Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems Bug: Companion Tadpoles Missing from Mind Map, Show Up in Inventory

Bug Report: Tadpoles Appearing in Player Inventory Prematurely – Companion Tadpoles Missing from Mind Map
Platform: PC
Mode: Honour Mode
Mods: None

📍 Summary of the Bug

After the first night following the encounter with the Guardian, I noticed several major inconsistencies with the tadpole system:

Companions (Astarion, Gale, Wyll) were missing their tadpoles when inspecting their minds via the tadpole mind map.
At the same time, three tadpoles appeared in my inventory — in addition to the three I had previously acquired through normal gameplay before meeting the Guardian.

These "extra" tadpoles:

Did not count toward the tadpole UI counter (top-right of the screen).
Only started registering properly after I transferred them to another companion (Lae'zel).
One of the tadpoles seemed to belong to Astarion — when inspecting his mind, the center node was empty. After placing the tadpole back into his inventory, the central node correctly appeared.
Gale and Wyll also had empty minds (no tadpoles shown), and once again, after manually assigning the "stray" tadpoles to them, their mind maps corrected themselves.
🧠 What Should Have Happened

Every companion should retain their tadpole at this stage of the game.
No tadpoles should be present in the player’s inventory unless explicitly obtained via story or exploration.
Tadpoles from companions should not migrate to the player’s inventory on their own, nor should they become unregistered in the UI/mind map.

🛠️ What I Did to Fix It Myself

Since I was playing in Honour Mode, I had no access to manual saves or reloads. Therefore, I took a manual, non-exploitative approach to restore balance and preserve the intended experience:

I identified the three “stray” tadpoles that had appeared in my inventory and did not belong to the player character.
I carefully assigned them back to Astarion, Gale, and Wyll, one by one.
This restored each of their mind maps, and the UI began functioning as expected.
I chose to do this to maintain game balance and avoid benefiting from an unintended bug.

🧪 Steps to Reproduce (hypothetical, since I cannot reload):

Progress through the early game until the first encounter with the Guardian.
Sleep through the night and enter the phase where you can begin using tadpoles.
Check companion mind maps via the tadpole interface.

Observe that:

Some companions may have empty centers (no tadpoles).
Tadpoles may appear in the player’s inventory unexpectedly.
These tadpoles may not be counted in the UI unless transferred.

🧩 Notes & Theories

This may be a rare desynchronization bug between the companion tadpole state and the inventory system, possibly caused by an event trigger misfiring during or after the Guardian cutscene.
It could also be linked to inventory handling scripts incorrectly pulling tadpoles into the PC’s inventory.

👉 Important note

This bug does not just affect immersion — it can also create a serious gameplay advantage. Since the tadpoles came from companions who are not part of the active party, they could have been redirected to boost my main character or preferred companions, giving them early access to powerful abilities. In Honour Mode, where every decision matters and resources are limited by design, this breaks intended balance and progression. I deliberately avoided this by returning the tadpoles to their original owners.