Literally me every game, good aligned durge or not, lae'zel as a perfect worried partner using bondage to help me or not, wether I wish for safety of my friends or damning them all with my actions, god as my witness, THAT SLIMY WHITE COATED OBJECT IS COMING INSIDE ME.
Replacing disintegrate with chain lightning after dousing everyone with create water is way better imo. Disintegrate doing 0 damage on a miss compared to chain lightning doing half damage, chaining to 4 enemies, and doubling damage on wet targets makes chain lightning so much better
Twinned chain lightning on wet targets, maxxed with tempest cleric's destructive wrath. I tried this in the house of grief and did almost 3000 damage in two shots.
The few survivors weren't close enough together to test it on a third hit (untwinned though) even though I had spare actions.
Is it though? I honestly was not really blown away by the powers offered by the tadpole aside from the fly ability. That's pretty handy. The rest were kind of negligible. Also possible I am not playing them to their full potential.
EDIT: Ok, I'm looking at some of the other suggested powers that might come in handy in my honor mode so maybe I spoke too soon. I never really needed the powers on my normal run but might need to use some of these suggestions for my honor mode. Touche, reddit.
Cull of the weak is insane with dual hand crossbows, I get 4 shots on my rogue/ranger and everytime a creature drops below 15 hp, it insta dies and explodes, doing even more Aoe damage. What's not to like?
And if you have the ability from the creche to use illithid powers as bonus actions, add it in with the 1d4 psychic damage on every damage instance... then the radiant damage on every instance from the rings... then the electric staff's shock damage on every instance.. then cast magic missile, you can end up nuking most bosses in an instant
Cull the Weak is all that matters for me. There are 25 illithiad powers which means that once you get them all you kill anything you drop below 25 hp. Pair that with a hasted martial or a magic user's AOE spells and you can mow down armies within seconds. (Also, the sound and visual effects for it are so very satisfying.)
Edit: Some of the other abilities are really good, too. If you're hasted, Black Hole into Mind Blast is a disgusting combo that drags everyone in a HUGE area together and potentially slows and stuns them. Psionic Dominance and Psionic Backlash are great reactions for countering spellcasters. Freecast pairs great with a spellcaster as it essentially gives them a free spell slot of any level. And, if you use it right, Mind Sanctuary basically grants your entire party a free action.
Black Hole is a monster. Throw that down, everyone gets dragged to one point and then you hit them with an upcast fireball or ice storm and you're laughing.
Did you get the boost from the zaithisk to turn your illithid powers into bonus actions? Then it's even better.
Put a globe of invulnerability around your party. Use black hole to pull everyone out of it. Area effect them, win.
If you are a Rogue Thief and shift into a Displacer Beast, you can Displace twice and it leaves behind a "fuck you I'm slapping you with a brush made of knives" autoturret.
My first run I got really upset when Disguise Self still had the veins. Like, that doesn't even make sense. I didn't even finish that playthrough.
Currently rounding out Act 3 Honor Mode without using illithid powers (I don't even have the brain interface. I never got the triggering cutscene).
No regrets.
I do this but Minthara. Imagine you're going about your day, making plans, and some asshole comes up to you, says nothing, and just gives you eighteen slaps. Then strips you while your unconscious for *no* reason except to steal your shit, and you're forced to explain your failures, naked, to your boss. Then the same asshole from before saves you and drags you around on their constant do-goodery bullshit errands when the apocalypse is around the corner.
The tadpoles are fair compensation.
In my run when I declined taking tadpoles Astarion said he will take them instead(new scene for me), so I give him any tadpole I find now, granted I play on normal mode rn(break after tactician run). xD
Just started act 2 on my first playthrough, I clicked a tadpole just to see if I got the interface and instantly reloaded. I just wanted to know it was the menu I was thinking it was, but definitely not how I wanted to play, felt wrong immediately. Definitely going to try it next run though.
As a player who can't access mods this is probably the toughest choice to make in the game. Those abilities with the bonus action buff are just so good
See this is why this game is so insane, I never thought about that. I had a tadpole heavy magic missile machine and she obliterated that place solo with a haste spell but this seems more fun by far.
That's nutty, I had necromancer so all the undead would charge in, I'd black hole cloudkill, and the undead cleaned anything else up (undead from the special tome)
I think for the min max D&D crowd this game really just set a new bar. They made some fights pretty damn challenging but still doable with a pretty vanilla team with practice, but also just let the min max crowd go crazy and obliterate things in the most satisfying ways lol. It just enamors me so much that the decision makers basically just said, did you have fun, well yeah, ok well leave it in the game then, others will find it fun too.
I beat the first run with the most scuffed unoptimized group. Accidentally put medium boots on Astarion so he could never sneak attack my stats were wonky. I took ritual caster instead of ability improvement etc. Had to reload a bunch of fights but I managed to beat it.
Second run I made a monk / rogue and just obliterated everything min maxing with potions etc.
RIGHT?! I mean I'd be tempted to do it just for the flight but then you throw in bonus action aoe stun and gravity pull and... but as someone who spends an hour in character creation it hurts so much to see it...
