On Ceremorphosis

[AsianGirlLover]

So we know from the pre-alpha gameplay demo that the game’s story will predominately revolve around your character and party being forcefully injected with an Illithid tadpole.

While we don’t know know how long the gestation period takes to complete - it varies person to person - the effects ultimately irreversibly change the host into an Illithid after the brain has been fully transformed.

So... knowing this, how do you think Larian will take total playtime into effect upon reaching the point in the story where you finally have the opportunity to consult a healer and potentially remove the tadpole? Will we even be able to reverse the damage? Will enough of our humanity remain to even make an objective decision on the matter? How will we truly know our decision is OUR decision and not the tadpole’s?

I’m assuming it’s all going to get chalked up to a die roll, but it’s still cool to think about.

Bonus tidpit: Illithid tadpoles prefer live meat, so what does that mean for our undead player characters? Will we reap all of the benefit without any of the negative consequences?

[The Infinity Sock]

Originally posted by Dargon:

Someone here was analyzing the opening cinematic and realized that the tadpoles are much smaller than what is described in text and that the insertion method is usually through the ear or nose. Couple that with the fact that those with a tadpole usually loose conciousness within the hour. They came to the conclusion that the process was botched/rushed for an as of now unknown reason.

If this is the case, then a botched process can lead to half illithids. I imagine this is where its going to take us. Slowly gaining illithid like abilities without going full transformation.

I was also thinking the same thing

[Indure]

During the demo he mentioned that the tadpoles give benefits to the player like the vampire being able to walk in daylight and the higher than normal ability to jump. I would bet a decent chunk of the story will revolve around whether or not the player and some of his companions want to remove them.

[NightfallRob]

My suspicion is that there will be a story element that allows them to lengthen the tale. Whether that will be due to a rushed/botched process, somebody being a descendant of a Bhaalspawn (and thus possessing some form of divine immunity), or some other idea I don't know. But it seems like a given that it will be there.

[The Infinity Sock]

One of the things i would like to now is will we have unique dialog if we play as the great old one warlock with the tadpole i mean Illithids do have there own personality and being a great old one warlock you could talk telepathically with the tadpole

[AsianGirlLover]

Originally posted by NightfallRob:

My suspicion is that there will be a story element that allows them to lengthen the tale. Whether that will be due to a rushed/botched process, somebody being a descendant of a Bhaalspawn (and thus possessing some form of divine immunity), or some other idea I don't know. But it seems like a given that it will be there.

Would you mind giving a bit more insight into what a Bhaalspawn is and what that could entail regarding whether or not the tadpole continues to provide benefits to the host?

I mean, my whole confusion comes from the purpose of the tadpole in general. It’s presumably an intelligent being, so why would it bother providing any benefits to a host it can’t successfully infect? There’s no benefit to the creature besides simply being a defense mechanism.

[The Infinity Sock]

Originally posted by AsianGirlLover:

Originally posted by NightfallRob:

My suspicion is that there will be a story element that allows them to lengthen the tale. Whether that will be due to a rushed/botched process, somebody being a descendant of a Bhaalspawn (and thus possessing some form of divine immunity), or some other idea I don't know. But it seems like a given that it will be there.

Would you mind giving a bit more insight into what a Bhaalspawn is and what that could entail regarding whether or not the tadpole continues to provide benefits to the host?

I mean, my whole confusion comes from the purpose of the tadpole in general. It’s presumably an intelligent being, so why would it bother providing any benefits to a host it can’t successfully infect? There’s no benefit to the creature besides simply being a defense mechanism.

Well even if it is a botched tadpole the last thing the tadpole would want is for the host to die if the host dies the tadpole also dies

[Gin-chan]

Originally posted by AsianGirlLover:

Would you mind giving a bit more insight into what a Bhaalspawn is and what that could entail regarding whether or not the tadpole continues to provide benefits to the host?

Bhaalspawns are essentially mortal childrens of Bhaal the God of murder. THey were many of them of MANY different races (Bhaal really were not picky with what he would do it with lol ) during the events of BG 1 and 2. All of them are partly divine thanks to who their father was and some can manifests unique special powers thanks to their heritage and eventually of course by kiling of the other bhaalspawns and absorbing their essence becoming Bhaal himself.For example the main character of BG1 and 2 early on can and will developed some minor magical abilities despite not being a magic user and by BG 2 he can Transform into an Avatar of the God of Murder himself any time he wants with the downside of going berserk and losing party reputation iirc . All Bhaalspawns are tempted by bloodlust and murder but their personalities varies widely and can range the spectrum of the alignment of evil to good .

Imo i don't think there will be another bhaalspawn as that story has effectively concluded by Throne of Bhaal.

Granted i think a Bhaalspawn in Slayer/Ravager form could easily just ignore the tadpole or outright just benefit from it thansk to those form and even making those forms safer to use without losing control of the power and going berserk on the party.

[zero]

they talked about some kind of advancement tree for the mindflayer powers did they not? if i remember that correctly anyway, that would imply that we will find a way to manage the tadpole to make sure it doesn't murder us fairly early on, and find ways to abuse it to gain strength.

[UnholyDentist]

Originally posted by zero:

they talked about some kind of advancement tree for the mindflayer powers did they not? if i remember that correctly anyway, that would imply that we will find a way to manage the tadpole to make sure it doesn't murder us fairly early on, and find ways to abuse it to gain strength.

That actually sounds very interesting, find ways to control the process to keep the body but gain the powers.

[marv]

Either they find enough ways to mutate it or the tadpole was always defective and after enough false hopes it turns out your tadpole doesn't erase your personality/character's free will. and you're the squids prophesied/feared Adversary. Doesn't mean you're anywhere near good if the latter is the plot, just that you're their paranoia made manifest that some mutant illithid would enslave/destroy their kind.

[The Infinity Sock]

Originally posted by marv:

Either they find enough ways to mutate it or the tadpole was always defective and after enough false hopes it turns out your tadpole doesn't erase your personality/character's free will. and you're the squids prophesied/feared Adversary. Doesn't mean you're anywhere near good if the latter is the plot, just that you're their paranoia made manifest that some mutant illithid would enslave/destroy their kind.

Still i can see this working well for a great old one warlock

[Wraith]

I would say that the reason the tadpole are different is because of the very Mind Flayer that infected you.
It could have possible that the one that infected you also killed the other mindflayers on that spelljammer to begin with.

[The Infinity Sock]

Originally posted by Wraith:

I would say that the reason the tadpole are different is because of the very Mind Flayer that infected you.
It could have possible that the one that infected you also killed the other mindflayers on that spelljammer to begin with.

Well there did say the tadpoles are special

[UnholyDentist]

Originally posted by Wraith:

I would say that the reason the tadpole are different is because of the very Mind Flayer that infected you.
It could have possible that the one that infected you also killed the other mindflayers on that spelljammer to begin with.

Hmm yes, the spelljammer ship seemed to be in a hurry to invade a populated human city alone with the the rest of the crew dead, they might have been desperate to get a few specimen.

[Wraith]

He didn't really look like he was in a hurry to be honest.

He was just cruising and picking up victims at his own pace (if your in a hurry you wouldn't really need to worry about getting a full cargo).

Now when the Githyanki appeared however....