Then they give you one obvious solution; the Githyanki creche.
And i bet that would be another dead end ...
Githyanki have purification ritual that is working on regular tadpoles ... same as the Hag had the way that was allways working before.
But your tadpole is different, and you would need to go to Moonrise towers no matter who you try ... that is my bet. :P
Then they give you another direct solution; Halsin the druid.
Possible solution!
That is the problem in theese conversations, for some (unknown to me) reason people presuming that Halsin will be able to help you no matter what, but the only one who is recomending him to you is Nettie. The same druid that was trying to kill you, the same druid that was forcing you to swear her that you will comit suicide if anything goes wrong. Would she do that if Halsin would be bet for certain help? I dont think so.
And as far as i remember she told us: "
Maybe master Halsin would plucket it from your head." And that is important maybe! ... And a few dozen seconds we have here this confession: "You must find master Halsin, he
might be your only chance."
So as we can see, Halsin ... as well as Hag, as well as Volo, as well as Gut, and (lets be honest with each other) probably as well as Githyanki Creche ... its only possibility, nothing more. :P
Then you have the Absolute and they give you a bunch of implied reasons
True ... but they are living proof of that solution you are looking for.
If they would be just possibility, same as everyone else who i named abowe, they would still start to change before you, since they werent on the same ship ... that is quite obvious, since they had enought time to gather goblin army and allready raid at least two settlements around.
So they can either work as your countdown, or are prooving that you are safe with them.
while also making your initial encounters with the group hostile
True ... but that is no rare around sword coast as it seems.
Shadowhearth is threating you to keep your distance, Astarion litteraly tryed to cut your throat, Nettie tryed to poison you ... why is killing few lowly insignificant goblins that no one care about any different?
as well as giving you a bunch of missions-including one from a companion-that have you thinking they're the area's main enemy, so it's likely you're going to be coming to them negatively from the start.
True that ... there is only that argument that every single NPC i met so far seemed quite selfish, so...
having no reason to think that the Absolute isn't some sort of Mindflayer trap
Sure it may be, no doubt about it ...
And if your character is ambicious enough, he might even plan to try turn it on them instead.
Just the same as Gale implies that you can try outsmart Raphael and beat him in his own game.
I assumed so and it didn't cross my mind that it might not be the case until I read people thinking that here on the forums
Yeah, its nothing wrong about missing some clues, there is enormous amount of them after all ... i have found secret stash of Kagha on mine fifth playtrough.
and at no point getting a concrete incentive to work with them-in fact if you side with them I believe you lose Wynn, so that's an active disinsentive-it makes justifying siding with them hard.
I believe this is quite subjective ... i dont like Wyll, he seem to me like cocky brat ... so quite easy for me.
I strongly agree that the game needs to give at least one clear justification as to why the Absolute is a viable option.
I believe they are ment to be something like hidden (but not so well hidden) alternative ...
None of them can offer you help, since for one no one wants to help you, and for two no one even know about this problem ... and the knowledge of tadpole, is your advantage in this cult.
I can imagine only one way to adress this to player without breaking imersion of rest of the story, and its Narator ... something like:
"Once you look in her eyes, you can sence her parasite ... yet she dont display any signs of change, bad health, or even discomfort ... maybe if you stick around you also find a way to master your own tadpole."
But that would sadly break the secret about this whole option.
To be completely honest it seem quite obvious, yet i like it isnt served under your nose ...
So there is at least chance that some people will miss it. The whole situation with Absolute cult seem to me like if DM create some plot, and then repeat for himself "Notice! Notice! Notice!" ... and if you dont, he will give you another clue, and another clue, and another clue ... until he gets tired and simply tells you.
I dont want Larian to get tired and tells us, we have our hints ... who will notice, may proceed ... who dont, will proceed another path, i dont see anything bad about it.
You know about this option ... you want to use this option ... now its up to you to find a way. :P
Maybe the entity in your dream can say that she's something other than a Mindflayer, or mention that she can keep you safe from the transformation, just as an idea.
Dream entity is suppose to be mysterious ...
You have option to ask her what she is ... and she tells you "I think you allready know."
Come on! That is perfect!
And add, change, or remove anything would totally breat it.
you can't just leave it up to the player to infer things
Oh you definietly can, and in this case i even believe that you should.
you have to give them at least one concrete point that they can latch onto and build logically from there.
I see what you mean, i just think that they are there ... you just need to search for them actively.
Because as it stands that path is all a bunch of "what if's" and "probably's" that rely on the character taking a lot on faith.
Yes, and that is good ...
If BG3-EA teached me anything, its that we cant take anything as grated and i love it, it keeps the story intensive.
This is why i loved so much Game of Thrones, (except finale -_-) since you have seen from the begining that every character is in existencial danger, it was much more interesting to watch their fates.
The leap of faith goes further. In order to side with the Absolute and/or the Minthara-led attack on the Grove, you have to discard the Halsin card.
And if you decide to go with Halsin, you need to discard the Absolute card ...
I dont see any difference, two people both POSSIBLY able to help are against each other ... choose your side, nothing more, nothing less.
Assuming you can successfully infiltrate the cult of the Absolute (a first and huge if),
Huge if?
Even if you fail all your atempts to sneak around the main gate, or talk through, you are not Drow, and you decide to not use your tadpole ... even if you kill them all, and simply walk into goblin camp still dirty of their comrades blood ... they are friendly.
it's not at all clear (in fact, unlikely) that you will find an option for a cure/control.
I believe i allready mentined quite a lot clues that implies both.
We did talk about it few times allready and i know that you are willing to ignore everything that is right before you (unless i misstake you with someone else) until some npc will stand before you and tells you: "Join us and you can master your tadpole, instead of geting rid of it." -_-
I think that trading a closed box guaranteed to contain a potential solution for a closed box that does not offer this guarantee is just a bad decision.
Fun fact: NO solution is garanted.
In fact you are trading one suspicious closed box that could contain some solution ... for another suspicious closed box that could contain entirely different solution.
Anything else is just pure speculation based on how you like the person (or being) that was giving you the box. :P
