A
recent post here and a
not so recent post on reddit both pointed out a potential plot hole: The most common way of "curing" ceremorphosis is to just kill the host and then heal/resurrect them after the tadpole leaves. Given the various times we see tadpoles emerge from fallen true souls and the various ways the game gives us of bringing dead party members back to life, what is the point of Act 1?
To confirm the issue. I loaded up a save, had Astarion strike me down using a Wyvern poisoned blade (Hey, I promised Nettie). No tadpole emerged nor would the game allow the party to sleep or partial rest while the player controlled custom character was dead. I tried again, this time I had Astarion kill Shadowheart at camp after asking her to "stay at camp" so that she wasn't a member of the active party. That outcome was ... unexpected to say the least. Especially the conversation that happened after I revived her... But still, no tadpole emerged.
I don't intend to rehash the arguments in the above threads, but instead offer a budget friendly suggestion on how to possibly address/fix the hole: I suggest dropping a book on Halsin's desk that explains the limits of resurrection in regards to ceremorphosis.
"I tried resurrecting the drow to no avail. Killing and resurrecting an infected creature is the most common method of tadpole extraction, however it appeared the drow had already passed the point of no return.
Nettie was asking about the point of no return. I summarized what I know, though I admit much is beyond me. Illithids are aberrations which have no place in the Material Plane. As a result, there is a point during the metamorphosis where the soul is no longer able to return to the body, at least not until the metamorphosis is complete. Typically this occurs within 24 hours of infection.
The body can still be healed. Even spells like Revivify can work as they mend the body while the flesh is still warm and the soul still clings to it. But should the soul fully depart after the point of no return, death can not be reversed. There may still be hope however. There is something unusual about these tadpoles. There may be an arcane or non-conventional way of removing them. I need to investigate further."Q2) Why is Revivify SpecialIf you read the player handbook, it is the only spell that can bring someone back from death that doesn't mention the soul or say anything about "if the soul is able/free/at liberty/etc... to return". I suspect this is because it must be cast within 1 min of dying. Implying the soul is still present and hasn't yet departed, so no permission or freedom checks are necessary. Look for yourself:
RevivifyRaise DeadCloneResurrectionTrue ResurrectionReincarnateQ2) Why doesn't the tadpole leave the body when party members die?Simply put, it isn't stupid. It knows what we know and thus that it will get squashed. So it wont leave the body until it must.
Q3) Why can't someone just bash in the head and kill it anyway. It can't hide from a hammer....Yes, head smash would work, but likely there would be no bringing the companion back afterwards. Revivify requires a functional body.
Q4) What about Gale?I would change his True Resurrection scroll to a simple Revivify scroll to make a stronger distinction in what works and doesn't work. However, it could be argued if Revivify works on someone (which it does), then it has been less than 1 min, thus the soul has not departed. Therefore, any of the Raise Dead type spells would suffice if done in a timely manner on a fully intact body. So technically, no change is needed, but I would prefer consistency. But that might just be me.
Yes, I can think of far more elaborate solutions and ways to present this twist, but dropping a book on a desk and potentially changing a scroll are pretty simple and low budget changes. I could see spells like WISH getting the job done, but I'm not concerned about the party easily gaining access to that spell.... until it probably doesn't matter anymore.
