monster

Ulitharid

CR 9

Large Aberration, Lawful Evil

Reveal Stat Block

Armor Class

15 ({@item breastplate|phb})

Hit Points

127 (17d10 + 14)

Speed

30 ft.

str

dex

con

int

wis

cha

Traits

Creature Sense.The ulitharid is aware of the presence of creatures within 2 miles of it that have an Intelligence score of 4 or higher. It knows the distance and direction to each creature, as well as each creature's intelligence score, but can't sense anything else about it. A creature protected by a mind blank spell, a nondetection spell, or similar magic can't be perceived in this manner.

Magic Resistance.The ulitharid has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Psionic Hub.If an elder brain establishes a psychic link with the ulitharid, the elder brain can form a psychic link with any other creature the ulitharid can detect using its Creature Sense. Any such link ends if the creature falls outside the telepathy ranges of both the ulitharid and the elder brain. The ulitharid can maintain its psychic link with the elder brain regardless of the distance between them, so long as they are both on the same plane of existence. If the ulitharid is more than 5 miles away from the elder brain, it can end the psychic link at any time (no action required).

Actions

Tentacles.mw 9 to hit, reach 10 ft., one creature. ({@damage 4d10 + 5) psychic damage. If the target is Large or smaller, it is grappled (escape 14) and must succeed on a 17 Intelligence saving throw or be stunned until this grapple ends.

Extract Brain.mw 9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one incapacitated humanoid grappled by the ulitharid. ({@damage 10d10) piercing damage. If this damage reduces the target to 0 hit points, the ulitharid kills the target by extracting and devouring its brain.

Mind Blast 5.The ulitharid magically emits psychic energy in a 60-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a 17 Intelligence saving throw or take 31 (4d12 + 5) psychic damage and be stunned for 1 minute. A target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Ulitharid

Very rarely, a tadpole from an elder brain's brine pool transforms an individual into an ulitharid, a larger and more potent mind flayer that boasts six tentacles.

Master Minds

Illithids innately recognize that an ulitharid's survival is more important than their own. An elder brain's reaction to the rise of an ulitharid varies. In most colonies, the ulitharid becomes an elder brain's most favored servant, invested with power and authority. In others, the elder brain perceives an ulitharid as a potential rival for power, and it manipulates or quashes the ulitharid's ambitions accordingly.

Birth of a Colony

When an ulitharid finds sharing leadership with an elder brain to be insufferable, it breaks off from the colony, taking a group of mind flayers with it, and moves to another location to form a new colony. After the death of the ulitharid's body, mind flayers take its brain and place it in a brine pool, where it grows into an elder brain over a few days. This process doesn't work on the brain of an ulitharid that dies a natural death, as a brain that succumbs to old age is too decrepit to be used in the creation of an elder brain.

Extractor Staff

Each ulitharid carries a psionically enhanced staff made of black metal. When the ulitharid is ready to give up its life, it attaches the staff to the back of its head, and the staff cracks open its skull and peels it apart, enabling its brain to be extracted. The brain and the staff are then planted in the ulitharid's corpse, causing it to dissolve into ichor. This psionically potent slime helps to fuel the transformation of the area into a brine pool that surrounds an embryonic elder brain.