What is your opinion on mindflayers?

I always thought they were cool, since the time I saw them in one of the older D&D monster manuals.

They're really damn cool, but they're so iconic that it's difficult to use them effectively They can't be terrifying if players will just say "oh, it's a mind flayer".

This user is correct. Mind Flayers are great when you use them in campaigns that consist of newer players though, along with appropriately themed enemies and environments. They expect it to be a simple dungeon crawl, they get a taste of horror.

I also like Spelljammer Mind Flayers, but mostly because I'm into weird space fantasy stuff.

This is the exact same problem I have with them. And unlike, say, vampires, mind flayers don't exist outside of DnD, which makes the problem even worse.

That's because you've never seen the large slew of Illithid guro snuff porn I masturbate to.

An Illithid is the same thing as setting a Rapist on a Player Character- If you're not playing it as a honest to god, alien monstrosity literally out to fuck somene's braind out, you are objectively doing it wrong.

The speed of getting your brain extracted by one of these things is only something they do in the heat of combat- they can actually make it as SLOW as they like, and probably make it no different than that screencap of "I roll to rape". Except there's a Mind Flayer performance eating a beloved player character behind a fucking forcefield and her compatraiots are forced to watch every agonizing second as this thing VIOLATEs her grey matter, prodding probing and removing bits to consume from her two hemispheres from her head it cracked open with it's saw blade mouth, as it displays her thoughts and feelings as they're slowly torn into disarry, like watching a fully functional costly computer rig being smashed up by a guy with a sledgehammer as it is stilll running in motion.

Oh- don't forget about the blood, tears, piss and bowels being released as a result of the pain and nervous shock- people tend to forget IT'S THAT FUCKING HORRIBLE.

There's also the fact that people forget that Illithid do not feel happy thoughts. They're in a state of perpetual everlasting agony due to how they are formed from cerebromorphis effectively doing something Circumcision tier with the brain and feel like brain damage victims, and spend 21 Years of their life training the only thing that stops this from hurting- also being fed racial indoctrination and other things from the community Elder Brain, and basically being molded into reliant equivalents of clingly child abuse victims, except- in every way, warped, alien and objectively evil. These things don't feel joy till they repeat this on other people via consumption.

They are rapists.

They are cool. However, I don't play D&D and idiots at TSR trademarked them, so I don't see them in games, ever.

I got so many boners from that book
That passage where the slave ritually shaves her head and anoints it with perfumes... unf.

A bit dissonant, especially in settings where psionics are otherwise not a thing.
And tangentially weakened by the overexposure of Cthulhu.
Creature design is underwhelming because it keeps the humanoid proportions to strictly.
Their powerlevel and mind control weakens them in their ability to be thematically used as a society, limited to cult and secret society like use or individual+retinue.

Not really cool all in all. I see their mayor utility as part of the full D&D themepark experience.

...

Sickened by the porn, curious about your take