Hey Fextralife, thank you for the content. Have you ever encountered the following bug? When I first consumed/opened my mind to the 1st tadpole, only me and my 3 active companions received the 1st ability for free (the ability that everybody has, story wise: illithid persuade) The ones who were not in the active party (even though I was in camp, and everybody had been recruited) didn't get the 1st central ability (but everybody can use [illithid] [wisdom] in dialogues) Now I have to waste a tadpole for each, to get the freaking main ability at the centre, which everybody has at the conversations anyway. The other main abilities (tier 1) are locked out without it. What gives?!! :-( (P.s. I have persuaded everyone to use them, but those who stayed at camp do not have the central ability which should be free, and therefore cannot access the tier 1 abilities) I don't want to waste a tadpole for the freaking 1st ability!!!
If you have awakened and guidance on the same character you can cast guidance as an action and then concentrated blast on the same turn every turn, and because guidance is a cantrip you’re basically getting around a level 2 spell’s damage every turn for free
@@DJFluff3you should have freed it before the fight. You can do this by winning loosing the chicken chasin, then talk to the owlbear and tell it to find your camp, then talk to the goblin who has the owlbear and force here to give it to you. Then you kill all the goblins outside. Once you long rest, away from the goblin camp, the cub will come to your camp
Paladin + tempest cleric with luck of the far realms, a wet target (create water) and perilous whatever (tadpole power) 1 hit kills bosses with thunderous smite +divine smite. Auto critting (tadpole), auto Max damage (tempest cleric), double damage lightning (from wet), double damage overal (tadpole) makes everything turn to dust :D
Cull The Weak was my absolute favourite on my blaster caster. Paired with Psyonic backlash the ability to secure kills and melt down big targets easier was amazing.
Ability Drain is incredible actually. It doesn’t last for only one turn as you say, it just mean you can only apply it once per turn (per character, so characters that attack multiple times in one turn can only apply one stack). I have this ability on both my Dex characters and if they team up on one target in a few turns you can melt their Dex down to 0 and remove their AC buff completely.
ability drain stan here, that skill has actually helped me in a lot of long drawn out fights with my multi-hitting monk build. since i use mostly dex it basically lowers my targets ac everytime i lower their dex, making them a lot easier to hit than normal
Ability drain seems pretty alright to me, even outside of DEX. My party has multiple STR based melee characters with it, since I figured that makes it harder for stuff to save againts my battle master's maneuvers.
Concentrated blast strat: When using spell ‘Friends’ you get 10 turns of concentration that you can use right after dialogue when using the spell giving you a way to swiftly shut down Start of Round Bless, SOF, and other pesky spells. During combat using Cantrip spells like Guidance and Resistance gives you a more action costly method in combat for dropping concentrated enemies call it the quick and dirty option. Concentrated blast seemed to me to be useless when I first started using it seemingly never getting any use but after a while I found that it’s niche can be quite handy for handling spell casters who just won’t stop saving
@@hawkname1234 It's guaranteed damage. No attack roll, no saving throw. It just happens. Plus, there's an item that gives an aura of psychic damage vulnerability as long as you carry it in your inventory, and Concentrated Blast is a decent amount of that.
Don't sleep on Favourable Begginings for you party's face, I find it most useful not in combat, but on making your first ability check on ANY NPC. This bonus comes up so often it is as relevant as Illithid Exprtise!
Also, I could be mistaken and could be a past bug, but it seems the +3/2 from proficiency comes up in every check in the first conversation. So if you have to roll thrice on your first convo with a np, you get +3 thrice. Also resets on long rest for all NPCs
It's probably best to focus _most_ tadpoles on your main character, since they'll be the one getting the Bonus Action Buff and will always be in the party. Giving a few (passive boost) tadpoles to your boss-killing team is also wise. Also: There's a helm you get from Asterion's sire that I think gives you extra bonus actions. Ho ho ho.
Stage Fright and Mindblast were awesome. Psionic backlash on 2+ characters can kill a weakened caster before the spell gets off. But I think the best power was just the ability to fly around. Made mundane trips around the map so much easier, great for setting up battles, ambushes, or even just grabbing high ground in the middle of a fight. Honestly started to feel OP by the end.
Concentrated Blast is excellent thanks to Detect Thoughts, a concentration ritual spell that lasts all day. It's a good spell to have running at all times anyway
7:50 huh, I was a bow wielder and my ability drain was permanently removing enemy dex, not only lasting 1 turn like you say. There were enemies I where I had stacked 3-4 procs of dex drain on them and it made them much easier to hit.
Concentration blast is great for when you're ready to end say a spike growth spell so your melee characters can move around, it also ends your concentration so add a speed potion and you can start another concentration spell in the same turn doing big damage.
@@AussieMoist To be clear as an example. If I long rested before talking to someone who's not that important like when talking to goblins and I only need 2 to use the mind control. Have I now wasted favorable beginnings for that long rest? Or is there a way to turn it on and off for a more difficult skill check, like you can do certain other abilities in the game? I just unlocked it and thought I needed to give Astarion favorable to be able to get luck. But I didn't do anything besides testing out how the crit would work before I stopped playing so I could always just go back. Give him luck, and wait until I have more tadpoles if it doesn't really work optimally unless the entire party has it like the video states.
I had a great time all wormed up and still felt like I was able to make positive changes in my campaign and still be good gang, currently enjoying playthrough 2 . I can recommend at least once, it was really fun and had great story implications.
I beat it by not using them and it's noted that you managed to pull all this off without ever having do so. Your reward is a pat on the back (metaphorical)
I've yet to use them, not sure if I will on the first playthrough. So far story wise (I'm in Act 1) it seems like a bad idea. Absolutely love this game.
same. From what I've read there are no consequences if you resist the tadpoles. so I think that the only reason to do it is from the role playing perspective
PSA: Getting Ilthid powers has NO CONSEQUENCES on the story unless you do that ONE SPECIAL THING that is offered to you in part 3. I played the entire game without using the tadpole powers and the game doesnt even acknowledge it at the end. just get your powers and go nuts
Guys just use them honestly, it doesn't have any side effects on your appearance or endgame consequences. The regular ones from the jars. The only times where there will be consequences, you will know. Because it's a dialog choice and pretty obvious. Tempting you to get more power beyond the regular. 😊 The only reasons I can think of for refusing are roleplaying reasons, as well as making the game easier. But then again, you play power fantasy rpg and it's fun to blast enemies.
