Illithid Savant Information [In Progress]

[killercoffee]

The Illithid Savant
v.0.85
I haven't been able to find a guide or even mildly comprehensive resource for the Illithid Savant anywhere. Since it's one of my favorite classes, I figured I could make this reference for anyone interested.

Changelog:

• v.0.85 (2/5/09): Added Quickness to SAs, quoted Emy's Zhentarim Skymage build. Changed premade builds slightly to reflect new and better combos.

Illithid Savant Class Abilities

Lore: The savant can make a Lore check two times per day to recall esoteric knowledge from the brains he has consumed. Treat as a bardic knowledge check. The number of times this ability can be used goes up by two uses at 2nd, 5th, and 9th level.
This ability is pretty lackluster compared to the rest of the class. It can come in handy sometimes though, and it makes for excellent roleplay, especially for finding new abilities that synergise with your old ones.

Acquire Skill: An illithid savant can acquire one skill known by a creature whose brain the savant ate. He permanently gets all ranks in that skill, and it becomes a class skill for the Savant. He can gain a skill in this way at levels 1, 4, 6, and 8.
Also pretty lackluster, until you bring in various skills like Iaijitsu Strike, Autohypnosis, and Truespeak. Since this skill stacks with itself, you can buff up one skill to astronomic levels without difficulty.

Acquire Feat: An illithid savant can permanently acquire one feat from a creature whose brain it has eaten, provided he meets the feats prerequisites. He can gain a feat in this way at level 2, 4, 6, and 8.
Meh. Since the savant needs to meet the feat's prereqs, consider these bonus feats. Handy, but not amazing.

Acquire Class Features: An illithid savant can permanently gain one class feature of a consumed brain's owner, as a character of that creature's level in that class. If the character was a spellcaster, the illithid savant is able to cast one spell per level available to the character as well as any bonus spells provided by the savant's ability scores. The savant can gain a feature in this way at level 3, 7, and 10.
Aha...here we start getting into the good stuff. Skip taking levels in a class: just grab the feature you want. Make sure it doesn't rely on other class features to be effective!

Acquire Special Attack of Special Quality: An illithid savant can permanently gain one special attack or special quality of a consumed brain's owner. The chosen ability must not rely on a physical attribute of the consumed creature. If the ability allows a saving throw, the savant uses his own ability scores to determine the DC. The savant can gain an ability in this way at level 5 and 9.
Wow. This is where the savant's holy shit power comes from.

Good Abilities to Steal
Not all abilities are created equal.

Class Features
This is where you get your can of whoopass.

Tough as Bone (Pale Master): Immunity to stunning, disease, and nonlethal damage. Pair with a Regeneration ability taken from somewhere, and you are immune to most (if not all) damage! Otherwise, useless.

Deathless Mastery (Pale Master): Immunity to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, death effects, critical hits, ability drain, energy drain, and damage to his physical ability scores.

Aptitude Focus (Chameleon): I love the chameleon class. Taking this will give you a whole lot of versatility, even though you don't get Double Aptitude (which might be worth taking as well), or Ability Boon.

Shadow Pounce (Teflammar Shadowlord): No more ridiculous prereqs! Works well with Blink Dog's dimension door once per round as a free action.

Supernatural Spell (Dweomerkeeper): Less good if you can't cast wish. Eat the brain of a 20th level wizard or something, maybe.

Acquire Special Ability (Illithid Savant): This is sort of cheap, and cannibalistic. It is also pretty cool, since most special abilities are better than class features.

Special Abilities
The awesomesauce on your whoopass-can. (Don't ask what it's made of.)

Regeneration (Various): This is incredible combined with Tough as Bone (above). The best I can find is War Troll regeneration: 9 hp per round, and they only take damage from acid. Get some acid immunity and you're set!

Immunity to Acid (Black Dragon): There now. That wasn't so hard, hmm?

Consume Identity (Greater Doppleganger): This is sort of like aptitude focus on crack. You could have the brains (and therefore all of the powers) of, you know...whatever (just not clerics). Try to consume Lawful Evil people, because if you act against their alignment, you are forced out of their form for 1d10 rounds. Still pretty ridiculous; like a party in a can.

