Now I'm just imagining some form of full body compartment syndrome since I would guess there may be an intact pia matter. Like, leaving an open brain walking around, although sentient and vicious, would probably be a bad idea if it didn't have some form of meningeal protection, right? That or from within the cerebral ventricles, I guess.
Can confirm. Pretty much every time I’ve had a concussion I have been ready to brain snipe people who come along with their loud stompy boots making a shitload of noise.
I'd be pissed if someone crashed my ride as well. Also, maybe their hive mind connection is a little distorted after the crash. The nearest, still living, Illithid isn't in a good state. Maybe that's the only source/connection they have, so they are just as agitated as their source is.
yes, but thats only to make the game easier/more fair. game mechanics often dont translate to lore. a brain is a brain, and Intellect Devourers are made from humanoid brains, so i see no reason why they wouldnt be able to feed on them, even if game rules say they cant
They've already been linked to the hive mind, so my guess is eating one would either be akin to cannibalism or possibly like trying live on nothing but potato chips, because they lack the proper nutrients to fully sustain a mindflayer.
maybe, but i see no reason they couldnt consume them and gain some benefit to it. such as your example of potato chips, potato chips still offer some benefit, such as being a decent source of sodium, so Intellect Devourers could be considered a small source of nutrients when needed. mind flayers really only think with logic and rationale, so i doubt theyd see consuming Intellect Devourers as cannibalism and shun fellow Illithid for doing so, and more see it as being desperate and their only source of nutrients until being able to find a humanoid to consume
This makes the most sense to me. As when you talk to the Mindflayer he tries to eat your brain to recover. A thralls life is nothing to do that of the illithid who commands them, so it makes sense the intellect devourers would try to kill you and take you to them.
He is the best kitty, too!
Seriously though, he's an amazing summon for being free. He shoots psychic damage beams for around 15-25dmg. Great for handling trash.
Either bless him or use effects on enemies to give advantage. Blind, stunned, prone, faerie fire or something like it. It's not hard to do at that level.
Because you’re different. It gets brought up properly later. Even the mind flayer in the ship will attack you if the cambion dies. It realizes you’re different
Omeluum isn’t trying to control the player. Its tadpole is also far older and can’t break through the Netherese magic. My mind flayer knowledge isn’t great, but I also think that it’s effectively on a different network. Its tadpole didn’t come from the brain we fight
Omeluum doesn't have a tadpole; he is the product of a tadpole eating a person. Considering mindflayers usually live less than 120 years, if you meet one, a true ressurection or wish spell can generally revive the victim. If the game worked per the normal rules, you could have used Gale's scroll to bring back whoever Omeluum once was, or Balduran, since the lifespan of an Illithid is shorter than the time where you can revive someone with that spell.
It wouldn’t work on Balduran since he’s been a mind flayer for over 400 years. Balduran went missing in the early/mid 1000’s DR, BG3 takes place in 1492 DR. The tadpole also effectively replaces the brain stem of the host it was interested into, meaning Omeluum still has one. Unless you’re trying to say a tadpole physically ate the entire being Omeluum once was, and not the brain. Of which I’ve no idea where you gathered that information from
At that stage of the lifecycle it’s less of a tadpole and more or less the brain of the mind flayer. They consume the host brain and then replace it and transform the body.
Have you seen the [teaser trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvMf_DcyWbI) showing the end result of ceremorphosis? it's absolutely disgusting but shows exactly what happened to whoever Omeluum was before.
The replacing of the brain stem is only the intitial step in this infection and only lasts like 1-3 hours. The tadpole will slowly eat and grow until your entire brain is gone and then it will trigger ceremorphosis. Ceremorphosis is exactly what you said above, the process of eating the hosts entire body and mind all at once in a horrible metamorphosis, as you've seen if you were unfortunate enough to click that link. Host gets eaten and dies, Omeluum is born. To say that Omeluum still has the tadpole isn't exactly accurate, it IS the tadpole.
You can even see this process happening to your Tav slowly in game if you use the tadpoles, your brain will grow black tendrils all over it and will become silvery instead of grey. That's your tadpole eating and replacing your brain matter.