I’m doing that as well rn with a paladin and I’m wondering if I’m missing out big time or not 😂. I totally did not trust the dream guardian in the beginning anyway.
I usually just grab that necklace.That gives you guidance and use guidance right before a fight.And that means that the character is concentrating on something
PSA: Getting Ilthid powers has NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER on the story unless you do that ONE SPECIAL THING that is offered to you in part 3. I played the entire game without using the tadpole powers and the game doesnt even acknowledge it at the end.
Ability Drain works well on a Dexterity Multi-hit character. As the opponent's Dex drains so does their AC making them easier to hit for the rest of the party.
I dont know, to me personally most of these powers seemed underwhelming, maybe i had too big expectations? So i dont see this one less usefull than most of other powers. Honestly i can easily do most of theese things in same way (if not better) with just normal abilities, spells, scrolls or potions. Way too many of them are either situational, or work well ONLY under specific conditions. I dont know maybe i need to do more testing myself. 🤔@@Zayphar
@@mar.s6516 Yes. ConBlast definitely is less useful because you have to burn an action that gives you something that you can get just as well with taking one of your normal actions. And both you and your target have to be conentrating on a spell at the same time to get the most out of this power. As I said, Highly Situational, thus not that useful. But many of these powers are passive(they work without taking a piece of your action economy), or they do something you just can't do with other normal abilities. For example, Perilous Stakes is an S-tier power that will absolute melt bosses with the toughest resistances. It is so good against highly resistant bosses that it is almost an exploit/cheese. When you add that to the passives(i.e. Favorable Beginnings, S-teir; Luck of the Far Realms, S-teir; Cull the Weak, S-teir; Psionic Backlash, A-teir; and Ability Drain, A-teir) then the Illithid powers are definitely worth it, with no downsides. That is, as long as you stick to the first 2 rings.
@@Zayphar Honestly there is nothing stopping you from having ConBlast ready to use at the beginning of every combat with the number of concentration based cantrips and ritual spells. It gives you an ability ready to go in case you are facing a casting opponent that has an annoying concentration spell. This is especially true if your illithid abilities are move actions. It then becomes a reusable effect that offers a ranged damage dealing move action that you can use most every combat. Once in combat it is admittedly only circumstantially useful to set up but even then there are certainly times when a concentration spell has outlived its usefulness this just allows you to squeeze just a little more out of the spell. I personally find it hard to have something useful for my casters to do with there move action in combat much of the time this just gives me a little bit more for them to do aside from trying to use my abysmal push on people.
@@josephkasmarcik2895 Good point. I was trying to compare CB to other Illithid powers. I would take any other of the passive powers I listed above BEFORE I took CB. You should take it eventually anyway since it adds to the damage that Cull the Weak does, and CtW is an absolutely awesome power that I use for every fight with more than 2 enemies, and that is every fight I can remember.😉
Worth noting that concentrated blast also ends your concentration on you current spell which makes it even more situational, but good if youre awakend since you can end your first spell with a bang and start new concentration if you wanna switch spells
I found Force Tunnel really useful on my Life Cleric. Not only for repositioning, but if you have spirit guardians active, every enemy you force tunnel through take damage from the AOE.
I'm playing a monk on my first playthrough, planning to use non-lethal damage on those that don't deserve to die. but it is incredibly tempting to ''snap'' every now and then and break out some of these
I had to fo some mental gymnastics to use it with my Vengeance Paladin. But there's a great point in the story that I figured I succumbed to the power.
I'm kinda going against mind flayers and I don't like the idea of tadpoles destroying my brains,. so I didn't use any of the tadpoles yet, but I'm starting to feel like it's a worthless effort, and Larian doesn't give a F if I'm using this stuff or not, so I'm just robbing myself of great abilities
Perilous stakes is argubly the most powerful ability in the game for generating large amounts of single target damage on bosses. Almost all videos of builds killing a 400-666 hp boss in one turn involves using it.
I had missed that room entirely. After watching this I got awakwened somehow, eventually, so it was painful. Good for me and thanks to you. Unfortunately my Githyanki Fighter does not have too much use, since most of abilities are better for casters, it seems.
Yup. Every time ya’ll post, even when I’m on my way to base or the lab, imma hit that like button AND imma drop a positive comment. That said, I have to retract SOME of my past issues with the Spores Druid. It’s getting the mixed reviews that I thought it would. One the one hand, it will never match a martial. On the other hand, some people think it’s the best summoner in the game. Most people say that it drops off around level 6, but plenty are doing Pure Druid and using the unique armor that they get. Overall, it may STILL be the weakest overall subclass, but it’s still very fun to play, and THAT is ALL that matters.
Perilous Stakes should actually be very useful on a hurt bear rage multi-attack Barbarian companion before raging, as the rage should equal the vulnerable effect out.
There are certain builds and certain equipment that give benefits if the opponent has a condition on them and the ability drain power is kind of a guaranteed condition.
Idk if it’s like a regularly good strategy or not but I used perilous stakes on Karlach a few times with a speed potion and she’d heal completely from half hp while downing weaker enemies left and right. It was pretty great
Im like 5 hours into act III and have not used any ilithid powers because I was scared to use them. I thought it’d affect my gameplay negatively I just read that it doesn’t at all.
I believe they need to be *attacked* and quite possibly damaged for the effect to kick in, otherwise you would just proxy-kill the low hp npcs around you. But the idea sounds cool anyway.
what a disappointment.i thought someone worked 6 months on the ending. just give some alternative scenes like if u put ten or more worns into ur head or some stuff, instead, u would be magically healed. besides, compared to the mythic paths in wotr, the powers are not powerful nor inspiring.
