Baldur's Gate 3: Best Illithid Powers in BG3 Baldurs Gate 3 guide, walkthrough
In our BG3 guide we discuss the best Illithid powers. We explain how to unlock new powers and which ones to choose.
Last update: 23 August 2023
Illithid Powers in BG3 are unique skills you can unlock by opening your mind to the tadpole. In this guide, you will learn how to gain new powers and where to find more tadpoles. We discuss the best Illithid powers, both those granting passive Features or unlocking new actions.
How to unlock Illithid Powers?
Remember how you received a parasite from the Mind Flayer in the game prologue? It is precisely this tadpole that gives you the Illithid Powers - psychic abilities to read the thoughts of other characters. You can often use these powers during conversations and interactions with NPCs. Unlock new powers by finding other tadpoles.
At the body of every defeated enemy, who was also infected with the parasite, you will find a tadpole in a jar. When you examine this item in your inventory, a cutscene will start. Choose the dialogue option: "Open your mind to the tadpole" to unlock new Illithid Powers.
You can get the first tadpole in a jar not far from the Owlbear cave in Act 1 of the game, near the corpse of a dwarf killed by the monster. You will also find many tadpoles in the Goblin Camp - each of the 3 leaders will have a parasite in their head. You will also be able to get a few of them in Underdark.
Best Illithid Powers
When you unlock new Illithid Powers, an icon of a tadpole will appear in the upper right corner of the screen next to the minimap. Click on it to see the skill tree. From there you can choose which powers you want to activate. Points are represented by the number of tadpoles you have collected during exploration.
The best Illithid Powers are:
- Favourable Beginings - a Proficiency bonus for Attack Rolls and Ability checks.
- Freecast - removes the cost of the next action or spell. It refreshes after a short or long rest.
- Force Tunnel - a Class Action being a charge, pushing objects and creatures 4m away. Itdoes not provoke opportunity attacks.
- Concentrated Blast - a Class Action dealing 3d6 psychic damage. To use it, the character must be focused on another spell. Additionally, the character regains as much health as the opponent received damage.
- Shield of Thralls - a Class Action that summons an volatile shield protecting you or your allies and grants temporary hit points.
- Cull the Weak - when you reduce an opponent's hit points to a level below the number of your Illithid Powers, the opponent dies, and the enemies nearby receive 1-4 psychic damage.
- Stage Fright - a Class Action that grants a disadvantage on Attack rolls and deals 2-12 psychic damage each time a target misses.
- Psionic Backlash - when an opponent within a 9m radius casts a spell, you can use this action and inflict psychic damage on them equivalent to 1d4 level of the cast spell.
Remember that not every power can be unlocked at once. As is the case with other skill trees, you first have to unlock previous features to get to the preferred skill.
Not everyone on your team will enjoy using the power of the tadpoles. Astarion will be delighted with the potential that the small parasites, Shadowheart will strongly oppose to using their power. Using tadpoles is also required to unlock new interactions with the Guardian in dreams.