The hilarious part is that the mind flayers don’t even get to control the rats afterwards. Cranium rats’ whole deal is telepathically linking up into a super-intelligent hive mind, and while each individual rat still has the stat block of an ordinary rat, the gestalt as a whole is capable of having class levels. So now you’ve got a swarm of rats that is collectively a 20th level wizard, has a higher Intelligence score than you do, and is both willing and able to cast meteor swarm on your tentacled ass if they think you’re disrespecting them. How well did that work out for you, pal?
hey does this mean someone could play as a swarm of cranium rats in a trench coat?
I know somebody who actually did play a cranium rat swarm barbarian in an ongoing campaign several years back. I’m about 90% convinced they created that character purely as an excuse to shout “RAT RAGE”.
I had a player once play a swarm of cranium rats as, indeed, a wizard. they were incredibly egotistical and wore a full sized wizard cape over the whole swarm. on top of the tiny ones each rat wore. i will always love Lord Rodentius Squeakeasy
Despite all my rage I am still just a cranium rat mage
