[Spoilers] How do I avoid turning half-????

[Migel]

Hey, so I'm at the end of Act 2 now, entering the Astral Prism, defeating the honor guard and meeting the Emperor in his true form. He urges me to become half illithid, something I don't want and something I don't think would fit my character. However the only option to stop me is a 21 difficulty wisdom check, something my fighter character absolutely isn't built for. And something I haven't been able to roll after half an hour of savescumming.

Is there any other way to avoid becoming half-illithid without absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ up the storyline?

[Simon McAllister]

Evolving any powers using tadpoles will cause you to have to do the Wisdom DC21 roll to resist. Saying that your mind is being fractured by the power. One side resist where the other wants the power.

[Detective Costeau]

Everyone keeps saying using the tadpoles makes you do a wisdom save, but I swear I've had a character with a head completely stuffed with tadpoles get through this without a save.
You have to consistently just say 'no, I do not want to become an illithid' without asking questions about or examining the Astral Tadpole, if memory serves.
Am I completely crazy and misremembering something? I could swear that's what I did in my most recent game, and I started that one after the most recent update.

[Simon McAllister]

Originally posted by Detective Costeau:

Everyone keeps saying using the tadpoles makes you do a wisdom save, but I swear I've had a character with a head completely stuffed with tadpoles get through this without a save.
You have to consistently just say 'no, I do not want to become an illithid' without asking questions about or examining the Astral Tadpole, if memory serves.
Am I completely crazy and misremembering something? I could swear that's what I did in my most recent game, and I started that one after the most recent update.

It does require a Wisdom 21 saving throw to resist becoming half illithid. It is triggered by using tadpoles to evolve powers. A easy way around it is to not use tadpoles until after that point. Cause that is the only point the "guardian" tries to force you to do it. The cutscene after he only tries to encourage you to change your mind about it no roll required. The only times I have not had to do that roll is not to use a single tadpole.

[alanc9]

Originally posted by Detective Costeau:

Everyone keeps saying using the tadpoles makes you do a wisdom save, but I swear I've had a character with a head completely stuffed with tadpoles get through this without a save.
You have to consistently just say 'no, I do not want to become an illithid' without asking questions about or examining the Astral Tadpole, if memory serves.
Am I completely crazy and misremembering something? I could swear that's what I did in my most recent game, and I started that one after the most recent update.

I was able to put this to a quick test thanks to a fortunate save, and it doesn't seem to be true. My PC only had a few powers, although he did use Favourable Beginnings and Luck of the Far Realms quite a bit. He still got the Wisdom check despite following that dialogue path.

[harken23]

Cull the Weak is pretty nasty, esp if that character does AofE damage.

[Simon McAllister]

Originally posted by harken23:

Cull the Weak is pretty nasty, esp if that character does AofE damage.

Sure is. As a tempest Cleric I had pre placed a large surface of water than struck it with lightning, it was the battle in the mindflayer colony with a dreadlord reviving corpses and each time it did that they walked into the surface to be electricuted. Turn after they would trigger Cull the Weak. Looked like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ bug zapper.

[Lightseeker]

well then sounds like your option is to respec into a class that can pass the wisdom check or to use items and spells from ur party to boost your saving throws
such as , bardic inspiration resistance guidance , amulet of the harpers...etc

[Simon McAllister]

Originally posted by eneaom7:

well then sounds like your option is to respec into a class that can pass the wisdom check or to use items and spells from ur party to boost your saving throws
such as , bardic inspiration resistance guidance , amulet of the harpers...etc

Unless its your character that has any of those boosting abilities. You will not be able to use them.

[BionicDance]

Originally posted by pascal.difolco:

You can just get the thing and crush it, don't think there was any check for that !

Yeah, I took the tadpole given by The Emperor and threw it in a campfire.

I couldn't find it again if I wanted to, assuming the fire didn't consume it; I don't remember which fire!

[DragonMaster]

You do not have to become 1/2 Illithid that is up to you. especially if you've not taken any of the tadpoles.

[drum-n-baile rlk anti-swiftie]

Originally posted by Migel:

Originally posted by wendigo211:

Did you use tadpoles before hand? I've never had to pass a check to avoid using the parasite, but I don't consume tadpoles or use illithid powers.

Yeah I've used the tadpoles because I looked up the repercussions and Reddit said there's no real downside of using the tadpoles as you find them. Welp, so that was a lie. The illithid skill tree stuff is all really mediocre as well and not worth spending turns on compared to class skills.

Anyways just after writing this I realized I can re-roll stuff with Inspiration, something I had totally forgotten about because I like to savescum instead, lol. That meant I got 4 tries to avoid it per re-load instead of 1, and I did eventually manage to resist. Close call, but at least I can keep my beautiful eyes and my skincare routine wasn't wasted.

You see, "Reddit said" don't believe everything you see on the internet, if you want to roleplay avoiding the use of illithid powers, then avoid it.

Right now your only option is to savescum for a 5% chance of passing, good luck!

[Bastila Shan]

I got locked into becoming half illithid and full ilithid when I did everything to avoid it but also ally with emperor

[Kimi o Nosete]

The easier way is to just not use illithid abilities until act 3, then dump them all onto your awakened zaithisk person.

If you already have tadpoles, turn your character into a high wisdom character with ability improvement like cleric, and hope for the best out of 5 rolls with advantage.

[chaosek]

Why avoid it? Your character already swallowed tadpoles so what really makes this one any different? Sure, you'll look a little worse for wear, but the extra abilities are really good.