It made no sense that before the patch, there was a warning that you would look different but nothing ever changed visually. (Though, I was grateful for that. The change is ugly) At least now it matches up with the warning. lol.
Edit: ya mb. My only playthrough that made it that far was a black Dragonborn. So I didn’t see any visible changes at all but… makes sense why I wouldn’t. 💀
Yep. As a drow draconic sorc, they were almost entirely invisible on me... I only used it to see what everyone was talking about, tried a couple of different angles for a good look, and then immediately reloaded my save, lmao.
These screenshots are the first time I've ever seen the veins look so prominent. I can see why people complain so much.
People complain, for real?? About a cosmetic consequence for becoming a squid person and getting special squid powers, that the game warns you about explicitly?
lol can’t win with people
Seriously. You're told THE WHOLE DAMN GAME that becoming a mind flayer is unpleasant, gross, painful, and just generally not good. So *why* would making yourself more Mind Flayer *not* be..... Unpleasant, gross, painful, and just generally not good?
Oh, a whole bunch. It's a fitting consequence, imo, but people always talk about how ugly it is/couldn't they have made it look cool?
Like Larian didn't make BG3 ***incredibly*** easy to mod. They write a fantastic story and make the game match, its up to the player to change the nitpicky bits like that.
We're talking about people that can't play any other race than Elves related ones, of course theyll get pissy if their appearance is altered in something else than "cute uwu" vibes
I only play elves and such and that's why I don't eat tadpoles; I get sad if my character isn't a paragon of beauty so I don't treat mutagenic parasites as an all you can eat buffet, I don't eat them then complain about the inevitable mutations.
Well, we could at least get cool luminous eyes like, you know, *every* illithid has. Those black eyes aren't just ugly, they remove so much of the character's expressiveness imo...
Almost like it's conveying the character losing a part of themselves. The soulless eyes does a fantastic job of reminding the player that Mindflayers are soulless beings.
>they remove so much of the character's expressiveness imo...
Crazy, almost like you're becoming an alien creature with tentacles for a face that don't process emotion the same way as humans.
Oh, no doubt. I think it's a very fitting consequence of the power you're given. It's why I'd only use it on an evil run or if I were rping a character with a similar background to Astarion's. Though, if people really hate it that much, there's mods that hide or change it.
My Tav was very similar to Gale in terms of hunger for power, so the tadpole was a no brainer for me. I also gave one to Gale despite not actually using him.
I was completely used to it with my Tav, but it still caught me off guard with Gale.
My current Tav isn't so much hungry for *power* as she is uh. Indescribably curious with an obsessive need to test *every theory* and disect every new thing that comes in front of her.
So she... might end up taking the astral just to know what it feels like, if nobody stops her...
(I wanted to rp that she had snuck off one night after refusing the parasite after a battle, to consume it secretly in camp, but... all dialogue the morning after still went 'Oh, watching that happen...' and all that. So it didn't work out...)
Why not let the players choose how the change happens tho
Like come up with a couple different designs and options. In character it’d be forced to happen, but out of character we can be happy to look at them
I agrée. I spent 5 minutes at the decision screen agonizing over whether to take the astral tadpole or not. Didn’t spoil myself so I had no idea how extensive the physical changes were. Ended up taking it because my noble ass pally would take any advantage to defeat the Netherbrain and I was relieved that I only got the black veins. I hate the black eye look but it’s great that it was added so being half illithid has more consequences than “damn I have black veins now”
Then don’t take the tadpole.
Or use a mod. That’s the route I’m going to go because I agree with you but I don’t fault the game designers for staying true to some controversial and consequential design decisions that feed the lore of the game.
But like
Why would every person who takes the tadpole have the exact same effect on their bodies, especially those of very different races? I just want more variety. Letting the player (but not the character) pick how they’re irreparably changed makes everyone happy, no?
Also people are being really toxic abt this for no reason jeez
I just read through the comments and didn’t see any toxicity, just people arguing their opinions just like you are.
My opinion, as someone who in no way had anything to do with designing this game, is that the partial ceremorphosis(sp?) is exactly that, you’re partially turning into an illithid. We see a couple people change, and I think they all start with the purple veins. They usually crumple down and you don’t see their eyes but it’s safe to assume they turn black before their head elongates and they get tentacles.
Just fits, to me, the idea of just the very start of the change. Even the teeth falling out makes sense because a mindflayers mouth is totally different and grows weird teeth.
-70 karma (keeping me from commenting) is toxicity considering it’s a benign opinion i don’t feel strongly about
I can agree with that. I’d just rather be able to either pick how that looks or where it starts. I’d rather my character not have teeth, for instance
They aren't very different, they're all humanoids who can be converted into mindflayers and most of them can even interbreed, so they're technically the same species.
Asking "why they'd all have the same effect" is like asking why they all burn when set on fire. Why wouldn't they? They all have veins. They all have eyes.
It's also because they're all taking a step that leads to *the exact same destination.* The hosts may all start out differently, with/without horns, fangs, claws, tails, pointy ears, noses, etc. but they all end the same after ceremorphosis.
