Baldur's Gate 3: Should You Use The Astral-Touched Tadpole?

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While the most straightforward path to gaining power is leveling up or improving equipment, has another method of allowing playable characters to become more powerful — gaining access to unique illithid powers. As a result of the game's conflict with mind flayers, and the illithid tadpoles residing in (almost) every playable character's head, offers the opportunity to lean further into the power granted by the tadpoles. However, this power comes at a potential cost, as taking on the additional powers goes against one of the game's main goals — to get rid of the tadpoles and stop any future mind flayer transformations.

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for the story of Baldur's Gate 3.]Partway through the game's first act, illithid powers become available to characters, and most of 's companions can be convinced to use them as well. Most of these powers are unique and grant incredibly powerful effects, such as Luck of the Far Realms, granting the ability to use a reaction to turn any successful attack roll into an automatic critical hit. However, despite the encouragement that the Dream Guardian gives to make use of these powers, much of the game's story suggests that using additional mind flayer tadpoles to unlock them will come at a cost — especially in the case of the Astral-Touched Tadpole gained in the third act.

Related: All 10 Baldur’s Gate 3 Companions, Ranked From Worst To Best

Near the beginning of the third act, it's revealed that 's mysterious Dream Guardian is, in truth, an independent mind flayer named Emperor, who opposes the Absolute and has been protecting the party from its influence. After the initial reveal, Emperor will offer a seemingly important choice in the form of the Astral-Touched