Phaerimm Spellcasting (Phaerimm): Wow! Cast all spells as SLAs...that means no material, somatic, verbal, or EXPERIENCE components. Like Supernatural Spell, but for everything.

Spellcasting (Various): You'll have to get your DM in on this one, but a lot of creatures have the ability "Spellcasting". Whether this counts as a class ability and so is subject to the one slot per level rule, or whether it is a special attack (and so is not) is up to your DM.

Quickness (Choker): You can take one extra standard or move action per round. This ability is good but not broken on the scale of some other potential Savant combos. Recommended if you have nothing else to take.

Notes on Polymorph: Polymorph (that ever-useful spell), can be used to eat the brains of any monster that normally doesn't allow it (constructs, elementals, undead, anything without brains), as outlined below:

Abuse Polymorph

and no, not to gain entry to Illithid Savant. This use of polymorph is quite similar to one I was thinking of for a rebuking character, except that this one is more likely to work. (Let me know if you think it won't.)

• Polymorph does not offer a save or SR. It only requires a willing target. Well, unconscious = willing for purposes of targeting spells.
• It changes the creature's type, and physical qualities.
• It inherits the following from alter self: "You retain all supernatural and spell-like special attacks and qualities of your normal form, except for those requiring a body part that the new form does not have (such as a mouth for a breath weapon or eyes for a gaze attack)"

Actions needed to take advantage of this (example given is an Ice Weird):
1) Get the ice weird unconscious. It doesn't matter how. Ego whip it repeatedly or have the beatstick attack it (its regeneration will turn the damage into nonlethal).
2) Turn it into a newt with polymorph.
3) Before, the target was an elemental mass of ice. Now it's an animal. A a fleshy animal with some abilities you might want... and a tasty, tasty brain.
4) Consume brain, receive either the ability to control any number of (ice or water) subtyped elementals indefinitely, or the ability to use a number of divination spells (including contact other plane, foresight, and greater scrying) at will as a free action.
5)
6) Profit.

I am having too much fun with formatting, at this point.

Summary:
If a creature can be rendered unconscious and is not immune to polymorph, you can gain its racial supernatural or spell like abilities
even if it does not normally have a brain.

Skills
Mmmm. Skills. The crunchy...bite-sized...hunks of uber in your awesomesauce? I don't know. Need better metaphors!

Diplomacy: I almost typed that Diplomancy, because that is basically what you are doing. If you put all of your Acquire Skills into this, you can easily get 60-80 ranks from the Savant ability alone.

Use Magic Device: No-brainer. Easy to get a whole lot of ranks, therefore, easy to use any magic item.

Truespeak: Well, consume a truenamer's brain for their utterances, then stack this...could work well. [further examination necessary]

Iaijitsu Strike: Always nice to have a lot of ranks in this (sort of like free sneak attack dice). Good for a combat-oriented Savant, not so good for a caster. Can be nice to break things though.

Autohypnosis: If I remember correctly, this can be used to resist poisons and such? Maybe worth investing.

Concentration: All-round handy for spellcasters.

Any Skill your Party Needs: If you need to, you can take on the role of Skill Monkey with no problem. This is an important thing to remember; skills such as Disable Device, Decipher Script, various Knowledge skills...all no problem.


Premade Setups
These are recommended organizations of the Savant's Acquire abilities. The savant has a lot of versatility, though, so feel free to do as you like.

[spoiler=Balgok'Urdead: The Destroyer of Campaign Worlds]
Skills: Use Magic Device +13, Use Magic Device +16, Diplomacy +18, Diplomacy +21
Feats: Epic Skill Focus (Diplomacy) x4
Class Features: Acquire Special Ability (Illithid Savant) x3
Special Abilities: Regeneration (War Troll), Phaerimm Spellcasting, Consume Identity (Greater Doppleganger), Undead Traits (any undead), Immunity to Acid (Black Dragon)

This guy rocks face. He prepares ALL of his spells as SLAs, so he has no xp or material cost. Aptitude Focus gives him 6th level arcane or divine spells, and his Spellcasting class feature lets him cast Wish with no XP cost. UMD combined with Wishes let him create and use any magic item in the game with no issues whatsoever. As if that wasn't enough, he is immune to all hitpoint damage(!), poison, disease, stunning, sleep effects, paralysis, death effects, critical hits, ability drain, energy drain, and damage to his physical attributes.