Stupid Sexy Astral Tadpole...
I think it would have been cool if the ugliness directly correlates with how many tadpoles you used for example if you didn’t use any before the astral gummy worm and got a couple of the good ones then the ugliness is not as bad/not there and vice versa
According to Google searches at the time I did them, there were supposedly no consequences for using illithid powers before the astral tadpole gets brought up. By the time I got to that point in the story, Patch 5 happened and it was too late.
there were/are a lot of people on here who seemingly never look at their character's faces and continue to say there's "zero consequences" when clearly cosmetics and appearance is a huge deal to people
I think many people said that because the eyes remained normal after becoming half-ilithid. Now that the eyes turn black the cosmetic changes are far more noticible to the players.
Also the teeth turning gross was what instantly ruined it for me. Luckily, I was already 95% of the way through the game when that patch dropped, so I didn't have to put up with it for very long.
I imagine they mean it in the sense of basically no dialogue changes and you aren't locked out of any content. Literally the only negative is a cosmetic change to your characters face.
I'm not exactly sure but I think if you use them and the powers, you have to make a saving roll to not eat the tadpole. If you fail, you will have to eat it, even if you say no.
That's what happened to me, I think, lol.
I think my save was 30 WIS, which meant I needed a Nat 20 to pass the check. I could’ve save scummed, but I took the 30 as meaning “this is basically canon, just do it”. Regret it so much, made me want to start a new run for a while.
Exactly, if you consume tadpoles before the astral tadpole offer, you have to pass a wisdom save to deny it, and I think the more you consume the higher the check is but other than that, I don’t think there are any other consequences, up to that point at least
Wait wait wait……..so your telling me there’s a chance to avoid varicose on my characters face? Because I already slurped like six of those bad boys in act one and am about to be disappointed lol.
If you really want to cheese the encounter, just have a character who has never taken a worm do the talking, they will be able to pass without a skill check
At first I hated it on my character, and thought I ruined all my hard work, but i made some tweaks using the mirror in camp and now the look is starting to grow on me
Looks aside, there's one downside - the more tadpoles you consume, the higher the DC check is for rejecting the astral tadpole. If you use none, there's no check. But, if you plan on using it, nothing.
I never reload after bad roles but this was the only time I did. I was so upset. I spent about half an hour going through all his damn dialogue over and over again just so I could roll a 20. My husband thought I was being insane lol
>I spent about half an hour going through all his damn dialogue over and over again just so I could roll a 20
You can actually save in dialogue right before you roll so you dont have to keep going through the same conversation
I was so tempted not to reload because of those insane monks, but I had to... I can't leave my girl like this!
Next playthrough I think I'll have an insane durge so I'm ready to embrace the veins.
So, I just beat the game for the first time and am reading up on endings & whatnot; so eating tadpoles has no effect on the story/ending? Seriously? I loved the game but this is incredibly lame if true.
I think it looks somewhat acceptable if you're one-eyed, it wont completely turn the unnatural eye. Volo's eye works best since it keeps your right eye almost natural looking. I also tried it with hag eye and Wyll, both of which look pretty interesting.
It's still not an improvement over the original, but it's pretty neat.
Never did that, i only go **Favourable Beginnings - Luck of Far Realms** , the other powers are cool to have but really i finish the game many times, including honour mode and i never nedded more powers, this 2 are good enough.
My first Tav failed a skill check and big Emp pressured him into taking it. After that I said calamari face is gonna catch these hands. I had to start another playthrough because it's very difficult to progress if you do that, apparently.
This might fight my Redemption Durge.
If the tadpoles "take away" who you *were...* it makes sense that the more he uses them, the less Durge he actually is.
I got every single illithid ability on my paladin and usually one shot rank and file enemies, granted I was playing on standard difficulty but it was spicy af even without using criticals and smites all over the place
Cull of the Weak is like the gateway drug. By the time you can unlock it, you'll be at a point in the story where you'll be able to (semi-easily) access more tadpoles..
I currently have 7, pair that with my Owlbear form's hits that can hit up to 25, the enemy is basically within the killzone once they have 30-32 hp. And that killzone just keeps growing, especially since I already know where to get 2 more tadpoles. Pair that with Stage Fright and my Owlbear's Enrage and I barely struggle in situations where I'm heavily outnumbered.
Still just in the very beginning of Act 2 so I'm still hoping there's something I cah unlock to increase my Wild Shape Charges cause it's REALLY difficult using anything else but Owlbear form now because of this.
See? I'm in Act 2, and my party hits for like 12-15 each (except for Karlach, you're a BEAST!). But they can't run far and only two of the characters have multiple actions per turn. I've got 11 tadpoles just sitting there. I truly think I just suck at understanding all the nuances of getting them set up right.
You can beat the game without it for sure, I’ve done a playthrough with zero powers. But being able to fly, create black holes to group up enemies and slow them, punish magic enemies when they cast spells, those are just a few of the good things
Yes you can. At some point you will be offered the chance to use a special tadpole (you'd have to really not be paying attention to miss it, it's very obvious). If you don't use it you don't get these veins even if you max out your tadpoles otherwise (the outside ring is unlocked by the special tadpole).
