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Illithid powers
Spoiler warning: The following content contains unhidden spoilers. Read at your own risk. |
After this event, finding and consuming Mind Flayer Parasite Specimens, such as from the corpses of other infected, will allow you to unlock a new power. Karlach, Wyll, Lae'zel, and Shadowheart will initially refuse to use illithid powers, but can be convinced to use them through Persuasion Checks.
List of illithid powers
Power | Type | Description | Requires |
---|---|---|---|
Passive Feature | You can use your connection to the parasite in your brain to force cultists of the Absolute to obey you. | Unlocked automatically | |
Class Action | Your attacks deal an additional 1d4Psychic damage, but you take 1d4Psychic damage every turn. | None | |
Passive Feature | The first Attack Roll or Ability Check you make against any target gains a bonus equal to your Proficiency Bonus. | None | |
Class Action | Charge forward, pushing all objects and creatures in your path 4m away from you. | None | |
Class Action | Deal 3d6Psychic damage. You must be concentrating on another spell to cast this. If the target was concentrating, you heal as much as the damage that was dealt to it. The spell you were concentrating on will end. | None | |
Class Action | Sacrifice half your remaining hit points to heal a target for the same amount. | None | |
Class Action | Your targets have Disadvantage on Attack Rolls and take 2d6Psychic damage each time they miss. Targets overcome their Stage Fright early when they succeeed on an Attack Roll. | Psionic Overload | |
Passive Feature | Once per turn, when you make an Attack Roll, the attack reduces that target's corresponding Ability by 1. The Ability that is reduced is the same as the one used to make the Attack Roll. | Psionic Overload | |
Passive Feature | When you make a successful Attack Roll against a foe, you can change that attack into a Critical Hit. Once per Long Rest. | Favourable Beginnings | |
Reaction | Channel the dark allure of the tadpole to an enemy that attacks you, preventing them from attacking you until their next turn.
Note: Enemies has advantage on saving throws against being charmed. |
Favourable Beginnings | |
Passive Feature | Creatures suffering Falling damage because of your actions take an additional 1d8Psychic damage. | Force Tunnel | |
Class Action | Push anything and anyone back 6m. Deals 2d6Force damage, targets take half-damage if successful on save. | Force Tunnel | |
Reaction | When an enemy Within 9m casts a spell, you can use your reaction to inflict 1d4Psychic damage to the caster per the spell‘s level. | Concentrated Blast | |
Toggleable Passive Feature | When you bring a creature down to fewer hit points than your number of evolved illithid powers, it dies and all nearby creatures take 1~4Psychic damage. | Concentrated Blast | |
Class Action | Conjure a volatile shield around yourself or an ally, granting the target 10 temporary hit points. | Transfuse Health | |
Class Action | Invest a creature with power that heals it when it attacks, but also makes it Vulnerable to all damage. | Transfuse Health |
Elite powers
When you first gain access to Illithid Powers, the outer ring will be locked. At the very end of Chapter Two, on the road to Baldur's Gate, you will be given the opportunity to unlock these powers by agreeing to absorb the Astral-Touched Tadpole and become a Partial-Illithid. Doing this will automatically unlock Fly (Illithid Power) and the 5 powers of the innermost ring, i.e. Concentrated Blast, Favourable Beginnings, Force Tunnel, Psionic Overload, and Transfuse Health. Any regular tadpoles the character might have already spent to unlock these abilities will be refunded. Absorbing the Astral-Touched Tadpole will also permanently mark your character's face with veins.
Power | Type | Description | Requires |
---|---|---|---|
Class Action | Invade a target's mind and disrupt its defences. The target's Armour Class is reduced by 1. If the target dies while its psyche is fractured, you can cast Shatter Psyche on another target. | Unlock one of: | |
Passive Feature | You have deepened your sense of self, gaining Expertise in Persuasion, Deception, and Intimidation Checks.
