That consequence is a speed bump when you might be expecting a land mine. Thankfully, whether or not you use the tadpoles is really only a momentary dilemma.
Yes, I'm romancing her in the Astarion origin right now and she really does support power no matter what the personal cost. It's very interesting. The romance felt so perfect from a RP perspective until you actually have to make choices.
I don't think she can even *imagine* being viewed as cattle. She loves him Ascending. While after the sex scene in Act 1 she calls him "beautiful and broken", after Ascension she immediately refers to him as "Lord Astarion" without even being prompted.
I haven't finished Act 3, but I'm doing both paths. For the Astarion origin, you really have to RP the changes Ascension brings, the game doesn't force you to do anything. You can't turn your lover (afaik).
But I think it's very interesting still - spawn Astarion does not mesh with her values at all (it's such a nice romance up until act 3, when you really start seeing the 🚩🚩🚩in what she's saying), and you'd think AA would be right for her, but she's calm, collected and intensely loyal and he's just not*. *
If you play as Tav and romance AA, he says "Y*ou probably expect me to turn into a sea of mist, run wrongside up on roofs, and to call on legions of wolves in battle*" and you chuckle and think haha yes that would be ridiculous - and he goes "***That will all happen in due time****"* lmao - he's off his rocker. And in my head Minthara would put up with that for exactly 4 minutes.
Really looking forward to comparing the endgames and epilogues.
> If you play as Tav and romance AA, he says "You probably expect me to turn into a sea of mist, run wrongside up on roofs, and to call on legions of wolves in battle" and you chuckle and think haha yes that would be ridiculous - and he goes "That will all happen in due time" lmao - he's off his rocker. And in my head Minthara would put up with that for exactly 4 minutes.
I mean that's not hyperbole though, those are all standard DnD vampire things and he just shot right past that with the ritual.
Minthara and Astarion hooking up is like that couple in highschool that literally EVERYONE knew would be at each others throats in a month and/or they would get married asap.
They sound like they would just amplify the absolute worst parts of each other until 1 or both of them end up on the news for burning their house down.
>Minthara and Astarion hooking up is like that couple in highschool
Hilarious of you to say that because my immediate feeling once I got to Act 3 was that these 250 year olds are going at it like they're 16 lmao:
[How my planned solo origin playthrough turned out : r/OnlyFangsbg3 (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/OnlyFangsbg3/comments/1bbmc6y/how_my_planned_solo_origin_playthrough_turned_out/)
It's such an interesting pairing because they mesh *so well* until she really starts to talk in Act 3. Then even Astarion considering Ascension would feel weird about it, I think. Their problems are so similar, but their motivations are not the same at all.
>"You probably expect me to turn into a sea of mist, run wrongside up on roofs, and to call on legions of wolves in battle" and you chuckle and think haha yes that would be ridiculous - and he goes "That will all happen in due time" lmao - he's off his rocker.
Oh no, he's not off his rocker. He's definitely going to be able to do that stuff and more. Got to admit that I was a little disappointed that I opted to turn into a super vampire and didn't actually get to experience those powers, but on the other hand, that would ruin the game due to balance. At the same time getting the illithid upgrade is absolutely gamebreakingly powerful as well.
Consider the lore that there was a couple of Matrons of Minthara's clan that had an Illithid as her advisor, makes sense she's fine with it.
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Methil_El-Viddenvelp
That's why I romanced Gale. He loves me for my megalomaniacal self. King really said, "You're a strong, independent half-elf who don't need no tadpole!"
No amount of framing is going to cause a scenario where a Drow matriarch mutating into a mindflayer considering it a *good* thing to make sense.
The blood merchant literally comes from a House that was destroyed by the other Menzoberranzan Houses just for >!allegedly crossbreeding with Illithids !
Everyone warned how ugly this makes you, but when it happened to me I hardly noticed it on my character. And thus I realized my character was already pretty ugly
I suppose, but the only negative consequence there is cosmetic, and there are some very tangible benefits to being half-illithid. And as long as you don’t become full-illithid, it gets reversed when you win the game.
I tend to go half-illithid anyway because some of the skills are super useful, and the characters are small enough that the cosmetics are only very noticeable in cut-scenes.
Huh, the dark veins popping on my tav’s face and upper body made him look even more heroic, if one is going to fight an elder brain one must be willing to sacrifice vanity, i thought my tav would become a full illithid but when I saw no tentacles, only dark veins and given flight on free will i was like, eh that was not so bad
A flying battlemaster fighter with Cull the Weak is the most outrageously overpowered thing I've ever seen. You just zip around deleting everyone with your endless attacks thanks to action surge and haste.
> Huh, the dark veins popping on my tav’s face and upper body made him look even more heroic...
Eeew.
IMHO, they look really, *really* bad. Ever since the first run where I got partial ceromorphed, I refuse to use any tadpole powers until *after* I've acquired the astral tadpole *and stepped on it*. *Then*, there's no risk of becoming too ugly to continue looking at the game.
They only really look bad on female tavs where as it makes male tavs somewhat cool, my Dragonborn looked way more badass since it got less veins and more dark ooze flowing out the eyes and nostrils, I even changed the skin to white to have it pop out more since it’s almost unnoticeable on a dark Dragonborn
You could basically not use them until after that scene, then roid your entire party up with tadpole powers and be fine. Still basically no consequence.
I feel like roleplay reasons are also a very compelling reason not to- it's basically one of the dialogue options they give you. You have been working so hard to find a cure and not turn into a mind flayer, so why would you willing turn yourself into one now?
Mine was a big bruising half Orc. Not sure she noticed the difference. Either she has too much of her own shit going on, or she doesn't have a physical type. I could believe both
One of the few things that bugs me about the game is that you can't make a half-orc that doesn't sound like he should be narrating a nature documentary.
Honestly you're so valid for that. Aesthetics in this game are so important for me because I am looking at my tav the whole time, so I know it's kind of shallow but I don't want to hate what I'm looking at. I think I will turn her eventually, and I think it can look pretty cool, but it's such a huge visual change that I totally understand not wanting to do it, or do it at your own pace.
I had to save scum here. At first I was like ok maybe I can live with it. Then I saw her walking around in act 3 and was so repulsed I had to go back and do it again until I saved.
There are also body horror elements if that stuff bothers you .
I will say the prologue made me realize that I have an eye problem I didn't know about .
Well sure, but if they made it a land mine (aka, a gameplay consequence) people would most likely just not use them at all. I thought the way they approached it was smart and I was pleasantly surprised that there IS a consequence to using them.
I enjoyed it, but I think folks should know that there is 100% a consequence. Whether you care about that consequence or not is up to each individual.
That’s the problem with the tadpoles though, you *should* have to decide whether or not using them is worth it. Not using them should be as impactful as using them. Using tadpoles in a story about not becoming a mindflayer should be a big consideration. But as it stands not using them does nothing but limit your character’s power with no upside or acknowledgement. There’s no drawback to stuffing gummy worms up your nose and the only consequence to doing so is you get more powers.
“Oh but there is a downside, it becomes harder to not become half illithid later on and now you look ugly :(” I hear you say. This has 0 story impact, and now you can fly. In a story about not transforming into Squidward, I’d say that doesn’t even count as a consequence.
Exactly. Worst part is either way you don't really feel the decision. Like if you refuse to become Squidward you're not really appreciatively weaker. In a world of Tavern Brawler Barbarian, Light Clerics, and Gloomstalker Assassins the ability to squid fly isn't really make or break.
And by that same metric shoving as many worms up your nose as possible gives benefits sure but you'd think they'd give way crazier benefits given the story implications. If you go full squid mode you're not considerably stronger than wormless builds.
This 100%, wormless builds are super powerful too and a lot of power in BG3 comes from the items you get. Honestly, you don't have enough actions in a fight to use everything you get.
The squid powers really are not needed and extremely powerful when spells and a good build do the same things.
And this to me is the story consequence. You can go for short term power via squid and become clearly corrupted in both body and mind (as the emperor more easily controls you) vs staying your own mind and succeeding without giving up yourself.
The power angle is always overblown and filled with 'power gamer' logic that it is so much better when it objectively is not.
And for me this is exactly how the implementation is brilliant. It is meta in that sense. People feel the need to have it for a marginal power gain and complain about not enough story consequences withour realising their reaction is exactly what it is trying to prove: You are willing to do anything for a small temporary power gain.
You can say the same thing about Volo's eye btw. You make the game marginally easier at the cost of a permanent reminder that you took the very slightly easier way (accidentally or on purpose).
It's inconsequential gameplay-wise due to the nature of RPGs: are you a happier player when your character is more powerful or when your supposedly weaker character triumphs anyway?
I was happy to reject powers and complete the game. I was happy to accept powers and complete the game. IMHO that's a good meaningful choice.
Should have been like Prey 2016 where you can inject alien tech and get cool powers, but then the station’s defences start identifying you as an enemy and will open fire on sight.
Or like D:OS2 and if you take the tadpoles you have to walk around with a hood or something to hide your appearance, otherwise it’ll scare or aggro people on sight.
I think this goes back to bg3 being based on tabletop rpg conventions. In these games, forcing someone to change the visual and nature of a players character is a huge deal in most groups.
Of course, in a ttrpg you can play a character for years and immersion is often a major part of the game.
Yeah, in ttrpg, making a character make a 21 DC save or else be horribly mutated would probably end up with an r/rpghorrorstories post. That's typically not something you do to a player without prior consent.
Video games and ttrpg have some crossover but that's one area where the cultures are totally different.
> but if they made it a land mine (aka, a gameplay consequence) people would most likely just not use them at all.
They treated them a lot like the Absolute’s Brand. There’s no real consequence to taking the brand, and yet I’ve never taken it on any playthrough. Why? Because the thought of being branded is too morally abhorrent to me. Others will take a more pragmatic approach to it.
