Tadpole weakening the subjects does not make sense. Why would they want their mind controlled true souls weakened? How would powerless slaves ever be worth the effort? Minthara and Ragzlin are not level 1.
I agree with you on this point, which is one reason I'm looking for alternative explanations for the companions' power levels. And while they may not be perfect, I think they exist.
With respect to the overly epic back stories of our companions, I'm not so fussed. Okay it's not realistic, but I'll sacrifice that for the sake of some ripping high fantasy yarns as we get to know them better, especially if those tie in with other elements of Forgotten Realms lore and help me learn more about it.
its a bit of a stretch to think every person has reason to be level 1 imo ... the only explanation is the tadpole , unfortunately imo its pretty bad wrighting, because if you were going to make a mind control army, you would want your army to be strong, and it seems like the other "true souls" have not been deleveled, unless ofc rag and co, went on a training montage ,rocky theme song playing around the goblin camp
Well, I agree that the non-tadpole explanations aren't 100% convincing, but as you say nor is the tadpole one.
Of course we all know that
really Larian's writers just need some way to explain how our characters/party all start at a low level while still giving them interesting back stories, but as I'm all for interesting back stories and accept the need to have our party all at a reasonably low level to start with, I'm perfectly okay to handwave the - relatively minor in my view - implausibiities as long as Larian have a decent stab at making it narratively plausible.
Personally, based on what we know so far, I find the non-tadpole explanations more compelling than the tadpole one, but I can see why someone might lean the other way. And it's still early days, and I expect new information will come to light in later chapters that may well change my mind.
it's a game mechanic but we do what we gotta do to put the story 'right' in our heads
Harmless fun.
Yes, exactly
