Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Big spoilers, cut content and feelings after 2 playthroughs

Here's a very subtle change on Larian's part that demonstrates the change in narrative and loss of reactivity. I saw this mentioned on another forum but don't recall it seeing mentioned much otherwise, but at some point during early access (prior to release, I'm reasonably sure) the first usage of the tadpole powers went from somewhere past the druid grove (I believe you'd encounter the Absolute cultists or the goblin camp where you'd get the first choice to use it) to aboard the nautiloid. Instead of having your first exposure to the power within you involving taking control of someone's mind, even if they were a goblin, your first exposure involves freeing someone from captivity. Notably, needing to use the illithid power to use Mind Flayer machinery is never really brought up again.

I imagine this drastically reduced the amount of people who were doing 'no power' playthroughs. I believe barbarians and wizards can still bypass it with a skill check, but everyone else would need to use the tadpole.