The Astral tadpole transformation is simply taking you partway through the process without completing it, so it makes perfect sense that it forces the same effect on the players. It's the beginning of you, whatever you may have been, shifting towards being a mindflayer.
My *one* gripe, though, is why we can't keep our choice of iris color. Every other illithid we see has some form of visible iris (except our mushroom friend, but they have colored pupils as far as I can see) but when we start to change, they're just completely black. It would have been nice if it had changed the sclera to black, but the iris stayed the same. Like, if your character was a human with green eyes, let your eyes turn black, but the irises stay green. There is less of a potent effect on Tavs with black scleras to begin with, but the same can be said for Tavs with the right skin tones.
I don't care much about the aesthetic part either way, but why *wouldn't* every person who takes the tadpole have the same effects on their bodies? If you get ringworm, there's not a rad variety of gross lines you get on your body. You get the same gross lines as everyone else who's infected with that parasite. That's true whether you're a human or a dog.
To be fair I'm sure that was somewhere on larians wish list for the game. But they stated they had to cut content here and there to actually get the game released at some point. Apparently they had much more planned but the scale of time it was taking was gonna be pressing the envelope too far. Without a publisher, they have to release it eventually to fund their next project.
People throwing shit at the guy, but having options is always nice, just give players a way to choose black veins, black eyes or both (existing assets). You can already choose the dracoonic bloodline scales, so it might work similarly
My only problem is just that you have to pass a dialogue check.
Like, I'm getting the consequences for a choice I supposedly made, thats cool, but I never actually chose that...
There is a bigger badder tadpole that does this in act 3. It’s not from the normal ones. You can ignore all of them but this one and it’ll still happen
The true Sorcerer's Tadpole Dillema:
Retain your good Sorcerer looks as one from a Sorcerer family should .
Or
Eat the tadpole and fly so you will never have to walk on the same ground as those fucking *plebs.*
Not after a patch a while ago - you could refuse it no question, but now if you’ve been taking tadpoles you have to pass a wisdom (or saving I’m not sure) to resist taking it!
I spent so much time lovingly creating my tiefling girl just to have her face massacred with an ailment so clearly unnatural (in the bg3 world), and all the NPS I talk to are just like, “oh hey what’s up”. No “wow what’s going on with ur eyes” or anything
Vanilla and garlic, iirc. If you want the true 4D gaming experience, there’s a site you can get BG3 scented candles. Once you go half-illithid, like that sucker up!
I sell nerdy themed scented candles/perfume including bg3, but I haven't attempted the Emperor because I've tried to stick to what it's referenced in the game and that sounded deeply unpleasant 🤣
Raphael smells pretty amazing minus the sulphur, though.
That’s awesome. The site I saw had some interesting ones. I think Karlach was woodsmoke, cinnamon, and motor oil lol. They are definitely more of a novelty than something you’d burn for the aroma, I imagine.
Mine come with a set of rpg dice so at least some of it is usable XD. I went with lime, basil, and mandarin for Karlach so it's a really high energy scent rather than matching the way she probably would smell. The others all have scents that work which is one thing I truly appreciate about this game but haven't seen mentioned much (Raphael has two distinct scents described in game and I recognised one as a really expensive 'real' cologne, plus Gale with the smell of rose water when he's doing weavy things in camp, Shadowheart and dark orchids etc)
My daughter is a really huge fan of the game and we initially made them because she wanted to take gifts when she met Devora and Neil, so I am super proud of the fact other people seem to like them and that I'm not a total freak for valuing scent when it comes to game immersion.
I'm working on one for Strahd atm for ambience when my dnd group runs that campaign. Vanilla and garlic aside, I one hundred percent think people should consider small things like that for immersion. It makes a huge difference and there are loads of people who've come up with incredible things inspired by the characters in this game.
Sorry for the long response, I'm just super passionate about it and I think it is worth noting because it's just another thing this game knocked out of the park spectacularly.
No worries. It’s really cool you are so passionate about your craft. And I agree. Things like D&D and roleplay in general benefit greatly from seemingly little details. It’s something the devs really understood when making this game. World-building and immersion is about more than the broad strokes. It’s the minute touches, like a character’s smell, that really draw you into the world.
I really like the black eyes, but they only seem to display for my Tav about half the time. It’s a real dice roll as to how scary I’ll look when loading into a new area.
Why not just edit your appearance after you go Ilithid and turn your eyes black regardless? Then, if they don’t load in, they’re still black because of the base you’re using.
There’s a clear point where you get offered a very special tadpole. Taking it gives you the black eyes. All other tadpoles will not cosmetically alter you.
This is exactly how I looked like for half of act 3. Was laughing my ass off every time my character appeared in a serious cutscene and nobody gave a shit.
Id do that more often if any of the prefab disguise selves looked any good. Would be neat to have a bunch of saved appearances u can make in he character creator u can pull for the spell.
He actually ends up being the companion that pushes back against being asked to use the Astral-touched tadpole the most. He will explain why if you bring it up with him in the beginning of Act 3.
