Thought Eater

Thought eaters live only in the Border Ethereal and can exist only in ethereal form. Each looks like a sickly gray skeleton topped with a huge platypus head, with webbed, bony paws for paddling through the ether. Its single drive is to avoid death, which comes almost at once if it ever enters the Prime Material Plane.

A thought eater has no physical attacks of any kind, even in the Border Ethereal, and is easy to kill there. Its danger lies in its innate psionics, which reach across into the Prime Material, a rare case of an ability extending from one plane into another.

Its psionic sense runs constantly at no cost and detects psionic activity on both planes. When it notices any, it moves to the source. Its drain reaches 60 feet from a psionic creature or true psionicist but only 10 feet from a wild talent, and absorbs 10 PSPs per round. It also eats spells being cast nearby and memorized spells, at 5 points per spell level, and finally Intelligence, each point yielding 10 PSPs. It always feeds in this order: power being used (which fails), spell being cast (which fails), stored PSPs, memorized spells, then Intelligence. It stops when its victims die or leave range or when it is full, which happens when it reaches its maximum PSPs.

Spells can be memorized again and PSPs recover normally, but lost Intelligence is gone for good unless restored by restore or psychic surgery. A victim drained to 0 is left a vegetable, effectively dead.

Being mindless, it is unaffected by every telepathic attack and control, psionic or magical. Every defense mode that has a maintenance cost above 0 stops it from feeding, as do spells such as mind blank and devices that block psionic attack. Because ethereal creatures are invisible from the Prime, it usually feeds unseen until sated or its prey moves away. Its movement rate is only 6, but that is ethereal movement, passing through walls and trees as if they were not there.

It holds 1d100+100 (101-200) PSPs with a psionic score of 18. Its only powers are the innate psionic sense (a metapsionic power) and its PSP draining.

Little is known about them beyond their solitary lives in the ethereal plane. Magical study suggests they are not evil; they feed only to survive, as any hunter does. Some sages suspect they are what becomes of psionicists after death.

A thought eater burns 3 PSPs an hour, the way a body burns food, and its frantic feeding exists only to keep it in the ether. If it runs dry, it falls into the Prime Material and dies instantly. Its body lands there whether starved or slain, and finders usually take it for a starved platypus. It carries no treasure.