Did I mention he has +79 Diplomacy? Yeah, that too.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Zhentarim Skymage]

This setup is designed as an example for use with a zhentarim skymage build, where you can get over 20 HD on your illithid. This particular build is designed around a 31-HD Illtihid Savant.

Savant Abilities

Skills: Use Magic Device +23 x2, Spellcraft +23 x5
Feats: Epic Spellcasting, Epic Skill Focus (Spellcraft) x6
Class Features: Acquire Special Ability (Illithid Savant) x5
Special Abilities: Consume Identity (Greater Doppleganger), Regeneration (War Troll), Phaerimm Spellcasting (Phaerimm), Immunity to Acid (Black Dragon), Immunity to Spells (Iron Golem), Undead Traits (Undead), Abomination Traits (Infernal), Time Regression (Phane), Null Time Field (Phane)

Justifications: I used the polymorph trick to gain immunity to spells from an iron golem and undead traits from an undead thing. The Special Abilities are listed vaguely in order of acquisition based on difficulty of the being to be killed.

Benefits: Epic Spellcasting and +175 to Spellcraft DC (use unlimited wishes to create Rods of Excellent Magic, so you can make the spells without paying exp).
Immunity to any spells requiring SR, undead traits, and immunity to all physical damage means you're basically unkillable.
Use Consume Identity on a 20th level wizard, a 20th level archivist, and a 20th level fighter guy. Now you can play any part of a party. Phaerimm Spellcasting (all spells cast as SLAs) + access to wish means that money is no longer an object.
Finally, you have Abomination Traits which includes blindsight 500', telepathy 1000', and true seeing at will. There is also time regression and null time field from the phane.
[/spoiler]

An early-qualification build, courtesy of Emy and her Symbiotic Petal Zhentarim Skymage:

Guest: Sparkly McUber, Venerable Symbiotic Incarnate Dustform Petal Conjurer 5 / Zhentarim Skymage 5 / Legacy Champion 10 (Initial LA +5, reduced to +3 with Incarnate Construct, reduced to +0 with buyoff.)
Host: Tentacled Thing From The Forest, Symbiotic Greenbound Half-Fey Illithid Illithid Savant 10 / X 2 / Illithid Savant +7 (LA doesn't matter. Only its number of Hit Dice.)

[woodenbandman]

It's a pity this is all so DM dependant. If you start this in a high level game, you must be golden!

[Midnight_v]

In general though...
Awesome LOL... 

[Runestar]

Yeah...tarrasque regeneration...

PRC is clearly more for the DM to mix and match abilities to create his own Frankenstein monster. Just curious, anyone used it as an npc, and if so, what sort of powers did you combine together? 

[Surreal]

Here's the old thread from 339... http://forums.gleemax.com/wotc_archive/index.php/t-409678

I would grab regeneration, immunity to the relevant energy type, and immunity to non-lethal so you basically can't take damage. Crimson Scourge from Cityscape offers "Deadened Hide" (p.94) which gives this. You can also get it through Warforged Juggernaut, but I'm not sure you can eat their brains, so to speak. Then while we're in the realm of the ridiculous, someone make that argument for spellcasting as a special quality and steal it that way. Meh.

[Operation Shoestring]

Obligatory "what book is illithid savant from?" post.

[killercoffee]

The Illithid Savant is from Savage Species, and there is an epic-progression for it here.

Surreal, I strongly recommend gaining immunity to nonlethal damage via the Pale Master's Tough as Bone ability (also grants immunity to stunning and disease), although I'll check out the Crimson Scourge.

The tarrasque regeneration is just ridiculous, since even death effects and the like can't bypass it. If you build a powerful enough savant that you could overpower the tarrasque, disable it, and eat its brain (which it would regenerate), that would be ideal.

The savant is SUPER GM-dependent. Basically, it's not worth it to play unless your GM will deliberately feed you the needed monsters or you are starting at a higher level.

Edit:

Here's the old thread from 339... http://forums.gleemax.com/wotc_archive/index.php/t-409678

That's what made me interested in the Illithid Savant in the first place. A lot of the stuff there seems pretty wrong, though, like the bit on Ferocity (since nonlethal damage doesn't do hitpoint damage, it just never triggers). That's what made me feel the need for a more up-to-date version.

