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So Ive been thinking about how the Great Old One level 1 ability "Awakened Mind" might be implemented in BG3. Its a weird ability to try and simulate in a video game where much of the dialog is scripted. Its essentially telepathy, communication between two minds, as opposed to speaking with words.

I must admit, Im having a tough time seeing how this could work in BG3. But the Great Old One needs something to compete with the Fiend's Dark Ones Blessing temporary hit point ability. Thats a tangible, real bonus with real effects that bolster your survivability early on, and currently I can see no reason to pick Great Old One over the Fiend. The Fiend is just better.

The one idea Ive come up with is to maybe give The Great Old One the "Detect Thoughts" Spell as a free ability, that can be used anytime as an action, no spell slot needed, and doesnt count as a selected cantrip or spell. "Detect Thoughts" isnt exactly telepathy as it isnt communication, and the other party is unaware of you reading their minds, but its the closest thing I could find that exists in the game.

Even so, I still dont think it compares to the Dark Ones Blessing in terms of bang for the buck, but at least its something, and at least it gives Great Old One players the ability to run around reading everyones thoughts at will.

Really Im posting this in hopes that some of you other Warlock lovers have given this some thought as well, and maybe have come up with some better solutions that mine, which admittedly, is pretty simplistic.

Last edited by DarkRob316; 28/10/20 05:43 AM.
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It could be something as simple as proficiency (and expertise if they implement it) in Insight, but an at will Detect Thoughts without expending spell slots might be cool too as you mention.
It's not like Larian doesn't have a lot to play with in terms of options for "Awakened Mind" - I just hope they don't over-tune it too much like giving Resistance to Psychic Damage or something of that nature.

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I just hope they change the default Warlock clothes to not be a copy of Wyll's. A robe would be nice.

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Originally Posted by Mxiio
I just hope they don't over-tune it too much like giving Resistance to Psychic Damage or something of that nature.


Great Old One's do actually get resistance to psychic damage as part of their "Thought Shield", but thats not until level 10. That would be pretty nuts if he got it at level 1. Over tuning is right haha.

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Resistance to psychic damage is already a goolock pact feature. Unlocks at 10th level. "Thought Shield; Starting at 10th level, your thoughts can't be read by telepathy, or other means, unless you allow it. Also, you gain resistance to psychic damage, and whenever a creature deals psychic damage to you, that creature takes the same amount of damage that you do." That's straight out of the 5e PHB. Fun fact, the last part of the ability makes a battle between two goolocks very interesting. It's not a may, so if two goolocks of 10th or higher fight, and one of them deals psychic damage to the other, thought shield will bounce the damage back and forth until one of them is dead. Not unconscious. Dead. As the ability does not specify that you must be conscious.

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As someone who is currently in a campaign using a GOO Warlock, I'm really hoping Awakened Mind is implemented in game in some form or another in the future. It just feels unfair to make the Great Old One get no Sub-Class Feat, while every other Sub-Class in game has their own Sub-Class Feats or Domain Spells available.

I know it may be difficult to work out an in-game implementation for Awakened Mind as a lot of the usefulness of Awakened Mind is in roleplay and not combat or in-game mechanics. Using telepathy as a form of secret team comms is really nice when I play in my campaign, but that wouldn't really translate into BG3. However, what I think is arguably the best use of the Awakened Mind's telepathy is rendered useless in how BG3 is currently implemented, and that is the fact that Language (apart from the odd "ghaik" and other non-Common words) seems to be totally absent from this game. If they implement languages in game in the future, then maybe telepathy would be of some use in BG3.

Otherwise, I think having an at will Detect Magic would at least give the GOO Warlock something. In a way I feel like they wrote themselves into a corner by just giving the player telepathy via tadpole, which in essence diminishes the impact Awakened Mind would have had in the game to begin with.

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It's strong, but detect thoughts once per day and a proficiency on Insight might do it.