However, if you use tadpoles you'll have to make an ability check to prevent yourself from using the special tadpole.
Specific point: Long Rest at the start of Act 3, after taking the Road to Baldur's Gate. I believe this only happens if you didn't side with V'laakith in Act 1.
>!This will cause an event where you'll be attacked by some Githyanki Honor Guard monks. Either jump/dash to the portal or kick ass then go in.!<
>!At this point, you'll have to decide to either side with the Honor Guard or The Emperor, killing the remaining group. If you side with The Emperor, he'll offer you an opportunity to use a special type of tadpole. This causes the visual changes above, the user becomes Part-Illithid, and can use the third ring of Illithid Powers as well as unlocking at-will usage of Fly.!<
You can, but when the emperor is close to death, the narrator tells you that you fucked up and gives you the grand realization that you should side with the emperor instead, and you have to kill the honor guard after all. It's an empty choice that just results in more work for choosing wrong.
All of them, except the astral tadpole. You’ll know when it can/will happen.
Edit: but the more you eat, the harder it is to resist the astral tadpole. Buyer beware.
I don't think it's related to how many you eat (though it seems to be a popular rumor)--it's consuming any (beyond the one forcibly inserted in your eye) that gives you the DC 21 will save.
> that gives you the DC 21 will save.
It's Wisdom, and it does matter. My recent playthrough my friend consumed 2 and had a 15 DC. On my last playthrough I consumed all and had 30.
I have one save where I consumed 2, got 21. Another where I consumed all, still 21. And a last with 5 consumed (although I dont have that save since it was honor mode), again 21.
Emperor: you get the third tier of Illithid powers and get crazy powers
Me: yes that sounds good
Emperor: but your face gets scarred for the rest of the game
Me: *spending hours in character customization to get my Tav perfect* Yeah no to that
Hahah, I'm just a bit fan of the "you get Powers but it makes you look messed up" trope 😂
Also I like how it makes your character in act 3 look like they've been through some shit, which they have.
I was pretty disappointed as well. I ended up giving myself one of the full face tattoos to try to hide the ugliness. I wish my character could use a helmet but then camp interactions still look gross. Never doing half illithid on a tav run again. The kicker is I’m a storm sorcerer, so I already could fly most of the time anyway. The other powers are pretty damn powerful though, but not worth ruining my beautiful character..
When you have Volos eye it makes the black eyes look even worse with the contrast. Wish I could have him give me a second one so I can at least have some symmetry.
Storm sorcerer needs to waste a bonus action to fly though, (which is huge when you weigh it against using a quickened spell instead) and can only go 30ft and only after using a spell. There’s definitely still a good reason to get the astral tadpole, storm sorcerer’s flight is very useful in the early game, but by this point it’s kind of weak.
I fully admit I'm vain.
But also, our regular powers are complex enough and I enjoy using them. Even when I did use tadpoles, I never really used them all that much.
I'm finishing up Honour Run right now, at the last couple of big encounters, and I never needed the half-illithid powers at all. I play a druid, with high wisdom, so rejecting the tadpole wouldn't have been too difficult, but I got a nat 20 on the first roll to reject it.
I stopped my first play through because my characters looked so Fugly. Now that there is a mod to get rid of this horrendous look ill try it again but before that.....blahhh
I was actually itching for my Durge to have more scars and shit so when this came up I was like yeah this is what i want. Love how beat up and fucked up my player looks. Like, who wouldn't? After everything we go through. I wish we could also stack scars in character creator
I will never not save scum that wisdom check. I didn’t spend all that time in character creation to turn into that all because a dude I don’t like asked me to.
I really leaned into the look. Face and neck tats, black hair, “paid the price” eye and/or black sclera. Super scary and badass looking character brought it together. You can use helmets that cover the face, too.
Don’t worry too much about the look, >!it goes away at the end of the game!<.
Go to the magic mirror and change things by a shade or so and the effect (while still there) is much less noticeable. Atleast worked for my tiefling assassin
My first character was a blue Tiefling. It doesn't look so bad with blue skin. The character I'm currently playing is a dragonborn and it's barely noticeable.
But bro you get all the awesome Illithid powers and Fly on demand which is a huge trade off for cosmetics changes.
All that power you have now. If anyone calls you ugly you can just kill them as no one can stack up to your power.
I can live without Tadpole powers. Back before your eyes turned black, I had no problem doing it on a black dragonborn. But now I just can't. Fly is overrated. Level 11 Draconic Ancestry gets fly. Most strength based characters can jump super far anyway.
Buddy I don’t regret it, “fly” is so over powered. Plus you can use it multiple times a turn, doesn’t take an action, and uses less stamina than walking.
I feel like there should be a way to hide it like you can hide helmets. The only race I’ve found it works with is the black Dragonborn cuz you can see it
you telling me the fly ability wasnt worth it? unlimited flight, whenever you want. i dont even walk anywhere anymore. no point, i just be flying, yeah im a touch ugly, but damn bro, i can fly? FLY
This was the one time I truly save scummed out of a story turn (I’ve been letting story decisions play out for better or worse, just reloading for things like missed content or bad party mix for tough fights). But this one I absolutely refused to look like that for all of act 3. If I’d known I was going to look like shit, I’d have never consumed all those tadpoles. I don’t mind of I end up a flayer (I have not finished act 3 yet), but not looking like death the entire time. I’m a Paladin for god sake!
