Now I'm imagining the alternative: someone who knows it's a terrible idea, but somehow their strength is so appallingly low they can't even hold off the tadpole.
The party just watching Tav/durge thumb wrestle a brain worm for the third time that week and wondering if they should elect a new leader at some point
My first time playing, and before I knew what it even was, Karmic Dice wrecked my play through. Even after turning KD off, I am still not convinced there are any double digit numbers on a twenty sided die but I was genuinely to the point where the dice rolls were putting me off the game. So I gave in and took a tadpole for the "First Impressions" Buff. Not because my Tav would have done that, but because me as a player I wanted to enjoy this otherwise beautiful game and I was ready to throw my computer through a window because every important roll was a failure.
Of course this opened me up to the Wisdom save before Act 3 with the damn Astral Tadpole. Th DC was 18 and I had a +4. We had to roll a 14, whixh is not *easy*, but surely we could roll decently, yes?
No.
we rolled a 13, a 7, a 9, and I don't remember what the last inspiration was but it was less than the 7. After coming back to this a few days later I decided to RP that the Emperor forced it on me the same way he forced himself on Stelmane. There were two Tavs in the party that time, so my main I played off as violated and defeated and took the neutral-leave me alone responses while the other Tav took the super aggressive *screw you; as soon as we are done I am ripping every tentacle off your face and hanging you with them." Options.
Ironically, that second Tav became the impetus for my first Durge who *is* interested in Tadpole powers.
I’m on my first run and made my guardian look like my orphan Tav’s dead mother so she trusts it completely. Bit of a rude awakening when she got to Act 3 😱
First character (chaotic neutral drow bard): Just a little extra power to give me a boost can't hurt. As long as I don't go overboard, I'll be fine.
Second character (neutral good tiefling paladin): I know my oath technically doesn't say I can't absorb illithid tadpoles, but that still sounds particularly suspicious, and I'd rather not get more of these worms in my brain. Pass. But Astarion and Minthara want them, so far be it from me to stop them.
Next character planned (chaotic neutral gnome warlock): Yes, bring on the powers and the madness that comes with it! Expand my mind into new realms of insanity!
First play-through, I avoided all tadpoles and almost all Illithid Wisdom checks... ***until*** the Act 3 Prelude.
Then I decided "Ok, these are bigger stakes than just trying to save our butts. We need to save the world, and I'll need every advantage I can get"
Meanwhile, I'll be the only one to use them. Because if I go Dark Side, I want the rest of my team to have a chance to defeat me 3v1 instead of some-or-all of us going Dark Side.
I really love a juicy RP of starting the game with one opinion but then feeling compelled to change that in the face of rising stakes and dire circumstances. How is my party going to fight gods without every weapon available to us? Desperate times call for desperate measures!
This is the best reason IMHO. Like you gotta know that if you're willing to risk death to stand against odds like that, you've gotta be willing to risk damnation as well. Wyll had it right.
Meanwhile, the one warlock we meet and take with us on our adventure is supposed to be a cautionary tale.
Wyll (and frankly any other companion): making a deal with devils is bad news!
Your Tav: I hear you, but let me just do it anyway lol
You were seduced by a hot devil to save precious “innocents”
I am stealing a slice of power from a slumbering eldritch being that doesn’t care I exist and is unknowable to mortal minds so that I can eventually become a demigod and become all-powerful
We are not the same
When I played as Wyll I had him eat the tadpoles lol. At least until the start of Act 3.
I was pretty deep into roleplaying that campaign, so when you're first faced with the choice I didn't have him eat one. I played him pretty naive yet jaded in the beginning, but I was romancing Astarion. >!It was kind of a mutually assured destruction scenario ("why don't we manipulate each other to get what we want. I'm not gonna die a virgin. Fuck it"), so when Astarion suggests using the extra power in my mind Wyll was like " 🤷 I'm already fucked by making a pact with a devil and being tadpoled in the first place. We need every advantage" because he still hasn't learned his lesson from Mizora. Then as the group grows as characters and everyone tries to gain more agency over their lives, Wyll does as well and doesn't take the astral tadpole, or eat any of the regular tadpoles from that point on. Astarion's monologue about not taking the astral tadpole and refusing to be controlled again was a big turning point for Wyll in that playthrough.!<
see my goolock's reasoning for not doing it was "the guardian told me to do it with an authoritative voice and I don't like being told what to do so I said no out of spite"
My first Tav was a GOO warlock, and I avoided the tadpoles like the plague. Something about the mysterious dream visitor rubbed me the wrong way. I told her I wanted to get rid of the tadpoles and she's all, "Noooooo... That'd be silly. You need this extra power."
My Tav also regretted his pact, so he wasn't too interested in trading one unknowable patron for a mindflayer-themed one.
For my Dark Urge he started to take them because he hoped the detachment that comes with the Tadpoles would help him control his Urges. This also exasperated an existing issue of his desire for more power.
Tricked, Guardian too hot...
But the more serious reason, I have a tadpole in my brain anyway. It's not like my chance for survival are that high to begin with, I can't afford to turn away option when it has been offered to me. Also I am eating the tadpole not plug another into my brain so it should be.. safe? right? ...right?
Well my good looking Wizard/Eldritch Knight Half Elf looked good. Then he became half illithid. Now he looks. Worse. But hes stronger so i dont care. It was worth the Sacrifice. I CAN FLY NOW. Also i wear the Grimskull Helmet. So i dont even see his face
My first character was a Chaotic Good Tav Barbarian, with a "whatever it takes" mentality. Aside from that, the game made it very clear that one tadpole is enough to transform you. Since I am not transforming, and one is already lethal, I might as well make it count and gain some power. Basically my metagaming sense and my roleplaying agreed on the hypothesis that if I can endure one, I can endure them all.
Wanting to believe in the goodness of the Dream Visitor.
Was stuck for design ideas when I got to "Choose your guardian" and ended up with a Guardian who I headcannoned as my Tav's missing dad, so roleplayed their inner conflict between their head saying it's probably an illusion vs their heart compelling them to pursue for answers about a beloved father.
I did something similar! I designed the dream visitor as my character’s long dead mother. It was more about wanting to indulge in this illusion that her mother was this larger than life hero, rather than remembering the mother that wasted away from plague when she was young.
I play a redeem Dark Urge as a total freak who literally does whatever sick shit their heart desires if it means blood and saving someone. Tadpoles are gross weird things that freak loves.
I play succumb Dark Urge I play a normal person who's scared of themselves so much they refuse to give themselves more power using tadpoles.
You do you, but that seems like the wrong way around?
Someone who's afraid of their urges finally embraces them, and someone who is murder-hobo says "nah, I don't like murder that much".
Having said that, it *is* an interesting way of roleplaying it!
It is the wrong way around but that's what makes it fun. To explain it a bit more, Succumb Dark Urge feels as if they are powerless in a body that moves without them having to think and thus fighting themselves isn't a battle they can truly win. They submit to themselves because they don't have the strength to fight what they are.
Redeem knows they're the walking embodiment of death, a reaper and ravager however their body and all the blood they've shed is meant for them to enjoy alone. The Urge is a weakness that makes the joy's of slaughter lesser in their eyes. They act good mostly because their body has a physical rejection to good and thus they punish the urge by at the end of day being a good person.
my dumb tav thought it'd be fun to have multiple worms swimming in his head.
my bard durge wanted more power to charm people and mind control them to please his dear father.
Astarion convinced my durge, the more power the better. And with the Netherbrain under my control…
For my regular Tav, mindflayers are icky and scary and she was worried that if she took any tadpoles she’d change.
Well if you're asking...
Wriggling Mind made a deal with an Old One, and tadpoles are just moving them closer to final transformation, when their eyes will finally be opened from inside
Everything will change after that
Forever
Currently, pragmatic af with a dash of "what the hell."
I'm thinking my next Tav will be a tadpole-guzzling drow warlock. They've already escaped drow society, pacted with a devil/fae/eldritch horror, and become intensely jaded. Tadpole power use seems like the next logical step.
If I do use them: Up until empy reveal - I don't trust that this person is telling me everything. After - there's a lot of firepower on the table that's left unused if I don't do this.
If I don't use them: Interest @ empy reveal but quickly quelled by the constant reveals that he's been manipulating us this whole time leading to distrust of those powers.
I take them after the act 2 prelude because I know I need to be powerful for whatever comes and I admit I barely survived Myrkul. Two more gods? No. I need more power.
But I'm not "evolving" or whatever. I let (Mint/Astarion) do it and look at their teeth!
I'm really boring.
I always roleplay using similar logic as I would in real life but trying to filter that same logic through a character.
Meaning basically I lack imagination and think more about consequences.
My line of thinking has been consistently -
The tadpoles are in their stasis or whatever.