[Emy]

It is such a shame Racial Emulation only works for Humanoids.

I'm pretty sure they could look like an illithid (since it follows the limits for Disguise Self, and illithids are almost human-shaped)... but the changeling couldn't use RE to get into IS.

To contribute something: if you can manage the entry, this would be great with Thrallherd, right?b

Eat your indefinitely replacable followers!

Actually, since the number of abilities you can gain through illithid savant is quite limited, I think the above would only be good if you eat a Greater Doppelganger first.

This is a really horrible idea but I think I should mention it anyway: a Zhentarim Skymage could probably summon up a Half-Fiend Illithid Illithid Savant as a mount...

Abuse Polymorph

and no, not to gain entry to Illithid Savant. This use of polymorph is quite similar to one I was thinking of for a rebuking character, except that this one is more likely to work. (Let me know if you think it won't.)

• Polymorph does not offer a save or SR. It only requires a willing target. Well, unconscious = willing for purposes of targeting spells.
• It changes the creature's type, and physical qualities.
• It inherits the following from alter self: "You retain all supernatural and spell-like special attacks and qualities of your normal form, except for those requiring a body part that the new form does not have (such as a mouth for a breath weapon or eyes for a gaze attack)"

Actions needed to take advantage of this (example given is an Ice Weird):
1) Get the ice weird unconscious. It doesn't matter how. Ego whip it repeatedly or have the beatstick attack it (its regeneration will turn the damage into nonlethal).
2) Turn it into a newt with polymorph.
3) Before, the target was an elemental mass of ice. Now it's an animal. A a fleshy animal with some abilities you might want... and a tasty, tasty brain.
4) Consume brain, receive either the ability to control any number of (ice or water) subtyped elementals indefinitely, or the ability to use a number of divination spells (including contact other plane, foresight, and greater scrying) at will as a free action.
5)
6) Profit.

I am having too much fun with formatting, at this point.

Summary:
If a creature can be rendered unconscious and is not immune to polymorph, you can gain its racial supernatural or spell like abilities
even if it does not normally have a brain.

[killercoffee]

Woah. That is just nasty. I'll put that polymorph trick in the guide. By the way...what book is the ice weird from? Frostburn?

Edit: I found the Greater Doppleganger...his Consume power seems pretty limited. I don't know if it's worth it to have him in some builds, where you're pretty strapped for features and abilities. On the other hand...it could potentially be like the chameleon's Aptitude Focus on crack, so you would probably be better off with this. I'll add it in.

[Mushroom Ninja]

This is a really horrible idea but I think I should mention it anyway: a Zhentarim Skymage could probably summon up a Half-Fiend Illithid Illithid Savant as a mount...

Oh god.  31 HD half-feind Illithid savant at 20th level.  I'm not sure whether to laugh or puke! 

[killercoffee]

Well, I just have one minor issue with that, namely that you aren't actually the illithid savant (and so his indestructibility doesn't matter too much to your character.)

Perhaps, though, with some psionics in there (mind swap, true) or, what I personally prefer, mindraping the illithid to be exactly like you, with all your memories, etc.

I don't have Lords of Darkness, so if someone could write up a build for a Zhentarim Skymage illithid-mount mind-swapper, that would be hilarious (and great).

[Midnight_v]

Summary:
If a creature can be rendered unconscious and is not immune to polymorph, you can gain its racial supernatural or spell like abilities
even if it does not normally have a brain.

Holy balls! 
Fu. . .
Just Fu... 

[BowenSilverclaw]

Wizard 5/Zhentarim Skymage 5/Legacy Champion 10 should get you a flying mount with 14+Cha mod HD total, so plenty of room for Illithid Savant levels...

AFB right now, so I'm not entirely sure, but I believe Mounted Combat is the only prerequisite feat, along with the ability to cast 3rd level spells.

[killercoffee]

All right, I added a Zhentarim Skymage build, using mindrape and the polymorph trick posted above.

It's pretty much unstoppably nasty...but I could have screwed something up, and it's nowhere near totally optimized. Feedback is appreciated.

[Emy]

I'm AFB right now, but I figure I'll throw a few more ideas into the pot so they can get cook.