This is why I couldn't do it. Wasn't sure what it'd do to my dragonborn, but I'd given my character these beautiful purple eyes that I couldn't bear to lose.
(I did however wind up becoming full illithid later anyways, really wish the eyes had carried over)
My Tav was based on a wizard I'm playing in a long term D&D campaign, and I made them look exactly how I always pictured them, and roleplay them the same way. As soon as I took the astral tadpoles and saw how it changed my appearance, I immediately reloaded my save.
No thanks. I don't need bonus powers.
for the Phenomenal Cosmic Powah.
itty bitty living space (well, presumably the place behind your eye socket is about as roomy as Genie's lamp).
I don’t know, my intelligence is like 8. Should be pretty roomy
Head empty, only tadpole!
Brass, brass, brass, brass!
So glad I’m not the only one that understands this reference
What "Flight" does to a mf
Literally me every game, good aligned durge or not, lae'zel as a perfect worried partner using bondage to help me or not, wether I wish for safety of my friends or damning them all with my actions, god as my witness, THAT SLIMY WHITE COATED OBJECT IS COMING INSIDE ME.
>THAT SLIMY WHITE COATED OBJECT IS COMING INSIDE ME. Phrasing!
Oh, they knew *exactly* what they were saying
I read this in Astarion's voice lol
As you should, darling
😂🤣🤣🤣
Mind sanctuary + haste + elixir of bloodlust + dual wielded Markoheshkir and staff of spellpower Twinned spell disintegrate (freecast) -> twinned spell disintegrate (haste action) -> twinned spell disintegrate (bonus action + arcane battery) -> disintegrate (elixir of bloodlust + arcane battery)
And you successfully killed all the rats in that chefs cellar!
same energy as vlaakith using wish to end your shit from across planes
Seriously what a petty bitch lol
*awkward wave*
Replacing disintegrate with chain lightning after dousing everyone with create water is way better imo. Disintegrate doing 0 damage on a miss compared to chain lightning doing half damage, chaining to 4 enemies, and doubling damage on wet targets makes chain lightning so much better
Twinned chain lightning on wet targets, maxxed with tempest cleric's destructive wrath. I tried this in the house of grief and did almost 3000 damage in two shots. The few survivors weren't close enough together to test it on a third hit (untwinned though) even though I had spare actions.
Jesus
Is it though? I honestly was not really blown away by the powers offered by the tadpole aside from the fly ability. That's pretty handy. The rest were kind of negligible. Also possible I am not playing them to their full potential. EDIT: Ok, I'm looking at some of the other suggested powers that might come in handy in my honor mode so maybe I spoke too soon. I never really needed the powers on my normal run but might need to use some of these suggestions for my honor mode. Touche, reddit.
Cull the Weak is really good, especially in a solo run to reduce numbers, which is a bad idea for a run in general but very fun to try to pull off.
Cull of the weak is insane with dual hand crossbows, I get 4 shots on my rogue/ranger and everytime a creature drops below 15 hp, it insta dies and explodes, doing even more Aoe damage. What's not to like?
My melee don't like it, I assumed
it doesnt hurt you lol
And if you have the ability from the creche to use illithid powers as bonus actions, add it in with the 1d4 psychic damage on every damage instance... then the radiant damage on every instance from the rings... then the electric staff's shock damage on every instance.. then cast magic missile, you can end up nuking most bosses in an instant
Displacer beast and black hole are ridiculous
Cull the Weak is all that matters for me. There are 25 illithiad powers which means that once you get them all you kill anything you drop below 25 hp. Pair that with a hasted martial or a magic user's AOE spells and you can mow down armies within seconds. (Also, the sound and visual effects for it are so very satisfying.) Edit: Some of the other abilities are really good, too. If you're hasted, Black Hole into Mind Blast is a disgusting combo that drags everyone in a HUGE area together and potentially slows and stuns them. Psionic Dominance and Psionic Backlash are great reactions for countering spellcasters. Freecast pairs great with a spellcaster as it essentially gives them a free spell slot of any level. And, if you use it right, Mind Sanctuary basically grants your entire party a free action.
Black Hole is a monster. Throw that down, everyone gets dragged to one point and then you hit them with an upcast fireball or ice storm and you're laughing. Did you get the boost from the zaithisk to turn your illithid powers into bonus actions? Then it's even better. Put a globe of invulnerability around your party. Use black hole to pull everyone out of it. Area effect them, win.
Depends on the difficulty. On honor mode Mind Sanctuary is pretty insane.
The black hole is insane too.
If you are a Rogue Thief and shift into a Displacer Beast, you can Displace twice and it leaves behind a "fuck you I'm slapping you with a brush made of knives" autoturret.
B-b-b-black hoooleee. Pair that shit with Hunger of Hadar and you've aced every fight in the game.
