So it was confirmed by devs that tadpole powers exist to give players more abilities because apparently there weren't enough. A new skill tree. It doesn't have much to do with the story, it's more of an excuse to get new Bonus Actions and stuff.
BG1's divine origin made a lot of sense as the source of strange powers. For you, the protagonist. The whole story revolved around that. In BG3, everyone just gets powers because powers are fun. Now there's a whole UI for just that. And what if my Tav wants that disgusting parasite out of their head for very logical story reasons? It's an alien parasite which is gross, unknown and put there to mind control you. Maybe the magic that altered it gets dispelled and it resumes killing you and turning you into a mind flayer? Well, tough luck, and here are your new fun powers! Another glaring disconnect between narrative and gameplay. Even evil power hungry characters likely wouldn't want to keep a brain eating alien parasite in their brain. But we are supposed to ignore all that because the powers make for fun gameplay? I expect more from an RPG. It cheapens the story.
So where's the reward for resisting using those powers and getting the tadpole out? Can you even get it out now that there's an entire skill tree UI for it?
As for gear, 5e specifically moved away from gear defining your character and being the most deciding factor in how powerful they are. And I loved it. It was always a weak point in earlier editions of D&D when high level characters turned super squishy when stripped of gear. And now Larian brings that back and lets you lose an entire build if you lose your gear. Which you won't of course, at least not permanently. I really hate the idea of gear defining your PC, instead of the character and their skills and experience. Another MMO trope that doesn't belong in a story driven RPG. The endless gear grind in DOS was infuriating so I guess it will be more of that from Larian then. The stupid lightning build from EA kind of hinted it already that they just won't get why D&D items are cool and unique compared to ever-changing MMO junk.