Also grants Proficiency in those skills if not already possessed. |
Unlock one of: | |
Reaction | Use your reaction to cancel a spell targeted at you if its spell level is less than or equal to your proficiency bonus. | Unlock one of: | |
Class Action | Summon a black hole that pulls in nearby enemies and potentially them. Up to five more black holes can be summoned after first casting. Refreshes after Short Rest. | Unlock one of: | |
Class Action | Fly to a target position. Uses movement speed and doesn't take an Action. | Unlocked automatically | |
Class Action | Spew forth a conical wave of psychic energy and possibly targets within. Deals 4d8+Spellcasting Ability ModifierPsychic damage. | None | |
Class Action | Sculpt a magical nexus that allows those within to take actions and bonus actions interchangeably. Refreshes after Long Rest. | Unlock one of: | |
Toggleable Passive Feature | You have discovered a marvellous adaptability within yourself. Spell slots, charges, and similar resource costs for your next action or spell are removed. Refreshes after Long Rest. | Unlock one of: | |
Class Action | Gobble up a foe's intellect, lowering their Intelligence by 1 per turn and healing your wounds for 5 turns (1d8hit points each turn). | Unlock one of: | |
Class Action | Transform into a displacer beast that can Displace itself and enemies, and has 85 hit points. You take on the attributes of a displacer beast, but maintain your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores. When your displacer beast form drops to 0 hit points, you revert to your original form. | Unlock one of: |
Full ceremorphosis
During the final quest Confront the Elder Brain, a character will have the option to undergo full ceremorphosis and become a Full-Illithid. At this point they will gain access to some more powerful versions of regular illithid powers. As well, player-characters can now unlock all illithid powers even if they had not undergone partial-ceremorphosis.
These abilities are not available through the "Illithid Power" screen, but are instead granted automatically after transformation.
Power | Type | Description |
---|---|---|
Class Action | Charge forward, pushing all objects and creatures in your path 12 m / 40 ft away from you. Deals 3d10+4Force and may cause | |
Class Action | Grant an ally an additional 15 Psychic damage, automatic Critical Hit when they roll a 15 or higher, and healing on hit. However, they will also be vulnerable to all damage. | |
Class Action | Create a point of intense gravity dealing 3d10+4Force damage and possibly enemies. | |
Class Action | Lower all of an enemies ability scores by 5, then 1 per turn, and regain 2~20hit points per turn for five turns. The foe is left . | |
Class Action | Target two creatures, granting 25 temporary hit points. Once these hit points are diminished, the shield bursts and leaves nearby enemies . | |
Class Action | Deals 9d6Psychic damage to an enemy. If they were concentrating on a spell, heal an equal amount of hit points. | |
Class Action | Lobotomize a nearby creatures that is , , or Unconscious, dealing 5d10+50Piercing damage and regaining 6d6hit points. | |
Class Action | Deal 3d10+5Psychic melee damage, and possibly the target. | |
Class Action | Float to a destination using movement speed. |
Other powers
Power | Type | Description | Requires |
---|---|---|---|
Class Action | If the character reaches 0 Hit Points, it regains 3d4hit points instead of falling Unconscious. | Reward from: Help Omeluum Investigate the Parasite | |
Passive feature | You can use all of your Illithid Powers as a Bonus Action. Your resistance to the zaith'isk in the githyanki infirmary awakened this power. | Succeed on all three saving throws when interacting with the Zaith'isk in Crèche Y'llek. |
Mind flayer parasite locations
Act One
Spoiler warning! This section reveals details about the story of Baldur's Gate 3.
Act Two
Spoiler warning! This section reveals details about the story of Baldur's Gate 3.
Act Three
Spoiler warning! This section reveals details about the story of Baldur's Gate 3.
Spellcasting ability modifier
Illithid powers follow the same rule as scrolls when it comes to which ability is used for the saving throws of spells that requests one (e.g. Stage Fright).
If the player has invested their levels in one class only, their spellcasting ability modifier will be the one from that class. Classes abilities are listed in the spells page.
It gets more complicated in the case of Multiclassing, as the spellcasting ability modifier will be the one from the last class that has been added to the character, with a quirk: fighters and rogues will provide their ability modifier only if they are level 3 and in their spell subclass (Eldritch Knight and Arcane Trickster).
Example: Wizard 5, Monk 1, Rogue 2 will use the Wisdom stat for the saving throw difficulty of their illithid powers, as Rogue is not taken into account here, and Monk is the last class added before Rogue.
Achievements
Expand Your Mind
Consume a parasite and unlock a new power - is it meant to wriggle the whole way down?
Gallery
Notes
Pre-release
This article is about gameplay elements – such as characters, quests or mechanics – that have been removed from the game and are no longer available. |
In Early Access, illithid powers were much simpler. Instead of consuming other tadpoles to gain points to spend on powers, your tadpole grew more powerful as you used Illithid Persuasion options in dialogue. Once you'd used Illithid Persuasion three times, a special cutscene was triggered during your next long rest and each character gained a single illithid power unique to their class. Some of these abilities were reworked into the current illithid powers. A full list of Early Access powers can be seen below:
ExpandEarly Access Illithid Powers |
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