Early in Baldur's Gate 3's third act, players will have the opportunity to obtain and engage with an Astral-Touched Tadpole, an action that will cause them to evolve into a Partial-Illithid. While fans are certainly free to take this action without any outside information, some players may want to know more about the consequences of evolving before they proceed. This guide is written with those players in mind, and it will help them decide if they should evolve in Baldur's Gate 3.
Baldur's Gate 3: Should You Evolve or Not?
Players that are trying to decide if they should evolve need to spend some time thinking about their priorities. For example, the player should evolve if their primary goal is for their characters to be as powerful as possible, as turning into a Partial-Illithid grants some very useful abilities. Specifically, the character receives all Tier 1 Illithid Powers for free, earns the ability to Fly, and gains access to the following Tier 3 Illithid Powers in Baldur's Gate 3 (which can be unlocked with points):
- Absorb Intellect (Action)
- Black Hole (Action)
- Displacer Beast Shape (Action)
- Fracture Psyche (Action)
- Freecast (Passive Feature)
- Illithid Expertise (Passive Feature)
- Mind Blast (Action)
- Psionic Dominance (Reaction)
That said, characters that engage with the Astral-Touched Tadpole will undergo a visual transformation, and they will become covered with black veins. For the sake of full clarity, the image that is below showcases this transformation, and some Baldur's Gate 3 players will undoubtedly find it quite off-putting. In fact, the appearance change associated with evolving into a Partial-Illithid may be enough to convince some fans to forego the process altogether.
Players that prioritize roleplaying over gaining powerful abilities may also find evolving undesirable. Indeed, it might not make sense for Baldur's Gate 3 characters with certain alignments and beliefs to voluntarily become a Partial-Illithid, and that is something that fans may want to consider when addressing this choice. That said, turning into a Partial-Illithid will not prevent players from accessing any content or endings, and they can continue to roleplay as they were prior to the transformation, provided that they can look past the appearance change.
One final thing to mention is that players that do decide to evolve are advised to open their mind to the tadpole rather than eat it. Indeed, this approach will allow fans to use the Astral-Touched Tadpole to evolve other party members in Baldur's Gate 3, if they are able to convince them to undergo the transformation, giving them access to the aforementioned abilities.
Baldur's Gate 3 is available on PC and PS5.