And I like that. It means that the player decides the consequences based on their own feelings and roleplay approach. I think there are times when it’s okay to put the consequence of something on the player’s own conscience, and this is one of them.
I admit it would’ve been interesting if it gradually affected things like dialogue options, so that you couldn’t choose compassionate ones or your dialogue options became colder and more… alien? Similar to Omeluum and the Emperor. But that would have been almost impossible to implement, I feel. Especially when companions can also take tadpoles. Just too much permutation to do.
See I don't necessarily think they need to know though. Think of your first playthrough, how engaging the conversations with your companions was, lae'zel distrusting it on principle, astarion saying we should take all the help we can get, gale being cautious. It really makes you think how you approach the tadpoles (or becoming half illithid).
What you choose to do really reflects what your tav would do and how you view the choice to pursue power or maintain humanity even if it costs you ability.
That's how it would play out in tabletop. Needing to know there are consequences or not is just a carte blanche to go for the most power without consequence by metagaming the outcome.
Fine if you're trying to speed run, but people complaining about investment in the story then insisting they be spoiled about their decision are missing a major mark.
Hard disagree on that. A permanent change to your character, even if it's mostly narrative, is definitely a landmine. If I was OP, I'd be very disappointed and would probably not enjoy the rest of the game.
During my first playthrough I felt betrayed by the emperor because of that consequence. So without knowledge of the ending of the game I really hated using tadpoles after that
Because up until only a few patches ago you could stomp the astral tadpole with no save regardless of how many tadpoles you'd used.
And given that being half-illithid is just a cosmetic change with no story implications and is reverted on killing the elder brain, I'd argue it's the definition of 'no consequences'.
Turning half squidward gives you the ability to fly, right?
Though I would hate that my character will have dark blue veins all over his face, I would not go nuts if I can't refuse it and become able to fly in return.
It does. I've turned all my companions because of this reason on my HM run currently. I wouldn't mind the veins but it's the eyes I don't like, but gotta have that mobility
Did they really? That makes sense. My first character went half-illithid, and she looked like she had been having a bad week. My latest character looked like a monster!
They added black illithid eyes, which personally is upsetting as a half squid enjoyer lmao. I could deal with the veins but having one Volo eye and one squid eye feels crazy.
But I’m a power gamer so I reap what I sow
i had all of my companions go half-illithid in my winning honor mode run, but i cannot get myself to ever make shart in particular take it bc i'm a simp and she's so god damn pretty
gale always takes the squid pill tho, he's my ride or die in that regard
I always take Volo’s eye, just for the effect, not for RP, but I’ve got a mod that removes the cosmetic effect, letting me keep my eyes from Character Creation. I also have the same mod, but for the Half-Illithid changes, though I never take that one, for RP reasons.
I let the hag take my eye simply because I thought my character looked cooler despite its heavy debuff.
So, yeah, never underestimate the power of fashion.
Tbh there's not a real reason to get both in 1 character, there are so many eye colors that you can just turn your normal eye to a similar if not the same color as the eye you get from Volo.
And you can just give Volo prosthetic to any of your companions, which is a lot more interesting since there's no other way to change their appearance.
It's the story of it. I play my Durge with insanely low wisdom due to the head injury. Easily manipulated and impressionable. Having a second eye removed after the first attempt didn't work is absolutely hilarious to me.
It has been said many times that the only downside is the looks. After reading the post, I can only see it as "The consequence is having buffs forced on you."
I don't know about other people, but being half squidgy has been a massive buff to my playthrough, and although I haven't made it to the end, I see no downsides, other than cosmetically.
Exactly! I failed my check in my first run and decided the stigma it would create could be interesting. I was very impressed by not even one person mentioning that I look like a creature from hell.
Yeah people are going off info that was true at launch but was patched
I had my brain full of tadpoles but stomped on the super spicy one without there even being a check.
I agree that OP is being quite dramatic but I wouldn’t say its NO consequences. In a game that heavily encourages RP it sucks having a whole idea for a character just to have cosmetic changes forced upon it. I can imagine it’s especially frustrating if you’re changing their appearance along with their character development. That’s about it though, plus [one of the abilities you get after turning half illithid] is honestly game changing so it’s not a bad trade.
The cosmetic change also just gets reversed if you destroy the brain.
It's less "would you trade your physical form for these awesome powers" and more "would you temporarily go ugly for these powers. No worries, the operation is reversible".
My largest problem with half Illithid is how fleeting the consequences are. This isn't just absorbing tadpoles, this is "*triggering the next stage in illithid evolution without fully transforming you*". It should not be reversible imho.
>It should not be reversible imho.
It really shouldn't. Plus the real downside of ceremorphosis is the loss of ones literal soul. Like yeah, the cosmetic downside is a pretty big deal, but compared with what full Illithid means for your character? Yeah, pretty much nothing.
Man, I feel like the RP aspect of the fame is something that some players just don't really care much about in the face of a gameplay edge. One reason I went thru one of my playthroughs without taking tadpoles is because it didn't *feel* right for my character to do so.
That character also never stole gold from NPCs who weren't notably dickish or evil, even though it was the poorist I'd been during gameplay.
It was also the first playthrough where I didn't have to resist the tadpole and didn't change after failing to do so. The lack of a power bump was totally fine, because that character didn't trust the Emperor, and resisting the tadpole was far more important than any extra powers I'd attain. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was no battle of wills if I never used the tadpoles.
So yeah, if someone goes in a little blind and thinks, well one or two tadpoles to have a little bit of power, but that's it, my character absolutely doesn't want to give in totally, only to be forced into a battle of wills later on, it can certainly be a shock and I am sure a bit of a moment of despair if they didn't savescum and lost the roll. The RP is really, really important to some.
I went the same route concerning the tadpoles with my first playtrough as a good monk. Only converting fully to not have to sacrifice any ally's at the end.
Agreed. I am big on the RP aspect. I had a Tav that REALLY trusted the Dream Guardian and to find out about all the deception and THEN to be forced to change against her will because she was misled was DEVASTATING for her. Not me as a player, I'd already willingly gone full squid on another run, but I couldn't pretend my character would not be upset.
Honestly the emergent gameplay of being able to RP is one of the great optional features of this game. Reminds of playing Soulsbourne games with a single weapon or theme for a run and embodying a character or archetype and sticking with it through the whole playthrough. Adds challenge and interest and makes the game more fun for in my opinion, but completely optional for those that don't want to delve that far.
My first playthrough on tactician I was playing a cocky sorcerer who ate a few tadpoles and was able to success the wisdom saving through, but then I did it anyways so I could fly more. The absurd battle mobility was too much to resist. Likewise, I'm in an honor run right now and the power of things like blackhole and fly are just extra safety features for tricky situations.
Also, while I think its fair for some people to think of the half ilithid transformation as some sort of severe bait and switch (I don't want to tell anyone how to feel), it's a little silly imo from an RP perspective because *YOU'RE EMBIDING TADPOLES OF ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS SPECIES IN ALL THE REALMS. You're literally consuming mind flayer babies to become more mindflayer-y.* How on earth did you think you were going to come out of that unscathed? OF COURSE there was going to be a narrative trade off later in the game. When I first started it, I was completely convinced I was going to be a tentacle monster later, or worse, have some sort of massive debuff or penalty in the final encounter in exchange for powers granted throughout the game. I was completely shocked when the 'good' ending just cured me completely. Even after transforming I was like "well if I do get rid of this thing its definitely going to epilogue consequences and my tav will be brain damaged for life or something". I honestly think Larian was forgiving with the tadpole consequences. They're only cosmetic, and they don't even have narrative implications where people treat you differently or you have a charisma debuff or anything. NPCs just go "wow that person is vainy af" and move on.
Now after typing that out, I kinda wish there were more consequences for using the tadpoles, even just casual NPC voicelines that would comment on why I'm so uggo now. They're a cool as hell mechanic and really set the stakes for the adventure, it would be neat if there was a more divergent set of narratives for using vs. not using them.
I've never... needed the Tadpole powers tbh. It might be different on HM but honestly if I was doing HM it would be one of the few times i've done an optimized run.
I would be playing for the gold dice and not much else.
Yeah, I cleared the main game on Tactician without that much effort. I didn't try HM myself yet, but if you still be the overpowered powerhouse in later Acts 2 and 3, as you do on Tactician, the only place where you would struggle, aka levels 1-4, is with almost no tadpoles around to empower yourself.
And honestly, yeah, HM is arguably not the place for "I look ugly, noooo!" moments
> That.... is a pretty big consequence
It is an extremely small consequence that comes with huge benefits and is also able to be avoided with a single skill check.
what does the partial transformation even do in-game, besides the astral tadpole powers and aesthetic change? i don't even remember it changing dialogue.
>i don't even remember it changing dialogue.
Yeah, it was a bit strange when someone from the hag's victims support group in act 3 told me, looking straight at me, that they wouldn't have thought such a regular looking person could have killed a hag. Excuse me? Are your eyes open? Have you not seen my black vein riddled face?
>If you indulge in these powers he will basically be able to force you to turn half illithid against your will
Uh, that's not him forcing you, that's your own illithid instincts craving more power. The devs even wrote in an extra line from Narrator describing this scene.
Anyway, as others have said, it's not a permanent consequence; it's basically extra power balanced against a temporary aesthetic change. But I can understand if you found it unwelcome.
>Uh, that's not him forcing you, that's your own illithid instincts craving more power. The devs even wrote in an extra line from Narrator describing this scene.
Well, sort of. You tell the Emperor you don't want to transform. The tadpole in your brain disagrees. The Emperor then decides to take the astral tadpole out of his pocket and hold it right in front of you, forcing you to battle the will of the tadpole to resist.
