Baldur's Gate 3: Who The Kuo-Toa Are (& Why They're Special)

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Within a certain area of , players may stumble upon the kuo-toa, a strange group of fish folk in the middle of an even stranger ceremony. A cluster of the creatures are praising a bloody altar, upon which a powerful redcap will appear if players get close enough to trigger the cut scene. Depending on how players handle the interaction, they may end up fighting the whole group, or they could gain a powerful new ally.

It's an entirely optional encounter, and due to how strange the kuo-toa are, it's one that sticks out for those who find it. But what exactly are these creatures, and why do they have the powers they do? The kuo-toa are lifted directly from , and the existing lore surrounding the tabletop RPG can provide a bit more info on these fishy folk.

Kuo-toa first appeared in 1978, deployed by co-creator Gary Gygax for a module called «Shrine of the Kuo-Toa.» Contrary to the more lanky and physically capable sahuagin, the kuo-toa are described as short, paunchy, and coated in slime. Yet they possess immense mental power, being able to perceive invisible creatures or even those moving through other planes. They typically stick to the Underdark, however, since their eyesight is poorly adapted to the sunlight.

Baldur's Gate 3 is full of fascinating side quests for the party to discover and enjoy, but some are most definitely on the weirder side than others.

Much like another group of Underdark denizens, the duergar, the kuo-toa have a history with mind flayers. The illithid conquerors drove many kuo-toa into madness through psychic torment, and this corruption of the mind lingered long after the collapse of the mind flayer empire. The kuo-toa's abilities, combined with their new madness, resulted in a rather peculiar set of powers and practices that show up in .

The kuo-toa's madness caused them to begin believing in new gods, ones made up entirely by their own imaginations. The things they would see in other planes, combined with a general deranged mentality, led