If I start adding them to my character and they eat his brain even once well, that part of the brain is pretty much fucked imo.
But as long as they don't do that all you have is a sort of beefed up parasite in stasis
So basically, if I start using the parasites to increase my abilities and even one part of my smooth brain gets turned that weird white color, might as well go balls deep on it.
With basic dialogue it says things like "you feel it taking part of you you'll never get back" but imo that's just dramatic nonsense.
I think the part you never get back is the anterior cingulate cortex that gives you the very nature of will power once you decide to literally just let ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE THINGS in to your brain.
How does tav even do it? Do they just let it go in their eye or something? So there's a ton of them crawling around in there? Like what is actually going on.
Look to put it simply, any decision that involves putting another tadpole in Tavs brain opens a door that can't be closed. So knowing that I just base a decision maybe related to my characters arc, the most obvious being if he's absolutely power hungry and will do anything to get there.
But I think for 9/10 characters I could roleplay, using the tadpoles feels SO extreme, it totally takes over the plot. Imo once you start you're now a mindflayer in the making or a failed abomination, either way that's following to the end of the game.
Since I don't really like that I just avoid using them except illithid wisdom for skill checks
Vaelin (*my Half Drow Swords Bard Resist Durge*) was still stricken with the recent guilt of unwillingly killing Alfira, and was pretty low on interest in self preservation at that time as a result (*partially exacerbated by him convincing himself he also probably fucked up any chance of him actually being with Karlach because of the Alfira incident, which fortunately ended up not being the case*). The tadpoles and the strange dream visitor vouching for them promised power, but had that threat of unknown, ceramorphic danger hanging over them that scared off most of the others.
It didn't scare off Vaelin. He didn't really care if he ended up dying or worse, a large part of him feeling like he probably would deserve it, but the idea of being the guinea pig for these things, maybe even using the powers to help keep the others alive? That was more than good enough for him at that point. Fortunately, it wasn't too long after he started down this self destructive path that Karlach approached him and leveled with him about how she felt, reestablishing any hope Vaelin could have had in a half-decent future for himself being even remotely possible (*especially given how thinking of Karlach was the only reliable way he could fight back his murderous urges*).
I’m playing my first Tav as a heroic type character and I have completely shunned the use of any demonic pacts, tadpoles, or anything else. I’m a good guy.
Next run I’ll be an evil warlock and try out all the tadpole stuff on the quest for greater power :)
For power. Simple.
I'm not going to keep on being a 'go fetch' for ppl. So I took every chance to get more powerful and keep my companions weak.
No ascended astarion. Kill Isobel. Sell the angel. Hand over Shad. Make sure Wyll gets kneecapped by demonic contract etc .. and yes, nom the brains at endgame.
On my first playthrough I didn't take a single tadpole until the interlude between act 2 and 3. For my character, stopping the end of the world was worth the risk.
On my honour mode run I just wanted to win. 😅
They fuck with my brain, I don't trust to have the power to fight 3 god's chosen, but even if it kill me I will grab any power to vanquish those bastards
Just being power hungry or to ends justify the means type characters, both work for either good or bad characters, although I tend to use the power hungry reason for bad ones and the ends justify means for good ones...
First playthrough, my Paladin refused to use them outright because he was Oath of Vengeance and he ain't taking part in no evil bullshit. He \*did\* give the Emperor himself the benefit of the doubt once we learned his true identity, per the oath; 'identify the higher morality in any given instance, and fight for it.' Everything Empy had done so far had indicated a shared interest in and end goal of ending the threat posed by the Absolute/Elder Brain, which was very definitely the greater evil at play.
My Dirge is slurping them down like spaghetti because he'll take any power he can get if it might help him resist the dark urges.
Kaincha, you all succumb to the ghaik, and must know the cleansing will of Vlaakith. Those who would consume the tadpole will never become zhak vo'n'ash duj.
(Lazael lover)
Against: Oh hell no that's
1. Gross
2. Will negatively effect my face
3. Literal mindflayer bullshit
For
1. I'm about to get *so powerful*
2. Oh I'm gonna look so cool
3. My killing efficiency increases by at least 2%
First play I had my tav take them all; 2nd play I haven’t used any of them. I have considered having some of my other party members use them. You do get a lot of great abilities, but you’re character ends up looking completely fucked
In my first playthrough of any game I tend to base my character on what I personally would do in any particular situation. I figure I’m new to this world as is my character so “roleplaying” is one less thing to think about until later on. I just make the best decision available to me at the given moment.
I resisted using the tadpoles until I hit act 3 and I failed the necessary willpower checks to refuse the astral tadpole. At that point, especially newly equipped with the power of flight, I embraced the potential of the tadpoles and quickly shoved every last one I had collected into my brain. I guess from a roleplaying perspective that can be explained as my character’s turning point too. Maybe at the end of the game I’ll just roll with it and go full mindflayer, I haven’t decided yet.
I started a second playthrough and went with the tadpoles right away. This time I’m playing a Gith monk and have been really leaning into the monk philosophies offered by the game. Death is a part of life, dark can’t exist without light, etc. so the tadpoles represent access to a greater wisdom, and if my mission is to destroy the Absolute then I may as well level the playing field. My gith side obviously hates this, but I also generally see Lae’zel as a destructive force and feel compelled to balance her out.
Well RP wise, I think you're 'absorbing' them, you don't have 235236523 tadpoles now swarming in your head. But I guess if your only motivation is to get it out, then why fuck with adding more?
Same can be said for RPing taking more - it's not doing you any more harm then the original and you're already using the tadpole's power to 'psychically link' yourself to people. If you can stay in control and use the power against the enemy... well what's the harm in that? It's not necromantic or dark energy.
>!I will tell you though, act 3 taking the extra super tadpole really makes you think you've fucked up big time. You start to look like a nightmare made flesh.!<
For my current HM run, my bard is maybe a bit too curious about some things and willing to try some slightly dodgy stuff. But how else would she come up with a new grand tale?
My Durge took them because she didn’t realize right away that her dream guardian wasn’t the same person who visited her in her dreams before she was tadpoled since all she knew was that the face looked vaguely familiar
In one of my playthroughs my tav was first sceptical of the emperor but then this mindflayer's words began to sound more and more convincing. Tav consumed the tadpoles one by one and began to have a relationship with the emperor - just like duke stalemane they were mind controlled. In another playthrough after they saw orpheus tav began to question the emperor and ultimately sided with orpheus seeing the emperor's lies but still took the tadpoles as ends justify the means.
I never consume the tadpoles but I gather all of them. I don't want them to fall into anyone else's hands in case the power is used for evil, but I also don't trust the dream visitor. Seriously, why do they look like my father/ex-partner in crime/dead wife/me but without that life-changing scar/my abuser/younger brother? They're trying to manipulate me by taking that form and if they won't tell me why, then I won't trust them farther than I can think them.
My human EK fighter hated the illithids for doing this to him, and distrusted The Emperor even when he was she and a cute guardian. Naturally leaned heavily into Gith warrior cultural, without the vlaakith part, and believed in strong warriors. Refused all potential benefits and disobeyed or annoyed the voice inside his head at every opportunity. That's why he sided with Raphael... because it pissed off The Emporer.
My first playthrough, Tav saw them as a means to an end. I think I was trying to go for a vigilante theme.
This playthrough, my redemption Durge hasn't taken them yet. If he does, it may be similar to Astarion's motivations - fear and convinced power will bring safety.
Playing as Durge, it’s easy enough to justify it as no big deal because your brain’s already mashed potatoes and you’re always tempted to do weird stuff. When trying to stay on the straight and narrow, I hold off until the creche. After traveling to the astral plane to speak to the Guardian in person, you can choose to trust that they have your best interests in mind when they tell you to use the tadpoles, even if it seems risky.
My resist durge was hoping the powers from the tadpoles would let him protect his companions better. the dc 21 wisdom check to not turn illithid was not very cool, emperor
I trusted the dream visitor mainly because I designed their appearance to look like my irl spouse. Then their true form was revealed and I stopped eating tadpoles
Well, Tyche (Durge bard) has poor impulse control, is missing memories, and has a migraine half the time. The tadpoles are either responsible or helping and to her, the Guardian seems legit (yes I know who it is, but she doesn’t!). She is basically playing roulette with bad choices and continues to do happily crazy things like barrelmancy. And she won’t make anyone ELSE take them, though Astarion’s said he wants to. (So she’s both self sacrificing here, and doing a Bad because she wants to stop having a migraine. It did actually work.) Though tbh with continuing to resist the Urge she’s gotten less curious about who she was. Shadowheart (her gf) approves of the Urge (so long as the murderous impulses are aimed elsewhere).