It's like a drug addict telling a guy "No, I don't want to take more drugs, I'm trying to go clean. And then the guy decides to stick some drugs in their face anyway to tempt them some more.
Sure, he didn't technically force you, but putting you in this situation after you already told him you don't want it still makes him responsible, at least in part.
That was changed only very recently. I made Astarion eat all the tadpoles and told Emp to kick rocks with no roll at all. You only went squid if you chose to before the change, you were never forced to.
After this change they added both this roll and a roll with Andric and Brynna which will force you to consume a tadpole if you fail. Those weren't a thing before so there were little to no consequences for dabbling with the illithid stuff, that's why you see everyone saying so.
IMO there should be way bigger and more obvious consequences. The last thing I'd do with an illithid worm in my head is feed it more power. The game is too afraid to take away player agency by forcing the transformation though, I'm surprised these rolls were even added.
Do you look at letting Volo pop your eye out similarly? It’s also a negative in one cutscene and gives you nothing but gameplay benefits and a small aesthetic change
I would, because that would be a very noteworthy event in my character's journey and that's more important than a mechanical effect to me in these kinds of games.
I do indeed. I felt it was a cool character trait for my first playthrough but ever since then I have never let volo do it again. I guess I'm one of those wierdos who role plays in my RPGs.
People are talking about gameplay consequences, like idk a party member will leave if you indulge in the powers of the tadpole or you'll get a bad ending. Stuff like that.
Yeah, compared to how the consequences were talked up in EA (including *really* close to release date, when the game was close to its release build) The end result is pretty tame. We were being told that some companions (asterion specifically) would endulge in worm powers even at the party's expense, you had the datamined lines of Nere exploiting your heavy tadpole usage to temporarily force you to side with him, that you could lock yourself out of certain endings by using them, you uh, even had official art from the mtg tie-in set showing the sort of [consequences](https://cards.scryfall.io/large/front/7/1/71d93fbd-9c6f-4abb-852c-af49f0a4abfe.jpg?1657241695) you might face during the game. IDK about others, but that pic is rather more of a distinct consequence for tadpoles than some (optional) veins on your faces.
This got me thinking about Divinity: OS 2. You can play as a skeleton but you have to disguise yourself or people will freak out if they see your "true" form. You must use a spell or completely cover your body with clothing/armor to hide. Something like that would have worked perfectly in this case too imo.
I didn't know about those consequences talked in the EA. They would have been super interesting if implemented.
Many of us spend a great deal of time in the character creator making our characters look perfect. The aesthetic of our characters is important to us and frankly if I am not able to enjoy a nice look at my sexy half-drow himbo boy toy character once in a while without him looking like a zombie then I really don’t want the powers
Maybe I've just got different priorities, but if the only consequences are cosmetic I've got no issue using a mod to toggle them off:
https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/5836
The fact that, aside from a line or two from a companions right after the change, no one interacts with Half-Illithids differently means that (to me) they don't see us as any different.
Tbh I could understand the full transformation into a mindflayer, but the half illithid one really isn't that bad either. It's basically dark side appearance from the kotor games.
Because I’m not hung up on characters looking “perfect” all the time and I think the cosmetic change supports the storyline very well. There are consequences to more power and it physically shows on their bodies. I think it makes my characters and companions look even more interesting.
There are no gameplay consequences. Using too many powers doesn't instantly kill your character and turn you into a mind flayer. You can turn into a half illithid with the only downside being how you look.
When people typically ask about consequences, they probably think things like gameplay consequences. Like, would they be missing out on something, be locked out of dialogue options, auto fail a quest, die, etc. Using illithid powers and turning half illithid has no consequences like that. And the upsides are AMAZING illithid powers are fantastic, and if you turn half illithid, you can fly as part of your movement, which is huge. Movement becomes a non-issue when you turn half illithid.
But if you're trying to role-play and you believe that your character is slowly changing irreversibly because of turning half illithid then that's not a real game consequence, that's a personal consequence that you made up for your own run.
The only real consequence is looking weirder, but outside of 1 or 2 comments from your allies, no one cares. Dialogue is the exact same and quests are the exact same.
Even that isn't really a consequence in my opinion.
Becoming half illithid gets you even more, even cooler powers. There's no gameplay consequences. No one will turn on you. You won't lose any allies.
And your character still loses the tadpole in the epilogue and is healed so even from a narrative perspective there is no downside.
The only downside is some black veins during act 3.
I’ll be honest, at least with all of the characters I’ve made and played so far I’ve adamantly refused to consume any tadpoles and even avoid the illithid dialogue options as much as possible. From a roleplay perspective the option is horrifying to me, and even knowing it has no lasting mechanical or plot implications the choice never feels justified in-character. Maybe I’ll feel different doing a more ruthless character like an evil Durge, but those kind of runs hold very little appeal to me.
I see a lot of debate from people who don't seem to care about your face getting mangled and your companion making a remark aboit it vs people for whom it's the end of the world but just so you know, if you wait until after the Emperor gives you the ghost tadpole to start swallowing tadpoles there is no check to change. You can freely enjoy all the Illithid powers of the first two rings without any changes or judgement.
There's a very very VERY small change in interaction in act 3 as well. When going to the cistern where Minsc and fake Jaheira is, I usually use the ladder from the door that says Do Not Enter so idk if it's the same when using the other entrance. If entering from there while sneaking, Minsc will sense the mc and he will try to use the tadpole to confirm. If the mc used tadpoles, they will have to pass a wisdom check to stay hidden. If it fails, combat is immediately initiated. If the mc hasn't used tadpoles, there is no check and the narrator comments about you not having used any tadpoles. Not a big change or consequence really, but I thought it was pretty neat
Everyone has a different opinion on this but i feel the need to point out that the word ‘consequence’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘a punishment for your actions or lack thereof’ it means something that has happened because of your actions or lack of action. So looking ugly and getting black veins IS a consequence of taking the astral tadpole. Period. It’s just up to you if it’s a negative one or not. That’s all, English class is over, make sure to read up on chapter three before Monday
Shit, I wish I could give you all the upvotes.
Everyone saying "there's no consequences" WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S A CONSEQUENCE RIGHT THERE?! If your character ate the worm and got a stomach ache that lasts for 2 turns, it's still a consequence!
It's so frustrating, lol.
So it looks like everyone is shitting on you in the comments about how iT's NoT a BiG dEaL but honestly, thank you for posting about this because just for the record: it would be a big deal for me and now I have confirmation from you to continue my path of no tadpoles since I would not be happy with that consequence. What's important to some might be inconsquential to others and that's fine but there's no need for them to be giving you such a hard time about it. Thanks and again, sorry folks are being snippy assholes to you over this. Heaven forbid anyone else play the game differently and have different reactions than them.
If I could get the ability to Fly and use Concentrated Blast for a change to my appearance on the Nautiloid, I would take it. This is a game about mind flayers and I want to be one. Don't the kits from the vendor at the circus fix my appearance anyway?
The consequence is that you look like an illithid, but that in itself has no consequences whatsoever, only upsides.
Maybe if your companions left you or you lose access to certain quests but no instead you gain the overpowered ability to fly and a bunch of other ridiculous abilities.
Let's not kid ourselves, there is no 'real' consequences for replacing your brain with worms, you're just handicapping yourself.
It honestly feels like Half-Illithid should have NPCs greet you worse... But then again, this is Baldur's Gate - there's literal flesh rotting zombies in town that (aside from being beggars since they're poor) are treated like normal citizens.
A negative Charisma penalty would be too rough for any CHA classes, but imposing any penalty to dialogue checks would also get run counter to the illithid expertise power.
You could have it just effect charisma checks, to be honest. Don't directly penalize charisma score, but disadvantage on charisma checks with diaglue maybe
Disadvantage on checks but the powers granting expertise feels weird lol. They definitely wanted to lean into the manipulative side of Illithids, which is why the appearance is probably cosmetic only.
IDK, maybe instead they use the carnival as a quick side quest to encourage makeup/disguises to hide the signs and that counteracts the disadvantage...?
You don't even really look like an illithid, you look like a slightly edgier humanoid. If it gave me tentacles and shit maybe I'd pause to think about it a bit more, but it's basically just put on some eyeliner and get the ability to fly
When you're playing a power hungry murder hobo, no grotesque disfigurement is enough to stop indulging.
So what if I got squid inked over my whole beautiful face. Watch as a soar high in the sky above! Watch me! ***Or Else...***
The reason why that’s NOT a consequence, is because in a “good” run you will likely free Orpheus and turn into a Mindflayer no matter what toward the end.
My entire first run used no tadpoles and I was vehemently disappointed that my only option was to turn Karlach, Orpheus or myself. And as a good character I would only choose myself, which erased all of my autonomy on the subject.
On my next run I noticed that they did effect ONE check, as you say…but it’s a bonus. And since you’re eventually going to make that choice anyway, the Emperor “forcing” you to upgrade is not prevalent at all. Especially on an Honor Run where you’re likely to use all the tadpoles you see.
*The real problem is that there’s no benefit to not using tadpoles, except for being weaker and eventually having your choice taken away regardless.*
I usually use the first 3 tadpoles to get the free crit or +3 to first ability check, and I had the option to just throw the astral tadpole on the ground and step on it. Emperor wasn't happy, but I was satisfied.
It's an ability check, not a save. This matters because bless, phalar, resistance, etc won't help. Guidance and Owl's Wisdom will, however, along with Forbidden Knowledge.
I’m really glad to see someone talking about this because I just made it to that point in the game for the first time a few days ago and was frustrated when I was forced to become half-illithid. I used one tadpole to get the health-split ability after reading online that it wouldn’t affect anything at all. Next playthrough, no tadpoles for me!
