Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks First dream trigger

Not sure if I should put this in a spoiler tag, but better safe than sorry.

The only time I triggered the first change:

I guess they changed it.

I found it very weird and I really wanted to know if it's intentional or if it's a bug.

I couldn't tell you, I'm afraid - my experience above is as of the current patch, a new save started since then.

It sounds like you may have hit a bug that tripped up the script, perhaps. See if you can recreate it and do a report.

I usually try to get my characters to experience the first dream .

I have been using the tadpole willy-nilly on my post Patch 3 playthrough. But I am yet to have the first dream, even though I am almost finished with what is available during Early Access!

but this is still very odd.

I'll do a few tests, or maybe just start a new playthrough and take notes this time to make sure my memory is not playing tricks on me.

I did some testing and came to the conclusion that using tadpole powers against companions messes up dream triggers.

This is my experience in a new run:


I didn't go further than that.

So, aside from the dream not triggering, using tadpole powers against companions also messes up with other camp events causing them to be delayed (e.g. Astarion's nightly visit).
Possibly, also Raphael's visit is being delayed, even though I cannot be really sure about this since I believe it's linked to other events such as having Nettie poison you (something I did not do in this playthrough).

Some things I've noticed:

- using the tadpole against companions does not always deplete your daily tadpole use. Using it against Lae'zel after talking to Zorru still allowed me to use the tadpole against the goblins at the blighted village or against Wyll. However, using the tadpole against Wyll when talking about his sending stone depleted my daily tadpole use and I couldn't use it again at the blighted village nor on Lae'zel.
- using the tadpole against companions in most cases does not seem to trigger dreams.
- using the tadpole against Lae'zel and then against Wyll successfully triggered the first dream.
- you can use the tadpole against Lae'zel when she tries to kill you for showing symptoms even though you have already used the tadpole that day (or you wouldn't be seeing that cutscene). I like having the option to use it, but it's not consistent with how the tadpole has been working so far.
- when using the tadpole against Wyll when talking about his sending stone the narrator says "Your left eye vibrates and a woman's voice echoes in your head". Shouldn't it be "your right eye"?

If only "Authority" tadpole uses trigger dreams, then using the tadpole against companions shouldn't trigger a warning/cue and maybe (just maybe) only "Authority" tadpole powers should be limited to once per day? That would solve the problem of using the tadpole against Lae'zel when she tries to kill you for showing symptoms.

In any case, at the very least using the tadpole with companions should not mess up dream triggers and camp events.

I think you are on to something because I also experienced this. First run I played before the most recent patches, it seemed to trigger after the first or second use.

After the patch that broke saves, it triggered seemingly after 4 uses for me too.

This makes me wonder if there is in fact a difference. One is dominating another through the mind while the other is using a shared connection (although often responded to as an invasion of privacy). After the first tadpole dream - Lae'zel
It sounds like a bug that using tadpoles on companions increments the tadpole narrative dialogue, but doesn't add up to the uses needed to trigger the cutscenes and powers. I also found new companion camp dialogue unpredictable, but it may have been because I was overcamping trying to trigger the tadpole dream.

Sir, I get the first dream the first time I use my tadpole powers and that typically is when I use my tadpole power on Wyll. Never failed for me, and after 620+ hours of solo 'lonewolf' type play, still works/happens.

I single use of the tadpole never triggered the first dream for me. Just the voice saying "where are you?".

What I have described in the post above has been happening consistently to me in all playthroughs after Patch 3. I cannot be sure it wasn't already there before patch 3 because I had never used tadpole powers against companions before.

@AvatarOfSHODAN
Glad to hear I'm not alone. I was beginning to think I was the only one struggling with this. I guess at the very least we can say that those two tadpole uses with Lae'zel and Wyll are problematic. Maybe other campanion-related tadpole uses work just fine. I may experiment some more in my upcoming true-soul playthrough.


You mean the exclamation mark above their heads when you camp? I think I had a bug there as well, with Wyll coming up twice with same dialog about the fight at the gate when I think another dialog should have triggered instead. But some of these are really easy to miss. They don't always trigger when they should and they are easily overridden by other events. I hope they get fixed at some point.

I just started a new SOLO character build this morning, just logged off. As soon as the initial Druid's Grove fight ends and I make my typical rounds, I went to Wyll, used my tadpole power, thieved the Bless ring off Volo and went to camp.

Guess what? The same thing that has been happening over the past 620+ hours I have played happened: The first Illithid dream triggered.

Umm, that is the first Illithid dream trigger.
The second Illithid dream triggers after your next use of the tadpole Illithid power use.
And so forth.

Yes, I am aware of that. Too bad they are not triggering for me.
I did not use the tadpole on Wyll the first time I met him. Maybe that tadpole use is working correctly.
What I can tell for sure is that using the tadpole against Lae'zel after talking to Zorru does not use up your daily ilithid power and does not trigger a dream. At least not for me as of patch 3. Using the tadpole against Wyll when talking to him about his sending stone also does not trigger a dream for me, but it does use up the daily ilithid power. This has been happening to me in all post patch 3 playthroughs (I've done four so far).

Ah, understood. I have never used tadpole on Lae'zel, so unsure on that front.

I figured this out in the end and I thought I would drop a couple of lines here in case someone has the same problem.
For me dreams will not trigger if when I long rest a cutscene triggers or a companion wants to talk to me. Before I use the tadpole, I have to long rest as many times as it takes to go through all queued events. After I've done that, I can use the tadpole and actually trigger the dream. Basically, I need to camp compulsively before every tadpole use.

Tadpole use (the one that pops up during dialogues sometimes) is once per day, and then, yes, you have to long rest.

Yes, it should be once per day, even if sometimes even that bugs out for me and I get more than one use per day. But if when I long rest after using the tadpole some companion scene or conversation triggers, then I won't get the dream, no matter what. If you play solo I guess you could never run into this problem, even if it was affecting you. Especially if you kill companions or don't recruit them at all. That's what made me think the problem may be linked to companion cutscenes/convos.