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?

[UnholyDentist]

Wraith a écrit :

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....

Alone on a ship, crew dead, decides to approach highly populated hostile area directly head on, collects specimen and during chase with 3-4 dragons focuses on implantation of tadpoles instead of getting away alive.

[The Infinity Sock]

UnholyDentist a écrit :

Wraith a écrit :

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....

Alone on a ship, crew dead, decides to approach highly populated hostile area directly head on, collects specimen and during chase with 3-4 dragons focuses on implantation of tadpoles instead of getting away alive.

Well Illithids are on the weird side there do not think the same way as a Human

[AsianGirlLover]

UnholyDentist a écrit :

Alone on a ship, crew dead, decides to approach highly populated hostile area directly head on, collects specimen and during chase with 3-4 dragons focuses on implantation of tadpoles instead of getting away alive.

Heck, I didn’t think about it that way...

Wait, don’t tell me that this is some sort of big plot twist where Mr. Cthulhu Man is the good guy and those dragon riders are the people that’ll be the main antagonists....

Oh man, this is going to be a fun story to go through - I bet we’ll have to decide for ourselves who we trust.

[The Infinity Sock]

AsianGirlLover a écrit :

UnholyDentist a écrit :

Alone on a ship, crew dead, decides to approach highly populated hostile area directly head on, collects specimen and during chase with 3-4 dragons focuses on implantation of tadpoles instead of getting away alive.

Heck, I didn’t think about it that way...

Wait, don’t tell me that this is some sort of big plot twist where Mr. Cthulhu Man is the good guy and those dragon riders are the people that’ll be the main antagonists....

Oh man, this is going to be a fun story to go through - I bet we’ll have to decide for ourselves who we trust.

When it comes down Illithid and the Githyanki there are both bad guys Illithids are only a little bit worse than the Githyanki the Githyanki ended up becoming what there hated the most do to being slaves of the Illithids

[AdahnGorion]

The Infinity Sock a écrit :

AsianGirlLover a écrit :

Heck, I didn’t think about it that way...

Wait, don’t tell me that this is some sort of big plot twist where Mr. Cthulhu Man is the good guy and those dragon riders are the people that’ll be the main antagonists....

Oh man, this is going to be a fun story to go through - I bet we’ll have to decide for ourselves who we trust.

When it comes down Illithid and the Githyanki there are both bad guys Illithids are only a little bit worse than the Githyanki the Githyanki ended up becoming what there hated the most do to being slaves of the Illithids

If the Gith united, they would take over the known universe.

[UnholyDentist]

AsianGirlLover a écrit :

UnholyDentist a écrit :

Alone on a ship, crew dead, decides to approach highly populated hostile area directly head on, collects specimen and during chase with 3-4 dragons focuses on implantation of tadpoles instead of getting away alive.

Heck, I didn’t think about it that way...

Wait, don’t tell me that this is some sort of big plot twist where Mr. Cthulhu Man is the good guy and those dragon riders are the people that’ll be the main antagonists....

Oh man, this is going to be a fun story to go through - I bet we’ll have to decide for ourselves who we trust.

I doubt they are good guys, we can see they are taking on civilians to transform them, there is definitely something behind those events, and the story will probably slowly explain.

[The Infinity Sock]

Darkie a écrit :

The Infinity Sock a écrit :

When it comes down Illithid and the Githyanki there are both bad guys Illithids are only a little bit worse than the Githyanki the Githyanki ended up becoming what there hated the most do to being slaves of the Illithids

If the Gith united, they would take over the known universe.

There would but the Githyanki let there hated of the Illithid get the better of them the Githzerai want to rebuild what they lost just to add Gith was the leader of the Githyanki and the leader of the Githzerai was Zerthimon but was killed by Gith this is why both of them are at war

[AdahnGorion]

The Infinity Sock a écrit :

Darkie a écrit :

If the Gith united, they would take over the known universe.