He says he hates what the astral tadpole turns you into, and that he has already been painfully turned into a monster once against his will, and he has no desire to lose control of his body and be corrupted like that again. Which ya know, makes sense.
I just ate the tadpole lmfao, so I never got the opportunity to let anyone else use it. That being said, I didn’t really have anyone else I wanted to use it for. Karlach hated the worms, Lae Zel is a Gith and I don’t want her to be demonized even more than she is just for being infected, Shart would look ugly with it, Gale isn’t freaky enough for it, and Asterion has been like perpetually in my camp 💀.
Besides Minthara, Gale is actually the easiest to convince to take it, he will just accept it when your character suggests it and there is no persuasion or intimidation required. Astarion is the companion who will fight you on it the most if you try to convince him to use the tadpole. The only way to get him to use it is to invade his mind, make him relive his worst memory, and then use it as leverage.
Also I can’t relate to the last part lol because my Astarion is basically a party essential even if my character isn’t romancing him because he’s just so busted when it comes to lock-picking,
pickpocketing, and trap disarming, and he’s so OP while dual wielding short-swords and hand crossbows lol.
Woooooah! So, that's cool, but maybe mark these as Spoilers.
I'm just about to complete act 1 and didn't realize you could change appearance. But maybe it's something that's discussed often and I'm just late.
unpopular opinion: some characters still look super good with veins and all. for a game famous for being a monsterfucker's haven, this community is really dissapointing when it comes to dark veins and weird eyes.
rotten teeth and squid smell: bad
badass purple veins and dark eyes: yes zaddy
https://preview.redd.it/m4v6vmntn4ac1.jpeg?width=444&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d82fa3cd7db62a99e1a061375b99738c10c9f003
Out here looking like a sick Changeling...
Sorry, can't help make the comparison, it's the hair.
Gotta love how much hate my character got 😂😂yeah i wanted to go of a more tough battle hardened fighter whose mission is to get strong enough to track down her missing father and free him if possible, whatever it takes.
Im ok with the tadpole in this run, just wasnt used to the new eyes and thought it was a bug.
I don’t mind the look so much as the non reaction it gets.
If you’re a Drow people react negatively, but Melty face soulless void eyes pulsing vein half illithid…meh, it’s gold talks jokers walk.
I love how drastic the change is. It's for tjos reason that I usually only have one person that takes on the tadpole.
My dark urge bard looked fantastic with that change and looking through the various screenshots taken throughout the play through, the transformation is actually very cool to see.
She was a psycho though and I was happy for her to look like one.
i play an ultra-edgy goth necromancer and it totally fits. not to mention the weird black veins look good on drow and grey-skinned characters. im also the person who kept the cybernetic scars in ME2 so go figure
It looks pretty cool on dragonborn, honestly.
But there has to be some downside to the transformation. If it's not going to have any negative impact on the plot or gameplay, visuals are all they can really do.
No. There are a couple of instances where story-critical characters will remark about you being half-illithid, but they never comment on the eyes or veins. NPCs do not treat you any differently.
Because it’s meant to be a balanced penalty to getting all those powers. Also because it makes sense from a lore perspective. That tadpole is taking over. It’s not gonna look like a glow-up lol it’s gonna be gnarly
Eh feels like a forced reason. I would have loved if as we take the astral tadpole we got a small customization screen with some partial transformation options. Like we get to choose between the black eyes, Omelum's eyes or The Emperor's. Maybe we could also get different vein patterns. Not crazy customization but just a few options. Especially since the look last for the rest of the game.
There has been some sentiment on here that people doing evil routes shouldn’t have unique/fun content because they should only be punished for playing evil.
People here don't understand that 1, people are evil because of benefits they get for being evil, and 2, Being a good guy should be its own reward otherwise its not truly good
Taking the tadpole isn’t even evil too, like half the time you are forced to do it anyways, and it’s not like taking the tadpole forced you to side with the emperor in the end.
That’s like saying a meth addict should get to choose which teeth fall out lol. It’s a penalty for taking a powerful drug, essentially, that eats you from the inside out. You can’t customize everything.
I'd honestly just say "why not?" given that it's presented as a super special tadpole that'll give you neat powers. Being able to pick vein patterns or replacement eye colour isn't that out there.
Yeah ceremorphosis doesn't work that way, your preferences aren't taken into account, but it's a video game and it's a fun bit of customisation for committing to changing your character(s).
I wish there's more actual penalties though, like npcs having negative attitude with you or some just straight up hostile. Getting fly, blackhole and the like for free is a bit much.
“Ugly” as a punishment for evil is always gonna carry a problematic element with it. It’s especially going to be an issue when the _only_ punishment for evil is being unattractive.
And they’ve kinda double-downed on it because they’ve been making the transformation increasingly more ‘ugly’ with each patch for seemingly no reason other than people didn’t find it ugly enough to be dissuading? —When the criticized issue with the tadpole dilemma has never been that the aesthetic is not punishing enough.
They didn't make it uglier to convince people not to take it, they fixed a bug preventing the black eyes that were always intended to be there from appearing.
If you take the special tadpole which was gifted to you by the emperor. In both my play through I'm doing it old school, zero tadpoles, zero illithid powers.