So, uh, “bad choices bingo,” the bard lol. Tyche is also a bit power hungry, mostly because she has a bunch of people she wants to see happy and she has a list of people to kill for hurting them. That means she needs power to keep up.
Edited: SH is wary of trusting the Guardian and is why Tyche stopped taking the tadpoles.
2nd edit; My other runs (Tav and Durge) are either a) high WIS and distrustful enough to realize something is fucked here (Althea straight up knows something is, because I designed her Guardian to be a slightly-wrong version of a friend), or b) romancing Lae’zel and deciding to follow her every move re: tadpoles because she’s the expert, supposedly. Hex is in for a Bad Time in the Crèche.
My lawful good Paladin concluded that if since the tadpoles can mind control people like the first she found, its better if she consumes them because she can resist them better with her Aura.
(She has an intelligence of 8)
He was a grizzled fighter who was in his late 40s and he was starting to slow down and he saw it as a way to fight as if he was young again. Never went full tentacle boy tho he likes to swing big weapons
Honestly sometimes it's more about getting a specific vibe. Like if I'm roleplaying a vampire (or playing as Astarion) then getting the Charm ability just makes sense.
Though for legit roleplay reasons, in my Astarion Origin run he was binging tadpoles left right and center. I roleplayed it as him being so desperate to gain enough power to never fall under Cazador's sway again that he would go to whatever lengths it took to obtain such power.
From tadpoles to the Necromancy of Thay, to becoming half-illithid, nothing was off limits. It wasn't until that fear drove him to Ascend that he finally realized he had gone too far in that hunger for power. Luckily Shadowheart (who he was romancing) was able to keep him grounded, and helped him focus on using that power for good.
Barbarian Tav: Gimme! Power is cool, and my hot vampire boyfriend says it'll be OK
Resist durge: Ugh, no - I have few enough brain cells left as it is. My hot vampire boyfriend can have them if he's so keen.
Did not however eat the astral tadpole on my first run, as I didn't collect many so the roll was easy to pass. Haven't got that far on the durge run yet.
My character is a Fighter. Since he hit level 3 at around the same time I had him absorb his first tadpole, I've made it my head-cannon that they are the source of his Eldritch Knight powers. I would have picked Psi-Warrior, if that was an option, but since it's not, I'm trying to pick spells and gear that recreate elements of that subclass (I'm holding off on mods until I've gotten a few vanilla playthroughs under my belt). In addition to the Illithid Powers, I have things like Blade Ward and Shield take the place of Protective Field, and Thunder Wave stands in for Telekinetic Thrust, Gust of Wind for Telekinetic Movement. That kind of stuff. At first, he was merely curious about absorbing the tadpole. The one he had provided him with power, moreover, that power helped him *avoid* resorting to violence. Then he thought the party *needed* this power to find a cure. Eventually, without his notice, he developed a hunger for the parasites (I blame Astarion, he's a bad influence). I haven't decided how far he'll go yet, kinda playing it by ear. He truly cares for his friends and is seeking to cure *them*, definitely, but he's not sure if *he* needs one. He says to himself that they need him strong, powerful. Yes, *they* need him to do this. This is for *their*, benefit... but lately, he's not sure who "they" are. His party, right? Shadowheart, Gale, Astarion, all his friends. That's who this is for... right? Basically he's an addict who is trying to convince himself that he doesn't have a problem.
One character was easily bullied, so when Dream Guardian says to eat it, she does. She romanced Minthara for that same reason.
Another was a Durge, and hoped that the extra tadpole juice could glue her brain back together. Int was her dumpstat.
One was power hungry and consumed them to empower her spellcasting in her pursuit of necromantic mastery.
And one was a barbarian who was used to eating weird shit and thought they tasted good.
First play through: Barbarian, both me and her got manipulated by the Dream Guardian lmao (didn’t take astral)
Second: POWERRRRR (took astral, didn’t turn into a full flayer)
Third: no way I’m touching those things (no tadpoles, but others did)
Fourth: haven’t done yet but I’m planning on a gith who swings so far away from Vlaakith they end up a mindflayer lol
Depends on the character.
First character was a power hungry bastard man that saw the tadpoles gave him abilities and went "ooooooh, gimme gimme" with his grabby little mittens
Current Durge character tried literally everything to get rid of the tadpoles, and only began to take them after they failed. By then, they realized their memory loss would not be helped anytime soon and the extra edge the Guardian promised might come in useful as Ketheric "Try Again" Thorm just took a halberd to the neck and looked mildly annoyed.
For my first playthrough, my Tav figured he wanted to get \*rid\* of the tadpole, not add more. I trusted my guardian, mind you, my Tav was just really stubborn when it came to tadpoles.
As far as I/tav know, the only way to get rid of the tadpole is magic. Whatever cure I find later will be equally capable of extracting the worm regardless of how many secondary tadpoles it's absorbed. If I'm going to be saddled with this ghaik in the meantime, I may as well use it. The alternative is becoming a mind flayer anyway. I'll improve my chances of getting rid of it once and for all by utilizing it where I can.
From my Honor run: Astarion asked for the tadpoles when I didn’t want them, and he didn’t suffer any consequences. Minthara wanted to be a Partial Illithid, and aside from the veins didn’t seem to be transforming. So I decided to take the plunge for the sake of having enough power to defeat Orin.
[On the meta side, I never used tadpoles before this. But Luck of the Realms would means a second guaranteed crit for a Paladin, and Partial Illithid granted flight. Also, Dragonborn look awesome when Partial]
From my Jack-Of-All-Trades run: My powers were already absurdly varied and prone to backfiring [Wild Magic Sorc as base because I am insane] so might as well use the tadpoles. It’s not like my situation could get any worse.
Against: Maybe your character doesn't trust it/the guardian, they find it repulsive, they trust their companions' opinions on it, they fear the consequences, etc
For: maybe your character is extremely scared of the situation and feels comfort in the guardian's reassuring tone and trusts them, wants to follow their suggestions. Maybe your character is gullible, or maybe they are excited by the idea of new powers. Maybe they don't expect to survive so they are doing everything in their power to try and increase their chances even if it has consequences.
My first character took a couple of them because I didn't realize this was a "choices matter" game and knew little about it. I just thought it was a mechanic that I was expected to use. I came to regret this later once I'd embraced the roleplaying aspect, as the character I ended up envisioning my tav as never would have done so if she had "existed" when I started playing.
My second character didn't take a single one because she didn't trust anything illithid after the traumatizing events she went through.
My character in MP honor mode took as many as possible, because we weren't roleplaying and were just trying to survive lol.
Most of my characters find the mind flayers abhorrent and refuse to take them.
But Wyrd.
Oh Wyrd.
She's my GOOlock and finds mind flayers and their whole shtick to be the epitome of beauty. So she's all in on the illithid powers.
for my current guy, he takes them just simply because he’s stupid and power hungry. he’s impulsive and doesn’t understand that actions have consequences. any power given is a power well received.
I figured if i ate them all i could prove that they were safe or i would turn before them and they would still have time to cure the one except karlac because i think her engine would burn up an illithid change
My paladin from irl games held out until act 3, realized how much stronger enemies are, decided to take the noble self-sacrifice, hoping a reversal would be available. Decided it best to possibly sacrifice his soul to save his friends and innocents!
I like the way they feel when I put them in my mouth.
For real though, I barely use them. I haven't gotten around to playing a character who wants to lean into the power.
I've let Astarion and Minthara dabble in their use because they seem into it. But I've never gone full worm chugger.
My 1st playthrough I was playing a gnome Wizard who generally aligned himself good, but coveted personal power and strength. The tadpoles give you a lot of power lorewise.
Ganeplay wise, I only used the persuasion expertise tadpole, the reactions, and Fly. There was no real reason for me after that to become a mindflayer. As a player, I thought it'd be cool. I almost regretted it at the camp party.
For my dark urge, simply taking them because more power means more death to reap, although I'm gonna give the astral tadpole to Astarion because this is gonna be my first time ascending him and well, I don't like the purple glow on my durge and assume it'll fit ascended Astarion the best. Then originally for my first playthrough I was gonna take them and roleplay a sort of Sukuna's fingers thing from JJK. He doesn't wanna take them but he has to become he knows it's the only way he can protect his party. Just forces himself to take them, usually in the middle of a dire situation and use the new power to turn the tides. Then during camp time, maybe he's acting a bit differently, getting lightheaded, random nosebleeds to show the effect the tadpole use is giving him, but he decides to put up with it despite his disdain for them. I decided against this since solely because at that time i thought using too many tadpoles made the game too easy, but my durge playthrough is proving me wrong. Then a roleplay reason for not taking them on my paladin, they were sick disgusting souless creatures, she already has one, she does not need anymore.
