Fundamentally, I dont think timers fit this structure of a game. They are either forgiving to the point of being irrelevant, or get in the way of fun. “Find help before you become mindflayer” is a fun scenario to think about, but not a great fit for stating cRPG with a big focus on exploration.
As it was pointed before, BG3 doesn’t even have narrative ticking bomb. Characters think so initially, but it is established later on that the tadpole is dormant.
So I think it is all well to theorycraft a hypothetical game that would use tadpoles and timers, or think how BG3 could have less convoluted story hook, but none of it has much relation to game as is - which won’t be heavily redesigned nor rewritten at this point.