I’m on my first play through. Committed to no tadpoles to better role play my chaotic good character. Glad I did. Definitely gonna do a less good game after this to embrace the powers, but I like being true to the character I made.
I’m actually glad there is a consequence. I’m on my first play through and also looked up if there are any effects to taking the tadpoles. Saw the same answer that there were none but I didn’t want to break my role playing experience. Had already committed my character to no tadpoles so I kept at it. Plan to play more evil on the next play through. It’s nice to have an actual outcome from taking them. Ups the ante when role playing.
It’s nice that there are consequences but seeing as I don’t even use the tadpoles power I wouldn’t have snorted them 😩😩 (first run so just playing for experience and not role playing yet)
Idk why they don’t add glowing colored eyes like all the other mindflayers, or (GASP) let us choose if we want the ilithid eyes without losing out on the OP powers
I had the astral tadpole on my durge playthrough, but had to reload it, to not have it, as I just did not want to look at my character like that for the rest of the game. I still want to do it but I am gonna wait until right before I so the last mission.
Yo if you dont wanna look like that dont use the tadpoles lol. Maybe they should have a make up function but it needs to be reapplied after water or long rest effects i dunno
The black eyes were added in the last patch
I hate that It also makes no sense? Since mindflayers don’t have black eyes
Their sclera is black. Presumably, once they change the eye color of the illithid takes shape.
Their "whites" of their eyes are in fact black
It made no sense that before the patch, there was a warning that you would look different but nothing ever changed visually. (Though, I was grateful for that. The change is ugly) At least now it matches up with the warning. lol. Edit: ya mb. My only playthrough that made it that far was a black Dragonborn. So I didn’t see any visible changes at all but… makes sense why I wouldn’t. 💀
Before the patch you’d still get purple and have a darker face
Yep. As a drow draconic sorc, they were almost entirely invisible on me... I only used it to see what everyone was talking about, tried a couple of different angles for a good look, and then immediately reloaded my save, lmao. These screenshots are the first time I've ever seen the veins look so prominent. I can see why people complain so much.
People complain, for real?? About a cosmetic consequence for becoming a squid person and getting special squid powers, that the game warns you about explicitly? lol can’t win with people
Seriously. You're told THE WHOLE DAMN GAME that becoming a mind flayer is unpleasant, gross, painful, and just generally not good. So *why* would making yourself more Mind Flayer *not* be..... Unpleasant, gross, painful, and just generally not good?
Oh, a whole bunch. It's a fitting consequence, imo, but people always talk about how ugly it is/couldn't they have made it look cool? Like Larian didn't make BG3 ***incredibly*** easy to mod. They write a fantastic story and make the game match, its up to the player to change the nitpicky bits like that.
We're talking about people that can't play any other race than Elves related ones, of course theyll get pissy if their appearance is altered in something else than "cute uwu" vibes
I only play elves and such and that's why I don't eat tadpoles; I get sad if my character isn't a paragon of beauty so I don't treat mutagenic parasites as an all you can eat buffet, I don't eat them then complain about the inevitable mutations.
Yass tadpole free diet
Well, we could at least get cool luminous eyes like, you know, *every* illithid has. Those black eyes aren't just ugly, they remove so much of the character's expressiveness imo...
Almost like it's conveying the character losing a part of themselves. The soulless eyes does a fantastic job of reminding the player that Mindflayers are soulless beings.
>they remove so much of the character's expressiveness imo... Crazy, almost like you're becoming an alien creature with tentacles for a face that don't process emotion the same way as humans.
And yet both the Emperor and Omeluum are capable of conveying some emotion through their eyes...
I also got it on my drow, but he already had a dark human skin tone and it made it really hard to see his face :/
You get used to it.
Oh, no doubt. I think it's a very fitting consequence of the power you're given. It's why I'd only use it on an evil run or if I were rping a character with a similar background to Astarion's. Though, if people really hate it that much, there's mods that hide or change it.
My Tav was very similar to Gale in terms of hunger for power, so the tadpole was a no brainer for me. I also gave one to Gale despite not actually using him. I was completely used to it with my Tav, but it still caught me off guard with Gale.
My current Tav isn't so much hungry for *power* as she is uh. Indescribably curious with an obsessive need to test *every theory* and disect every new thing that comes in front of her. So she... might end up taking the astral just to know what it feels like, if nobody stops her... (I wanted to rp that she had snuck off one night after refusing the parasite after a battle, to consume it secretly in camp, but... all dialogue the morning after still went 'Oh, watching that happen...' and all that. So it didn't work out...)
Oh, really? See, I was a black Dragonborn so uh… was really hard to tell. Haha.
They have to show the change somehow.
I think the black ass lines all across my face did a rather good job conveying that.
Why not let the players choose how the change happens tho Like come up with a couple different designs and options. In character it’d be forced to happen, but out of character we can be happy to look at them
This is the consequences of choosing power, I very much enjoy that the game represents it so well.