Quick note: I let lae'zel go into the zaithisk, and I still got the awekened buff by accident i guess. I tried several times to persuade lae'zel into stepping out but i failed all checks. Eventually i reached a wisdom check (i think it was wisdom) that basically allowed me to "absorbe the zaithisk's power and make it mine". I say this because on other videos I've seen they say that you need to go into the zaithisk yourself. But maybe for roleplay reasons you don't want to do that. In that case, you can still get the buff.
Ability Drain seems to be a permanent reduction, at least in my playthrough. I've got a certain persistently annoying demon in my camp who has been reduced to zero strength for about a week. (I was bored and was curious if they'd implemented the 0-stat=death rule for her).
Two important informations are missing in this video for me: 1) How many tadpoles you find during the game? 2) Is there any way to reset your choices, or are they permanent? Thank you. :)
There are 25 tadpoles which is enough for all the powers, you cannot take the powers out once you pick them I don’t think, I haven’t found a way to do it. baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Tadpoles+Locations
Powers in Rings 1&2 Listed in Order of preference: 1) 2-1 Favorable Beginnings(S)[Passive] 2) 2-2 Luck of the Far Realms(S)[Passive] 3) 3-2 Charm(A)[Reaction; front-liners who want to hold aggro should not use this] 4) 10-1 Transfuse Health(B)[only useful for characters with a big health pool] 5) 10-2 Perilous Stakes(S)[great for taking down bosses, not for use on allies] 6) 8-1 Concentrated Blast(C)[you won't this use often] 7) 7-2 Cull the Weak(S)[Passive, Toggleable] 8) 8-2 Psionic Backlash(A)[Passive] 9) 1-1 Psionic Overload(A)[godlike only if you have multiple attacks per turn] 10) 1-2 Ability Drain(A)[Passive] 11) 9-2 Shield of Thralls(A) 12) 11-2 Stage Fright(A) 13) 4-1 Force Tunnel(B)[only useful for Tanks] 14) 4-2 Displace(D)[Passive; highly situational, not that useful] 15) 5-2 Replusor(B)[highly situational, not that useful] NOTE: The #-# notation refers to the clock position(1 to 11) & ring position(1-inner ring, 2-middle ring) the perk is located on the brain power-tree.
Favorable beginnings and luck of the far realms are soooo good. I originally was only going to get those two on my oathbreaker paladin, but now ive got 5 extra brain worms in my head abd i dont know if im going to stop or not.
Luck Of The Far Realms is one power that EVERY build should have in my opinion. Displacer Beast transformation is also cool but comes with a visual cost to your character so
@@LycanDreams9159 Spoilers bellow, be warned! To get Displacer Beast form you need to consume the Astral touched tadpole. Doing so permanently makes your character partially Illithid and this comes with pronounced veins all over your body
Luck of the far realms and favorable beginnings are what i get on every playthrough bc they are just so good. there's been plenty of times favorable beginnings has saved my ass in a dialogue check lmao
7:29 Normally this kind of feature is supposed to apply per-attack as ability score damage, or else it's supposed to be a larger penalty like -5, -10, or -(caster's ability score). I think Larian might have borked the numbers.
No, It’s working as intended, or at least as described in the game. Fextra misunderstood here thinking that the reduction in ability score only lasts one turn, but it actually lasts for the duration of combat. The limitation is that the attacking character only applies it once per turn, per enemy. But if you have multiple characters with this ability they can all apply the -1 to the same enemy in the same turn. This can be very powerful if they target the same stat (like DEX).
PSA: Beware the Zaith'Isk buff. There are three saving throws you need to make for Wisdom, Intelligence and Constitution. For each one you fail, you'll get a *PERMANENT* -2 to that ability score. You need to pass all 3 to get awakened.
You need to pass all 3 saving throws to get the Awekened, but the 'permament' reduce to ability score dissapears as soon as you consume a tadpole (im pretty sure even debuff said that or something similar).
@@anathem9982Just save scum it. Even if you normally don’t like to, which is understandable as it helps the flow of the game, in this instance you really should.
My Moon Druid uses Displace on Owlbear form (+1d8 psychic damage) in each claw/jump/stomp attacks (Cull the Weak and Ability Drains works to in wildshape forms)
Sad news: Perilous Stakes now only works on allies... so no more "easy" debuffing on strong bosses like Raphael.. :( Which, kinda, makes the power pretty useless, considering how far up the tree it sits and how little healing it'll grant at the cost of making an ally vulnerable to all damage. I for one am ignoring it on my current run and went with Ability Drain instead.
Black Hole + Insect Plague is such a fun combination. BH slowing the enemy and IP becoming difficult terrain means enemies have to spend their whole turn trying to escape the area, and then you just drag them back in again.
Love the videos they are incredibly helpful. Can’t find info on a “slayer” form build. I don’t know if a certain class or race is better suited for it, I hope you can make a build guide for it.
the logic of this videois counter productive i think you shold have divide the parts in the timetab between the class not between the powers , now im gonna have to watch 20 minute just to know which one is good for monks ... ( and i wont .. )
So you are not forced to pick Favourable Beginnings if you want the luck perk? Honestly even having heard you describe it and reading it I don't fully understand what it does. Just unlocked it and tested it out in a fight before I stopped playing. And picked those two for Astarion since he's both open to it and I figured it would work well with the longbow sniper build I've made for him. But this makes it sound like I should reload, and only give him the luck (if possible) until I get 2 more tadpoles to give to myself, and convince Karlach and Shadowheart too for the favorable.
The Ability Drain Slander here is atrocious. It's not for one turn, it just can only by applied once per turn. I used it with a dual wielding dex focused fighter and I had originally picked up Defence over Two-Weapon fighting. I still absolutely melted enemy AC and made up for the lack of ABM on my offhand attacks since their class was so low. Alternatively you could go the opposite round for strength and make sure whatever enemies you're in combat with can basically never hit you since their attack mod is deleted pretty quick.