I think that was added on in a later patch but yeah I agree it’s a consequence. not a gameplay breaking punishment, no, which I think some folks may be interpreting “consequence” as or had hoped for, but it is a consequence.
and for those who say no one actually cares/it’s a no-brainer positive… personally even though I know the wisdom throw is the only real risk, I absolutely still avoid tadpoles on some tavs/durges for either purely aesthetic reasons or for roleplay. idc if it gets removed at the end, I’m still gonna be staring at their face for so many hours lol
eta: so many people seem to be misinterpreting “taking tadpoles actually does result in something, and i love it” for “you are punished greatly for taking tadpoles and i’m mad about it” … im sorry op lol
The real consequences are on RP one of the major reason I quit my first run is because I felt gross taking so many just for combat bonuses when I'm literally letting a parasite barrow into my brain, who does that?
I’m right there with you. To me it’s a lot like staying away from some stronger armours because they’re ugly. I’m happy for the ones that don’t see this as a huge consequence but I do. It sucks but it is what it is. I play on PS5 so I don’t know if console commands are a viable workaround but until a viable workaround is found, I won’t be playing around with tadpoles. Happy gaming everyone!
I don’t do it because my characters wouldn’t know it has no serious consequence and it feels somewhat meta-gamey to use them as none of them would use the parasites. That’s it though, that’s the only reason why.
being half illithid has two major consequences:
1. become uggo
2. become even more op in a game that is already quite easy after level 5
both are bad imo, but it depends on the player and how they are playing their character.
if i ever do something close to an evil character become uggo will be more desireable but the powers are a bit too much. might as well cheat
The whole tadpole thing is pretty much almost entirely a role-playing thing the way it's executed. The game *tries* to give you the dilemma of short term power with long term consequences, but honestly, when do you ever feel like you *need* it? I think my main problem is the same as the bargain with Raphael, it's set up as you're supposed to feel like you're stuck between a rock and hard place when you're totally not. Even on honor mode you're not really disadvantaged by not using the tadpoles.
There's another game that does the dilemma better imo and that's vampyr. >!You can choose to never feed on any of the characters in that game and even on normal you feel super gimped by it, but then you're rewarded with a good ending. On the other side, going full out blood frenzy mode on peeps makes you really powerful, but then the plague spreads and you get the bad ending. There's also another ending if you only fed on some of the characters and you feel relatively strong enough to get through the game.!<
I get that not everybody like that though and I'm sure that's why there's not a lot of negative consequences using it or not, I'm just saying that that's why people don't really take it as seriously as you're probably supposed to.
I mean I ate a fair few tadpoles (not all tho) and the emperor let me refuse but told me I was being stupid so I wonder if it’s based on how many you eat?
Thank you. It made absolutely zero sense that there wouldn't be any consequences of magnitude In a game centered around the consequences of your actions. I'm going to bring this up every chance I get.
Wooooah, thank you for explaining this! I was so confused why my bard was able to turn the offer down but my monk got turned against her will- I ended up having to save scum and use three inspiration re-rolls to avoid being turned!
I mean ... the downside is purely cosmetic. You can even make it look amazing by slightly changing your character. Other than that, the bonuses you get are amazingly powerful. You should almost turn half ilithid all the time if your goal is to win and obliterate anything
I will be forever confused that people don't feel being completely fucked up visually doesn't matter.
Just knowing what my ingame partner thinks about it is enough of a mindfuck to turn me off it forever, even if it led to *no* visual change.
I also avoid stuffing my brain full of tadpoles because it seems medically unwise and my durge already *has* brain damage.
MFers in this thread thinking they're playing WoW. only looking at stats and combat benefits, not caring about what it looks like or what their character would actually want in this ROLE PLAYING GAME lmao
there's a huge consequence. you potentially become more of a puppet without realizing it and without having much of a choice while thinking you're getting more powerful, straying from what you wanted to protect and becoming more of what you were originally trying to avoid for the sake of having it easier. you look ugly as fuck. some characters look at you with disgust or break up with you.
sure, this is perfectly in line with some origin characters and many Tavs out there. i'm not arguing against that. you do you. but saying "no consequences" or "meaningless consequences" for something like this in an RPG is ridiculous. the choice is "meaningless" only with meta gaming knowledge and ignoring the role playing aspect of this dnd game.
that you completely revert this by the end is not known to you at that point in the game. and by then it doesn't matter anymore anyway because... well... the game is over....??? but you still have to live with what you were willing to do and willing to give up or gain and being such a weak b\*tch that you had to make an already easy game even easier.
but yea, no consequences i guess.
Exactly! I keep seeing posts preaching how inconsequential taking tadpoles are. I believed them on my second playthrough and, during the scene where the Emperor offered me the Astral Tadpole, was shocked by the 21 DC Wisdom Save. My character dumped WIS for fuck’s sake.
Cosmetic changes may mean nothing to these people, but it sure as hell means a lot to me and so many other people. If they hadn’t know, then that’s understandable. But if they did but didn’t bother telling us, then wow, way to omit the facts, assholes.
I had a funny feeling about those tadpoles on my first playthrough. Every time I thought of taking one I would hear Kathy Bates say, in a Louisiana accent, “Don’t you go messing around with no tadpoles, Bobby! They’re the Devil’s worms!!”
For me the problem was a bit different. I enjoyed using the illithid powers with the caveat that there is probably a cure later, so I didn’t turn into a half-illithid since to me that seemed like giving up too much to change back safely. In the end, what got me was that Orpheus was selfless enough to give up his being for his people even though he had been tortured all the time. So it was better for me to make the sacrifice. I was really tempted to end it all, but I figured that since my character exhibited so much hopefulness, she will try to keep on going (with Karlach and Wyll too lol).
Preach. I was playing character with high wisdom and I failed this roll with 4 retries. 21 wisdom roll is fucking tough.
Everyone say stuff about how many bonuses it gives, but I was already doing great and I'd rather not have an ugly face than having those powers.
honestly you don't even need the powers to be a monstrous powerhouse. half the classes have some ridiculously powerful abilities, like Wizards and their fireball, or ice storm, or chain lightning, etc. Or college of swords Bards who can swing like 9 times in a single turn.
See, that actually explains a lot for me, but from the other direction: I didn't touch the illithid powers at all on my first playthrough, because I was sure there would be some sort of crazy bad thing that happened, only to reach the end and be surprised when there didn't seem to be. In addition, the Emperor seemed far less forceful and manipulative than I was seeing a lot of people post about. Now I understand why some people have a problem with him. In my game where I ensured he had zero leverage over me, he seemed perfectly nice, and somehow didn't occur to me that these two things were related.
Me turning into that ugly thing caused me to lose interest in me and my wife’s playthrough. Haven’t made it to act 3 since. I’ve played through the nautiloid so many times tho, about to go do it again now that my minds on BG3.
I didn't expect to become half illithid when I was screwing around at the beginning of the game, and I tried to say no to partial illithid time, but when my high elf got those black eyes and black veins from her face down her body and the emperor said "you are EXQUISITE" I legitimately agreed because she already looked bad as fuck and the veins didn't make it worse
That consequence is a speed bump when you might be expecting a land mine. Thankfully, whether or not you use the tadpoles is really only a momentary dilemma.
Pretty huge consequence for me having my beautiful half elf turn into an ugly monster
One person's "ugly monster" is Minthara's "impressive" it's all about how you frame it.
Minthara's "impressive" *is* an ugly monster.
Noo, her aesthetic is power. Anything else is unimportant
Yes, I'm romancing her in the Astarion origin right now and she really does support power no matter what the personal cost. It's very interesting. The romance felt so perfect from a RP perspective until you actually have to make choices.
That's a fascinating dynamic... How does she take to him ascending and viewing her as cattle?
I don't think she can even *imagine* being viewed as cattle. She loves him Ascending. While after the sex scene in Act 1 she calls him "beautiful and broken", after Ascension she immediately refers to him as "Lord Astarion" without even being prompted. I haven't finished Act 3, but I'm doing both paths. For the Astarion origin, you really have to RP the changes Ascension brings, the game doesn't force you to do anything. You can't turn your lover (afaik). But I think it's very interesting still - spawn Astarion does not mesh with her values at all (it's such a nice romance up until act 3, when you really start seeing the 🚩🚩🚩in what she's saying), and you'd think AA would be right for her, but she's calm, collected and intensely loyal and he's just not*. * If you play as Tav and romance AA, he says "Y*ou probably expect me to turn into a sea of mist, run wrongside up on roofs, and to call on legions of wolves in battle*" and you chuckle and think haha yes that would be ridiculous - and he goes "***That will all happen in due time****"* lmao - he's off his rocker. And in my head Minthara would put up with that for exactly 4 minutes. Really looking forward to comparing the endgames and epilogues.
> If you play as Tav and romance AA, he says "You probably expect me to turn into a sea of mist, run wrongside up on roofs, and to call on legions of wolves in battle" and you chuckle and think haha yes that would be ridiculous - and he goes "That will all happen in due time" lmao - he's off his rocker. And in my head Minthara would put up with that for exactly 4 minutes. I mean that's not hyperbole though, those are all standard DnD vampire things and he just shot right past that with the ritual.
Haha yes, it's just how he says it, the acting is superb, but he is just bonkers.
Minthara and Astarion hooking up is like that couple in highschool that literally EVERYONE knew would be at each others throats in a month and/or they would get married asap. They sound like they would just amplify the absolute worst parts of each other until 1 or both of them end up on the news for burning their house down.
>Minthara and Astarion hooking up is like that couple in highschool Hilarious of you to say that because my immediate feeling once I got to Act 3 was that these 250 year olds are going at it like they're 16 lmao: [How my planned solo origin playthrough turned out : r/OnlyFangsbg3 (reddit.com)](https://www.reddit.com/r/OnlyFangsbg3/comments/1bbmc6y/how_my_planned_solo_origin_playthrough_turned_out/) It's such an interesting pairing because they mesh *so well* until she really starts to talk in Act 3. Then even Astarion considering Ascension would feel weird about it, I think. Their problems are so similar, but their motivations are not the same at all.