Qualification: would another aberration (Elan I'm looking at you) able able to use that ritual from Savage Species? The one that lets you count as a different race? I believe the example is something like a human using the ritual to count as an elf for race. Maybe not. I guess it only grants subtypes. (Illithid isn't a subtype of aberration is it?)

All the rest is for the Zhentarim Skymage: Can a Psionic Artificer use Metamagic Item on a Psionic Item? I don't remember what the wording is on Metamagic Item, or if Psionic Artificer changes the infusions any.

I also believe there's a 3.0 Persistent Power [metapsionic], but I'm not sure how it would work with 3.5.

Anyway, here's what I'm thinking: get fusion all day.

via Metamagic/Metapsionic Item infusion + Psionic Tattoo Mastery feat + fusion tattoo linked to a capacitor and a transducer.

via universal item of permanent fusion (I believe this would exceed the pre-epic item cap, so cost reducers like race needed (yours), skill needed (craft basketweaving), and class needed (psionificer) may be necessary.) I find this option distasteful and would rather not rely on a custom item. Yes, even in a build focused on Illithid Savant.

Similar effects?

Difficult: Be nonevil, and get a runestaff of greater celestial channeling. Get a good aligned outsider Illithid as a mount (somehow, easiest would be Half-Celestial). Persistent Spell Celestial Channeling at the start of each day. (only grants Su, Sp, and spells, IIRC)

Easier, evil route: Take Otherworldly and use the Savage Species alignment ritual to get the evil subtype. Alternatively, be a Divine Minion of Sebek and buy off the LA. Take some (a dip? I'm not sure how much is needed) Fiend of Possession. Possess the Illithid all the time and order it to let you take control.

Other:

Assume Supernatural Ability (Assume Identity) + Draconic Polymorph - It's like the Greater Doppelganger's ability, but non-destructive. Poly into an Ethereal Doppelganger and copy your Illithid buddy.

Symbiotic Creature? Be the guest (though if the superillithid has good mental ability scores, you might lose those. I think being the host would be more optimal, but you'd need to be really big.)

So by modifying my recent faerie skymage. (removed draconic to fit symbiotic, removed magic-blooded because it's dragon mag, didn't use bloodlines because they're wonky)

Variants used: Level adjustment buyoff
Books used: Savage Species, Lords of Darkness, Weapons of Legacy, SRD

Guest: Sparkly McUber, Venerable Symbiotic Petal Conjurer 5/Zhentarim Skymage 5/Legacy Champion 10
 / Cha 18 +5 levels, +5 inherent, +8 racial, +3 age
Host: Tentacled Thing From Hell, Half-fiend Symbiotic Illithid Illithid Savant 10 / X 2 / Illithid Savant +7

27HD (safe) should be enough to fit in plenty of class levels (including all 10 levels of Illithid Savant)
The minimal templates on it are Symbiotic and Half-fiend (to make it a proper skymage mount. it has wings, and fiends are mentioned in the text. Template stacking here is -possible- but unwise. After all, it's not the point of the build).
8 Racial HD, 10 HD from Illithid Savant, 9 HD from other classes. 2 HD from other classes, 7 more HD from Epic I. Savant.

edit: forgot about Epic Illithid Savant.

[killercoffee]

More genius ideas...I don't know how you come up with this stuff 

I don't really know too much about psionics, so I don't follow this much, but I just looked up the fusion power and it doesn't mention special abilities...if this works, though, that would be kewl.

I *love* the Fiend of Possession PrC so I can say off the top of my head that you need 4th level to possess people. This could be looked into, although it sort of diminishes the power of the actual illithid. (That is to say, it's no longer an unstoppable monster, but simply a pawn or super-bodyguard...sort of a letdown.) Also, the illithid would be immune to mind-affecting effects if he was fully leveled and buffed when you found him (if you caught him earlier, you would have to level him...sort of defeats the purpose.)

I also find your symbiotic petal build to be both hilarious and impressive, but I don't think an illithid would qualify (as an aberration or an outsider).

“Symbiotic” is an acquired template that can be added to any two living creatures of the following types: animal, humanoid, plant, or vermin. The two creatures need not be the same type. One (hereafter referred to as the guest) must be at least two size categories smaller than the other (hereafter referred to as the host).