PSA: Getting Ilthid powers has NO CONSEQUENCES on the story unless you do that ONE SPECIAL THING that is offered to you in part 3. I played the entire game without using the tadpole powers and the game doesnt even acknowledge it at the end. just get your powers and go nuts
Just to confirm, there is no negative story implications for using these powers, right? It doesn't shut you out of endings or quests? The "you feel like you've lost something you'll never get back" line makes me nervous.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned it, however it seems displacer beast works with Circle of the moon druids where you get your extra attacks. Although that being said sadly if you're dark urge your slayer form doesn't. 😢
@@jadeviper1290 'Cosmetic'...yeah, let's go with that. But really, the 3rd ring powers are completely unnecessary. Cool, but not really needed except to become some OP Muchkin. The 2 inner rings provide plenty of awesome buffs.
@@OniGanon Using an astral tadpole and becoming an illithid has literally no downside at all, aside from cosmetic changes. Sure, it has some consequences that follow, but what does it do exactly? Well, it gives you access to new ending choices where you become a mind flayer. But the thing is, you can still choose other endings too, like the good, evil, or non-illithid endings. I'd call that an opportunity.
As far as I can tell it doesn’t affect anything and is mostly based on your RP for that character. I’ve done one complete playthrough and it had 0 impact on the playthrough but they also fixed a lot of issues in the late game so maybe my game was bugged cuz I was def seeing weird things in act 3.
Cull the weaks seems to be really buggy, sometimes it works, sometimes it goes an entire session without a proc. Anyone know something about that? (warlock specificly refering to elderich blast on multiple eligible targets but getting a proc on non)
Mine keeps turning itself off in the passive section so I recommend keeping it in a good spot on your hot bar so you can keep checking it for turning off. Or just keep checking the passive bar for it.
Mine has been inconsistent, but like the other commenter mentioned I think it was due to the passive turning itself off for some reason (not sure what triggers that). I think it's also picky about what specifically caused the damage that dropped it under the threshold. It has to specifically come from the character with the skill. So if for example you eldritch blasted somebody off a ledge, but it was the environmental/fall damage at the end that actually dropped them under the HP threshold (and not the attack itself) I don't think CtW procs in that case.
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Hey Fextralife, thank you for the content.
Have you ever encountered the following bug?
When I first consumed/opened my mind to the 1st tadpole, only me and my 3 active companions received the 1st ability for free (the ability that everybody has, story wise: illithid persuade)
The ones who were not in the active party (even though I was in camp, and everybody had been recruited) didn't get the 1st central ability (but everybody can use [illithid] [wisdom] in dialogues)
Now I have to waste a tadpole for each, to get the freaking main ability at the centre, which everybody has at the conversations anyway. The other main abilities (tier 1) are locked out without it.
What gives?!! :-(
(P.s. I have persuaded everyone to use them, but those who stayed at camp do not have the central ability which should be free, and therefore cannot access the tier 1 abilities)
I don't want to waste a tadpole for the freaking 1st ability!!!
If you have awakened and guidance on the same character you can cast guidance as an action and then concentrated blast on the same turn every turn, and because guidance is a cantrip you’re basically getting around a level 2 spell’s damage every turn for free
Or give True Strike it's day in the sun 😎
But in all seriousness, if you have access to Resistance cantrip, thats a good one for anyone to be concentrating on before starting combat
How dare you attack the owlbear cub
The dark urge made me do it
I did it to drop it to the health requirement to put it to sleep, so as not to risk harming it in the fight.
@@DJFluff3you should have freed it before the fight. You can do this by winning loosing the chicken chasin, then talk to the owlbear and tell it to find your camp, then talk to the goblin who has the owlbear and force here to give it to you. Then you kill all the goblins outside.
Once you long rest, away from the goblin camp, the cub will come to your camp
Fuck the cub. I got big destiny things to do
I tried this but the cub did never Show up... just as scratch never showed up at my Camp 😢
Might this be a Bug or did something Else Happen?
Paladin + tempest cleric with luck of the far realms, a wet target (create water) and perilous whatever (tadpole power) 1 hit kills bosses with thunderous smite +divine smite. Auto critting (tadpole), auto Max damage (tempest cleric), double damage lightning (from wet), double damage overal (tadpole) makes everything turn to dust :D
How about slapping this on a half-orc for the extra damage die on crits
Cull The Weak was my absolute favourite on my blaster caster. Paired with Psyonic backlash the ability to secure kills and melt down big targets easier was amazing.
Ability Drain is incredible actually. It doesn’t last for only one turn as you say, it just mean you can only apply it once per turn (per character, so characters that attack multiple times in one turn can only apply one stack). I have this ability on both my Dex characters and if they team up on one target in a few turns you can melt their Dex down to 0 and remove their AC buff completely.
I feel like in most cases your target should be dead in a few turns anyway
ability drain stan here, that skill has actually helped me in a lot of long drawn out fights with my multi-hitting monk build. since i use mostly dex it basically lowers my targets ac everytime i lower their dex, making them a lot easier to hit than normal
Same, monk as well
Less dex means less AC
How's that bad?
I've also had it stack up more than once on an enemy before
Meh, my tavern brawler monk already has 95% hit chance :p
Ability drain seems pretty alright to me, even outside of DEX. My party has multiple STR based melee characters with it, since I figured that makes it harder for stuff to save againts my battle master's maneuvers.
@metalwork8159 That IS handy
Honestly I feel it my be a bit OP cuz it DEFINITELY stacks
Concentrated blast strat:
When using spell ‘Friends’ you get 10 turns of concentration that you can use right after dialogue when using the spell giving you a way to swiftly shut down Start of Round Bless, SOF, and other pesky spells.
During combat using Cantrip spells like Guidance and Resistance gives you a more action costly method in combat for dropping concentrated enemies call it the quick and dirty option.
Concentrated blast seemed to me to be useless when I first started using it seemingly never getting any use but after a while I found that it’s niche can be quite handy for handling spell casters who just won’t stop saving
As a duragar I have near infinite invisibility. Use this to start fights often
Concetrated Blast doesn't even do a lot of damage. Not remotely worth it IMO. Am I missing something?
@@hawkname1234 It's guaranteed damage. No attack roll, no saving throw. It just happens. Plus, there's an item that gives an aura of psychic damage vulnerability as long as you carry it in your inventory, and Concentrated Blast is a decent amount of that.