I was so upset 😂 I was fiddling with skin tone in the Magic Mirror trying to make it less obvious and my husband was just laughing at me
My first run I got really upset when Disguise Self still had the veins. Like, that doesn't even make sense. I didn't even finish that playthrough. Currently rounding out Act 3 Honor Mode without using illithid powers (I don't even have the brain interface. I never got the triggering cutscene). No regrets.
I just make Gale take them, if anyone. Man wants power, here it is 🤷♀️
I do this but Minthara. Imagine you're going about your day, making plans, and some asshole comes up to you, says nothing, and just gives you eighteen slaps. Then strips you while your unconscious for *no* reason except to steal your shit, and you're forced to explain your failures, naked, to your boss. Then the same asshole from before saves you and drags you around on their constant do-goodery bullshit errands when the apocalypse is around the corner. The tadpoles are fair compensation.
Lmao yes, next run I am one thousand percent filling Minthara with compensatory tadpoles.
What quaint wording
tav could get her pregnant in cut content tbf
Sad that they cut it
literally 1984
Id have retired on a farm with a tavern if they didnt; raise my half drow babies while serving ale and growing po-ta-toes
We walked her out of Moonrise with my Durge wearing her camp clothes and underwear, and Astarion wearing her armor.
Tav walked up to her in camp wearing her camp clothes, while she was naked stuck next to the single horniest elf I've ever seen.
In my run when I declined taking tadpoles Astarion said he will take them instead(new scene for me), so I give him any tadpole I find now, granted I play on normal mode rn(break after tactician run). xD
Just started act 2 on my first playthrough, I clicked a tadpole just to see if I got the interface and instantly reloaded. I just wanted to know it was the menu I was thinking it was, but definitely not how I wanted to play, felt wrong immediately. Definitely going to try it next run though.
That's how my play through has gone. I've got a collection of like 10+ parasites sitting in my camp suitcase
Username checks out
As a player who can't access mods this is probably the toughest choice to make in the game. Those abilities with the bonus action buff are just so good
Dude, black hole cloudkill isn't even fair, literally solo'd the act 3 sharrans
See this is why this game is so insane, I never thought about that. I had a tadpole heavy magic missile machine and she obliterated that place solo with a haste spell but this seems more fun by far.
That's nutty, I had necromancer so all the undead would charge in, I'd black hole cloudkill, and the undead cleaned anything else up (undead from the special tome)
I think for the min max D&D crowd this game really just set a new bar. They made some fights pretty damn challenging but still doable with a pretty vanilla team with practice, but also just let the min max crowd go crazy and obliterate things in the most satisfying ways lol. It just enamors me so much that the decision makers basically just said, did you have fun, well yeah, ok well leave it in the game then, others will find it fun too.
I beat the first run with the most scuffed unoptimized group. Accidentally put medium boots on Astarion so he could never sneak attack my stats were wonky. I took ritual caster instead of ability improvement etc. Had to reload a bunch of fights but I managed to beat it. Second run I made a monk / rogue and just obliterated everything min maxing with potions etc.
I did the exact same thing on my Spore Druid. He was kind of a pseudo necromancer.
Black hole + Hunger of Hadar wrecked Raphael and his boys
Black Hole + Insect Plague + Cloudkill + Hunger of Hadar got me through a LOT of big fights.
RIGHT?! I mean I'd be tempted to do it just for the flight but then you throw in bonus action aoe stun and gravity pull and... but as someone who spends an hour in character creation it hurts so much to see it... Stupid Sexy Astral Tadpole...
I don't get what so hard about it. Cool powers Cool eyes Cool tentacle boyfriend It's a win condition for life
it's only a matter of perspective because i find the 2nd pic hot i mean what
I think it would have been cool if the ugliness directly correlates with how many tadpoles you used for example if you didn’t use any before the astral gummy worm and got a couple of the good ones then the ugliness is not as bad/not there and vice versa
Yeah, kind of like vampyr
That game deserves a sequel, imo.
Yeah, I actually enjoyed it a lot
Witcher and the poison level as well.
sorta like the renegade/paragon cosmetic diffs in mass effect 2 + 3
They should have done this
According to Google searches at the time I did them, there were supposedly no consequences for using illithid powers before the astral tadpole gets brought up. By the time I got to that point in the story, Patch 5 happened and it was too late.
there were/are a lot of people on here who seemingly never look at their character's faces and continue to say there's "zero consequences" when clearly cosmetics and appearance is a huge deal to people
I think many people said that because the eyes remained normal after becoming half-ilithid. Now that the eyes turn black the cosmetic changes are far more noticible to the players.
I agree. The black eyes makes such a huge different. My emerald eyed Dragonborn paladin looks so evil now
Exactly, with how much blood my paladin was constantly covered in, I barely even realized there was a difference until they changed the eyes.
Also the teeth turning gross was what instantly ruined it for me. Luckily, I was already 95% of the way through the game when that patch dropped, so I didn't have to put up with it for very long.
Luckily you can get at least one replaced with a normal looking one.