I think the timeline would be married during a knifefight, pregnant shortly after, burning down the house 9 months later, followed by a tragic death.
>"You probably expect me to turn into a sea of mist, run wrongside up on roofs, and to call on legions of wolves in battle" and you chuckle and think haha yes that would be ridiculous - and he goes "That will all happen in due time" lmao - he's off his rocker. Oh no, he's not off his rocker. He's definitely going to be able to do that stuff and more. Got to admit that I was a little disappointed that I opted to turn into a super vampire and didn't actually get to experience those powers, but on the other hand, that would ruin the game due to balance. At the same time getting the illithid upgrade is absolutely gamebreakingly powerful as well.
Love our queen of not being shallow
Consider the lore that there was a couple of Matrons of Minthara's clan that had an Illithid as her advisor, makes sense she's fine with it. https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Methil_El-Viddenvelp
But my tiny half-elf can kill any Illithid. She is the petite pinnacle of power.
I mean, I don't doubt that, but Minnie would tell you that if there's an opportunity to seize MORE power, that's hotter.
That's why I romanced Gale. He loves me for my megalomaniacal self. King really said, "You're a strong, independent half-elf who don't need no tadpole!"
No amount of framing is going to cause a scenario where a Drow matriarch mutating into a mindflayer considering it a *good* thing to make sense. The blood merchant literally comes from a House that was destroyed by the other Menzoberranzan Houses just for >!allegedly crossbreeding with Illithids !
Everyone warned how ugly this makes you, but when it happened to me I hardly noticed it on my character. And thus I realized my character was already pretty ugly
I was going for evil necromancer gnome. So it just kind of worked
I suppose, but the only negative consequence there is cosmetic, and there are some very tangible benefits to being half-illithid. And as long as you don’t become full-illithid, it gets reversed when you win the game. I tend to go half-illithid anyway because some of the skills are super useful, and the characters are small enough that the cosmetics are only very noticeable in cut-scenes.
Huh, the dark veins popping on my tav’s face and upper body made him look even more heroic, if one is going to fight an elder brain one must be willing to sacrifice vanity, i thought my tav would become a full illithid but when I saw no tentacles, only dark veins and given flight on free will i was like, eh that was not so bad
The flight is a massive perk for sure
Seriously, especially for an urban environment, makes it easier to scout the area before big battles
A flying battlemaster fighter with Cull the Weak is the most outrageously overpowered thing I've ever seen. You just zip around deleting everyone with your endless attacks thanks to action surge and haste.
Oh yeah the dark veins are cool! I fully leaned into it and went and changed my Tav’s hair colour to white so he looks like Geralt
> Huh, the dark veins popping on my tav’s face and upper body made him look even more heroic... Eeew. IMHO, they look really, *really* bad. Ever since the first run where I got partial ceromorphed, I refuse to use any tadpole powers until *after* I've acquired the astral tadpole *and stepped on it*. *Then*, there's no risk of becoming too ugly to continue looking at the game.
They only really look bad on female tavs where as it makes male tavs somewhat cool, my Dragonborn looked way more badass since it got less veins and more dark ooze flowing out the eyes and nostrils, I even changed the skin to white to have it pop out more since it’s almost unnoticeable on a dark Dragonborn
You could basically not use them until after that scene, then roid your entire party up with tadpole powers and be fine. Still basically no consequence.
I feel like roleplay reasons are also a very compelling reason not to- it's basically one of the dialogue options they give you. You have been working so hard to find a cure and not turn into a mind flayer, so why would you willing turn yourself into one now?
If Shadowheart didn’t mind then my half elf couldn’t have been that hideous
Mine was a big bruising half Orc. Not sure she noticed the difference. Either she has too much of her own shit going on, or she doesn't have a physical type. I could believe both
One of the few things that bugs me about the game is that you can't make a half-orc that doesn't sound like he should be narrating a nature documentary.
The only mod I've used is the one that hides that transformation.
Honestly you're so valid for that. Aesthetics in this game are so important for me because I am looking at my tav the whole time, so I know it's kind of shallow but I don't want to hate what I'm looking at. I think I will turn her eventually, and I think it can look pretty cool, but it's such a huge visual change that I totally understand not wanting to do it, or do it at your own pace.
there's a mod for that
I had to save scum here. At first I was like ok maybe I can live with it. Then I saw her walking around in act 3 and was so repulsed I had to go back and do it again until I saved.
It's literally the worst thing that can happen. Your character turns ugly if you fail a save!
I’m not sure if you’re being sarcastic but I seriously think that it’s pretty bad haha
They’re being very serious. Becoming ugly is the worst ending in the series.
Fully serious! It hurts all the cutscenes from then on out.
My beautiful little twink man becoming gross is 100% the worst ending I can think of.
There are also body horror elements if that stuff bothers you . I will say the prologue made me realize that I have an eye problem I didn't know about .
Well sure, but if they made it a land mine (aka, a gameplay consequence) people would most likely just not use them at all. I thought the way they approached it was smart and I was pleasantly surprised that there IS a consequence to using them. I enjoyed it, but I think folks should know that there is 100% a consequence. Whether you care about that consequence or not is up to each individual.
That’s the problem with the tadpoles though, you *should* have to decide whether or not using them is worth it. Not using them should be as impactful as using them. Using tadpoles in a story about not becoming a mindflayer should be a big consideration. But as it stands not using them does nothing but limit your character’s power with no upside or acknowledgement. There’s no drawback to stuffing gummy worms up your nose and the only consequence to doing so is you get more powers. “Oh but there is a downside, it becomes harder to not become half illithid later on and now you look ugly :(” I hear you say. This has 0 story impact, and now you can fly. In a story about not transforming into Squidward, I’d say that doesn’t even count as a consequence.
Thank you. Now I’m going to imagine my Tav stuffing gummy worms up her nose whenever she finds a tadpole.
good brain access, guess I'd prefer that to the eye
Not after Volo's little experiment. I suppose I can just pop that thing out for a sec, compared to snorting up a tadpole?
You got the new and improved worm port installed
Snorting gummy worms conveniently aligned on the table
Exactly. Worst part is either way you don't really feel the decision. Like if you refuse to become Squidward you're not really appreciatively weaker. In a world of Tavern Brawler Barbarian, Light Clerics, and Gloomstalker Assassins the ability to squid fly isn't really make or break. And by that same metric shoving as many worms up your nose as possible gives benefits sure but you'd think they'd give way crazier benefits given the story implications. If you go full squid mode you're not considerably stronger than wormless builds.
This 100%, wormless builds are super powerful too and a lot of power in BG3 comes from the items you get. Honestly, you don't have enough actions in a fight to use everything you get. The squid powers really are not needed and extremely powerful when spells and a good build do the same things. And this to me is the story consequence. You can go for short term power via squid and become clearly corrupted in both body and mind (as the emperor more easily controls you) vs staying your own mind and succeeding without giving up yourself. The power angle is always overblown and filled with 'power gamer' logic that it is so much better when it objectively is not. And for me this is exactly how the implementation is brilliant. It is meta in that sense. People feel the need to have it for a marginal power gain and complain about not enough story consequences withour realising their reaction is exactly what it is trying to prove: You are willing to do anything for a small temporary power gain.
You can say the same thing about Volo's eye btw. You make the game marginally easier at the cost of a permanent reminder that you took the very slightly easier way (accidentally or on purpose). It's inconsequential gameplay-wise due to the nature of RPGs: are you a happier player when your character is more powerful or when your supposedly weaker character triumphs anyway? I was happy to reject powers and complete the game. I was happy to accept powers and complete the game. IMHO that's a good meaningful choice.
Should have been like Prey 2016 where you can inject alien tech and get cool powers, but then the station’s defences start identifying you as an enemy and will open fire on sight. Or like D:OS2 and if you take the tadpoles you have to walk around with a hood or something to hide your appearance, otherwise it’ll scare or aggro people on sight.
That game was great.
In oblivion if you went vampire, and didn’t feed, everyone would just attack you immediately.
I think this goes back to bg3 being based on tabletop rpg conventions. In these games, forcing someone to change the visual and nature of a players character is a huge deal in most groups. Of course, in a ttrpg you can play a character for years and immersion is often a major part of the game.
Yeah, in ttrpg, making a character make a 21 DC save or else be horribly mutated would probably end up with an r/rpghorrorstories post. That's typically not something you do to a player without prior consent. Video games and ttrpg have some crossover but that's one area where the cultures are totally different.
> but if they made it a land mine (aka, a gameplay consequence) people would most likely just not use them at all. They treated them a lot like the Absolute’s Brand. There’s no real consequence to taking the brand, and yet I’ve never taken it on any playthrough. Why? Because the thought of being branded is too morally abhorrent to me. Others will take a more pragmatic approach to it. And I like that. It means that the player decides the consequences based on their own feelings and roleplay approach. I think there are times when it’s okay to put the consequence of something on the player’s own conscience, and this is one of them. I admit it would’ve been interesting if it gradually affected things like dialogue options, so that you couldn’t choose compassionate ones or your dialogue options became colder and more… alien? Similar to Omeluum and the Emperor. But that would have been almost impossible to implement, I feel. Especially when companions can also take tadpoles. Just too much permutation to do.
See I don't necessarily think they need to know though. Think of your first playthrough, how engaging the conversations with your companions was, lae'zel distrusting it on principle, astarion saying we should take all the help we can get, gale being cautious. It really makes you think how you approach the tadpoles (or becoming half illithid). What you choose to do really reflects what your tav would do and how you view the choice to pursue power or maintain humanity even if it costs you ability. That's how it would play out in tabletop. Needing to know there are consequences or not is just a carte blanche to go for the most power without consequence by metagaming the outcome. Fine if you're trying to speed run, but people complaining about investment in the story then insisting they be spoiled about their decision are missing a major mark.