Cull the weak is busted if you hog all of tadpoles
Do you have to pick abilities or is it enough if I just have the tadpoles
@@erkinyldrm6579 you have to pick abilities on the same character
Transfuse health, on the druid is nice, wildshape, transfuse health and half the wildshape HP goes to the recipient, and your base form is unaffected.
sounds like you could use it with displacer beast aswell then, built in synergy.
@@simbadas1234You can't, sadly. No other active illithid powers are available in displacer form.
@@snakeman830 RIP
A bit of an exploit, but also hilarious. So, definitely a keeper if you have a big health pool to play with.
@@ZaypharI’m almost 100% sure you can’t use Illithod powers while wildshaped. I don’t know what this guy is talking about
Don't sleep on Favourable Begginings for you party's face, I find it most useful not in combat, but on making your first ability check on ANY NPC. This bonus comes up so often it is as relevant as Illithid Exprtise!
Also, I could be mistaken and could be a past bug, but it seems the +3/2 from proficiency comes up in every check in the first conversation. So if you have to roll thrice on your first convo with a np, you get +3 thrice. Also resets on long rest for all NPCs
It's probably best to focus _most_ tadpoles on your main character, since they'll be the one getting the Bonus Action Buff and will always be in the party. Giving a few (passive boost) tadpoles to your boss-killing team is also wise.
Also: There's a helm you get from Asterion's sire that I think gives you extra bonus actions. Ho ho ho.
Stage Fright and Mindblast were awesome. Psionic backlash on 2+ characters can kill a weakened caster before the spell gets off. But I think the best power was just the ability to fly around. Made mundane trips around the map so much easier, great for setting up battles, ambushes, or even just grabbing high ground in the middle of a fight. Honestly started to feel OP by the end.
my monk would fly down from buildings, stun them, end them and fly back up on the roof out of sight xD
YES i loved having the ability to fly as druid so i could quit wasting one of my wild shapes on the damn raven (which was super clutch early game)
Concentrated Blast is excellent thanks to Detect Thoughts, a concentration ritual spell that lasts all day. It's a good spell to have running at all times anyway
Resistance and Guidance are cantrips that have concentration too. Awakened character can go Concentrated Blast->Resistance for a decent combat loop.
Ooh that guaranteed crit looks good on my great old one warlock.
7:50 huh, I was a bow wielder and my ability drain was permanently removing enemy dex, not only lasting 1 turn like you say. There were enemies I where I had stacked 3-4 procs of dex drain on them and it made them much easier to hit.
Concentration blast is great for when you're ready to end say a spike growth spell so your melee characters can move around, it also ends your concentration so add a speed potion and you can start another concentration spell in the same turn doing big damage.
Astarion LOVES tadpoles. I like letting Astarion ascend and horde all of the tadpoles, it makes him feel like a truly ascended Vampire Lord
Note for favorable beginnings, that works for dialogue checks too. Because of that ability, I was getting like a +17 on my dialogue checks. Very good.
oh shit i forgot i got this from an illithid power lmfao. agreed its real good for dialogue stuff
@@AussieMoist To be clear as an example. If I long rested before talking to someone who's not that important like when talking to goblins and I only need 2 to use the mind control. Have I now wasted favorable beginnings for that long rest? Or is there a way to turn it on and off for a more difficult skill check, like you can do certain other abilities in the game?
I just unlocked it and thought I needed to give Astarion favorable to be able to get luck. But I didn't do anything besides testing out how the crit would work before I stopped playing so I could always just go back. Give him luck, and wait until I have more tadpoles if it doesn't really work optimally unless the entire party has it like the video states.
I still haven't used any parasites because I think it'll lead to a bad ending. Currently sitting at 19 parasites lol
Good playthrough gang represents
I had a great time all wormed up and still felt like I was able to make positive changes in my campaign and still be good gang, currently enjoying playthrough 2 . I can recommend at least once, it was really fun and had great story implications.
Same bro, let me stay clean! 😂
@@Tufticles that's not stupid. Cosmetics matter a ton in every RPG
I beat it by not using them and it's noted that you managed to pull all this off without ever having do so. Your reward is a pat on the back (metaphorical)
I've yet to use them, not sure if I will on the first playthrough. So far story wise (I'm in Act 1) it seems like a bad idea. Absolutely love this game.
same. From what I've read there are no consequences if you resist the tadpoles. so I think that the only reason to do it is from the role playing perspective
PSA: Getting Ilthid powers has NO CONSEQUENCES on the story unless you do that ONE SPECIAL THING that is offered to you in part 3. I played the entire game without using the tadpole powers and the game doesnt even acknowledge it at the end.
just get your powers and go nuts
@@WhirlwindHeatAndFlashFam, you just saved Christmas. Thank you for that information.
Hey thanks for the info! Now I can decide . . . firing up steam now
Guys just use them honestly, it doesn't have any side effects on your appearance or endgame consequences. The regular ones from the jars. The only times where there will be consequences, you will know. Because it's a dialog choice and pretty obvious. Tempting you to get more power beyond the regular. 😊 The only reasons I can think of for refusing are roleplaying reasons, as well as making the game easier. But then again, you play power fantasy rpg and it's fun to blast enemies.
Also end game if you are going full Ill, there are some slight tweaks / upgrades too.
Appreciate the spoiler free guide!
Great video as always! But, using the owlbear as a target dummy?!?!?! You monster!
Sorry! XD
You can grab another power from the mind flayer in mushroom town. Must endure his research about the tadpole
Cool, maybe I'll use these powers in my next playthrough, because I'm now playing as a Selune Cleric who is totally against using Illithid powers.
Sucks that aside from roleplaying, there’s no reason not to use them, the game doesn’t even act like you haven’t.
I’m doing that as well rn with a paladin and I’m wondering if I’m missing out big time or not 😂. I totally did not trust the dream guardian in the beginning anyway.