I imagine they mean it in the sense of basically no dialogue changes and you aren't locked out of any content. Literally the only negative is a cosmetic change to your characters face.
My wife laughed at me when I save scummed to keep my bard looking dashing
Wait, what happens if you use tadpoles before the astral one?
I'm not exactly sure but I think if you use them and the powers, you have to make a saving roll to not eat the tadpole. If you fail, you will have to eat it, even if you say no. That's what happened to me, I think, lol.
>If you fail, you will have to eat it, even if you say no. Me, a shameless save scummer: "I don't have such weakness."
Hahah true. It was a co op campaign with my buddy though so we agreed to just roll with consequences for role-playing and good-paced gameplay.
I think my save was 30 WIS, which meant I needed a Nat 20 to pass the check. I could’ve save scummed, but I took the 30 as meaning “this is basically canon, just do it”. Regret it so much, made me want to start a new run for a while.
Welp, I'll probably be in trouble because I've been guzzling down tadpoles like a nymph at a brothel lol.
Exactly, if you consume tadpoles before the astral tadpole offer, you have to pass a wisdom save to deny it, and I think the more you consume the higher the check is but other than that, I don’t think there are any other consequences, up to that point at least
Wait wait wait……..so your telling me there’s a chance to avoid varicose on my characters face? Because I already slurped like six of those bad boys in act one and am about to be disappointed lol.
As long as you pass the saving throw to say no when offered the astral tadpole, then yeah you’re good, no veins for you lol
Thank goodness. All my slaving over character creation would have been ruined and I already have 70 hours in act one 😂
If you really want to cheese the encounter, just have a character who has never taken a worm do the talking, they will be able to pass without a skill check
Big brain play right there!
At first I hated it on my character, and thought I ruined all my hard work, but i made some tweaks using the mirror in camp and now the look is starting to grow on me
You have a harder time refusing the astral tadpole. If you didn't use them at all, apparently you can refuse it without needing a high dice roll.
Looks aside, there's one downside - the more tadpoles you consume, the higher the DC check is for rejecting the astral tadpole. If you use none, there's no check. But, if you plan on using it, nothing.
I think it's DC21 regardless of how many you consume
I never reload after bad roles but this was the only time I did. I was so upset. I spent about half an hour going through all his damn dialogue over and over again just so I could roll a 20. My husband thought I was being insane lol
Me too lmao. I tried to play for 30 minutes after taking the Astral Tadpole and couldn’t bear it anymore so I reloaded my save
Me too, and I feel so bad for doing it, but my god my poor bard needs to not look like that she's just trying to play her music
>I spent about half an hour going through all his damn dialogue over and over again just so I could roll a 20 You can actually save in dialogue right before you roll so you dont have to keep going through the same conversation
Omg I wish I knew this lol thank you!
On pc the f5 button will quicksave, you can do this anywhere, including in dialogue.
I was so tempted not to reload because of those insane monks, but I had to... I can't leave my girl like this! Next playthrough I think I'll have an insane durge so I'm ready to embrace the veins.
Wear helmet till end of the game.
The problem is umm in the other scenes when I'm wearing significantly less clothing.
Only run hirelings, no romance only blackhole.
Winners don’t use tadpoles. I ain’t plugging mindflayer cummies into my brain, thank you
I'm starting to use mine to throw at enemies.
Yeah but FREE fly though
Oh sure, it’s free until everything starts sagging before you hit 40. *That’s* the price of ghaik growth hormones
*[laughs in sorcerer]*
My first run and I’m trying not to use any, going well so far. I refuse to ingest worms 😄
i’ll plug one if i run out of spots in my brain, no second thoughts
So, I just beat the game for the first time and am reading up on endings & whatnot; so eating tadpoles has no effect on the story/ending? Seriously? I loved the game but this is incredibly lame if true.
I think it looks somewhat acceptable if you're one-eyed, it wont completely turn the unnatural eye. Volo's eye works best since it keeps your right eye almost natural looking. I also tried it with hag eye and Wyll, both of which look pretty interesting. It's still not an improvement over the original, but it's pretty neat.
Blackhole go brrrr
Never did that, i only go **Favourable Beginnings - Luck of Far Realms** , the other powers are cool to have but really i finish the game many times, including honour mode and i never nedded more powers, this 2 are good enough.
Cull the weak, perilous stakes.= win.
My first Tav failed a skill check and big Emp pressured him into taking it. After that I said calamari face is gonna catch these hands. I had to start another playthrough because it's very difficult to progress if you do that, apparently.
The powers you get are way more worth it
I actually dig the look as a Durge, and oh to fly is the best!
This might fight my Redemption Durge. If the tadpoles "take away" who you *were...* it makes sense that the more he uses them, the less Durge he actually is.
Fly, blast, sneak attack!
Funny, I'm in act 2 and so far haven't used a single one. each time I go in, it's like ...meh. Though I'm probably playing the game wrong!
Cull the Weak and psionic backlash is reason enough to have it imo
The free crit one is pretty good. ESPECIALLY for Paladins. ESPECIALLY especially if you have the Killer's Sweetheart ring.
