Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Playstationblog Larian post (Spoilers)

https://blog.playstation.com/2023/0...wers-in-baldurs-gate-3-skills-explained/

It seems that there will be consequences to using these new illithid powers, in that you will become half-illithid, "sacrificing a part of yourself."

What that means we'll have to find out.

I have never heard of "half illihids" in D&D...ever. Illithids conduct all sorts of mad experiments with tadpoles sticking into every creature they can resulting in all kind of abominations like mind flayer dragons, elder brain dragons, etc. But generally speaking I've only ever heard of two possible results: a) ceremorphosis completes and some new mind-flayer or ulitharid or some other abomination is created depending on the type of creature the tadpole was inserted into OR b) ceremorphosis fails and both the host and tadpole die.

So I haven't the slightest idea what a half-illithid would be or how it would work in relation to elder brains and mind flayer colonies. But it sounds like fun.

Sounds like the aberrant sorcerer origin: You were implanted with a mind flayer tadpole, but the ceremorphosis never completed. And now its psionic power is yours. When you use it, your flesh shines with a strange mucus.

Combined with a bit of Netherese meddling (with a precedent in Ioulaum's transformation into an elder brain lich while preserving his mind) and a splash of quasi-divine intervention, and you've got yourself a potential for half-illithids.

After all, the Netherese Ioulaum both created the first alhoons and illithiliches, and also found a way to turn his lich form into an elder brain.

Why do they talk about "applying points to any class when you level up"?

Is that just an odd way to refer to leveling up and choosing your class?

Points?

Are they calling the 12 levels 12 points? Or is something else going on? It's odd, right?

I cannot imagine this is intended by the elder brains or illithids at all...their single greatest fear is creating the Adversary...a boogieman story for illithids which predicts that one day there will be a mind-flayer who will fully retain the personality of the host and that he will be the one who will bring about the end of the illithids. They fear this so much that they kill any mind flayer who displays any inherited habit or nervous tick from the host and those who inherited such a thing have to be very careful to hide it because if they are found they'll be killed. There is n way this outcome is what the illithids signed up for when they allied with the dead three and probably Shar as well, since her shadow magic is in play and her shadow magic cannot be used without her permission.

The description of Ioulaum basically satisfies the description of the Adversary. Let us consider:
-Highest form of Illithid lifeform.
-Independent of all other Mind Flayer civilization because created by liches and alhoons.
-Served by the Undead
-Holds the entire knowledge of Netherese Civilization
-Maintains previous personality.

ETA:
Not saying Ioulaum's invovled, but someone in the alliance of the Dead Three, Illithids, and Shar is an unwitting pawn.

I doubt this Ioulaum is around...he was believed dead for nearly 1000 years then was potentially seen once as an undead elder brain with nothing but ghost. Tried to mess with the magic weave but Mystra and another god stopped him. There's also a lot we don't know...how did this guy become an elder brain and had mind flayers serving him? Was he initially an Ulitharid? Did he live with a mind flayer colony for a while? How was he not caught as still being the host in terms of personality? Also given how little D&D did with him, it's doubtful that he is seen as the Adversary internally at WotC. Our player character might become that but given the amount of possible story permutations and endings it seems unlikely that will be D&D canon.

It does make me wonder if half-illithids are a new monster and/or player class that WotC are planning for the next gen player handbook coming next year though.

Oh dang. I’m too used to people putting spoiler tags for things I don’t consider spoilers (things in trailers, stuff from EA). I wish I hadn’t read that. Not placing blame. It was my choice to disregard the spoiler warning.

Well that is cool. I wonder what it will make our characters look like? Changing their skin, eyes, and removing their hair would be the easiest implementation.

The Aberrant mind sorcerer is essentially half Illithid other half other creepy psyonic power of your choosing.

Yeah but the half-illithid in BG3 won't be just a sorcerer...it could be any class...and the tadpole powers are wildly different for every player class. The tadpole powers of the Rogue will look nothing like the tadpole powers of the Wizard, etc. These are like entirely new subclasses of sorts that mix and match with existing subclasses...it's like each player class will have tow stacking subclasses.

I hope we can become half-alhoon then.

Ok so this stuff is even more complicated: "The deeper you go through the illithid skill tree, the more powers you'll discover. But nothing comes without cost. While your companions can also consume parasites to gain their powers, not everyone in your party will agree to it, and your companions' perception of you can undergo a significant shift based on how you approach this opportunity."

Its nice when the super evil power in a game actually has a cost

It's unclear how much of a cost there is...it sounds like they object if you try to put more tadpoles in them but if you use them all on yourself they might not be the wiser, and I don't think I am inclined to spread them around...though they also say it's more complicated than that...so it sounds like there's possibility there to shift the way they see you...in a way you control. Probably skill checks involved there and dice rolls but it might not be as simple as they just leave either. My evil character would probably try to mind control his companions should the opportunity arise and they do say one part of the tadpole tree is about affecting dice rolls in conversation and control.

This is also a game where you can also win at evil, which is really nice.

A shapechanging white dragonborn sorcerer half-illithid avatar of Bhaal? This is getting complicated.

I am inclined to think the shapeshift option might be a druid specific tadpole power....and tadpole powers change drastically based on your class...but we don't know if they can account for multiclassing...my guess is no and the tadpole powers might only be related to whatever class you start the game as.

Take a couple levels of Warlock to round out that nonsense.

I think I know what "part" we may sacrifice. And if it's still that... well, that's nasty in a good way.

From the get go Larian has been pretty transparent that they created a different kind of a tadpole for their needs.

So... push?

I don't want to get my hopes up, but in the early days Larian explained over the top jump and push of our characters as an influence of the tadpole. Wouldn't it be cool, if those weren't as overdone by default, and player could sacrifice to the tadpole to gain those powers? I doubt that will happen... but I think that would be cool.