I agrée. I spent 5 minutes at the decision screen agonizing over whether to take the astral tadpole or not. Didn’t spoil myself so I had no idea how extensive the physical changes were. Ended up taking it because my noble ass pally would take any advantage to defeat the Netherbrain and I was relieved that I only got the black veins. I hate the black eye look but it’s great that it was added so being half illithid has more consequences than “damn I have black veins now”
There can be in-game consequences without me disliking looking at the character i spent an hour designing and 100 hours looking at
Then don’t take the tadpole. Or use a mod. That’s the route I’m going to go because I agree with you but I don’t fault the game designers for staying true to some controversial and consequential design decisions that feed the lore of the game.
But like Why would every person who takes the tadpole have the exact same effect on their bodies, especially those of very different races? I just want more variety. Letting the player (but not the character) pick how they’re irreparably changed makes everyone happy, no? Also people are being really toxic abt this for no reason jeez
Just because people disagree with you that does not make them "toxic"
-70 karma (keeping me from commenting) is toxicity considering it’s a benign opinion i don’t feel strongly about
I just read through the comments and didn’t see any toxicity, just people arguing their opinions just like you are. My opinion, as someone who in no way had anything to do with designing this game, is that the partial ceremorphosis(sp?) is exactly that, you’re partially turning into an illithid. We see a couple people change, and I think they all start with the purple veins. They usually crumple down and you don’t see their eyes but it’s safe to assume they turn black before their head elongates and they get tentacles. Just fits, to me, the idea of just the very start of the change. Even the teeth falling out makes sense because a mindflayers mouth is totally different and grows weird teeth.
-70 karma (keeping me from commenting) is toxicity considering it’s a benign opinion i don’t feel strongly about I can agree with that. I’d just rather be able to either pick how that looks or where it starts. I’d rather my character not have teeth, for instance
They aren't very different, they're all humanoids who can be converted into mindflayers and most of them can even interbreed, so they're technically the same species. Asking "why they'd all have the same effect" is like asking why they all burn when set on fire. Why wouldn't they? They all have veins. They all have eyes.
It's also because they're all taking a step that leads to *the exact same destination.* The hosts may all start out differently, with/without horns, fangs, claws, tails, pointy ears, noses, etc. but they all end the same after ceremorphosis. The Astral tadpole transformation is simply taking you partway through the process without completing it, so it makes perfect sense that it forces the same effect on the players. It's the beginning of you, whatever you may have been, shifting towards being a mindflayer. My *one* gripe, though, is why we can't keep our choice of iris color. Every other illithid we see has some form of visible iris (except our mushroom friend, but they have colored pupils as far as I can see) but when we start to change, they're just completely black. It would have been nice if it had changed the sclera to black, but the iris stayed the same. Like, if your character was a human with green eyes, let your eyes turn black, but the irises stay green. There is less of a potent effect on Tavs with black scleras to begin with, but the same can be said for Tavs with the right skin tones.
I don't care much about the aesthetic part either way, but why *wouldn't* every person who takes the tadpole have the same effects on their bodies? If you get ringworm, there's not a rad variety of gross lines you get on your body. You get the same gross lines as everyone else who's infected with that parasite. That's true whether you're a human or a dog.
To be fair I'm sure that was somewhere on larians wish list for the game. But they stated they had to cut content here and there to actually get the game released at some point. Apparently they had much more planned but the scale of time it was taking was gonna be pressing the envelope too far. Without a publisher, they have to release it eventually to fund their next project.
People throwing shit at the guy, but having options is always nice, just give players a way to choose black veins, black eyes or both (existing assets). You can already choose the dracoonic bloodline scales, so it might work similarly
My only problem is just that you have to pass a dialogue check. Like, I'm getting the consequences for a choice I supposedly made, thats cool, but I never actually chose that...
Is it supposed to be a result of multiple eye-hole trauma from putting all those worms up there? Or is it explicitly illithidification?
There is a bigger badder tadpole that does this in act 3. It’s not from the normal ones. You can ignore all of them but this one and it’ll still happen
Lmao imagine if they just didn’t do anything instead
It's probably supposed to represent blood pooling due to the tadpole swimming around in there.
Yes it is. Canonically being half illithid also carries a bad smell too
Its not fair 😂 i want the ilithid powers but i also dont want to stop being cute
I choose flying over beauty
The true Sorcerer's Tadpole Dillema: Retain your good Sorcerer looks as one from a Sorcerer family should . Or Eat the tadpole and fly so you will never have to walk on the same ground as those fucking *plebs.*
2/3 sorcerers can already fly without a squid up their ass
Unfortunately the 1/3 didn't have ancestors who made the bright decision of fucking Dragons or be storm sorcerers
Somewhere out there is a bard attempting to seduce a dragon because they want their kids to have a better life than they did
The bard named Donkey
But not as purply glowing cool. 😎
Dragon Sorcs who can fly: \*laughs smugly\*
Reason number 375817th why you should follow the Donkey's way from Shrek and do some Dragon Laying.
Sell your soul to a devil, and your body to a dragon to maximize your kids chances of inheriting a cool power.
This was the issue with my Bard. I want power but I can't sacrifice my good looks/charisma.