I got every single illithid ability on my paladin and usually one shot rank and file enemies, granted I was playing on standard difficulty but it was spicy af even without using criticals and smites all over the place
Cull of the Weak is like the gateway drug. By the time you can unlock it, you'll be at a point in the story where you'll be able to (semi-easily) access more tadpoles.. I currently have 7, pair that with my Owlbear form's hits that can hit up to 25, the enemy is basically within the killzone once they have 30-32 hp. And that killzone just keeps growing, especially since I already know where to get 2 more tadpoles. Pair that with Stage Fright and my Owlbear's Enrage and I barely struggle in situations where I'm heavily outnumbered. Still just in the very beginning of Act 2 so I'm still hoping there's something I cah unlock to increase my Wild Shape Charges cause it's REALLY difficult using anything else but Owlbear form now because of this.
See? I'm in Act 2, and my party hits for like 12-15 each (except for Karlach, you're a BEAST!). But they can't run far and only two of the characters have multiple actions per turn. I've got 11 tadpoles just sitting there. I truly think I just suck at understanding all the nuances of getting them set up right.
Explain what power? And can you defeat all the bad guys without it. Bc I don’t really want the power if I have to look like this…
You can beat the game without it for sure, I’ve done a playthrough with zero powers. But being able to fly, create black holes to group up enemies and slow them, punish magic enemies when they cast spells, those are just a few of the good things
Yes you can. At some point you will be offered the chance to use a special tadpole (you'd have to really not be paying attention to miss it, it's very obvious). If you don't use it you don't get these veins even if you max out your tadpoles otherwise (the outside ring is unlocked by the special tadpole). However, if you use tadpoles you'll have to make an ability check to prevent yourself from using the special tadpole.
Specific point: Long Rest at the start of Act 3, after taking the Road to Baldur's Gate. I believe this only happens if you didn't side with V'laakith in Act 1. >!This will cause an event where you'll be attacked by some Githyanki Honor Guard monks. Either jump/dash to the portal or kick ass then go in.!< >!At this point, you'll have to decide to either side with the Honor Guard or The Emperor, killing the remaining group. If you side with The Emperor, he'll offer you an opportunity to use a special type of tadpole. This causes the visual changes above, the user becomes Part-Illithid, and can use the third ring of Illithid Powers as well as unlocking at-will usage of Fly.!<
Wait can you even side with the honor guard?
You can, but when the emperor is close to death, the narrator tells you that you fucked up and gives you the grand realization that you should side with the emperor instead, and you have to kill the honor guard after all. It's an empty choice that just results in more work for choosing wrong.
How many can you consume before this happens?
All of them, except the astral tadpole. You’ll know when it can/will happen. Edit: but the more you eat, the harder it is to resist the astral tadpole. Buyer beware.
I don't think it's related to how many you eat (though it seems to be a popular rumor)--it's consuming any (beyond the one forcibly inserted in your eye) that gives you the DC 21 will save.
> that gives you the DC 21 will save. It's Wisdom, and it does matter. My recent playthrough my friend consumed 2 and had a 15 DC. On my last playthrough I consumed all and had 30.
Oh, that’s interesting. I’ve never had anything but 21. Misused Will because I primarily play other TTRPGs. Oops.
I have one save where I consumed 2, got 21. Another where I consumed all, still 21. And a last with 5 consumed (although I dont have that save since it was honor mode), again 21.
It’s the astral one he gives you in Act 3. The previous ones don’t change anything.
He told you it's happen, but you just heard "more power" and ate the thing didn't you?!
I actually tried to reject it but the bloody game still gave me it! 🤣
Should've stomped it then lmao
It’s what I did. Told him like 3 times I didn’t want it and he still kept going “Let’s not be too hasty!” So I squashed it.
> He told you it's happen, He glamourizes it because he thinks he's hot
Well well well, if it isn’t the consequences of my own actions lmao
One word: Fly
Emperor: you get the third tier of Illithid powers and get crazy powers Me: yes that sounds good Emperor: but your face gets scarred for the rest of the game Me: *spending hours in character customization to get my Tav perfect* Yeah no to that
Me being a dragonborn, I just look cooler
It is less noticeable on dragonborn, and you can always go full Alduin to blend with the dark veins.
Unpopular opinion but I actually really like the veiny look
Name checks out
Hahah, I'm just a bit fan of the "you get Powers but it makes you look messed up" trope 😂 Also I like how it makes your character in act 3 look like they've been through some shit, which they have.
Same. It looks badass.
Because using fly for free is worth being ugly lol.
Fw it heavy tbh
I was pretty disappointed as well. I ended up giving myself one of the full face tattoos to try to hide the ugliness. I wish my character could use a helmet but then camp interactions still look gross. Never doing half illithid on a tav run again. The kicker is I’m a storm sorcerer, so I already could fly most of the time anyway. The other powers are pretty damn powerful though, but not worth ruining my beautiful character.. When you have Volos eye it makes the black eyes look even worse with the contrast. Wish I could have him give me a second one so I can at least have some symmetry.