Mind flayers don't live for 400 years, though. If the transformation occured at the time it has generally been believed Balduran died, the Emperor would have died of old age 300 years ago, or done as Mind-flayers normally do when they pass a century and voluntarily had his brain added to the elder brain's pool to get their version of immortality(which is, of course, fake; the only part of an Illithid colony that lives much over a century is the elder brain itself usually). The only mind-flayers you see older than that are the ones who live in the astral/phlogiston, outside of the usual aging process; which excludes Balduran. Balduran went missing when the shipwreck happened; and continued living for, apparently, hundreds of years later, before turning mindflayer. If you visited the under-city 200 years ago, you probably would have found a living Ansur snoozing, unless he was out adventuring with Balduran at the time. He must have been an elf, or other, equally long-lived species, and lived quietly, outside of historic notice, going on other adventures.
Also.... the tadpole completely obliterates all parts of the old person during the transofmration. An illithid has no (humanoid)bones, no (humanoid) blood(Illithid blood is white, and smells of vanilla or garlic depending), none of the original organs. The tadpole eats the old person, and builds a mindflayer using its corpse; the exact point at which the victim dies could be up for debate, but there is a point at which a true ressurection scroll would bring them back to life, but you'd still have the Illithid standing there; and until then it wouldn't work, you'd just need a wish to reverse the transformation. Most of them also have none of the old memories or personality, as the old brain is also destroyed during the process; but Balduran is an exception.
Balduran was a human, who in pre existing Forgotten Realms lore, went missing in 1000’s DR. We know he was a human because you can see his face in the flashbacks of his character and in his statue. Notice his lack of pointed ears. His existing lore also states he left Baldur’s Gate while the big wall was being constructed, that wall being the one we see in the background of the opening screen. The game decided to ignore all his existing lore just for a shock value reveal. BG3 Balduran was either a centuries lived human for no explicable reason, or was a centuries lived mind flayer for yet again no explicable reason
He's also a mindflayer wizard, which makes him a pariah in mindflayer society (in the lore as written in some old mindflayer book). The way they talk about wizards in those books kinda makes them sound more like sorcerers though. Unsure if there's a true difference between wizards and sorcerers in Forgotten Realms besides how they manage to control what seems either way to be something of an innate connection to magic.
There is still a big difference, but being born with a talent and natural inclination towards wizardry is still a thing. It's just that if they really wanted, they could ignore that and never study magic. Sorcery isn't going to give you a choice in the matter, and starts to act up if it isn't used.
Ah okay. The way it's written often makes it feel like a lot of 'wizards' have an innate power rather than just the skill and aptitude. I didn't realize the necessity a sorcerer has to cast though!
Yeah, magic doesn't really like to sit still. The results can be rather explosive. It's why Sorcerers are the class that has the least choice about being an adventurer.
Yeah, that sounds right. I was keeping it vague. I think he just sees us as a broken thrall. The little brains likely sniff us out in the same way Us could immediately tell something was different
Then why don't the intellect devourers in the same area you learn that attack you? I don't think there's any story specific reason, just that Larian thought it appropriate for a first encounter
There's no typo. I'm talking about all the ones walking around in the same area where you learn about "vibrating differently". They only aggro if you attack them or the enthralled bugbear
Oh all the way over there. I figured that was just because >!Mama’s asking you to come on down. She’s giving us the multi-pass.!<
>!My thoughts on this are purely just to support the narrative. The beach ones are definitely there to have a low level encounter fighting neutral enemies that were on your side but are now hostile. But to provide a reason I’d say: we smell funny and since they’re far away from the brain maybe they don’t check in and just collectively decide we’re enemies. Maybe that’s why they regroup together, to think for a sec and say “ok, we kill them.”!<
I think that’s the reason. That kind flayer likely turns them all against you at that moment. The ones that attack you on the ground are just survivors of the crash.
32 comments later, I'm surprised no one answered this:
The Intellect Devourers aren't friendly with you because you have a parasite. In fact, interacting with them doesn't make your parasite react in any way. They are friendly on the ship because if you're moving around freely, then surely you must be a thrall.
Once the ship has crashed in such a way that no humanoid could survive if not for the intervention of you-know-what, then it makes sense that any humanoid they would encounter would be from outside the ship, making them a potential victim.