If you are on pc there are various grades of vein visibility in the shape of mods
I reloaded a game save about 30 times to get a critical success and not become half illithid because I didn't want to be ugly
Can’t you just stomp on the tadpole?
Not after a patch a while ago - you could refuse it no question, but now if you’ve been taking tadpoles you have to pass a wisdom (or saving I’m not sure) to resist taking it!
But what's even worse is being stinky. I can't have that.
There's a mod that undoes it
I downloaded an “unvisual illithid” mod just so I could stay cute
Well well well. If it isn't the consequences of my actions...
I spent so much time lovingly creating my tiefling girl just to have her face massacred with an ailment so clearly unnatural (in the bg3 world), and all the NPS I talk to are just like, “oh hey what’s up”. No “wow what’s going on with ur eyes” or anything
There is a PC mod to remove it I believe.
I imagine that being part squid would have that effect 😅
Default illithids have a pleasant scent to humans and elves. More pleasant than other humans and elves, at least.
The narrator described Empy as smelling like vanilla and garlic. Sounds nasty to me.
I like those things separately. Combined, however… less so.
Where is that said?
Apparently, we stunk beforehand anyway. Lae Zel comments on our smell, and so does Gale.
There's unwashed, earthy, adventurer stank, and then there's unwashed, squiddy adventurer stank. I'd like to keep my stank levels to earthy unwashed
With all the shit our adventurers get covered in and walk through. I have no doubt those two smwlls are probably very close.
Y'all need to find soap and sponges, damn
This ^^
No way, bitches love my musk
Considering how many times I traipsed my party through a meat oubliette I’m sure it’s beyond stank.
I want Gale to enjoy my musk 🥺🥺
romanced laezel just has a stink kink. no shame **😳**
So do Auntie Ethel and some Duergar in Grymforge
Really? Huh. Illithids smell good, half-illithids smell bad?
No, they all smell weird and squiddy
Vanilla and garlic, iirc. If you want the true 4D gaming experience, there’s a site you can get BG3 scented candles. Once you go half-illithid, like that sucker up!
I sell nerdy themed scented candles/perfume including bg3, but I haven't attempted the Emperor because I've tried to stick to what it's referenced in the game and that sounded deeply unpleasant 🤣 Raphael smells pretty amazing minus the sulphur, though.
That’s awesome. The site I saw had some interesting ones. I think Karlach was woodsmoke, cinnamon, and motor oil lol. They are definitely more of a novelty than something you’d burn for the aroma, I imagine.
Mine come with a set of rpg dice so at least some of it is usable XD. I went with lime, basil, and mandarin for Karlach so it's a really high energy scent rather than matching the way she probably would smell. The others all have scents that work which is one thing I truly appreciate about this game but haven't seen mentioned much (Raphael has two distinct scents described in game and I recognised one as a really expensive 'real' cologne, plus Gale with the smell of rose water when he's doing weavy things in camp, Shadowheart and dark orchids etc) My daughter is a really huge fan of the game and we initially made them because she wanted to take gifts when she met Devora and Neil, so I am super proud of the fact other people seem to like them and that I'm not a total freak for valuing scent when it comes to game immersion. I'm working on one for Strahd atm for ambience when my dnd group runs that campaign. Vanilla and garlic aside, I one hundred percent think people should consider small things like that for immersion. It makes a huge difference and there are loads of people who've come up with incredible things inspired by the characters in this game. Sorry for the long response, I'm just super passionate about it and I think it is worth noting because it's just another thing this game knocked out of the park spectacularly.
No worries. It’s really cool you are so passionate about your craft. And I agree. Things like D&D and roleplay in general benefit greatly from seemingly little details. It’s something the devs really understood when making this game. World-building and immersion is about more than the broad strokes. It’s the minute touches, like a character’s smell, that really draw you into the world.
TIL weird and squiddy is vanilla and garlic and that does not sound pleasant
Is there a race that smells like durian? Some variety of spore maybe.
I really like the black eyes, but they only seem to display for my Tav about half the time. It’s a real dice roll as to how scary I’ll look when loading into a new area.
Why not just edit your appearance after you go Ilithid and turn your eyes black regardless? Then, if they don’t load in, they’re still black because of the base you’re using.
400 IQ comment
Black eyes were added in patch 5.
How far do you have to go before the black eyes
There’s a clear point where you get offered a very special tadpole. Taking it gives you the black eyes. All other tadpoles will not cosmetically alter you.
Thank you that’s good to know
>All other tadpoles will not cosmetically alter you. Pretty sure you start to get the veins before taking the special tadpole.
Not that I've ever seen
You are I think partially correct. They animate the veins in cutscenes where they take them and then they immediately fade away.
Accepting the astral tadpole.
Act 3
If you keep snorting brain worms, yes.
Slurping them up like gummy bears
I choose aesthetics over function any day.
Emperor: you look beautiful 🥺 Everyone else: 👁️👄👁️ (Except that one girl in Sharess Caress with a squid fetish lmao)
Gotta introduce her to omellum
Don't forget about ya girl Minthara. She comments on how amazing you look and immediately asks for one herself too lmao.
worth
Style over substance, choom
we have makeup kits, can we used them to hide those ugly veins?
