I just went through all the posts in the topic and I'm really, really confused how we went from discussing the relative merits of different stat incorporation into the Illithid Persuasion mechanic to... what the discussion has become. I am also a little sad how quickly it got that way between people who all independently have great ideas on this forum and usually make constructive contributions to the improvement of the game. I'm not here to tone police or butt-in to say my piece, but I think all of you have so much to offer, and the derailing of the topic isn't like any of you.
It's quite simple. JandK thinks in dialogue that Illithid Powers should be based on Intelligence modifier rather than Wisdom. I was saying that regardless of whether it's Wisdom or Intelligence, this caters the Illithid Powers more towards certain classes/types of characters. Intelligence = Wizards and Wisdom = Clerics. Very generally speaking, of course. So, Fighters, Rogues, Sorcerers, Warlocks... they get the shaft - I mean, IF you want to be nice and friendly with the tadpoles in your heads.
So, I was suggesting that maybe the tadpoles manifest themselves differently with each class - similar to how they manifest differently with each class with the Illithid Powers like how Wizards reflect things, and Rogues use Inky Darkness or whatever it's called. My point was that if they manifest differently OUTSIDE of dialogue, why not say they manifest differently IN dialogue? These are unusual mind flayer parasites tampered with by Shadow Magic. Although typical mind flayers may use Intelligence, why not have it so that these particular, unusual tadpoles use whatever ability score is strongest for each individual character? I didn't think this was that far of a stretch.
In that way, a Fighter with 18 Strength can somehow use their Strength bonus to use Illithid Powers in dialogue. It's admittedly weird, but everything with these tadpoles is weird. Larian could say, "The target of the Illithid Power feels the overwhelming strength of the character as it presses upon the will of the target, tearing through their typical defenses and breaking into their thoughts." Or, for the 18 Dexterity Rogue, "The target of the Illithid Power feels the slippery, crafty maneuvers of the character as it dances around the defenses, slipping past every attempt of the target to block them from their thoughts." Or the Cleric with 18 Wisdom, "The target tries to prevent the character from pressing into their thoughts, but the character wisely predicts the target's best attempts to stop them, and simply outmaneuvers them." Or whatever.
It was just a thought. I thought it was kinda clever, and I considered it a nice shout out to Larian's DOS 2 game where they have certain Persuasion types like Persuade Strength, Persuade Wits, Persuade Finesse depending on your particular character's focus. Although those types of Persuade don't work with typical 5e skills, I thought with these weird and unusual tadpoles, it might make some sense - especially since each class has some weird and unusual tadpole powers outside of dialogue. In other words, the tadpoles manifest themselves differently with each class outside of dialogue, so why not manifest differently with each class in dialogue?
But whatever. Again. It was just an idea. I really don't care that much because, frankly, I don't use the tadpole powers that much, and I'll probably only ever use them to metagame and see what it's like. After all, even with my evil playthrough, I certainly didn't feel like it was intelligent in any way to use the tadpoles. This isn't the Dark Side of the Force here. You pretty much can figure out that if you use them, they'll turn you into SOMETHING quicker, especially when you use them and the signs start to manifest. Yeah. Seems pretty much like only a fool would use them, even if the character is evil. But maybe that's just me.
Hah! So, in that regard, Wisdom is a stupid ability to use for the powers. After all, you aren't very wise if you use the tadpole powers. Are you?
