Quote Originally Posted by Dalmosh View Post
What would happen to a captive illithid fed only on cow brains?
The answer is implied by what Lords of Madness tells us about mind flayer biology.

Technically, a mind flayer is a parasite driving around the body of the ceremorphed humanoid. Mind flayers eat brains because they don't produce certain hormones and enzymes the host body still needs, but the parasite replacing the brain can't provide, and because they absorb psionic energy from them.

A cow most likely won't produce the exact bodily chemicals the humanoid body needs, and I don't think a cow's psionic potential is very high (but hey, what do I know? If camels make good mathematicians, maybe cows are great wilders...). All in all, it's better than nothing in an emergency, but in the long term the illithid will die.

Another little question on my part: We already know that the Divine Mind class is dreck that flies in the face of everything we know about psionics. Is the Ardent's fluff equally bad or is there something of worth there. My intuition says the first thing, but I would like a second opinion.