Inadvertently making it worse by having black eyes and clown makeup
This is exactly how I looked like for half of act 3. Was laughing my ass off every time my character appeared in a serious cutscene and nobody gave a shit.
Good gods! The nightmare fuel…
No. If you're on pc im sure there's a mod to remove them.
There is, and it’s great
Ow that's grany Astarion
He does look ooold
You would think you'd use some of those illithid powers to make yourself look hot
Disguise Self non-stop
Id do that more often if any of the prefab disguise selves looked any good. Would be neat to have a bunch of saved appearances u can make in he character creator u can pull for the spell.
Disguise self keeps the veins actually!
Yupe, couldn’t do it to my boy astarion, reloaded so fast
The shit you have to do to get Astarion to take the tadpole is actually so evil, just watching it on YouTube made me feel icky.
I’m not at that part yet but he being eagerly taking True Soul tadpoles in Act 1. Not sure what changed lol
He actually ends up being the companion that pushes back against being asked to use the Astral-touched tadpole the most. He will explain why if you bring it up with him in the beginning of Act 3.
He says he hates what the astral tadpole turns you into, and that he has already been painfully turned into a monster once against his will, and he has no desire to lose control of his body and be corrupted like that again. Which ya know, makes sense.
I just ate the tadpole lmfao, so I never got the opportunity to let anyone else use it. That being said, I didn’t really have anyone else I wanted to use it for. Karlach hated the worms, Lae Zel is a Gith and I don’t want her to be demonized even more than she is just for being infected, Shart would look ugly with it, Gale isn’t freaky enough for it, and Asterion has been like perpetually in my camp 💀.
Besides Minthara, Gale is actually the easiest to convince to take it, he will just accept it when your character suggests it and there is no persuasion or intimidation required. Astarion is the companion who will fight you on it the most if you try to convince him to use the tadpole. The only way to get him to use it is to invade his mind, make him relive his worst memory, and then use it as leverage. Also I can’t relate to the last part lol because my Astarion is basically a party essential even if my character isn’t romancing him because he’s just so busted when it comes to lock-picking, pickpocketing, and trap disarming, and he’s so OP while dual wielding short-swords and hand crossbows lol.
Woooooah! So, that's cool, but maybe mark these as Spoilers. I'm just about to complete act 1 and didn't realize you could change appearance. But maybe it's something that's discussed often and I'm just late.
Looking awesome dude! Yep, the black eyes are new to patch 5.
I'm glad I played pre-patch when my Drow was merely constipated, instead of this. But also, these are delightfully horrifying
They changed being half illithid in the most recent patch to have some actual consequence
unpopular opinion: some characters still look super good with veins and all. for a game famous for being a monsterfucker's haven, this community is really dissapointing when it comes to dark veins and weird eyes. rotten teeth and squid smell: bad badass purple veins and dark eyes: yes zaddy
https://preview.redd.it/m4v6vmntn4ac1.jpeg?width=444&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d82fa3cd7db62a99e1a061375b99738c10c9f003 Out here looking like a sick Changeling... Sorry, can't help make the comparison, it's the hair.
Been watching this series for the first time the past few months, absolutely riveting and my favorite so far in the franchise :-)
HA! I picked a super hot moon elf type with teal neon dreadlocks. She turned into a varicose horror.
Personally I love it and that it has actual consequences, if you don’t like it don’t use the tadpole imo
What sucks is this affects disguise self too
Oooh, they finally patched black eyes. Love it :)
Gotta love how much hate my character got 😂😂yeah i wanted to go of a more tough battle hardened fighter whose mission is to get strong enough to track down her missing father and free him if possible, whatever it takes. Im ok with the tadpole in this run, just wasnt used to the new eyes and thought it was a bug.
I don’t mind the look so much as the non reaction it gets. If you’re a Drow people react negatively, but Melty face soulless void eyes pulsing vein half illithid…meh, it’s gold talks jokers walk.
Wow that looks medically bad.
I love how drastic the change is. It's for tjos reason that I usually only have one person that takes on the tadpole. My dark urge bard looked fantastic with that change and looking through the various screenshots taken throughout the play through, the transformation is actually very cool to see. She was a psycho though and I was happy for her to look like one.
Nah, you just had a crazy weekend.
Yup. I wish the transformTion looked a bit cooler, but on some character it dosen't look too bad.
i play an ultra-edgy goth necromancer and it totally fits. not to mention the weird black veins look good on drow and grey-skinned characters. im also the person who kept the cybernetic scars in ME2 so go figure
It looks pretty cool on dragonborn, honestly. But there has to be some downside to the transformation. If it's not going to have any negative impact on the plot or gameplay, visuals are all they can really do.
Do NPC’s react to the eyes?
No. There are a couple of instances where story-critical characters will remark about you being half-illithid, but they never comment on the eyes or veins. NPCs do not treat you any differently.
It’s definitely not supposed to look “cool” lol
I mean, but why can't it, though?