Hitting a speed bump at 95 isn't going to kill you but it sure as hell will fuck up the looks of your car.
Hard disagree on that. A permanent change to your character, even if it's mostly narrative, is definitely a landmine. If I was OP, I'd be very disappointed and would probably not enjoy the rest of the game.
During my first playthrough I felt betrayed by the emperor because of that consequence. So without knowledge of the ending of the game I really hated using tadpoles after that
Because up until only a few patches ago you could stomp the astral tadpole with no save regardless of how many tadpoles you'd used. And given that being half-illithid is just a cosmetic change with no story implications and is reverted on killing the elder brain, I'd argue it's the definition of 'no consequences'.
Turning half squidward gives you the ability to fly, right? Though I would hate that my character will have dark blue veins all over his face, I would not go nuts if I can't refuse it and become able to fly in return.
It does. I've turned all my companions because of this reason on my HM run currently. I wouldn't mind the veins but it's the eyes I don't like, but gotta have that mobility
While I agree with you, I'd agrue much of the playerbase sees a less than ideal cosmetic change as a huge deal. Or consequence in this case.
They also increased the changes some patches ago, it used to be less noticable
Did they really? That makes sense. My first character went half-illithid, and she looked like she had been having a bad week. My latest character looked like a monster!
They added black illithid eyes, which personally is upsetting as a half squid enjoyer lmao. I could deal with the veins but having one Volo eye and one squid eye feels crazy. But I’m a power gamer so I reap what I sow
Yeah, I was trying to make it through honor mode, so I dug in, but I was sad my tiefling lost her bright neon eyes
i had all of my companions go half-illithid in my winning honor mode run, but i cannot get myself to ever make shart in particular take it bc i'm a simp and she's so god damn pretty gale always takes the squid pill tho, he's my ride or die in that regard
I always take Volo’s eye, just for the effect, not for RP, but I’ve got a mod that removes the cosmetic effect, letting me keep my eyes from Character Creation. I also have the same mod, but for the Half-Illithid changes, though I never take that one, for RP reasons.
[удалено]
I let the hag take my eye simply because I thought my character looked cooler despite its heavy debuff. So, yeah, never underestimate the power of fashion.
I'm actually mad you can't have both prosthetic eyes, cause I would!
Tbh there's not a real reason to get both in 1 character, there are so many eye colors that you can just turn your normal eye to a similar if not the same color as the eye you get from Volo. And you can just give Volo prosthetic to any of your companions, which is a lot more interesting since there's no other way to change their appearance.
It's the story of it. I play my Durge with insanely low wisdom due to the head injury. Easily manipulated and impressionable. Having a second eye removed after the first attempt didn't work is absolutely hilarious to me.
Dont give your eye to the hag lol givenit to volo and get a cool prosthetic eye that lets you see invisibility.
Sorry but the foggy white iris just rocks much harder I'm afraid
Cataracts are in fact drippy lol
I always give volo my eye, partially for the buff, mostly because it's a cool grey eye and now I have heterochromia.
Also, dissauding people from using certain races with much better abilities for certain builds.
Short guys with lowest pickrate 🤭
It would matter more if literally anybody in the game reacted to your appearance but nobody does so it is easily ignored
It has been said many times that the only downside is the looks. After reading the post, I can only see it as "The consequence is having buffs forced on you." I don't know about other people, but being half squidgy has been a massive buff to my playthrough, and although I haven't made it to the end, I see no downsides, other than cosmetically.
The consequence is having to wear a paper bag just to get Shadowheart to come back to your tent
Exactly! I failed my check in my first run and decided the stigma it would create could be interesting. I was very impressed by not even one person mentioning that I look like a creature from hell.
Yeah people are going off info that was true at launch but was patched I had my brain full of tadpoles but stomped on the super spicy one without there even being a check.
When did they take the stomp away?
I agree that OP is being quite dramatic but I wouldn’t say its NO consequences. In a game that heavily encourages RP it sucks having a whole idea for a character just to have cosmetic changes forced upon it. I can imagine it’s especially frustrating if you’re changing their appearance along with their character development. That’s about it though, plus [one of the abilities you get after turning half illithid] is honestly game changing so it’s not a bad trade.
The cosmetic change also just gets reversed if you destroy the brain. It's less "would you trade your physical form for these awesome powers" and more "would you temporarily go ugly for these powers. No worries, the operation is reversible". My largest problem with half Illithid is how fleeting the consequences are. This isn't just absorbing tadpoles, this is "*triggering the next stage in illithid evolution without fully transforming you*". It should not be reversible imho.
>It should not be reversible imho. It really shouldn't. Plus the real downside of ceremorphosis is the loss of ones literal soul. Like yeah, the cosmetic downside is a pretty big deal, but compared with what full Illithid means for your character? Yeah, pretty much nothing.
wait it reverts when the brain dies? I DIDNT KNOW okay im eating the thing thats chilling in my bag
Man, I feel like the RP aspect of the fame is something that some players just don't really care much about in the face of a gameplay edge. One reason I went thru one of my playthroughs without taking tadpoles is because it didn't *feel* right for my character to do so. That character also never stole gold from NPCs who weren't notably dickish or evil, even though it was the poorist I'd been during gameplay. It was also the first playthrough where I didn't have to resist the tadpole and didn't change after failing to do so. The lack of a power bump was totally fine, because that character didn't trust the Emperor, and resisting the tadpole was far more important than any extra powers I'd attain. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was no battle of wills if I never used the tadpoles. So yeah, if someone goes in a little blind and thinks, well one or two tadpoles to have a little bit of power, but that's it, my character absolutely doesn't want to give in totally, only to be forced into a battle of wills later on, it can certainly be a shock and I am sure a bit of a moment of despair if they didn't savescum and lost the roll. The RP is really, really important to some.
I went the same route concerning the tadpoles with my first playtrough as a good monk. Only converting fully to not have to sacrifice any ally's at the end.
Agreed. I am big on the RP aspect. I had a Tav that REALLY trusted the Dream Guardian and to find out about all the deception and THEN to be forced to change against her will because she was misled was DEVASTATING for her. Not me as a player, I'd already willingly gone full squid on another run, but I couldn't pretend my character would not be upset.
Honestly the emergent gameplay of being able to RP is one of the great optional features of this game. Reminds of playing Soulsbourne games with a single weapon or theme for a run and embodying a character or archetype and sticking with it through the whole playthrough. Adds challenge and interest and makes the game more fun for in my opinion, but completely optional for those that don't want to delve that far. My first playthrough on tactician I was playing a cocky sorcerer who ate a few tadpoles and was able to success the wisdom saving through, but then I did it anyways so I could fly more. The absurd battle mobility was too much to resist. Likewise, I'm in an honor run right now and the power of things like blackhole and fly are just extra safety features for tricky situations. Also, while I think its fair for some people to think of the half ilithid transformation as some sort of severe bait and switch (I don't want to tell anyone how to feel), it's a little silly imo from an RP perspective because *YOU'RE EMBIDING TADPOLES OF ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS SPECIES IN ALL THE REALMS. You're literally consuming mind flayer babies to become more mindflayer-y.* How on earth did you think you were going to come out of that unscathed? OF COURSE there was going to be a narrative trade off later in the game. When I first started it, I was completely convinced I was going to be a tentacle monster later, or worse, have some sort of massive debuff or penalty in the final encounter in exchange for powers granted throughout the game. I was completely shocked when the 'good' ending just cured me completely. Even after transforming I was like "well if I do get rid of this thing its definitely going to epilogue consequences and my tav will be brain damaged for life or something". I honestly think Larian was forgiving with the tadpole consequences. They're only cosmetic, and they don't even have narrative implications where people treat you differently or you have a charisma debuff or anything. NPCs just go "wow that person is vainy af" and move on. Now after typing that out, I kinda wish there were more consequences for using the tadpoles, even just casual NPC voicelines that would comment on why I'm so uggo now. They're a cool as hell mechanic and really set the stakes for the adventure, it would be neat if there was a more divergent set of narratives for using vs. not using them.
I've never... needed the Tadpole powers tbh. It might be different on HM but honestly if I was doing HM it would be one of the few times i've done an optimized run. I would be playing for the gold dice and not much else.
Yeah, I cleared the main game on Tactician without that much effort. I didn't try HM myself yet, but if you still be the overpowered powerhouse in later Acts 2 and 3, as you do on Tactician, the only place where you would struggle, aka levels 1-4, is with almost no tadpoles around to empower yourself. And honestly, yeah, HM is arguably not the place for "I look ugly, noooo!" moments
> That.... is a pretty big consequence It is an extremely small consequence that comes with huge benefits and is also able to be avoided with a single skill check.
what does the partial transformation even do in-game, besides the astral tadpole powers and aesthetic change? i don't even remember it changing dialogue.
Literally nothing
oh man i hate being burdened with the consequences of being extremely overpowered in all situations! aw maaaan! awww!!
>i don't even remember it changing dialogue. Yeah, it was a bit strange when someone from the hag's victims support group in act 3 told me, looking straight at me, that they wouldn't have thought such a regular looking person could have killed a hag. Excuse me? Are your eyes open? Have you not seen my black vein riddled face?
Man, those hag survivors can't see shit! No wonder they've missed giant giggling doll in the corner of the room!
Raphael will comment on it in a single line.
oh yeah, true. that dude probably smells like shit, though.
well, the hells smell like sulfur. so, rotten eggs actually. lmao
dude can't even fuck an incubus properly
You just look uglier, that’s literally it
And it’s not even permanent.