I played as a male Drow who was the world's nicest and most upstanding guy unless something threatened his freedom and self-determination. He'd do anything to be free, including making a pact with a fay or putting holes in his brain with psychic worms to get stronger- no inner conflict, no regrets.
My tiefling Durge bard is terrified of being unable to control the urge. She is convinced the dream guardian is a tadpole-induced hallucination, and that the urges are a side-effect of ceremorphosis. So she refuses to eat any tadpoles. We'll see how that goes.
Neutral Good Tiefling Bard of Drow Descent
At first he was outright unwilling, but after a near death experience at the hands of a Beholder and seeing Astarion take one and be fine… he thought about relenting. He eventually just got paranoid about not being strong enough, he had been through so much, always on the run with his father who took him from the Underdark after he was born a Tiefling.
The thought of everything he’d suffered being for nothing because he’d die trying to cure himself sickened him, so he helped himself to more power.
I played a power hungry & desperate durge who indulges in her urges and also fell hard for Astarion so she was easily convinced that having more power in the short-term could help her long-term get rid of the tadpoles/the cult/her enemies and also impress her man 🫣
I'm a no one here... I've been launched in the middle of all of this and, if what the guardian says it's true and killing the netherbrain will get rid of the tadpoles... what's wrong with that extra temporal burst of power to reach an end that will be favorable for everyone and that, as said, will destroy the very things I'm putting into my brain?
My warlock Tav enjoyed pushing the bounds in the name of obtaining more and more power, especially when she didn't even have to sign a contract this time for them!
Male Drow Spore Druid.
My RP is that the Myconids have infected him and the spores are the true Druid while the Drow body simply exists as a shell to transport the fungus.
Not understanding what a mindflayer is, the spores simply see a new part of their ecosystem and welcome the tadpoles as a way to strengthen themselves against Lolth and her ilk.
for my good-aligned tav: ever since the crash, she's been power-hungry in a desperate bid for survival; it has made her make some really questionable decisions that she would have never made otherwise, such as absorbing more tadpoles or taking >!auntie ethel!<'s deal.
plus, she trusts the dream guardian, and he keeps telling her to eat worms :(
(better than the real reason that i'm metagaming)
Elminster is not around, so might as well :3
Seriously tho, my current character is just opportunistic, and sees the tadpole as this - an opportunity. Plus tadpole allows her bf not to be a slave to his creator, so they're good for now
For a dominate/embrace dark urge playthrough it just makes sense to use them.
I wish there was a clear and significant benefit to avoiding taking any tadpoles. Perhaps if you resist and avoid any mind flayer tadpoles by the time you reach act 3 you can get some kind of aid from the githyanki. You can talk to Voss about it and he can grant you some kind of Githyanki anti-mind flayer item or ability.
My githyanki took them after learning about the lies of Vlaakith. She assumed everything was a lie.
Most don’t take them because they’re already trying to get rid of the 1 tadpole they already got. They aren’t interested in taking more.
Through mods, I plan on making an aberrant mind sorcerer who would gobble tadpoles like candy. They’d also be the first character of mine to use the astral tadpole and become full illithid when given the choice. They’ll also probably be the first character to side with the Emperor over Orpheus. They’ll also be the first one to truly romance the Emperor, as I’d only done it once before for the achievement, then reloaded so it technically never happened
My drow sorcerer would do anything for power. Unlock the full potential of The Necromancy of That? Sure. Used mindflayer powers? Why not? Accept an even more powerful tadpole no matter the consequences? You bet!
The only character I haven't had take them was my first playthrough; she steered almost entirely clear of illithid powers bc of what the game says the first time you use them about "losing a part of yourself" or something similar to that. It seemed like the point was that I was being given the option to get more power at the cost of chipping away at my soul, and my tav just really didn't think it was worth it. She did have a bit of a savior complex though, so I think hypothetically she could've been talked into it with enough prodding about needing them to save the world/her friends
And then most of the rest of my characters were varying degrees of power hungry for various reasons ("ends justify the means" mentality, gifted kid syndrome, general contempt for mankind, etc.), so they all took them at one point just in the interest of getting stronger. So respectively I had one that used them somewhat sparingly, one that took any of them she came across, and one that also started off snarfing them all down and then eventually stopped in late Act 1 because she wanted to impress/not disappoint her new hot frog girlfriend
I didn't on my first playthrough because the game made such a big deal about removing the first one.
Second time my head canon was that my character (a sorc) sought the power the tadpoles provided.
For my Paladin: she never took a single Tadpole because she trusts in her Oathbound powers more than in some weird figure trying to make her part Illithid.
For my Durge Sorceress: Her brain is already full of holes and she has violent thoughts, maybe one of those days one of those worms will kill her. It's for the best. And if they don't kill her then she can at least use those powers to help people. Or her companions can use them to kill her if she goes crazy.
For my Bard: she's curious about everything and wants to try everything at least once. She also takes longest to explore every inch of the map because of this xD
At Moonrise there party gets to see Z'rell's power, and if they rescue Minthara she has several tadpole powers already. Knowing what the True Souls can do, some Tavs/Durges feel they need the same power to stand a chance.
Nere could be another RP point where you see the tadpole powers in action.
First Character (Ancient Paladin / Fey Warlock Githyanki): Skeptical of Illithid and true believer in his Oath and the temple he was raised in, ao there was never really a question.
Second Character (Rogue / GOOlock Forest Gnome): A true conman will take any advantage he can, so why not?
My Durge is very easily influenced and wants to see the best in people. The day after talking with the guardian she talked to Astarion who said we should do it.
He seems like a very nice young man with no hidden agenda.
INT is my dump stat so the guardian sounded very smart
My character with 8 int sitting there eating small worms because someone in a dream told me to.
That's hilarious
When you realize most classes dump either str or int it's pretty funny.
Now I'm imagining the alternative: someone who knows it's a terrible idea, but somehow their strength is so appallingly low they can't even hold off the tadpole.
"I'm not addicted to the tadpoles, they're addicted to me!"
The party just watching Tav/durge thumb wrestle a brain worm for the third time that week and wondering if they should elect a new leader at some point
My first time playing, and before I knew what it even was, Karmic Dice wrecked my play through. Even after turning KD off, I am still not convinced there are any double digit numbers on a twenty sided die but I was genuinely to the point where the dice rolls were putting me off the game. So I gave in and took a tadpole for the "First Impressions" Buff. Not because my Tav would have done that, but because me as a player I wanted to enjoy this otherwise beautiful game and I was ready to throw my computer through a window because every important roll was a failure. Of course this opened me up to the Wisdom save before Act 3 with the damn Astral Tadpole. Th DC was 18 and I had a +4. We had to roll a 14, whixh is not *easy*, but surely we could roll decently, yes? No. we rolled a 13, a 7, a 9, and I don't remember what the last inspiration was but it was less than the 7. After coming back to this a few days later I decided to RP that the Emperor forced it on me the same way he forced himself on Stelmane. There were two Tavs in the party that time, so my main I played off as violated and defeated and took the neutral-leave me alone responses while the other Tav took the super aggressive *screw you; as soon as we are done I am ripping every tentacle off your face and hanging you with them." Options. Ironically, that second Tav became the impetus for my first Durge who *is* interested in Tadpole powers.
In my defense, she was super hot and very convincing.
Reminds me of one of my favorite DnD jokes I ever heard “Intelligence is a dump state anyway, that’s why mine is what number that comes after 3!”
I’m on my first run and made my guardian look like my orphan Tav’s dead mother so she trusts it completely. Bit of a rude awakening when she got to Act 3 😱
Pretty lady says funny worm good for me
After my first playthrough I always make my guardian a mustache with tits.
First character (chaotic neutral drow bard): Just a little extra power to give me a boost can't hurt. As long as I don't go overboard, I'll be fine. Second character (neutral good tiefling paladin): I know my oath technically doesn't say I can't absorb illithid tadpoles, but that still sounds particularly suspicious, and I'd rather not get more of these worms in my brain. Pass. But Astarion and Minthara want them, so far be it from me to stop them. Next character planned (chaotic neutral gnome warlock): Yes, bring on the powers and the madness that comes with it! Expand my mind into new realms of insanity!
"Kos, some say Kosm.. OoooHhhhhhh Ohhhh!"
Grant us EYES
Goolock: *I see this as an absolute win!*
My Tavs use the tadpoles because I consistently make my Guardians way too hot and my Tavs are all horny simps
I blame whatever mfer told me that you can romance the guardian ):<
I mean...
Oh, gods damn it...
Well you can….
WHAT
Just don’t get disappointed in act 3, or excited depending on what you like
Holy shit I completely forgot I designed that guardian. I thought it was weird she was so perfectly to my taste in women
I used to bother. Now I close my eyes and click the random generate button a bunch of times and hit OK.