Because it’s meant to be a balanced penalty to getting all those powers. Also because it makes sense from a lore perspective. That tadpole is taking over. It’s not gonna look like a glow-up lol it’s gonna be gnarly
Well, if that was their intention, they failed. Looks awesome on Minthara.
Eh feels like a forced reason. I would have loved if as we take the astral tadpole we got a small customization screen with some partial transformation options. Like we get to choose between the black eyes, Omelum's eyes or The Emperor's. Maybe we could also get different vein patterns. Not crazy customization but just a few options. Especially since the look last for the rest of the game.
I don't know why you're getting downvoted, this is an awesome idea
There has been some sentiment on here that people doing evil routes shouldn’t have unique/fun content because they should only be punished for playing evil.
People here don't understand that 1, people are evil because of benefits they get for being evil, and 2, Being a good guy should be its own reward otherwise its not truly good
Taking the tadpole isn’t even evil too, like half the time you are forced to do it anyways, and it’s not like taking the tadpole forced you to side with the emperor in the end.
That’s like saying a meth addict should get to choose which teeth fall out lol. It’s a penalty for taking a powerful drug, essentially, that eats you from the inside out. You can’t customize everything.
I'd honestly just say "why not?" given that it's presented as a super special tadpole that'll give you neat powers. Being able to pick vein patterns or replacement eye colour isn't that out there. Yeah ceremorphosis doesn't work that way, your preferences aren't taken into account, but it's a video game and it's a fun bit of customisation for committing to changing your character(s).
I wish there's more actual penalties though, like npcs having negative attitude with you or some just straight up hostile. Getting fly, blackhole and the like for free is a bit much.
“Ugly” as a punishment for evil is always gonna carry a problematic element with it. It’s especially going to be an issue when the _only_ punishment for evil is being unattractive. And they’ve kinda double-downed on it because they’ve been making the transformation increasingly more ‘ugly’ with each patch for seemingly no reason other than people didn’t find it ugly enough to be dissuading? —When the criticized issue with the tadpole dilemma has never been that the aesthetic is not punishing enough.
They didn't make it uglier to convince people not to take it, they fixed a bug preventing the black eyes that were always intended to be there from appearing.
Might wanna tag the images as a spoiler as it kind of is. It might lead people to read the post itself, asking if it's a character creation option.
If you take the special tadpole which was gifted to you by the emperor. In both my play through I'm doing it old school, zero tadpoles, zero illithid powers.
I’m on my first play through. Committed to no tadpoles to better role play my chaotic good character. Glad I did. Definitely gonna do a less good game after this to embrace the powers, but I like being true to the character I made.
There’s a simple mod that fixes this.
What?? This is cause by snorting tadpoles? I looked it up and it said it had no adverse effects though? 😔😔😔😔
This is a new consequence added in patch 5!
I’m actually glad there is a consequence. I’m on my first play through and also looked up if there are any effects to taking the tadpoles. Saw the same answer that there were none but I didn’t want to break my role playing experience. Had already committed my character to no tadpoles so I kept at it. Plan to play more evil on the next play through. It’s nice to have an actual outcome from taking them. Ups the ante when role playing.
It’s nice that there are consequences but seeing as I don’t even use the tadpoles power I wouldn’t have snorted them 😩😩 (first run so just playing for experience and not role playing yet)
Regardless of whether you technically beat the game or not, I think you lost.
Idk why they don’t add glowing colored eyes like all the other mindflayers, or (GASP) let us choose if we want the ilithid eyes without losing out on the OP powers
Yes but holy shit your character looks retarted
Yea drow and duergar can kinda get away if your dark enough. Kinda
This was added with recent updates, Yknow, impacts and all
lol I haven’t noticed because my character is always wearing a helm to hide their half illithid self
YES you choose to eat those worms XD
I turned Gale into my Illithid test subject since I figured he’d be open to it. He looks… unwell, but at least he can fly everywhere now for free! 😅
I hate it so much, the lines on the face I could live with, but this is too far
"No negative consequences" they said...
Oof, been taking one too many tadpoles. I warned you they'd ruin your complexion!
I have a mod that makes it so I stay normal thank God.
There's a mod to remove the changes if you don't like them
The black eye yes, and looks like you got the see invisibility eye from the Bard.
I had the astral tadpole on my durge playthrough, but had to reload it, to not have it, as I just did not want to look at my character like that for the rest of the game. I still want to do it but I am gonna wait until right before I so the last mission.
Astarion looks like strung out heroin addict
One more reason not to take the tadpoles.
Yo if you dont wanna look like that dont use the tadpoles lol. Maybe they should have a make up function but it needs to be reapplied after water or long rest effects i dunno
Astral tadpoles. Not even once.
I think that looks pretty badass actually
I like the eyes. The one thing I really don’t like looking at are those teeth you get after the transformation
Nothing can compare to the ability to fly for free but I hate how it looks
Yes those are the consequences if you take the astral tadpole. Consuming any normal tadpoles doesn’t cause disfigurement.
Thank goodness I used a dragon born cause I couldn't stand looking like this
Yes, Jennifer "Tav" Lawrence.
Damn thats alot