I usually just grab that necklace.That gives you guidance and use guidance right before a fight.And that means that the character is concentrating on something
MIND FLAYER PROPAGANGA
PSA: Getting Ilthid powers has NO EFFECT WHATSOEVER on the story unless you do that ONE SPECIAL THING that is offered to you in part 3. I played the entire game without using the tadpole powers and the game doesnt even acknowledge it at the end.
I wish your wiki was as helpful and detailed as your videos
Excellent video! Was waiting for that! Thanks
Ability Drain works well on a Dexterity Multi-hit character. As the opponent's Dex drains so does their AC making them easier to hit for the rest of the party.
Doesn't work with Heavy armor though, Heavy Armor doesn't care if you have bad dex
Concentrated blast is actually great when you use a cantrip concentration spell
"when"...thus conditional. Not as usefull as some of the other powers.
I dont know, to me personally most of these powers seemed underwhelming, maybe i had too big expectations? So i dont see this one less usefull than most of other powers. Honestly i can easily do most of theese things in same way (if not better) with just normal abilities, spells, scrolls or potions. Way too many of them are either situational, or work well ONLY under specific conditions. I dont know maybe i need to do more testing myself. 🤔@@Zayphar
@@mar.s6516 Yes. ConBlast definitely is less useful because you have to burn an action that gives you something that you can get just as well with taking one of your normal actions. And both you and your target have to be conentrating on a spell at the same time to get the most out of this power. As I said, Highly Situational, thus not that useful.
But many of these powers are passive(they work without taking a piece of your action economy), or they do something you just can't do with other normal abilities. For example, Perilous Stakes is an S-tier power that will absolute melt bosses with the toughest resistances. It is so good against highly resistant bosses that it is almost an exploit/cheese.
When you add that to the passives(i.e. Favorable Beginnings, S-teir; Luck of the Far Realms, S-teir; Cull the Weak, S-teir; Psionic Backlash, A-teir; and Ability Drain, A-teir) then the Illithid powers are definitely worth it, with no downsides. That is, as long as you stick to the first 2 rings.
@@Zayphar Honestly there is nothing stopping you from having ConBlast ready to use at the beginning of every combat with the number of concentration based cantrips and ritual spells. It gives you an ability ready to go in case you are facing a casting opponent that has an annoying concentration spell. This is especially true if your illithid abilities are move actions. It then becomes a reusable effect that offers a ranged damage dealing move action that you can use most every combat. Once in combat it is admittedly only circumstantially useful to set up but even then there are certainly times when a concentration spell has outlived its usefulness this just allows you to squeeze just a little more out of the spell. I personally find it hard to have something useful for my casters to do with there move action in combat much of the time this just gives me a little bit more for them to do aside from trying to use my abysmal push on people.
@@josephkasmarcik2895 Good point. I was trying to compare CB to other Illithid powers. I would take any other of the passive powers I listed above BEFORE I took CB. You should take it eventually anyway since it adds to the damage that Cull the Weak does, and CtW is an absolutely awesome power that I use for every fight with more than 2 enemies, and that is every fight I can remember.😉
I cannot believe I didn't get that Awakened buff on any of my characters! Failed it every time! Also good content.
I destroyed that murder machine first try I got🤷🏼♂️
Worth noting that concentrated blast also ends your concentration on you current spell which makes it even more situational, but good if youre awakend since you can end your first spell with a bang and start new concentration if you wanna switch spells
Ability drain is excellent if you have items that proc when you give the enemy a condition (boots of stormy clamour, diadem of arcane synergy, etc.)
I found Force Tunnel really useful on my Life Cleric. Not only for repositioning, but if you have spirit guardians active, every enemy you force tunnel through take damage from the AOE.
I'm playing a monk on my first playthrough, planning to use non-lethal damage on those that don't deserve to die. but it is incredibly tempting to ''snap'' every now and then and break out some of these
I had to fo some mental gymnastics to use it with my Vengeance Paladin. But there's a great point in the story that I figured I succumbed to the power.
I'm kinda going against mind flayers and I don't like the idea of tadpoles destroying my brains,. so I didn't use any of the tadpoles yet, but I'm starting to feel like it's a worthless effort, and Larian doesn't give a F if I'm using this stuff or not, so I'm just robbing myself of great abilities
Perilous stakes is argubly the most powerful ability in the game for generating large amounts of single target damage on bosses. Almost all videos of builds killing a 400-666 hp boss in one turn involves using it.
This is the go-to boss killer power. Use only on enemies(not for allies).
Oh Backlash is before the spell damage. I thought it was after and was using it for a chance to break concertation spells.
I suggest putting psionic backlash on everyone. Anytime someone uses a spell the entire team lights them up lol
I had missed that room entirely. After watching this I got awakwened somehow, eventually, so it was painful. Good for me and thanks to you. Unfortunately my Githyanki Fighter does not have too much use, since most of abilities are better for casters, it seems.
Yup. Every time ya’ll post, even when I’m on my way to base or the lab, imma hit that like button AND imma drop a positive comment.
That said, I have to retract SOME of my past issues with the Spores Druid.
It’s getting the mixed reviews that I thought it would.
One the one hand, it will never match a martial. On the other hand, some people think it’s the best summoner in the game.
Most people say that it drops off around level 6, but plenty are doing Pure Druid and using the unique armor that they get.
Overall, it may STILL be the weakest overall subclass, but it’s still very fun to play, and THAT is ALL that matters.
Perilous Stakes should actually be very useful on a hurt bear rage multi-attack Barbarian companion before raging, as the rage should equal the vulnerable effect out.
There are certain builds and certain equipment that give benefits if the opponent has a condition on them and the ability drain power is kind of a guaranteed condition.
Idk if it’s like a regularly good strategy or not but I used perilous stakes on Karlach a few times with a speed potion and she’d heal completely from half hp while downing weaker enemies left and right. It was pretty great
Thanks for the video
My character just ate tadpoles like it was pasta. She's got all the powers xD If she doesn't turn into a mindflayer at the end...I'll be confused.
This is very useful. Thanks.
Why the hell would you hit the owlbear cub to showcase some dumb ability?! Monster!
Ooooh you can give them the tadpoles for reals? Damn I messed up skipping that...