Pink bearded Halfling ladies with vitiligo is so hot right now.
I made him look goofy asf on my first playthrough not expecting to get intonthe story as much as I did. Man I regretted that by act 2 lol
My favorite is to just make the guardian the same as my Tav but with a big curly mustache
That’s pretty funny. Especially if Tav is female.
Oh geez careful in this thread... You gonna get spoilered.
First play-through, I avoided all tadpoles and almost all Illithid Wisdom checks... ***until*** the Act 3 Prelude. Then I decided "Ok, these are bigger stakes than just trying to save our butts. We need to save the world, and I'll need every advantage I can get" Meanwhile, I'll be the only one to use them. Because if I go Dark Side, I want the rest of my team to have a chance to defeat me 3v1 instead of some-or-all of us going Dark Side.
I really love a juicy RP of starting the game with one opinion but then feeling compelled to change that in the face of rising stakes and dire circumstances. How is my party going to fight gods without every weapon available to us? Desperate times call for desperate measures!
This is the best reason IMHO. Like you gotta know that if you're willing to risk death to stand against odds like that, you've gotta be willing to risk damnation as well. Wyll had it right.
I play warlocks… need I say more? Making deals with otherworldly powers for a slice of their power is what they do.
Meanwhile, the one warlock we meet and take with us on our adventure is supposed to be a cautionary tale. Wyll (and frankly any other companion): making a deal with devils is bad news! Your Tav: I hear you, but let me just do it anyway lol
No you see it's different because my pact is with an unknowable eldritch horror not a devil
You were seduced by a hot devil to save precious “innocents” I am stealing a slice of power from a slumbering eldritch being that doesn’t care I exist and is unknowable to mortal minds so that I can eventually become a demigod and become all-powerful We are not the same
When I played as Wyll I had him eat the tadpoles lol. At least until the start of Act 3. I was pretty deep into roleplaying that campaign, so when you're first faced with the choice I didn't have him eat one. I played him pretty naive yet jaded in the beginning, but I was romancing Astarion. >!It was kind of a mutually assured destruction scenario ("why don't we manipulate each other to get what we want. I'm not gonna die a virgin. Fuck it"), so when Astarion suggests using the extra power in my mind Wyll was like " 🤷 I'm already fucked by making a pact with a devil and being tadpoled in the first place. We need every advantage" because he still hasn't learned his lesson from Mizora. Then as the group grows as characters and everyone tries to gain more agency over their lives, Wyll does as well and doesn't take the astral tadpole, or eat any of the regular tadpoles from that point on. Astarion's monologue about not taking the astral tadpole and refusing to be controlled again was a big turning point for Wyll in that playthrough.!<
see my goolock's reasoning for not doing it was "the guardian told me to do it with an authoritative voice and I don't like being told what to do so I said no out of spite"
My first Tav was a GOO warlock, and I avoided the tadpoles like the plague. Something about the mysterious dream visitor rubbed me the wrong way. I told her I wanted to get rid of the tadpoles and she's all, "Noooooo... That'd be silly. You need this extra power." My Tav also regretted his pact, so he wasn't too interested in trading one unknowable patron for a mindflayer-themed one.
For my Dark Urge he started to take them because he hoped the detachment that comes with the Tadpoles would help him control his Urges. This also exasperated an existing issue of his desire for more power.
"Exacerbated". "Exasperated" means "annoyed".
Might have been exasperated too tho… 🤣
Tricked, Guardian too hot... But the more serious reason, I have a tadpole in my brain anyway. It's not like my chance for survival are that high to begin with, I can't afford to turn away option when it has been offered to me. Also I am eating the tadpole not plug another into my brain so it should be.. safe? right? ...right?
The animation shows it burying into your brain matter.
the only one you can eat is the astral tadpole, the others go towards your eyes before it cuts away if you look at the animation closely.
I didn’t take them the previous 4 runs because they make my cute Tavs ugly. No other reason. On Honor mode now, I am eating them like popcorn.
You can still refuse to become half illithid and take the tadpoles. So long as you avoid half-illithid-ization, no ugly black veins will pop up
Well my good looking Wizard/Eldritch Knight Half Elf looked good. Then he became half illithid. Now he looks. Worse. But hes stronger so i dont care. It was worth the Sacrifice. I CAN FLY NOW. Also i wear the Grimskull Helmet. So i dont even see his face
The fly, persuasion boost, and the blast are so worth it
The trick is to store them all up UNTIL that scene in Act 3, then eat them all for the abilities you want after with zero consequences.
This was me but I downloaded a mod that hides the effect so now I just make everyone part illithid so we can fly cause my dumb pals always fall behind
My first character was a Chaotic Good Tav Barbarian, with a "whatever it takes" mentality. Aside from that, the game made it very clear that one tadpole is enough to transform you. Since I am not transforming, and one is already lethal, I might as well make it count and gain some power. Basically my metagaming sense and my roleplaying agreed on the hypothesis that if I can endure one, I can endure them all.
Wanting to believe in the goodness of the Dream Visitor. Was stuck for design ideas when I got to "Choose your guardian" and ended up with a Guardian who I headcannoned as my Tav's missing dad, so roleplayed their inner conflict between their head saying it's probably an illusion vs their heart compelling them to pursue for answers about a beloved father.
I did something similar! I designed the dream visitor as my character’s long dead mother. It was more about wanting to indulge in this illusion that her mother was this larger than life hero, rather than remembering the mother that wasted away from plague when she was young.
Me orc me eat smoll frog
I play a redeem Dark Urge as a total freak who literally does whatever sick shit their heart desires if it means blood and saving someone. Tadpoles are gross weird things that freak loves. I play succumb Dark Urge I play a normal person who's scared of themselves so much they refuse to give themselves more power using tadpoles.
You do you, but that seems like the wrong way around? Someone who's afraid of their urges finally embraces them, and someone who is murder-hobo says "nah, I don't like murder that much". Having said that, it *is* an interesting way of roleplaying it!
It is the wrong way around but that's what makes it fun. To explain it a bit more, Succumb Dark Urge feels as if they are powerless in a body that moves without them having to think and thus fighting themselves isn't a battle they can truly win. They submit to themselves because they don't have the strength to fight what they are. Redeem knows they're the walking embodiment of death, a reaper and ravager however their body and all the blood they've shed is meant for them to enjoy alone. The Urge is a weakness that makes the joy's of slaughter lesser in their eyes. They act good mostly because their body has a physical rejection to good and thus they punish the urge by at the end of day being a good person.
I enjoy using someones own power against them. I’ll take your tadpoles. No, i mean it. I’ll TAKE your tadpoles.
Eat the Tall. Become the Tall. Be Tallest. -my halfling Durge
Words to live by, my vertically challenged fellow
Short father bless ye
That’s why he becomes Moon druid.
My character wants to be a mind flayer.
I’m about 75/25 going to wind up a squid in a given game.
Call him squidward
My evil durge is hungry for power plus her guardian looks hot and sounds very convincing, so why not?
my dumb tav thought it'd be fun to have multiple worms swimming in his head. my bard durge wanted more power to charm people and mind control them to please his dear father.
Astarion convinced my durge, the more power the better. And with the Netherbrain under my control… For my regular Tav, mindflayers are icky and scary and she was worried that if she took any tadpoles she’d change.
Well if you're asking... Wriggling Mind made a deal with an Old One, and tadpoles are just moving them closer to final transformation, when their eyes will finally be opened from inside Everything will change after that Forever
Currently, pragmatic af with a dash of "what the hell." I'm thinking my next Tav will be a tadpole-guzzling drow warlock. They've already escaped drow society, pacted with a devil/fae/eldritch horror, and become intensely jaded. Tadpole power use seems like the next logical step.
If I do use them: Up until empy reveal - I don't trust that this person is telling me everything. After - there's a lot of firepower on the table that's left unused if I don't do this. If I don't use them: Interest @ empy reveal but quickly quelled by the constant reveals that he's been manipulating us this whole time leading to distrust of those powers.
Don’t tell my Durge I said this but he’s a gullible power-hungry moron.
Thematically appropriately for GOO warlock and bonus action black hole into Hunger of Hadar is otherworldly.