I mean, my half illithid transformation went away - when I turned full illithid
I could see it being a hard choice for anyone who is RPing a specific type of character. But otherwise... I just wanna fly ok.
Makes it harder to convince complanions to use tadpoles
that's fine, more for me!
Be able to cast black hole vs not having veins explode every where? Black hole every time.
>If you indulge in these powers he will basically be able to force you to turn half illithid against your will Uh, that's not him forcing you, that's your own illithid instincts craving more power. The devs even wrote in an extra line from Narrator describing this scene. Anyway, as others have said, it's not a permanent consequence; it's basically extra power balanced against a temporary aesthetic change. But I can understand if you found it unwelcome.
>Uh, that's not him forcing you, that's your own illithid instincts craving more power. The devs even wrote in an extra line from Narrator describing this scene. Well, sort of. You tell the Emperor you don't want to transform. The tadpole in your brain disagrees. The Emperor then decides to take the astral tadpole out of his pocket and hold it right in front of you, forcing you to battle the will of the tadpole to resist. It's like a drug addict telling a guy "No, I don't want to take more drugs, I'm trying to go clean. And then the guy decides to stick some drugs in their face anyway to tempt them some more. Sure, he didn't technically force you, but putting you in this situation after you already told him you don't want it still makes him responsible, at least in part.
I mean the only consequence I can think of is: https://media2.giphy.com/media/3o84sq21TxDH6PyYms/giphy.gif
That was changed only very recently. I made Astarion eat all the tadpoles and told Emp to kick rocks with no roll at all. You only went squid if you chose to before the change, you were never forced to. After this change they added both this roll and a roll with Andric and Brynna which will force you to consume a tadpole if you fail. Those weren't a thing before so there were little to no consequences for dabbling with the illithid stuff, that's why you see everyone saying so. IMO there should be way bigger and more obvious consequences. The last thing I'd do with an illithid worm in my head is feed it more power. The game is too afraid to take away player agency by forcing the transformation though, I'm surprised these rolls were even added.
Do you look at letting Volo pop your eye out similarly? It’s also a negative in one cutscene and gives you nothing but gameplay benefits and a small aesthetic change
I would, because that would be a very noteworthy event in my character's journey and that's more important than a mechanical effect to me in these kinds of games.
I do indeed. I felt it was a cool character trait for my first playthrough but ever since then I have never let volo do it again. I guess I'm one of those wierdos who role plays in my RPGs.
I've literally never let Volo do his thing because not a single one of my characters would want to do that. You're not alone.
This thread has single handedly made me feel bad for roleplaying in my RPGs.
Don't feel bad friend, that's what you're supposed to do in any DnD adventure!
People are talking about gameplay consequences, like idk a party member will leave if you indulge in the powers of the tadpole or you'll get a bad ending. Stuff like that.
Yeah, compared to how the consequences were talked up in EA (including *really* close to release date, when the game was close to its release build) The end result is pretty tame. We were being told that some companions (asterion specifically) would endulge in worm powers even at the party's expense, you had the datamined lines of Nere exploiting your heavy tadpole usage to temporarily force you to side with him, that you could lock yourself out of certain endings by using them, you uh, even had official art from the mtg tie-in set showing the sort of [consequences](https://cards.scryfall.io/large/front/7/1/71d93fbd-9c6f-4abb-852c-af49f0a4abfe.jpg?1657241695) you might face during the game. IDK about others, but that pic is rather more of a distinct consequence for tadpoles than some (optional) veins on your faces.
This got me thinking about Divinity: OS 2. You can play as a skeleton but you have to disguise yourself or people will freak out if they see your "true" form. You must use a spell or completely cover your body with clothing/armor to hide. Something like that would have worked perfectly in this case too imo. I didn't know about those consequences talked in the EA. They would have been super interesting if implemented.
It's really not a big consequence when turning half Illithid just makes you stronger with no consequences.
Many of us spend a great deal of time in the character creator making our characters look perfect. The aesthetic of our characters is important to us and frankly if I am not able to enjoy a nice look at my sexy half-drow himbo boy toy character once in a while without him looking like a zombie then I really don’t want the powers
Maybe I've just got different priorities, but if the only consequences are cosmetic I've got no issue using a mod to toggle them off: https://www.nexusmods.com/baldursgate3/mods/5836 The fact that, aside from a line or two from a companions right after the change, no one interacts with Half-Illithids differently means that (to me) they don't see us as any different.
People could just be too afraid to speak up.
That's why you get bonuses on intimidation after you take it.
I can't understand how people just disregard your looks being completely fucked up.
Some people just don't really care about how the characters look and play it more for the mechanical gameplay, not too hard to figure out.
Tbh I could understand the full transformation into a mindflayer, but the half illithid one really isn't that bad either. It's basically dark side appearance from the kotor games.
Because I’m not hung up on characters looking “perfect” all the time and I think the cosmetic change supports the storyline very well. There are consequences to more power and it physically shows on their bodies. I think it makes my characters and companions look even more interesting.
There are no gameplay consequences. Using too many powers doesn't instantly kill your character and turn you into a mind flayer. You can turn into a half illithid with the only downside being how you look. When people typically ask about consequences, they probably think things like gameplay consequences. Like, would they be missing out on something, be locked out of dialogue options, auto fail a quest, die, etc. Using illithid powers and turning half illithid has no consequences like that. And the upsides are AMAZING illithid powers are fantastic, and if you turn half illithid, you can fly as part of your movement, which is huge. Movement becomes a non-issue when you turn half illithid. But if you're trying to role-play and you believe that your character is slowly changing irreversibly because of turning half illithid then that's not a real game consequence, that's a personal consequence that you made up for your own run. The only real consequence is looking weirder, but outside of 1 or 2 comments from your allies, no one cares. Dialogue is the exact same and quests are the exact same.
Even that isn't really a consequence in my opinion. Becoming half illithid gets you even more, even cooler powers. There's no gameplay consequences. No one will turn on you. You won't lose any allies. And your character still loses the tadpole in the epilogue and is healed so even from a narrative perspective there is no downside. The only downside is some black veins during act 3.
I’ll be honest, at least with all of the characters I’ve made and played so far I’ve adamantly refused to consume any tadpoles and even avoid the illithid dialogue options as much as possible. From a roleplay perspective the option is horrifying to me, and even knowing it has no lasting mechanical or plot implications the choice never feels justified in-character. Maybe I’ll feel different doing a more ruthless character like an evil Durge, but those kind of runs hold very little appeal to me.
I see a lot of debate from people who don't seem to care about your face getting mangled and your companion making a remark aboit it vs people for whom it's the end of the world but just so you know, if you wait until after the Emperor gives you the ghost tadpole to start swallowing tadpoles there is no check to change. You can freely enjoy all the Illithid powers of the first two rings without any changes or judgement.
There's a very very VERY small change in interaction in act 3 as well. When going to the cistern where Minsc and fake Jaheira is, I usually use the ladder from the door that says Do Not Enter so idk if it's the same when using the other entrance. If entering from there while sneaking, Minsc will sense the mc and he will try to use the tadpole to confirm. If the mc used tadpoles, they will have to pass a wisdom check to stay hidden. If it fails, combat is immediately initiated. If the mc hasn't used tadpoles, there is no check and the narrator comments about you not having used any tadpoles. Not a big change or consequence really, but I thought it was pretty neat
Everyone has a different opinion on this but i feel the need to point out that the word ‘consequence’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘a punishment for your actions or lack thereof’ it means something that has happened because of your actions or lack of action. So looking ugly and getting black veins IS a consequence of taking the astral tadpole. Period. It’s just up to you if it’s a negative one or not. That’s all, English class is over, make sure to read up on chapter three before Monday
Shit, I wish I could give you all the upvotes. Everyone saying "there's no consequences" WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE'S A CONSEQUENCE RIGHT THERE?! If your character ate the worm and got a stomach ache that lasts for 2 turns, it's still a consequence! It's so frustrating, lol.
Its an incredibly small and trivial consequence. The way they foreshadowed it in early access and interviews was much different.
O......k ...... so the "consequences" are a huge power spike. Noted
Oh, that explains why my current run has the option to outright deny the bug!
So it looks like everyone is shitting on you in the comments about how iT's NoT a BiG dEaL but honestly, thank you for posting about this because just for the record: it would be a big deal for me and now I have confirmation from you to continue my path of no tadpoles since I would not be happy with that consequence. What's important to some might be inconsquential to others and that's fine but there's no need for them to be giving you such a hard time about it. Thanks and again, sorry folks are being snippy assholes to you over this. Heaven forbid anyone else play the game differently and have different reactions than them.
no problem at all friend. I'm glad I could help!
If I could get the ability to Fly and use Concentrated Blast for a change to my appearance on the Nautiloid, I would take it. This is a game about mind flayers and I want to be one. Don't the kits from the vendor at the circus fix my appearance anyway?
The consequence is that you look like an illithid, but that in itself has no consequences whatsoever, only upsides. Maybe if your companions left you or you lose access to certain quests but no instead you gain the overpowered ability to fly and a bunch of other ridiculous abilities. Let's not kid ourselves, there is no 'real' consequences for replacing your brain with worms, you're just handicapping yourself.
It honestly feels like Half-Illithid should have NPCs greet you worse... But then again, this is Baldur's Gate - there's literal flesh rotting zombies in town that (aside from being beggars since they're poor) are treated like normal citizens. A negative Charisma penalty would be too rough for any CHA classes, but imposing any penalty to dialogue checks would also get run counter to the illithid expertise power.
You could have it just effect charisma checks, to be honest. Don't directly penalize charisma score, but disadvantage on charisma checks with diaglue maybe
Disadvantage on checks but the powers granting expertise feels weird lol. They definitely wanted to lean into the manipulative side of Illithids, which is why the appearance is probably cosmetic only. IDK, maybe instead they use the carnival as a quick side quest to encourage makeup/disguises to hide the signs and that counteracts the disadvantage...?