There would but the Githyanki let there hated of the Illithid get the better of them the Githzerai want to rebuild what they lost just to add Gith was the leader of the Githyanki and the leader of the Githzerai was Zerthimon but was killed by Gith this is why both of them are at war

I know. My point is if they came together (if they were not split) or found (not likely) common ground in the future, they would have the goal to invade and take over the known universe.

[The Infinity Sock]

Darkie a écrit :

The Infinity Sock a écrit :

There would but the Githyanki let there hated of the Illithid get the better of them the Githzerai want to rebuild what they lost just to add Gith was the leader of the Githyanki and the leader of the Githzerai was Zerthimon but was killed by Gith this is why both of them are at war

I know. My point is if they came together (if they were not split) or found (not likely) common ground in the future, they would have the goal to invade and take over the known universe.

I do agree with you all i was pointing was why it will not happen anytime soon if it ever does happen

[Space Dog]

zero a écrit :

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.

A tadpole skill tree? Jeez.

The tadpoles eat the victims brains in a matter of hours and become the new mind flayer brain. The rest of the body takes more time to transform. But the Illithid tadpoles do irreversible damage very quickly.

The only way I could see them doing anything else, is if the player becomes a willing agent for the Mind Flayers and the tadpole doesn't eat. An evil path, essentially. But how interesting would it really be to play an Illithid slave if they basically have you at gun point 24/7.

Worst case scenario is that they are using the whole concept as an excuse to give the players cool powers for fun gameplay that they felt were lacking in D&D. Like those spiderman jumps we saw.

[zero]

Space Dog a écrit :

zero a écrit :

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.

A tadpole skill tree? Jeez.

The tadpoles eat the victims brains in a matter of hours and become the new mind flayer brain. The rest of the body takes more time to transform. But the Illithid tadpoles do irreversible damage very quickly.

The only way I could see them doing anything else, is if the player becomes a willing agent for the Mind Flayers and the tadpole doesn't eat. An evil path, essentially. But how interesting would it really be to play an Illithid slave if they basically have you at gun point 24/7.

Worst case scenario is that they are using the whole concept as an excuse to give the players cool powers for fun gameplay that they felt were lacking in D&D. Like those spiderman jumps we saw.

as people said on the first page, its not a fully fledged tadpole, that entered through the wrong location, amongst other things, there is stuff being done in the wrong way which the flayer would have known. along with that: in the reveal, we are shown to have powers we normally do not get by RAW, specifically, reading other's (mind? emotions?), so clearly the story revolves around these powers to start with, so i doubt its willingly becoming one, but rather manipulation of an imperfect one by someone with more information.

[The Infinity Sock]

zero a écrit :

Space Dog a écrit :

A tadpole skill tree? Jeez.

The tadpoles eat the victims brains in a matter of hours and become the new mind flayer brain. The rest of the body takes more time to transform. But the Illithid tadpoles do irreversible damage very quickly.

The only way I could see them doing anything else, is if the player becomes a willing agent for the Mind Flayers and the tadpole doesn't eat. An evil path, essentially. But how interesting would it really be to play an Illithid slave if they basically have you at gun point 24/7.

Worst case scenario is that they are using the whole concept as an excuse to give the players cool powers for fun gameplay that they felt were lacking in D&D. Like those spiderman jumps we saw.

as people said on the first page, its not a fully fledged tadpole, that entered through the wrong location, amongst other things, there is stuff being done in the wrong way which the flayer would have known. along with that: in the reveal, we are shown to have powers we normally do not get by RAW, specifically, reading other's (mind? emotions?), so clearly the story revolves around these powers to start with, so i doubt its willingly becoming one, but rather manipulation of an imperfect one by someone with more information.

I hope it goes down the same line as venom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NeZ09Y5Oeg

[Gareque]

𝔇𝖆𝖗𝖌𝖔𝖓 a écrit :

If this is the case, then a botched process can lead to half illithids.

Might have changed, although I'm pretty sure Volo's says the same thing, but:

It's not botched injections that cause half-illithids, it's the host.

Humans = pureblooded Illithids. Anything else, if compatible at all, produce a half-Illithid. I'll be interested to see if this is taken into account in-game, it would be a nice touch, but would need different things programmed for humans.