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+1

I agree

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Originally Posted by GeneralY7
Detect Magic would at least give the GOO Warlock something.


I haven't seen any Detect Magic scrolls or spells used in BG3, is this even a thing?

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Originally Posted by Ocece
It's strong, but detect thoughts once per day and a proficiency on Insight might do it.


Detect thoughts at will wouldn't be so bad in the game in my opinion, because the conversations are scripted already and usually have more than one way to get the same information. It's not like you'll get any major revelations you wouldn't have otherwise given the nature of the game.


If I'm wrong and detect thoughts gets more powerful later in the game, maybe adding GOO specific conversation options would be a possible alternative.

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Originally Posted by Ocece
It's strong, but detect thoughts once per day and a proficiency on Insight might do it.


I thought about this as well, but I feel it has to be at will. The thing is its got to compete with "Dark Ones Blessing" from The Fiend for anyone to even want to pick Great Old One.
Im thinking in terms of making Great Old One at least a viable choice over the Fiend, while being limited to what we have to work with in the scope of the game.

I still think even if you have an at will Detect Thoughts, it still doesnt measure up to Dark Ones Blessing, however I like the idea of tossing him a free insight proficiency as well. Now we're getting somewhere.

I could pick that and feel ok about not getting the dark ones blessing.

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Originally Posted by Mxiio
Originally Posted by GeneralY7
Detect Magic would at least give the GOO Warlock something.


I haven't seen any Detect Magic scrolls or spells used in BG3, is this even a thing?


It was less or more replaced by Arcana checks.

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Originally Posted by DarkRob316
Originally Posted by Mxiio
I just hope they don't over-tune it too much like giving Resistance to Psychic Damage or something of that nature.


Great Old One's do actually get resistance to psychic damage as part of their "Thought Shield", but thats not until level 10. That would be pretty nuts if he got it at level 1. Over tuning is right haha.


Would it? There's next to no psychic damage as is.

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Originally Posted by Bossk_Hogg
Originally Posted by DarkRob316
Originally Posted by Mxiio
I just hope they don't over-tune it too much like giving Resistance to Psychic Damage or something of that nature.


Great Old One's do actually get resistance to psychic damage as part of their "Thought Shield", but thats not until level 10. That would be pretty nuts if he got it at level 1. Over tuning is right haha.


Would it? There's next to no psychic damage as is.


Well, maybe not now. But in a game where Mind Flayers are the primary baddies, I expect there will be down the road.

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Originally Posted by DarkRob316
So Ive been thinking about how the Great Old One level 1 ability "Awakened Mind" might be implemented in BG3. Its a weird ability to try and simulate in a video game where much of the dialog is scripted. Its essentially telepathy, communication between two minds, as opposed to speaking with words.

I must admit, Im having a tough time seeing how this could work in BG3. But the Great Old One needs something to compete with the Fiend's Dark Ones Blessing temporary hit point ability. Thats a tangible, real bonus with real effects that bolster your survivability early on, and currently I can see no reason to pick Great Old One over the Fiend. The Fiend is just better.

The one idea Ive come up with is to maybe give The Great Old One the "Detect Thoughts" Spell as a free ability, that can be used anytime as an action, no spell slot needed, and doesnt count as a selected cantrip or spell. "Detect Thoughts" isnt exactly telepathy as it isnt communication, and the other party is unaware of you reading their minds, but its the closest thing I could find that exists in the game.

Even so, I still dont think it compares to the Dark Ones Blessing in terms of bang for the buck, but at least its something, and at least it gives Great Old One players the ability to run around reading everyones thoughts at will.

Really Im posting this in hopes that some of you other Warlock lovers have given this some thought as well, and maybe have come up with some better solutions that mine, which admittedly, is pretty simplistic.



I'm gonna keep suggesting this.

Awakened Mind: "Your patron gives you a stronger telepathic bond with your Illithid tadpole than most, You gain access to the Illithid dialogue option whenever it is available without needing to rest first."


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