I think of illithid tadpoles as Ecstasy💊s, burns holes in my brain while enhancing my fun 😅
Im like 5 hours into act III and have not used any ilithid powers because I was scared to use them. I thought it’d affect my gameplay negatively
I just read that it doesn’t at all.
I believe they need to be *attacked* and quite possibly damaged for the effect to kick in, otherwise you would just proxy-kill the low hp npcs around you. But the idea sounds cool anyway.
what a disappointment.i thought someone worked 6 months on the ending. just give some alternative scenes like if u put ten or more worns into ur head or some stuff, instead, u would be magically healed. besides, compared to the mythic paths in wotr, the powers are not powerful nor inspiring.
As long as you stick to the 2 inner ring powers there is no negative blowback from taking them.
@@Lutasirenthe endings vary widely for different reasons besides the tadpoles.
@@ricardodeliz561 lololol "vary widely"? am i still not seeing 90% of the content after 100% achivement? or do ppl just pull that from their as
My go to is black hole + sleep from glyph of warding. Easy mode after that for either the melee crit machine builds or the aoe madness casters
Quick note: I let lae'zel go into the zaithisk, and I still got the awekened buff by accident i guess. I tried several times to persuade lae'zel into stepping out but i failed all checks. Eventually i reached a wisdom check (i think it was wisdom) that basically allowed me to "absorbe the zaithisk's power and make it mine". I say this because on other videos I've seen they say that you need to go into the zaithisk yourself. But maybe for roleplay reasons you don't want to do that. In that case, you can still get the buff.
Ability Drain seems to be a permanent reduction, at least in my playthrough. I've got a certain persistently annoying demon in my camp who has been reduced to zero strength for about a week. (I was bored and was curious if they'd implemented the 0-stat=death rule for her).
Ability Drain lasts until the enemy dies. Just tested it yesterday at the githyanki creche.
Luck of the far realms made my half orc pally one shot the beholder
Two important informations are missing in this video for me:
1) How many tadpoles you find during the game?
2) Is there any way to reset your choices, or are they permanent?
Thank you. :)
There are 25 tadpoles which is enough for all the powers, you cannot take the powers out once you pick them I don’t think, I haven’t found a way to do it. baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Tadpoles+Locations
25 tadpoles but becoming half illithid refund the first circle ones and some others (keep them unlocked)
@@Fextralife I count 40 in the link you provided? Some of the bullet points list several tadpoles in the same location.
I meant to type "at least 25". Late night xD
not everyones going to put all there tadpoles into one character*
heres me like ''what you can do them on others ?
Where there a Druid guide outside of the early access one and I just totally missed it?
when you do fromsoft game builds for a living and forget what rpgs are.
Powers in Rings 1&2 Listed in Order of preference:
1) 2-1 Favorable Beginnings(S)[Passive]
2) 2-2 Luck of the Far Realms(S)[Passive]
3) 3-2 Charm(A)[Reaction; front-liners who want to hold aggro should not use this]
4) 10-1 Transfuse Health(B)[only useful for characters with a big health pool]
5) 10-2 Perilous Stakes(S)[great for taking down bosses, not for use on allies]
6) 8-1 Concentrated Blast(C)[you won't this use often]
7) 7-2 Cull the Weak(S)[Passive, Toggleable]
8) 8-2 Psionic Backlash(A)[Passive]
9) 1-1 Psionic Overload(A)[godlike only if you have multiple attacks per turn]
10) 1-2 Ability Drain(A)[Passive]
11) 9-2 Shield of Thralls(A)
12) 11-2 Stage Fright(A)
13) 4-1 Force Tunnel(B)[only useful for Tanks]
14) 4-2 Displace(D)[Passive; highly situational, not that useful]
15) 5-2 Replusor(B)[highly situational, not that useful]
NOTE: The #-# notation refers to the clock position(1 to 11) & ring position(1-inner ring, 2-middle ring) the perk is located on the brain power-tree.
Favorable beginning passive tip from this video: spam it or don't use it because thinking is too hard.
Favorable beginnings and luck of the far realms are soooo good. I originally was only going to get those two on my oathbreaker paladin, but now ive got 5 extra brain worms in my head abd i dont know if im going to stop or not.
Stage Fright is an aoe similar to a fireball. Works on everyone inside if they fail the save
Perilous strikes make boss fights trivial as fck.
TBH. Half of them are op, and BG3 really lacks powerful enemies, you don't need any of these powers to slaguter ACT 3 bosses...
I stand with fextralife. Great videos and great content.
Luck Of The Far Realms is one power that EVERY build should have in my opinion. Displacer Beast transformation is also cool but comes with a visual cost to your character so
What is the visual difference? I was considering aiming to get this on my moon Druid.
@@LycanDreams9159 Spoilers bellow, be warned!
To get Displacer Beast form you need to consume the Astral touched tadpole. Doing so permanently makes your character partially Illithid and this comes with pronounced veins all over your body
@@Ashurman666 shit. Maybe I will save that for a second playthrough then or something.
Luck of the far realms and favorable beginnings are what i get on every playthrough bc they are just so good. there's been plenty of times favorable beginnings has saved my ass in a dialogue check lmao
7:29 Normally this kind of feature is supposed to apply per-attack as ability score damage, or else it's supposed to be a larger penalty like -5, -10, or -(caster's ability score). I think Larian might have borked the numbers.
No, It’s working as intended, or at least as described in the game. Fextra misunderstood here thinking that the reduction in ability score only lasts one turn, but it actually lasts for the duration of combat. The limitation is that the attacking character only applies it once per turn, per enemy. But if you have multiple characters with this ability they can all apply the -1 to the same enemy in the same turn. This can be very powerful if they target the same stat (like DEX).
It would have been helpful to have had a brief explanation of the progression system at the beginning of the video.
Luck of the far realms was amazing on my open hand monk when I used moves that attacked twice like their shove, topple, and stun.
Do you suppose the designer of these somewhat illicit powers had a lisp?
