Holy shit people, I actually just realized something.... you could be completely free of the Tadpole just by using the 5E spell 'Reincarnate'. And it's only a 5th level spell, too, which means even Shadowheart could cast it at level 9. Ha! No wonder they didn't include that one in the game... Gale and Astarion were right all along! You just need a good Cleric, which are readily available in Baldur's Gate, possibly even more minor towns or temples, and a decapitation ( Purely symbolic though, you don't actually have to get decapitated first for this to work ).
Well, I sure hope nobody attempts to turn the game's plot into an actual 5E DND campaign or else it's going to get completely unraveled by level 9.
Raise dead would be enough as the encounter with the cultist in act 1 shows that the tadpole leaves the body after death for some reason. And even if yours does not, being dead allows for far more invasive and successful methods of extraction.
So with Withers on standby curing the tadpole would be a matter of minutes and a few hundred gold coins.
But Larian decided that the tadpole is this awesome powerup mechanic you are not allowed to remove.
