Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Acceptable & Unacceptable Hosts for Ceremorphosis

I notice that a lot of people here are wondering why only humanoid races are playable in Baldur's Gate 3, and I feel the need to set the record straight, after doing some research on the process of ceremorphosis, and what races are usually taken.

I learned that not every race in the Forgotten Realms is kidnapped for ceremorphosis, some are acceptable for it, others are not. In particular, only humans, elves, drow, tieflings, aasimar, githyanki, githzerai, grimlocks, gnolls, human-sized goblinoids, and orcs produce viable mind flayers. In addition, the candidate's height and weight is extremely important in the process, since body mass was a factor in the tadpole's growth rate. Only humanoids weighing between 130​ to ​270 pounds (59​ to ​120 kilograms) and with heights between 5 feet and ​4 inches​ to ​6 feet and ​2 inches (1.6​ to ​1.9 meters) were considered acceptable. Creatures outside that range caused the tadpole's evolution to proceed either too fast or too slowly, and both cases resulted in both the host's and the tadpole's death. Some creatures are always outright considered unacceptable for ceremorphosis. Those included centaurs, derro, duergar, dwarves, giants, halflings, and kuo-toa. Any attempt to conduct ceremorphosis on one of those races invariably resulted in death for the host and the tadpole. Most non-mammalian species are also considered incompatible in principle. While it is true that dwarves, halflings and gnomes (the only short races playable in BG3) are normally considered unacceptable candidates to ceremorphosis, it is possible to warp the process in order to produce a viable ceremorph, but the degree of success varies. Since the height and weight ranges are a more determinant factor than species in the success of ceremorphosis, in principle even other races that fell within those ranges could still be compatible. For that reason, mind flayers constantly conducted experiments with newly found creatures. So for those of you hoping for kobolds to be playable in Baldur's Gate 3, SORRY, NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! They are too small and too lightweight!

You may be interested to check this post: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=730542#Post730542
So, they added the warforged to the list.

You realize you destroyed your own argument right? Dwarves, halflings,duergar, and even possibly warfoged have tadpoles in game. The game also emphasises the tadpoles are different so the rules kind of fly out the window regarding ceremorphosis. Larian stated they had obtained a little room for creative freedom from Wizards of the Coast.

wait... wait wait wait wait..

Are you actually making a lore argument why the game SHOULD, not has regrettably, but SHOULD only have recolour Humans as races?
In the sense that you would be AGAINST having lets say Dragonborn or Warforged (two races we have evidence for)?

You have to start an argument strong. What kind of argument starts with "Well yes we should not have cool and different things"

The Tadpoles infecting us arnt normal, they are more magic than Biological

I don't mind the arbitrary change that allows these other races to be used in ceromophosis in this case, just to be able to play them in game if nothing else. I don't even care if they make it a special case because this is a special tadpole or something. That's one change I'm okay with.

Not really, I pointed out an exception. In the game your halfling or dwarf can be given a tadpole, but under normal circumstances mind flayers don't take short folk for ceremorphosis, but exceptions can be made, it is possible to warp the process in order to produce a viable ceremorph from a halfling or dwarf, but the degree of success varies, though.

I think what you're trying to say is that they don't behave like "normal" mind flayer tadpoles. According to Halsin, someone magically tampered with the tadpoles, lengthening the ceremorphosis effect to possibly weeks or months, and making the tadpole resist all attempts of being removed.

What if the goal is not ceremorphosis? Especially since we know

Now you are asking real questions

The lore has rules. Not just humans, by the way, also elves, drow, tieflings, aasimar, githyanki, githzerai, grimlocks, gnolls, human-sized goblinoids, orcs and even dragonborn, if they add dragonborn to the game that is. I can assume your dragonborn would be the first one taken to be implanted with a tadpole, as dragonborn originally came from Abeir, and I made it clear that mind flayers will experiment ceremorphosis on races they have never encountered before.

As I said before, the Forgotten Realms lore has rules, not everything is along the lines of "Anything Goes". However, the rules can be bent, as I pointed out that the ceremorphosis process can be warped to work on halflings, dwarves and other short heighted races, but the rules CANNOT BE BROKEN.

We're explicitly told that our tadpoles are unique multiple times. All the normal rules of ceremorphosis are pretty much out the window. At the very start of the game we see a woman get transformed fully into a mind flayer with the pull of a lever, something Lae'zel notes as new and terrifying technology the Illithids shouldn't have.

Shoot, we don't even know for sure that ceremorphosis is even the end-goal of these tadpoles. They're connected to The Absolute which seems to be some sort of take over the world through manipulation scheme operating on a larger scale than simple reproduction.

We're dealing with unprecedented magic. Something the Mind Flayers have never attempted before with goals that aren't immediately obvious. There's no reason to out-of-hand discard the idea of a playable race based on old lore because this is new lore following its own, new rules.

Beyond that, how the heck would you justify them implanting a dang goblin with a tadpole but draw a hard line at kobolds? Because kobolds are skinnier? Seems like a pretty massive stretch without even knowing what these tadpoles are meant to do.

The rules of lore can always be broken. Blah blah blah a god did it. Boom, done.

Hate to break it to you Hoss... Ceremorphosis is done in a few days. The rules are already broken.

Nope they are strait up said to be in stasis by the friendly Mindflayer the under dark, they are also much more powerful than the it is.

The True Soul Tadpoles are basically just vehicles for some sort of God Magic

What about Brainstealer dragons? Mindwitness? Squidlings? Uchuulons? Urophions?
The creatures I have listed do not meet the criteria described, but are still considered Mind Flayers.

Not really. Those are classified as "Half-Illithids", or "Half-Mind Flayers".

A small variety of species could successfully undergo ceremorphosis, but if not from one of the fully compatible races, the result was called a "half-illithid", also known as a "ceremorph" or "flayer-kin". They do, however, still possess most of the powers of a regular Mind Flayer.

But at the same time, they remain members of the colony, which can still be useful. Brainstealer dragons sometimes ruled illithid settlements that did not have an elder brain.

But I still don't understand what the problem is. The creation of new illithids (Or Half-Illithids) can help them build up their power and the upcoming battles.
Besides, the tadpoles in the brains of the protagonists (And True Souls) are different from those that were earlier. They are probably devoid of the previous flaws and may expose Ceremorphosis to a more extensive list of races. We cannot yet talk about their strength and capabilities.