PSA: Beware the Zaith'Isk buff. There are three saving throws you need to make for Wisdom, Intelligence and Constitution. For each one you fail, you'll get a *PERMANENT* -2 to that ability score. You need to pass all 3 to get awakened.
yeah he made it sound like there ws no negative side to it
You need to pass all 3 saving throws to get the Awekened, but the 'permament' reduce to ability score dissapears as soon as you consume a tadpole (im pretty sure even debuff said that or something similar).
@@anathem9982Just save scum it. Even if you normally don’t like to, which is understandable as it helps the flow of the game, in this instance you really should.
Everyone gets fly for free if they take the enhanced tadpole.
Druid guide please!
My Moon Druid uses Displace on Owlbear form (+1d8 psychic damage) in each claw/jump/stomp attacks (Cull the Weak and Ability Drains works to in wildshape forms)
My brain is my own.
Cull the Weak is S tier...
For some reason I find Volo the perfect sparing partner
Sad news: Perilous Stakes now only works on allies... so no more "easy" debuffing on strong bosses like Raphael.. :(
Which, kinda, makes the power pretty useless, considering how far up the tree it sits and how little healing it'll grant at the cost of making an ally vulnerable to all damage. I for one am ignoring it on my current run and went with Ability Drain instead.
Stage fright is an aoe! It's strong
I've pretty much unlocked all of them except one on my main character.
Black Hole + Insect Plague is such a fun combination. BH slowing the enemy and IP becoming difficult terrain means enemies have to spend their whole turn trying to escape the area, and then you just drag them back in again.
Love the videos they are incredibly helpful. Can’t find info on a “slayer” form build. I don’t know if a certain class or race is better suited for it, I hope you can make a build guide for it.
The Slayer form is very spoiler heavy for one of the origin characters. I wouldn't look into it unless you really want to know.
the logic of this videois counter productive i think you shold have divide the parts in the timetab between the class not between the powers , now im gonna have to watch 20 minute just to know which one is good for monks ... ( and i wont .. )
Is there another way to get Awakened?
So you are not forced to pick Favourable Beginnings if you want the luck perk?
Honestly even having heard you describe it and reading it I don't fully understand what it does. Just unlocked it and tested it out in a fight before I stopped playing. And picked those two for Astarion since he's both open to it and I figured it would work well with the longbow sniper build I've made for him. But this makes it sound like I should reload, and only give him the luck (if possible) until I get 2 more tadpoles to give to myself, and convince Karlach and Shadowheart too for the favorable.
Love this but... where ranger class vid?!
The Ability Drain Slander here is atrocious. It's not for one turn, it just can only by applied once per turn. I used it with a dual wielding dex focused fighter and I had originally picked up Defence over Two-Weapon fighting. I still absolutely melted enemy AC and made up for the lack of ABM on my offhand attacks since their class was so low. Alternatively you could go the opposite round for strength and make sure whatever enemies you're in combat with can basically never hit you since their attack mod is deleted pretty quick.
So sad I missed awakened for my warlock 😢 there are sooo many secrets in this game
PSA: Getting Ilthid powers has NO CONSEQUENCES on the story unless you do that ONE SPECIAL THING that is offered to you in part 3. I played the entire game without using the tadpole powers and the game doesnt even acknowledge it at the end.
just get your powers and go nuts
Just to confirm, there is no negative story implications for using these powers, right? It doesn't shut you out of endings or quests?
The "you feel like you've lost something you'll never get back" line makes me nervous.
Damn is it this laggy in Act 3 or was it some other issue?
Not sure if anyone has mentioned it, however it seems displacer beast works with Circle of the moon druids where you get your extra attacks.
Although that being said sadly if you're dark urge your slayer form doesn't. 😢
Displacer beast always has 3 attacks. It gets no benefit from wild shape modifiers.
@@snakeman830 ah in that case less interesting, though still a cool form. Thanks for the correction
@@malevolenceD3CAY It gets silly with thief's extra bonus action, though
2.4K dislikes, weird, anyway great video help me decide what to use.
There are no downsides in using this abilities also when it comes to the ending
From what I've heard there's some serious consequences to using the Astral Tadpole.
@@OniGanon It's literally only cosmetic
@@jadeviper1290 'Cosmetic'...yeah, let's go with that. But really, the 3rd ring powers are completely unnecessary. Cool, but not really needed except to become some OP Muchkin. The 2 inner rings provide plenty of awesome buffs.
@@OniGanon Using an astral tadpole and becoming an illithid has literally no downside at all, aside from cosmetic changes. Sure, it has some consequences that follow, but what does it do exactly?
Well, it gives you access to new ending choices where you become a mind flayer. But the thing is, you can still choose other endings too, like the good, evil, or non-illithid endings. I'd call that an opportunity.
Is it still possible to get the awakened buff after the machine destroys itself?
Nope
Is there any advantage to Not using the tadpoles at all? I just finished Act 1 and so far no one even mentiones that i should/ or should Not use them
Use them, there are no negative impacts from what I’ve read, you do have to confront party characters if you plan on getting them to use it
As far as I can tell it doesn’t affect anything and is mostly based on your RP for that character. I’ve done one complete playthrough and it had 0 impact on the playthrough but they also fixed a lot of issues in the late game so maybe my game was bugged cuz I was def seeing weird things in act 3.
Thank you for the replies! For rp reasons i will Not use Then and do something Else in my next playthrough ;)
Cull the weaks seems to be really buggy, sometimes it works, sometimes it goes an entire session without a proc. Anyone know something about that? (warlock specificly refering to elderich blast on multiple eligible targets but getting a proc on non)
Mine keeps turning itself off in the passive section so I recommend keeping it in a good spot on your hot bar so you can keep checking it for turning off. Or just keep checking the passive bar for it.
Mine has been inconsistent, but like the other commenter mentioned I think it was due to the passive turning itself off for some reason (not sure what triggers that).
I think it's also picky about what specifically caused the damage that dropped it under the threshold. It has to specifically come from the character with the skill. So if for example you eldritch blasted somebody off a ledge, but it was the environmental/fall damage at the end that actually dropped them under the HP threshold (and not the attack itself) I don't think CtW procs in that case.