Question to you D&D 5e gamers, are spelljamming helms still a thing, or would a nautiloid maybe require an illithid crew to pilot it properly?
Spelljamming helms still exist in 5e.
And as far as crew go... 5e actually reduces the requirements. Instead of needing a crew of 2-5 illithids to link minds to control the ship like in 2e. In 5e you only need a single pilot to control the ship (Any additional crew are purely for weapons and maintenance)
With regards to whether this pilot need to be illithid... Well, at the very least, Tav/Durge/Lae'zel/Shadowheart can all use the controls to stop the ship from crashing (By crashing it... Apparently) meaning that the most that is required is an illithid tadpole, if even that is required (We know that they normally have non-illithid slaves on the ships, meaning that some of their functions will work with regular people. Whether the controls are locked behind some illithid checking is unknown)