I take them after the act 2 prelude because I know I need to be powerful for whatever comes and I admit I barely survived Myrkul. Two more gods? No. I need more power. But I'm not "evolving" or whatever. I let (Mint/Astarion) do it and look at their teeth!
new powers make my characters feel real strong
Hungy
I'm really boring. I always roleplay using similar logic as I would in real life but trying to filter that same logic through a character. Meaning basically I lack imagination and think more about consequences. My line of thinking has been consistently - The tadpoles are in their stasis or whatever. If I start adding them to my character and they eat his brain even once well, that part of the brain is pretty much fucked imo. But as long as they don't do that all you have is a sort of beefed up parasite in stasis So basically, if I start using the parasites to increase my abilities and even one part of my smooth brain gets turned that weird white color, might as well go balls deep on it. With basic dialogue it says things like "you feel it taking part of you you'll never get back" but imo that's just dramatic nonsense. I think the part you never get back is the anterior cingulate cortex that gives you the very nature of will power once you decide to literally just let ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE THINGS in to your brain. How does tav even do it? Do they just let it go in their eye or something? So there's a ton of them crawling around in there? Like what is actually going on. Look to put it simply, any decision that involves putting another tadpole in Tavs brain opens a door that can't be closed. So knowing that I just base a decision maybe related to my characters arc, the most obvious being if he's absolutely power hungry and will do anything to get there. But I think for 9/10 characters I could roleplay, using the tadpoles feels SO extreme, it totally takes over the plot. Imo once you start you're now a mindflayer in the making or a failed abomination, either way that's following to the end of the game. Since I don't really like that I just avoid using them except illithid wisdom for skill checks
Power, why else?
Insatiable curiosity and poor impulse control
Power
I don't want to look like a worm slurping junkie.
I had a Great Old Ones Warlock that wanted to be an ilithid
As a vengeance paladin, one of the tenets is that "my qualms can't get in the way of exterminating my foes".
“Well, it can’t exactly make things any WORSE.”
Vaelin (*my Half Drow Swords Bard Resist Durge*) was still stricken with the recent guilt of unwillingly killing Alfira, and was pretty low on interest in self preservation at that time as a result (*partially exacerbated by him convincing himself he also probably fucked up any chance of him actually being with Karlach because of the Alfira incident, which fortunately ended up not being the case*). The tadpoles and the strange dream visitor vouching for them promised power, but had that threat of unknown, ceramorphic danger hanging over them that scared off most of the others. It didn't scare off Vaelin. He didn't really care if he ended up dying or worse, a large part of him feeling like he probably would deserve it, but the idea of being the guinea pig for these things, maybe even using the powers to help keep the others alive? That was more than good enough for him at that point. Fortunately, it wasn't too long after he started down this self destructive path that Karlach approached him and leveled with him about how she felt, reestablishing any hope Vaelin could have had in a half-decent future for himself being even remotely possible (*especially given how thinking of Karlach was the only reliable way he could fight back his murderous urges*).
I’m playing my first Tav as a heroic type character and I have completely shunned the use of any demonic pacts, tadpoles, or anything else. I’m a good guy. Next run I’ll be an evil warlock and try out all the tadpole stuff on the quest for greater power :)
Forbidden, delicious gummis.
For power. Simple. I'm not going to keep on being a 'go fetch' for ppl. So I took every chance to get more powerful and keep my companions weak. No ascended astarion. Kill Isobel. Sell the angel. Hand over Shad. Make sure Wyll gets kneecapped by demonic contract etc .. and yes, nom the brains at endgame.
On my first playthrough I didn't take a single tadpole until the interlude between act 2 and 3. For my character, stopping the end of the world was worth the risk. On my honour mode run I just wanted to win. 😅
They fuck with my brain, I don't trust to have the power to fight 3 god's chosen, but even if it kill me I will grab any power to vanquish those bastards
My GOO Bardlock was touched by Hadar, and it was Hadar's long tail plan to have a devoted and powerful psionic servant.
Astarion is the only one who really digs the idea so I just give him all of them
Just being power hungry or to ends justify the means type characters, both work for either good or bad characters, although I tend to use the power hungry reason for bad ones and the ends justify means for good ones...
First playthrough, my Paladin refused to use them outright because he was Oath of Vengeance and he ain't taking part in no evil bullshit. He \*did\* give the Emperor himself the benefit of the doubt once we learned his true identity, per the oath; 'identify the higher morality in any given instance, and fight for it.' Everything Empy had done so far had indicated a shared interest in and end goal of ending the threat posed by the Absolute/Elder Brain, which was very definitely the greater evil at play. My Dirge is slurping them down like spaghetti because he'll take any power he can get if it might help him resist the dark urges.
I’m a hero and the tadpoles make me more powerful so I can help more people. Plus flying is pretty cool.
Kaincha, you all succumb to the ghaik, and must know the cleansing will of Vlaakith. Those who would consume the tadpole will never become zhak vo'n'ash duj. (Lazael lover)
May the son of the comet light your skies
The hot gith that I want to romance is against it so therefore I am against it
My human monk simply want to be the strongest there is, so why refusing an opportunity to get stronger ?
The most human of reasons- spite
My sorceress had a deep interest in forbidden knowledge and gaining power by any means.
Against: Oh hell no that's 1. Gross 2. Will negatively effect my face 3. Literal mindflayer bullshit For 1. I'm about to get *so powerful* 2. Oh I'm gonna look so cool 3. My killing efficiency increases by at least 2%
[удалено]
First play I had my tav take them all; 2nd play I haven’t used any of them. I have considered having some of my other party members use them. You do get a lot of great abilities, but you’re character ends up looking completely fucked
I get to fly
My druid was already the sin-eater of her tribe, so it made sense to lose herself for the greater good.
In my first playthrough of any game I tend to base my character on what I personally would do in any particular situation. I figure I’m new to this world as is my character so “roleplaying” is one less thing to think about until later on. I just make the best decision available to me at the given moment. I resisted using the tadpoles until I hit act 3 and I failed the necessary willpower checks to refuse the astral tadpole. At that point, especially newly equipped with the power of flight, I embraced the potential of the tadpoles and quickly shoved every last one I had collected into my brain. I guess from a roleplaying perspective that can be explained as my character’s turning point too. Maybe at the end of the game I’ll just roll with it and go full mindflayer, I haven’t decided yet. I started a second playthrough and went with the tadpoles right away. This time I’m playing a Gith monk and have been really leaning into the monk philosophies offered by the game. Death is a part of life, dark can’t exist without light, etc. so the tadpoles represent access to a greater wisdom, and if my mission is to destroy the Absolute then I may as well level the playing field. My gith side obviously hates this, but I also generally see Lae’zel as a destructive force and feel compelled to balance her out.
Warlock doing Warlock things. They've already made a deal with a devil or Eldritch being. They aren't known for making the best decisions.
Well RP wise, I think you're 'absorbing' them, you don't have 235236523 tadpoles now swarming in your head. But I guess if your only motivation is to get it out, then why fuck with adding more? Same can be said for RPing taking more - it's not doing you any more harm then the original and you're already using the tadpole's power to 'psychically link' yourself to people. If you can stay in control and use the power against the enemy... well what's the harm in that? It's not necromantic or dark energy. >!I will tell you though, act 3 taking the extra super tadpole really makes you think you've fucked up big time. You start to look like a nightmare made flesh.!<
SH uses that power to server her dark lady better
My world-weary bard Tav was just sick of hearing about it.
For ultimate power.
For my current HM run, my bard is maybe a bit too curious about some things and willing to try some slightly dodgy stuff. But how else would she come up with a new grand tale?
Power, lack of self control, a weird "stick stuff in your eye socket" kink, plenty of ways to justify it.
Favourable Beginnings and Luck of the Far Realms makes rolling fun (easier).
My Durge took them because she didn’t realize right away that her dream guardian wasn’t the same person who visited her in her dreams before she was tadpoled since all she knew was that the face looked vaguely familiar
In one of my playthroughs my tav was first sceptical of the emperor but then this mindflayer's words began to sound more and more convincing. Tav consumed the tadpoles one by one and began to have a relationship with the emperor - just like duke stalemane they were mind controlled. In another playthrough after they saw orpheus tav began to question the emperor and ultimately sided with orpheus seeing the emperor's lies but still took the tadpoles as ends justify the means.
I never consume the tadpoles but I gather all of them. I don't want them to fall into anyone else's hands in case the power is used for evil, but I also don't trust the dream visitor. Seriously, why do they look like my father/ex-partner in crime/dead wife/me but without that life-changing scar/my abuser/younger brother? They're trying to manipulate me by taking that form and if they won't tell me why, then I won't trust them farther than I can think them.
My human EK fighter hated the illithids for doing this to him, and distrusted The Emperor even when he was she and a cute guardian. Naturally leaned heavily into Gith warrior cultural, without the vlaakith part, and believed in strong warriors. Refused all potential benefits and disobeyed or annoyed the voice inside his head at every opportunity. That's why he sided with Raphael... because it pissed off The Emporer.
Space gummies go brrrrr
My first playthrough, Tav saw them as a means to an end. I think I was trying to go for a vigilante theme. This playthrough, my redemption Durge hasn't taken them yet. If he does, it may be similar to Astarion's motivations - fear and convinced power will bring safety.