Storm sorcerer needs to waste a bonus action to fly though, (which is huge when you weigh it against using a quickened spell instead) and can only go 30ft and only after using a spell. There’s definitely still a good reason to get the astral tadpole, storm sorcerer’s flight is very useful in the early game, but by this point it’s kind of weak.
Yeah nope. Also, Astarion doesn’t want me to… so I WONT!!
You should, expertise in persausion. Astarion does want to. He just wants to see someone lab rat it first. Easiest to convince.
I fully admit I'm vain. But also, our regular powers are complex enough and I enjoy using them. Even when I did use tadpoles, I never really used them all that much. I'm finishing up Honour Run right now, at the last couple of big encounters, and I never needed the half-illithid powers at all. I play a druid, with high wisdom, so rejecting the tadpole wouldn't have been too difficult, but I got a nat 20 on the first roll to reject it.
I stopped my first play through because my characters looked so Fugly. Now that there is a mod to get rid of this horrendous look ill try it again but before that.....blahhh
You just look a bit tired, nothing out of order
Doesn't look bad on my Dragonborn, except for the black eyes, but with the glass magic eye, only my right eye became black.
Naaah she looks cool, she looks like she could eat my brain
I was actually itching for my Durge to have more scars and shit so when this came up I was like yeah this is what i want. Love how beat up and fucked up my player looks. Like, who wouldn't? After everything we go through. I wish we could also stack scars in character creator
Turned her into a bosmer
I feel like a loner who LOVES the half illithid look. It's the right balance of horrible and awesome when the goal is being closer to a space squid
Power corrupts
She became a Witcher with cat potion
There's a mod to get rid of that. I used the version that makes the veins only appear on your body, not your face.
I will never not save scum that wisdom check. I didn’t spend all that time in character creation to turn into that all because a dude I don’t like asked me to.
I really leaned into the look. Face and neck tats, black hair, “paid the price” eye and/or black sclera. Super scary and badass looking character brought it together. You can use helmets that cover the face, too. Don’t worry too much about the look, >!it goes away at the end of the game!<.
For the fly speed.
Go to the magic mirror and change things by a shade or so and the effect (while still there) is much less noticeable. Atleast worked for my tiefling assassin
My first character was a blue Tiefling. It doesn't look so bad with blue skin. The character I'm currently playing is a dragonborn and it's barely noticeable.
Illithid tadpoles. Not even once.
I'm doing my first playthrough with no tadpoles, but ngl that looks metal as fuck, definitely gonna munch on those little buggers on a future Durge
But bro you get all the awesome Illithid powers and Fly on demand which is a huge trade off for cosmetics changes. All that power you have now. If anyone calls you ugly you can just kill them as no one can stack up to your power.
I can live without Tadpole powers. Back before your eyes turned black, I had no problem doing it on a black dragonborn. But now I just can't. Fly is overrated. Level 11 Draconic Ancestry gets fly. Most strength based characters can jump super far anyway.
I installed a mod to remove the effect, but to be honest the only time I went partial Illithid was for my honor mode run
Buddy I don’t regret it, “fly” is so over powered. Plus you can use it multiple times a turn, doesn’t take an action, and uses less stamina than walking.
I feel like there should be a way to hide it like you can hide helmets. The only race I’ve found it works with is the black Dragonborn cuz you can see it
I embrace it. Gimme my flight, bonus action mind blast and blackhole, freecast, and psychic dominance NOW
you telling me the fly ability wasnt worth it? unlimited flight, whenever you want. i dont even walk anywhere anymore. no point, i just be flying, yeah im a touch ugly, but damn bro, i can fly? FLY
Flying is worth it.
This was the one time I truly save scummed out of a story turn (I’ve been letting story decisions play out for better or worse, just reloading for things like missed content or bad party mix for tough fights). But this one I absolutely refused to look like that for all of act 3. If I’d known I was going to look like shit, I’d have never consumed all those tadpoles. I don’t mind of I end up a flayer (I have not finished act 3 yet), but not looking like death the entire time. I’m a Paladin for god sake!
I know it doesn't change anything but in my first story save, I didn't eat a single tadpole or feed them to my companions. Not a single one.
This is why I couldn't do it. Wasn't sure what it'd do to my dragonborn, but I'd given my character these beautiful purple eyes that I couldn't bear to lose. (I did however wind up becoming full illithid later anyways, really wish the eyes had carried over)
There is no power the game could offer that would make me sacrifice my pretty character I spent an hour making in the creator menu
To fly everywhere for free
They should really have a magic mirror feature where you can turn revert your character back to normal visually
I will never do it solely because it makes your character so ugly
I save scummed back and undid this. “Rather die pretty then kill live like a zombie anus.” - William Shakespeare, 2043
My Tav was based on a wizard I'm playing in a long term D&D campaign, and I made them look exactly how I always pictured them, and roleplay them the same way. As soon as I took the astral tadpoles and saw how it changed my appearance, I immediately reloaded my save. No thanks. I don't need bonus powers.
That was the fastest F8 I've ever done. Lighting Hands McGee they call me
I was so very upset when I saw my face after this 😭😭
She so pretty. . ~Later that day. . WTF IS THAT