tired of watching that top spin on the table and go home :)

[Scott Wilhelm]

Karlosuno wrote:

In a custom campaign I and another patry member have been reduced and the enemy has introduced a tadpole to our head. These tadpoles are connected to the boss mindflayer and little by little they will kill us. Any idea how to get these things out of our heads?

I was just reading up on the 3.5 Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberations. If your GM is playing off of that, your characters will lose 1 point each of Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Dexterity every hour, and when any of those reaches 0, your character is irrevocably Dead, and its body becomes a new Mind Flayer.

Karlosuno wrote:

little by little they will kill us

Ability score loss of 1/hour is not what what I would call "little by little." It is possible that your GM has nerfed the Mind Flayers somewhat, maybe making the ability score loss 1/day instead of 1/hour. I guess you could test it by telling your GM that you try to recite a tongue twister or shuffle and deal a deck of cards. or something, then do the same thing an hour later. If someone in the party has sufficient Ranks in Knowledge Dungeoneering or Heal, then this might be accomplished without metagaming, I guess.

Karlosuno wrote:

According to our DM if we kill the boss mindflayer these "little ones" will be defenseless and we could even expel them (I guess with some spells or will saves).

So, that's helpful. The GM has given you an in-house solution. If he is going by the rules otherwise, you have to act extremely quickly and extremely aggressively. You can't withdraw and recover spells. You can't loot bodies. Avoid searching for traps and secret doors. You need to locate that central brain and destroy it as fast as you can.

VoodistMonk wrote:

Step 1, update your character's will, make sure your adventurers' life insurance is up to date and paid.

If the GM is playing per RAW, it's too late for that!

VoodistMonk wrote:

find a way to break the link between the Mindflayer and his tadpoles, even temporarily.

Per the 3.5 rules, there is no reason to suppose that would work. That Tadpole is not a construct or projection under the control of a parent. It' more like a parasite wasp larva eating the caterpillar from the inside out. But the GM told the OP that if they kill the master-brain, then that will lead to a cure.

VoodistMonk wrote:

Step 3, pay for a Wish.

That might be what it takes.

VoodistMonk wrote:

Step 4 (assuming Step 3 is a no-go), find a doctor you trust... preferrably one with Signature Skill: Heal, a Healer's Kit/ Surgeon's Tools, Healer's Hands, and Incredible Healer.

If the GM is playing per RAW, the OP does not have enough time to "find a doctor." But the Heal Skill might solve the problem. But we're talking a medieval fantasy setting here, and we are talking brain surgery. Mere trephining will not do. You have to probe and fish for that tadpole that will try to wiggle away and hide and escape the surgeon's probe. If the surgeon or another party member has some ability to magically see inside the brain that would help: I'd certainly allow an extra Aid Another Check for that. If I were the GM, I would have a lot of fun assigning DCs for this procedure!

avr wrote:

Assuming it drinks your blood for sustenance, inject a near-lethal (to you) dose of drugs or poison.

Cool: medieval chemotherapy. The Book of Aberations says that the parasite itself is easy to kill if you can get to it inside the patient's head. So, inject some kind of deadly poison or--why not--acid directly into the patient's head, maybe up the nose the same way the parasite got in. That should count as an area attack on the tadpole and Coup de Grace on the patient. The Book of Aberations is vague on whether this would work. Again, I would have a lot of fun assigning DCs for this procedure.

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

In all seriousness... have a fellow PC cast Boiling Blood on you.

Interesting solution. That might work. Can you target the parasite with Boiling Blood if you can't see it?

Mark Hoover 330 wrote:

it survives on your blood

Actually, it is eating your brain directly, but there is some blood involved.

David knott 242 wrote:

One solution might be for a fellow party member to kill you and then have you brought back via a Reincarnate spell. Since you come back in a new body, the tadpole is left with your old body and can be destroyed along with it.

That is actually pretty much the recommended solution. Kill the patient; smash the skull; kill the parasite; cast resurrection. If you were trying to extract the parasite with the Heal Skill, then a roll high enough to extract the parasite but not high enough to not kill the patient might allow a Raise Dead to work instead of a Resurrection or Reincarnate.

So, Kill the patient; smash the skull; kill the parasite; cast Reincarnate; cast Polymorph or Baleful Polymorph and turn the character back into a human (or elf, or whatever).

Kill the patient; smash the skull; kill the parasite; cast Make Whole; cast Raise Dead.

Those 2 should work.

Hugo Rune wrote:

Remove Disease seems an obvious starting point

Always worth a try, but Remove Disease was specifically called out as a method that would not work.

VoodistMonk wrote:

I mean, what's so bad about being a Mindflayer anyways?

As other people pointed out, the character would then be irrevocably dead. On the other hand, if the OP survives the experience, they might qualify for those nasty Mind Flayer Feats or levels in Sorcerer with the Aberation Bloodline or the Alienist Prestige Class or something.

Sysryke wrote:

I think it was implied that the tadpole is already in enough control that it won't allow the infested character's to take any actions to remove it, or at the very least that they can't take or allow any actions to harm it.

Also not RAW. That suggests the GM created this situation as a plot device to drive the party into aggressively attacking the Mind Flayer master brain and kill it quickly. In the event that the party tries magic surgery, then you're right. The other party members would have to overpower the OP's PC or get him while he's asleep, then restrain him for the procedure.

Here's a thought: if the party Wizard can find a way to see the parasite, it would be susceptible to a Sleep Spell.

[Scott Wilhelm]

Neriathale wrote:

Find a highly skilled lawyer (Asmodeus if you can afford him), have them argue the case that since Ilithids are WotC intellectual property they cannot possibly exist in a Pathfiner universe.

Watch as the big bad disappears in a puff of litigation and takes his tadpoles with him.

Cute, but if that works, it would be a little like treating alcaholism with heroin.

[Scott Wilhelm]

Actually, the parasite should be susceptible to the Sleep Spell regardless.

[Scott Wilhelm]

Ok, I have a plan.

Find a way to see the parasite: Actually, I'm thinkin just Detect Magic or Detect Evil would do.

Sleep the tadpoles.

Use Mage Hand to extract them out through the nose the way they came in.

[Goth Guru]

A couple of those might work within the GMs parameters.
I'm still suspicious as to how the characters got there. Are the mind flayers running some kind of test to see if Golarion is a good place to invade? If they destroy the elder brain they might wake up in a crop circle with only experience points to show for it.

[Zog of Deadwood]

Potion of gaseous form? If the tadpole is a separate creature, it might theoretically not be affected by an effect that targets only the host creature. Probably too easy to work, though. However, even if it was affected automatically by spells affecting the host, what about casting particulate form? That might allow it to be removed without hurting you very much.

If this counts as a disease, a paladin with the disease mercy would automatically use it if he or she applied lay on hands, as all known mercies are automatically applied. That might do the trick. So would putting on a periapt of health, which would render the wearer completely immune to disease, Presumably the tadpole would then leave or die.

Or how about Faith Healing (occult skill unlock for Heal skill) to remove affliction?

[Anguish]

Considering the party in question was 5th-6th and up against three mind-flayers, despite there being six PCs I suspect without GM-fiat the CR11-ish encounter was a TPK a month ago or so.

That said, I suspect the GM is having fun telling some story they want to tell - balance be darned - and just provided them the solution they had in mind all along.