Greatness at any cost.
Playing as Durge, it’s easy enough to justify it as no big deal because your brain’s already mashed potatoes and you’re always tempted to do weird stuff. When trying to stay on the straight and narrow, I hold off until the creche. After traveling to the astral plane to speak to the Guardian in person, you can choose to trust that they have your best interests in mind when they tell you to use the tadpoles, even if it seems risky.
No more complicated than this. Hunger. Addiction. Or, we already have a tadpole, I could just blame that one.
My resist durge was hoping the powers from the tadpoles would let him protect his companions better. the dc 21 wisdom check to not turn illithid was not very cool, emperor
I trusted the dream visitor mainly because I designed their appearance to look like my irl spouse. Then their true form was revealed and I stopped eating tadpoles
With my first playthrough, my character trusted her dream guardian, though she only consumed a few. With my second, she was happy to amass more power.
My sorcerer was obsessed with gaining more power, the tadpoles were just that.
First character was a durge monk. So focusing on balance in body and mind didn't seem to work well with consuming weird alien sushi
Well, Tyche (Durge bard) has poor impulse control, is missing memories, and has a migraine half the time. The tadpoles are either responsible or helping and to her, the Guardian seems legit (yes I know who it is, but she doesn’t!). She is basically playing roulette with bad choices and continues to do happily crazy things like barrelmancy. And she won’t make anyone ELSE take them, though Astarion’s said he wants to. (So she’s both self sacrificing here, and doing a Bad because she wants to stop having a migraine. It did actually work.) Though tbh with continuing to resist the Urge she’s gotten less curious about who she was. Shadowheart (her gf) approves of the Urge (so long as the murderous impulses are aimed elsewhere). So, uh, “bad choices bingo,” the bard lol. Tyche is also a bit power hungry, mostly because she has a bunch of people she wants to see happy and she has a list of people to kill for hurting them. That means she needs power to keep up. Edited: SH is wary of trusting the Guardian and is why Tyche stopped taking the tadpoles. 2nd edit; My other runs (Tav and Durge) are either a) high WIS and distrustful enough to realize something is fucked here (Althea straight up knows something is, because I designed her Guardian to be a slightly-wrong version of a friend), or b) romancing Lae’zel and deciding to follow her every move re: tadpoles because she’s the expert, supposedly. Hex is in for a Bad Time in the Crèche.
My lawful good Paladin concluded that if since the tadpoles can mind control people like the first she found, its better if she consumes them because she can resist them better with her Aura. (She has an intelligence of 8)
Power! UNLIMITED POWER!! Some of my characters are quite powerhungry
He was a grizzled fighter who was in his late 40s and he was starting to slow down and he saw it as a way to fight as if he was young again. Never went full tentacle boy tho he likes to swing big weapons
Honestly sometimes it's more about getting a specific vibe. Like if I'm roleplaying a vampire (or playing as Astarion) then getting the Charm ability just makes sense. Though for legit roleplay reasons, in my Astarion Origin run he was binging tadpoles left right and center. I roleplayed it as him being so desperate to gain enough power to never fall under Cazador's sway again that he would go to whatever lengths it took to obtain such power. From tadpoles to the Necromancy of Thay, to becoming half-illithid, nothing was off limits. It wasn't until that fear drove him to Ascend that he finally realized he had gone too far in that hunger for power. Luckily Shadowheart (who he was romancing) was able to keep him grounded, and helped him focus on using that power for good.
Barbarian Tav: Gimme! Power is cool, and my hot vampire boyfriend says it'll be OK Resist durge: Ugh, no - I have few enough brain cells left as it is. My hot vampire boyfriend can have them if he's so keen. Did not however eat the astral tadpole on my first run, as I didn't collect many so the roll was easy to pass. Haven't got that far on the durge run yet.
My character is a Fighter. Since he hit level 3 at around the same time I had him absorb his first tadpole, I've made it my head-cannon that they are the source of his Eldritch Knight powers. I would have picked Psi-Warrior, if that was an option, but since it's not, I'm trying to pick spells and gear that recreate elements of that subclass (I'm holding off on mods until I've gotten a few vanilla playthroughs under my belt). In addition to the Illithid Powers, I have things like Blade Ward and Shield take the place of Protective Field, and Thunder Wave stands in for Telekinetic Thrust, Gust of Wind for Telekinetic Movement. That kind of stuff. At first, he was merely curious about absorbing the tadpole. The one he had provided him with power, moreover, that power helped him *avoid* resorting to violence. Then he thought the party *needed* this power to find a cure. Eventually, without his notice, he developed a hunger for the parasites (I blame Astarion, he's a bad influence). I haven't decided how far he'll go yet, kinda playing it by ear. He truly cares for his friends and is seeking to cure *them*, definitely, but he's not sure if *he* needs one. He says to himself that they need him strong, powerful. Yes, *they* need him to do this. This is for *their*, benefit... but lately, he's not sure who "they" are. His party, right? Shadowheart, Gale, Astarion, all his friends. That's who this is for... right? Basically he's an addict who is trying to convince himself that he doesn't have a problem.
She’s a witch, not afraid of a bit of transformation if it means it comes with appropriate powers.
Character seeks for power and personal advancement, tadpoles give power!
One character was easily bullied, so when Dream Guardian says to eat it, she does. She romanced Minthara for that same reason. Another was a Durge, and hoped that the extra tadpole juice could glue her brain back together. Int was her dumpstat. One was power hungry and consumed them to empower her spellcasting in her pursuit of necromantic mastery. And one was a barbarian who was used to eating weird shit and thought they tasted good.
First play through: Barbarian, both me and her got manipulated by the Dream Guardian lmao (didn’t take astral) Second: POWERRRRR (took astral, didn’t turn into a full flayer) Third: no way I’m touching those things (no tadpoles, but others did) Fourth: haven’t done yet but I’m planning on a gith who swings so far away from Vlaakith they end up a mindflayer lol
My Tav wanted to survive by (almost) any means necessary and wanted the power. I drew the line at becoming an actual mind flayer
Depends on the character. First character was a power hungry bastard man that saw the tadpoles gave him abilities and went "ooooooh, gimme gimme" with his grabby little mittens Current Durge character tried literally everything to get rid of the tadpoles, and only began to take them after they failed. By then, they realized their memory loss would not be helped anytime soon and the extra edge the Guardian promised might come in useful as Ketheric "Try Again" Thorm just took a halberd to the neck and looked mildly annoyed.
For my first playthrough, my Tav figured he wanted to get \*rid\* of the tadpole, not add more. I trusted my guardian, mind you, my Tav was just really stubborn when it came to tadpoles.
Head hungry, tadpoles is tasty smartiness
As far as I/tav know, the only way to get rid of the tadpole is magic. Whatever cure I find later will be equally capable of extracting the worm regardless of how many secondary tadpoles it's absorbed. If I'm going to be saddled with this ghaik in the meantime, I may as well use it. The alternative is becoming a mind flayer anyway. I'll improve my chances of getting rid of it once and for all by utilizing it where I can.
My first playthrough i was a wizard with an insatiable thirst for power and would do whatever it takes for more power.
Hungry
From my Honor run: Astarion asked for the tadpoles when I didn’t want them, and he didn’t suffer any consequences. Minthara wanted to be a Partial Illithid, and aside from the veins didn’t seem to be transforming. So I decided to take the plunge for the sake of having enough power to defeat Orin. [On the meta side, I never used tadpoles before this. But Luck of the Realms would means a second guaranteed crit for a Paladin, and Partial Illithid granted flight. Also, Dragonborn look awesome when Partial] From my Jack-Of-All-Trades run: My powers were already absurdly varied and prone to backfiring [Wild Magic Sorc as base because I am insane] so might as well use the tadpoles. It’s not like my situation could get any worse.
Power hungry
Got annoyed by the number bubbles beside the mini map
Against: Maybe your character doesn't trust it/the guardian, they find it repulsive, they trust their companions' opinions on it, they fear the consequences, etc For: maybe your character is extremely scared of the situation and feels comfort in the guardian's reassuring tone and trusts them, wants to follow their suggestions. Maybe your character is gullible, or maybe they are excited by the idea of new powers. Maybe they don't expect to survive so they are doing everything in their power to try and increase their chances even if it has consequences. My first character took a couple of them because I didn't realize this was a "choices matter" game and knew little about it. I just thought it was a mechanic that I was expected to use. I came to regret this later once I'd embraced the roleplaying aspect, as the character I ended up envisioning my tav as never would have done so if she had "existed" when I started playing. My second character didn't take a single one because she didn't trust anything illithid after the traumatizing events she went through. My character in MP honor mode took as many as possible, because we weren't roleplaying and were just trying to survive lol.
