At some point between then and medieval times, lamias change again, keeping their powers of sinful seduction, but now becoming part-serpent - physically resembling the yuan-ti of D&D. In fact, outside of gaming, this may remain the most common depiction. In the 17th century, however, an alternative description made them quadrupedal, a scaly hooved creature with a woman's head and breasts. This, combined with a desexualised version of the seduction powers, seems to be the likely inspiration for the game version.
1E
The lamia shown in the 1E Monster Manual, however, is different again from any of the mythical versions. Here, they have a centauroid form, with the horse parts replaced by what the text describes only as a "beast". The illustration shows that the forelimbs are vaguely cat-like, but with longer, more flexible toes, and the hindlegs have cloven hooves. The colour of the fur also seems to be darker over the hindquarters than the forequarters, and there is a horse-like tail. The upper portions are indistinguishable from those of humans, assuming we accept the apparent lack of nipples as artistic convention.
The stats imply that lamias are skilled fighters, and highly agile, giving them an impressive armour class. However, they are armed only with daggers and don't seem to have unusually high physical strength (as usual, where they get the daggers from is unclear; perhaps they are stone knives or something else that can be made from natural resources). They are more intelligent than average humans and, unlike most other sentient monsters, don't have their own language, using the Common Tongue. It's stated that all lamias are female, but how this works in terms of reproduction isn't discussed.
2E
In 2E, the beast part of the body is shown as that of a regular lioness, although the text states that some lamias have beast parts that resemble other animals. Certainly, the three or four-way hybrid of 1E doesn't seem to be an option. The most powerful lamias here are snake-like, closer to the typical real-world legend; these are apparently the breeding individuals, including both males and females.
This makes the quadrupedal sort somewhat analogous to the sterile workers of eusocial insects such as bees - although here, of course, the workers are solitary living apart from their parents and each other. As an evolved biological setup this makes no sense, with the quadrupeds contributing nothing to the preservation of the gene pool. However, as the creation of evil gods wanting to spread havoc, it's as good a way as any.
It's also confirmed that the regular lamias are all "beautiful" which may be intended to imply that they never reach old age. Furthermore, they don't wear any clothing or have any other manufactured artefacts beyond the daggers. The nobles can imitate humans, however, so perhaps it's they who acquire the knives.
3E
Physically, there is no longer any indication that a lamia can have a lower body resembling anything other than a lion. However, male lamias do now exist as well as female ones - something that's contrary to the original myth, but makes sense for a creature that appears to be biological. Supporting this is the fact that lamias are no longer solitary, sometimes living in small packs of up to four individuals - perhaps a mated pair and a couple of subadults. Given their chaotic natures, such associations are likely temporary, but it does rather increase the opportunity for mating.
Although they can run as fast as a horse, and do, indeed, have legs that look more adapted to running than those of real-world lions, relatively little of their armour rating turns out to be related to their high agility. This implies a remarkably tough hide or resilient flesh, which seems at odds with their physical appearance. They are also stated to be almost superhumanly strong, so that they can strike much harder with their daggers than they could before, and they are capable of using their lion claws in combat for the first time.
5E
Bizarrely, the lamia of 4E bears literally no resemblance to either the original myth or to the creature described in other editions - it's a totally different type of being with unrelated powers that just happens to have the same name. Sanity, or at least consistency, returns in 5E.
The general form of the lamia returns to what it was in 3E - the picture shows a female, but the text is written in gender-neutral language, so the assumption is that males still exist. Compared with the 3E look, however, the lion part of the body is hugely muscular, rather than built for speed. Despite this, the lamia is actually less strong than before, although it's true that the high running speed has gone. As is typical in 5E, the armour value does not imply an implausibly thick or resilient hide any more.
The primary change in this edition is that the lamia's trend towards sociality has increased further. While they don't seem to live in groups with others of their kind, they surround themselves with slaves, both human and otherwise. Notably, while they do still eat humanoids, it's no longer the primary motivation for them and they sometimes forego feasting on human flesh even when they do have the opportunity.
They also have a more aesthetic sense than before and specifically do wear clothing and jewellery. Their slaves acquire the finery for them along (presumably) with the daggers that may be the only wholly practical items they own. We're told that lamias are magically transformed humans, which explains why they speak Common, and probably means that they don't breed with one another.
There isn't much to say about lamia anatomy that doesn't apply equally to centaurs. That they're usually depicted as female does raise questions about reproduction but, as noted above, while 1E ignores the question, the other three editions all come up with different answers.
This leaves us, then, with the lamia's signature power - the ability to drain wisdom from its victims. Obviously, that's a magical effect, but exactly what is it that it's doing? The issue arises because wisdom is arguably the least quantifiable of the core D&D stats, which likely explains why it's rarely seen (at least under that name) in other RPG systems not directly derived from it.A dictionary definition of 'wisdom' is typically something along the lines of "showing good judgement or the benefit of experience". This is typified by the oft-quoted D&D maxim "intelligence is how you know that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is how you know it doesn't belong in a fruit salad." But, even allowing for magic, how exactly would you remove somebody's good judgement, let alone their experience, without also affecting their memory of past events? The few scientific studies to try and measure 'wisdom' have also foundered on an inability to agree on what exactly the word means.
Instead, we probably have to rely on what the stat is supposed to do in game terms. While the precise details may vary between editions, it typically does at least three things, which aren't obviously related to one another. Firstly, it powers certain sorts of magic but, since those don't exist in the real world, that really only pushes the question back.
In terms of skills, it (mostly) reflects perceptiveness and awareness of the world around you while, in terms of saving throws, it mostly seems to represent willpower and the ability to resist outside influence. There's no obvious connection between the two, in that a perceptive person won't necessarily be strong-willed and vice versa - one could imagine, for instance, somebody who is pig-ignorant and stubborn just blundering their way about without paying attention to anyone else. But it's what we have.
And, especially in 5E, it's almost certainly the willpower aspect that we're talking about when it comes to the lamia's power. In earlier editions, once the victim is drained of enough wisdom, they automatically become enthralled to the lamia's will, in later ones, they become susceptible to its regular mind-control spells. Thus, we can see that the lamia's 'wisdom drain' is wearing down the victim's will by inducing a sort of mental fatigue, perhaps by overloading the brain's capacity to deal with competing stimuli. Which, it has to be said, would likely reduce perception as well - but then, it would surely also have an effect on the ability to use charisma and intelligence.
But, in terms of translating the lamia's power into other systems, it's this mental fatigue model that makes most sense. Most systems do at least have some mechanism for resisting mental control by others, be it a Will stat, or the use of some other ability. Whatever it is, it's that which is being affected, even if the other aspects of 'wisdom' are simulated in a different way.
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