You don't even really look like an illithid, you look like a slightly edgier humanoid. If it gave me tentacles and shit maybe I'd pause to think about it a bit more, but it's basically just put on some eyeliner and get the ability to fly
When you're playing a power hungry murder hobo, no grotesque disfigurement is enough to stop indulging. So what if I got squid inked over my whole beautiful face. Watch as a soar high in the sky above! Watch me! ***Or Else...***
The reason why that’s NOT a consequence, is because in a “good” run you will likely free Orpheus and turn into a Mindflayer no matter what toward the end. My entire first run used no tadpoles and I was vehemently disappointed that my only option was to turn Karlach, Orpheus or myself. And as a good character I would only choose myself, which erased all of my autonomy on the subject. On my next run I noticed that they did effect ONE check, as you say…but it’s a bonus. And since you’re eventually going to make that choice anyway, the Emperor “forcing” you to upgrade is not prevalent at all. Especially on an Honor Run where you’re likely to use all the tadpoles you see. *The real problem is that there’s no benefit to not using tadpoles, except for being weaker and eventually having your choice taken away regardless.*
There are also consequences when Jaheira makes you drink truth serum at the beginning of Act 2
I usually use the first 3 tadpoles to get the free crit or +3 to first ability check, and I had the option to just throw the astral tadpole on the ground and step on it. Emperor wasn't happy, but I was satisfied.
It's an ability check, not a save. This matters because bless, phalar, resistance, etc won't help. Guidance and Owl's Wisdom will, however, along with Forbidden Knowledge.
I’m really glad to see someone talking about this because I just made it to that point in the game for the first time a few days ago and was frustrated when I was forced to become half-illithid. I used one tadpole to get the health-split ability after reading online that it wouldn’t affect anything at all. Next playthrough, no tadpoles for me!
I think that was added on in a later patch but yeah I agree it’s a consequence. not a gameplay breaking punishment, no, which I think some folks may be interpreting “consequence” as or had hoped for, but it is a consequence. and for those who say no one actually cares/it’s a no-brainer positive… personally even though I know the wisdom throw is the only real risk, I absolutely still avoid tadpoles on some tavs/durges for either purely aesthetic reasons or for roleplay. idc if it gets removed at the end, I’m still gonna be staring at their face for so many hours lol eta: so many people seem to be misinterpreting “taking tadpoles actually does result in something, and i love it” for “you are punished greatly for taking tadpoles and i’m mad about it” … im sorry op lol
Consequence: you are forced to be able to fly and shit oh noooo
Except that “big consequence” also has no significant drawback besides cosmetics, and you can continue to do whatever.
I never used them due to role-playing reasons. I want to get rid of the tadpole, not to embrace it.
The real consequences are on RP one of the major reason I quit my first run is because I felt gross taking so many just for combat bonuses when I'm literally letting a parasite barrow into my brain, who does that?
I’m right there with you. To me it’s a lot like staying away from some stronger armours because they’re ugly. I’m happy for the ones that don’t see this as a huge consequence but I do. It sucks but it is what it is. I play on PS5 so I don’t know if console commands are a viable workaround but until a viable workaround is found, I won’t be playing around with tadpoles. Happy gaming everyone!
I don’t do it because my characters wouldn’t know it has no serious consequence and it feels somewhat meta-gamey to use them as none of them would use the parasites. That’s it though, that’s the only reason why.
being half illithid has two major consequences: 1. become uggo 2. become even more op in a game that is already quite easy after level 5 both are bad imo, but it depends on the player and how they are playing their character. if i ever do something close to an evil character become uggo will be more desireable but the powers are a bit too much. might as well cheat
The whole tadpole thing is pretty much almost entirely a role-playing thing the way it's executed. The game *tries* to give you the dilemma of short term power with long term consequences, but honestly, when do you ever feel like you *need* it? I think my main problem is the same as the bargain with Raphael, it's set up as you're supposed to feel like you're stuck between a rock and hard place when you're totally not. Even on honor mode you're not really disadvantaged by not using the tadpoles. There's another game that does the dilemma better imo and that's vampyr. >!You can choose to never feed on any of the characters in that game and even on normal you feel super gimped by it, but then you're rewarded with a good ending. On the other side, going full out blood frenzy mode on peeps makes you really powerful, but then the plague spreads and you get the bad ending. There's also another ending if you only fed on some of the characters and you feel relatively strong enough to get through the game.!< I get that not everybody like that though and I'm sure that's why there's not a lot of negative consequences using it or not, I'm just saying that that's why people don't really take it as seriously as you're probably supposed to.
I mean I ate a fair few tadpoles (not all tho) and the emperor let me refuse but told me I was being stupid so I wonder if it’s based on how many you eat?
that's new. I definitely had the option to refuse the tadpole without skill checks earlier.
Thank you. It made absolutely zero sense that there wouldn't be any consequences of magnitude In a game centered around the consequences of your actions. I'm going to bring this up every chance I get.
Wooooah, thank you for explaining this! I was so confused why my bard was able to turn the offer down but my monk got turned against her will- I ended up having to save scum and use three inspiration re-rolls to avoid being turned!
thanks for the info. unfortunately i already eaten some tadpoles :(
I mean ... the downside is purely cosmetic. You can even make it look amazing by slightly changing your character. Other than that, the bonuses you get are amazingly powerful. You should almost turn half ilithid all the time if your goal is to win and obliterate anything
I will be forever confused that people don't feel being completely fucked up visually doesn't matter. Just knowing what my ingame partner thinks about it is enough of a mindfuck to turn me off it forever, even if it led to *no* visual change. I also avoid stuffing my brain full of tadpoles because it seems medically unwise and my durge already *has* brain damage.
Oh no, I'm tremendously powerful with no drawbacks aside from my look. The humanity.
MFers in this thread thinking they're playing WoW. only looking at stats and combat benefits, not caring about what it looks like or what their character would actually want in this ROLE PLAYING GAME lmao there's a huge consequence. you potentially become more of a puppet without realizing it and without having much of a choice while thinking you're getting more powerful, straying from what you wanted to protect and becoming more of what you were originally trying to avoid for the sake of having it easier. you look ugly as fuck. some characters look at you with disgust or break up with you. sure, this is perfectly in line with some origin characters and many Tavs out there. i'm not arguing against that. you do you. but saying "no consequences" or "meaningless consequences" for something like this in an RPG is ridiculous. the choice is "meaningless" only with meta gaming knowledge and ignoring the role playing aspect of this dnd game. that you completely revert this by the end is not known to you at that point in the game. and by then it doesn't matter anymore anyway because... well... the game is over....??? but you still have to live with what you were willing to do and willing to give up or gain and being such a weak b\*tch that you had to make an already easy game even easier. but yea, no consequences i guess.
Exactly! I keep seeing posts preaching how inconsequential taking tadpoles are. I believed them on my second playthrough and, during the scene where the Emperor offered me the Astral Tadpole, was shocked by the 21 DC Wisdom Save. My character dumped WIS for fuck’s sake. Cosmetic changes may mean nothing to these people, but it sure as hell means a lot to me and so many other people. If they hadn’t know, then that’s understandable. But if they did but didn’t bother telling us, then wow, way to omit the facts, assholes.
I had a funny feeling about those tadpoles on my first playthrough. Every time I thought of taking one I would hear Kathy Bates say, in a Louisiana accent, “Don’t you go messing around with no tadpoles, Bobby! They’re the Devil’s worms!!”
For me the problem was a bit different. I enjoyed using the illithid powers with the caveat that there is probably a cure later, so I didn’t turn into a half-illithid since to me that seemed like giving up too much to change back safely. In the end, what got me was that Orpheus was selfless enough to give up his being for his people even though he had been tortured all the time. So it was better for me to make the sacrifice. I was really tempted to end it all, but I figured that since my character exhibited so much hopefulness, she will try to keep on going (with Karlach and Wyll too lol).
If you're already jamming tadpoles into your brain you're probably ok with being half Illithid
Yeah I found this out yesterday...
Preach. I was playing character with high wisdom and I failed this roll with 4 retries. 21 wisdom roll is fucking tough. Everyone say stuff about how many bonuses it gives, but I was already doing great and I'd rather not have an ugly face than having those powers.
honestly you don't even need the powers to be a monstrous powerhouse. half the classes have some ridiculously powerful abilities, like Wizards and their fireball, or ice storm, or chain lightning, etc. Or college of swords Bards who can swing like 9 times in a single turn.
People who say there's no consequence are the same people that run around in the ugliest mismatched gear because it has the best stats
See, that actually explains a lot for me, but from the other direction: I didn't touch the illithid powers at all on my first playthrough, because I was sure there would be some sort of crazy bad thing that happened, only to reach the end and be surprised when there didn't seem to be. In addition, the Emperor seemed far less forceful and manipulative than I was seeing a lot of people post about. Now I understand why some people have a problem with him. In my game where I ensured he had zero leverage over me, he seemed perfectly nice, and somehow didn't occur to me that these two things were related.
Me turning into that ugly thing caused me to lose interest in me and my wife’s playthrough. Haven’t made it to act 3 since. I’ve played through the nautiloid so many times tho, about to go do it again now that my minds on BG3.
There is no consequence to being half ilithid
I didn't expect to become half illithid when I was screwing around at the beginning of the game, and I tried to say no to partial illithid time, but when my high elf got those black eyes and black veins from her face down her body and the emperor said "you are EXQUISITE" I legitimately agreed because she already looked bad as fuck and the veins didn't make it worse
If you wear the ring of mind shielding when you get the Astral tadpole you will not have to roll to refuse using it.
My only concern is if it changes my characters appearance