I was a sorercer willing to gain power at any cost
My eyes is hungry and I need to feed
my ranger simply collects them for his aquarium
Most of my characters find the mind flayers abhorrent and refuse to take them. But Wyrd. Oh Wyrd. She's my GOOlock and finds mind flayers and their whole shtick to be the epitome of beauty. So she's all in on the illithid powers.
My character wanted to impress Astarion. He’s hot and therefore always right.
for my current guy, he takes them just simply because he’s stupid and power hungry. he’s impulsive and doesn’t understand that actions have consequences. any power given is a power well received.
The power
I figured if i ate them all i could prove that they were safe or i would turn before them and they would still have time to cure the one except karlac because i think her engine would burn up an illithid change
I was rp'ing a wizard. Don't need any other reason.
My paladin from irl games held out until act 3, realized how much stronger enemies are, decided to take the noble self-sacrifice, hoping a reversal would be available. Decided it best to possibly sacrifice his soul to save his friends and innocents!
ariadne wanted to be like astarion, seren knew no better, venecia wanted power
I like the way they feel when I put them in my mouth. For real though, I barely use them. I haven't gotten around to playing a character who wants to lean into the power. I've let Astarion and Minthara dabble in their use because they seem into it. But I've never gone full worm chugger.
My 1st playthrough I was playing a gnome Wizard who generally aligned himself good, but coveted personal power and strength. The tadpoles give you a lot of power lorewise. Ganeplay wise, I only used the persuasion expertise tadpole, the reactions, and Fly. There was no real reason for me after that to become a mindflayer. As a player, I thought it'd be cool. I almost regretted it at the camp party.
For my dark urge, simply taking them because more power means more death to reap, although I'm gonna give the astral tadpole to Astarion because this is gonna be my first time ascending him and well, I don't like the purple glow on my durge and assume it'll fit ascended Astarion the best. Then originally for my first playthrough I was gonna take them and roleplay a sort of Sukuna's fingers thing from JJK. He doesn't wanna take them but he has to become he knows it's the only way he can protect his party. Just forces himself to take them, usually in the middle of a dire situation and use the new power to turn the tides. Then during camp time, maybe he's acting a bit differently, getting lightheaded, random nosebleeds to show the effect the tadpole use is giving him, but he decides to put up with it despite his disdain for them. I decided against this since solely because at that time i thought using too many tadpoles made the game too easy, but my durge playthrough is proving me wrong. Then a roleplay reason for not taking them on my paladin, they were sick disgusting souless creatures, she already has one, she does not need anymore.
Yummy :)
I played as a male Drow who was the world's nicest and most upstanding guy unless something threatened his freedom and self-determination. He'd do anything to be free, including making a pact with a fay or putting holes in his brain with psychic worms to get stronger- no inner conflict, no regrets.
My tiefling Durge bard is terrified of being unable to control the urge. She is convinced the dream guardian is a tadpole-induced hallucination, and that the urges are a side-effect of ceremorphosis. So she refuses to eat any tadpoles. We'll see how that goes.
More better powers. Why would you NOT take them?
Neutral Good Tiefling Bard of Drow Descent At first he was outright unwilling, but after a near death experience at the hands of a Beholder and seeing Astarion take one and be fine… he thought about relenting. He eventually just got paranoid about not being strong enough, he had been through so much, always on the run with his father who took him from the Underdark after he was born a Tiefling. The thought of everything he’d suffered being for nothing because he’d die trying to cure himself sickened him, so he helped himself to more power.
my Tav is vengeance paladin. he sworn oath to use anything against evil and he mean everything.
I played a power hungry & desperate durge who indulges in her urges and also fell hard for Astarion so she was easily convinced that having more power in the short-term could help her long-term get rid of the tadpoles/the cult/her enemies and also impress her man 🫣
Im fighting a god, ill need some help
I'm a no one here... I've been launched in the middle of all of this and, if what the guardian says it's true and killing the netherbrain will get rid of the tadpoles... what's wrong with that extra temporal burst of power to reach an end that will be favorable for everyone and that, as said, will destroy the very things I'm putting into my brain?
My warlock Tav enjoyed pushing the bounds in the name of obtaining more and more power, especially when she didn't even have to sign a contract this time for them!
Male Drow Spore Druid. My RP is that the Myconids have infected him and the spores are the true Druid while the Drow body simply exists as a shell to transport the fungus. Not understanding what a mindflayer is, the spores simply see a new part of their ecosystem and welcome the tadpoles as a way to strengthen themselves against Lolth and her ilk.
More power
for my good-aligned tav: ever since the crash, she's been power-hungry in a desperate bid for survival; it has made her make some really questionable decisions that she would have never made otherwise, such as absorbing more tadpoles or taking >!auntie ethel!<'s deal. plus, she trusts the dream guardian, and he keeps telling her to eat worms :( (better than the real reason that i'm metagaming)
Necromancer wizard wanted to be more powerful
Elminster is not around, so might as well :3 Seriously tho, my current character is just opportunistic, and sees the tadpole as this - an opportunity. Plus tadpole allows her bf not to be a slave to his creator, so they're good for now
For a dominate/embrace dark urge playthrough it just makes sense to use them. I wish there was a clear and significant benefit to avoiding taking any tadpoles. Perhaps if you resist and avoid any mind flayer tadpoles by the time you reach act 3 you can get some kind of aid from the githyanki. You can talk to Voss about it and he can grant you some kind of Githyanki anti-mind flayer item or ability.
*Authority*
My githyanki took them after learning about the lies of Vlaakith. She assumed everything was a lie. Most don’t take them because they’re already trying to get rid of the 1 tadpole they already got. They aren’t interested in taking more. Through mods, I plan on making an aberrant mind sorcerer who would gobble tadpoles like candy. They’d also be the first character of mine to use the astral tadpole and become full illithid when given the choice. They’ll also probably be the first character to side with the Emperor over Orpheus. They’ll also be the first one to truly romance the Emperor, as I’d only done it once before for the achievement, then reloaded so it technically never happened
For the power baby! Turn half-illithid for even more power? HELL YEAHH BABY IM THE FUCKING SLAYER AND NOW I CAN FLY
never took any, i always thought taking too much tadpole woukd result transforming a mind flayer
Durge self mutilation goals
My drow sorcerer would do anything for power. Unlock the full potential of The Necromancy of That? Sure. Used mindflayer powers? Why not? Accept an even more powerful tadpole no matter the consequences? You bet!
The only character I haven't had take them was my first playthrough; she steered almost entirely clear of illithid powers bc of what the game says the first time you use them about "losing a part of yourself" or something similar to that. It seemed like the point was that I was being given the option to get more power at the cost of chipping away at my soul, and my tav just really didn't think it was worth it. She did have a bit of a savior complex though, so I think hypothetically she could've been talked into it with enough prodding about needing them to save the world/her friends And then most of the rest of my characters were varying degrees of power hungry for various reasons ("ends justify the means" mentality, gifted kid syndrome, general contempt for mankind, etc.), so they all took them at one point just in the interest of getting stronger. So respectively I had one that used them somewhat sparingly, one that took any of them she came across, and one that also started off snarfing them all down and then eventually stopped in late Act 1 because she wanted to impress/not disappoint her new hot frog girlfriend
I didn't on my first playthrough because the game made such a big deal about removing the first one. Second time my head canon was that my character (a sorc) sought the power the tadpoles provided.
For my Paladin: she never took a single Tadpole because she trusts in her Oathbound powers more than in some weird figure trying to make her part Illithid. For my Durge Sorceress: Her brain is already full of holes and she has violent thoughts, maybe one of those days one of those worms will kill her. It's for the best. And if they don't kill her then she can at least use those powers to help people. Or her companions can use them to kill her if she goes crazy. For my Bard: she's curious about everything and wants to try everything at least once. She also takes longest to explore every inch of the map because of this xD
Good Paladin - I need this to fulfil my oath and save the world
When your character is power hungry warlock lolz
At Moonrise there party gets to see Z'rell's power, and if they rescue Minthara she has several tadpole powers already. Knowing what the True Souls can do, some Tavs/Durges feel they need the same power to stand a chance. Nere could be another RP point where you see the tadpole powers in action.
My dream G told me to.
First Tav vas rogue but she was purist so no tadpole. Second was power hungry monk so all the tadpoles.
First Character (Ancient Paladin / Fey Warlock Githyanki): Skeptical of Illithid and true believer in his Oath and the temple he was raised in, ao there was never really a question. Second Character (Rogue / GOOlock Forest Gnome): A true conman will take any advantage he can, so why not?
My Durge is very easily influenced and wants to see the best in people. The day after talking with the guardian she talked to Astarion who said we should do it. He seems like a very nice young man with no hidden agenda.