Finally, I have to ask...where is Assume Supernatural Ability from? I've never heard of it.

[Emy]

Right. I'd forgotten about the type restrictions on Symbiotic. Once again the example character in the book doesn't follow the rules. It's a combination Magical Beast/Humanoid, and magical beast isn't in the allowed types listed. 

It's a shame fey isn't one of the allowed types. The Illithid can qualify for Symbiotic with Half-fey + Greenbound. It's costly (in both money and special abilities) but if the Petal is an Incarnate Construct Dustform Creature it can qualify for Symbiotic. There are some issues with this:
1) Dustform eliminates Int, and I believe it sets Wis to 10 and Cha to 1 in a way similar to many undead templates. Since Incarnate Construct doesn't fix the Charisma, this entirely ruins the point of using a Petal in the first place.
2) Incarnate Construct is costly, and as far as I know, there aren't rules for becoming a Dustform Creature. Therefore, you need to start with becoming an Incarnate Dustform in your backstory; you won't be able to seek out an Incarnate Construct spell if you have INT -.

If (1) above is true, I need a new base for the skymage, with the following: 2 sizes smaller than the Illithid, either through adding size increases to the Illithid, or using a tiny race. Humanoid or plant. I'll check the following later: the really small myconids, that cactus from Sandstorm. I don't know of any tiny Humanoids.

I remember a problem with the RAW of Dragonborn that may work to our advantage here. Living creatures other than humanoids can technically become dragonborn, but it says in the race description that they are "Humanoid (Dragonblood)". Would a Dragonborn Petal be a humanoid? That Ask Wizards about the Dragonborn Warforged makes me think it would still be fey.

Edit: I see that the Symbiotic Creature Template guide on 339 recommends both using familiars as guests, and anthropomorphic animals. Neither of these qualify, as they are Magical Beasts and Monstrous Humanoids, respectively.

[killercoffee]

Gotta love the utter lack of cohesion in some of these books...I looked in Sandstorm and I didn't see any Small plants...just a Large cactus that grabs people and a Huge animated saguaro.

The Dustform template, however, does not specify any loss in Charisma, just a +4 Str, -2 Dex, and lost of Int and Con.

[Emy]

Gotta love the utter lack of cohesion in some of these books...I looked in Sandstorm and I didn't see any Small plants...just a Large cactus that grabs people and a Huge animated saguaro.

The Dustform template, however, does not specify any loss in Charisma, just a +4 Str, -2 Dex, and lost of Int and Con.

No Cha loss? Neat.

So getting Incarnate Construct cast at some point in the past should be 26,530gp to 26,800gp plus however much a humanoid heart costs, according to the spellcasting service guideline. So the only thing the matter with that is getting it to make sense in the fluff (which I can think of a few ways to do). For example, "X was created in a wizard's experiments with dustform creatures and high-level animation spells. Said wizard was a cool dude, and set X free after he had worked enough to pay for the cost of his own creation. Because of this, X has certain racial traits, and lower wealth than his level would indicate."

Revised Symbiotic Abomination:
with Level Adjustment Buyoff, as always.

Guest: Sparkly McUber, Venerable Symbiotic Incarnate Dustform Petal Conjurer 5 / Zhentarim Skymage 5 / Legacy Champion 10 (Initial LA +5, reduced to +3 with Incarnate Construct, reduced to +0 with buyoff.)
Host: Tentacled Thing From The Forest, Symbiotic Greenbound Half-Fey Illithid Illithid Savant 10 / X 2 / Illithid Savant +7 (LA doesn't matter. Only its number of Hit Dice.)

[Amadi]

Immunity to subdual doesn't work with regeneration, there's some FAG or something on that matter.

Special Abilities:
Chronotyrym (Fiend Folio): Multi-acting or something, get twice as many actions.
Choker (MM1): Extra move or Standard action every turn.
Ethereal Doppelganger (Something): Multiple Consume Identity (You can leave the form then get back to it some other time, combined with the G.Doppelganker this is pretty fun.)

Class Abilities:
Uncanny Trickster / Legacy Champion: Continued ability progress from one other class, gives you infinite ECL as Illithid Savant, meaning that you get all abilities of all creatures whose brains you've devoured.