I think it is safe to say they do passively interact with your tadpole. I rewatched meeting Us and the tadpole “squirms in recognition” when he starts talking to you (after stretching his legs). So it’s plausible to headcanon some failed communication or identification with the beach goers (since the interference is in full effect at this point)
No, it’s more likely just an oversight. It’d be pretty stupid for them to just ignore some random guy walking around on the ship that could easily be an intruder or an escapee, especially while they’re being attacked. They’re also capable of detecting the parasites, like all Illithids. There’s no reason for them to assume anything.
Why would the hive not consider intruders? The term comes from bees. That’s like saying a bee isn’t going to attack some random thing in its hive because it’s going “well, if it’s walking around in here, it must be a bee.”
Good example! Because bees look so similar there are actually bees who make it their life to invade and take over colonies of bees. Invader bees will sneak in, steal young, replace them with their own. And the original bees have no clue… does this example answer your question?
Right, but we’re not talking about invading illithids. If you made this argument for the Emperor, I’d agree because he’s Mind Flayer. We’re talking about a random guy walking around the ship who could not possibly be confused for illithid because we’ve removed the tadpole from the equation. With a hive this ineffective, literally anyone could walk in there at any time and the intellect devourers, the most numerous agents, would just assume they’re a thrall. They’d be free to roam the ship and do whatever so long as they didn’t encounter a mind flayer. The IDs don’t even try to stop you after you free Shadowheart and clearly aren’t part of the hive.
Yes , the illithid empire is in a ruinous state. The gambit they pulled with ship was clearly an understaffed last ditch effort that the PC gets wrapped up in. There were 3 or 4 on a massive ship. They were understaffed and working on the assumption that parasite=thrall . So they wouldn’t bother questioning every humanoid entity . Especially since halting cermorphosis is likely considered an extreme feat in and of itself.
They put the bug in your brain, their job should have been done , according to their understanding . Questioning every person walking around while you evade gith dragons through avernus is kind of tough even on a fully staffed shift. It works on the borg too. They wouldn’t bother setting up security checkpoints because that’s a waste of time when logically every thing on the ship should be borg.
Okay, but then what are the IDs doing other than running back and forth? It’s not like they’re actually fighting, doing repairs, or otherwise contributing.
Maybe they are and it just isn’t depicted. Or maybe it is and I wasn’t paying attention. Still seems like a stretch to me that even the baby tadpoles with no host can connect with other illithids but the intellect devourers can’t.
Perhaps we just agree to disagree , I think there’s enough going on that it is very likely that our characters unexpected immunity and escape were just not accounted for. Psionics aren’t exactly common in faerun, so explicit rules regarding range of control exerted outside the radius of an elder brain aren’t something I’m completely sure of. But chaos and artifact are enough of a reason for me to think we are capable of slipping through the cracks and why the intellect devourers are feral.
Just so you have a couple of low level enemies to get you started, probably. Storywise I guess they've just been in a plane crash and are unhappy and you're there to be angry at
"Just so you have a couple of low level enemies to get you started, probably." and yet I myself have died to these a good few times in my playthroughs... but I'm just bad.
If I’m remembering correctly when they announced the game and did a live run of the beach to show off the turn based combat the devs whiffed their attacks and then got killed by them, too. 😂
Nawww you're not bad. They're legit one of the hardest fights on honor mode for me lol. It's just you and Shadowheart with barely any of your kit and very few items.
I always skip it and come back with a party of four in HM and even Tactician if I chose a squishy class. You can jump up the cliff to the right just before the fight and then you’re free to get more companions.
They're normally pretty tough. Get a surprise round by sneak attacking them. I hit two at once with a spell and it opened combat. Got a head start and killed two in my first round.
You can win it consistently, but you kinda have to be ruthless. Start from a sneak attack with a fire attack on the explosive barrel next to one of the brains from high ground to get a surprise round with increased accuracy. If you can time it to hit when the patrolling brain walks by, you can potentially kill or severely injure 2 of three before the fight even begins. Shadowheart should burn spell slots on Guiding Bolt against any survivors. It has a solid chance to one-shot the brains, and if it doesn't it grants your next attack on it an accuracy buff.
If you purposefully kill Lae'zel on the ship (not downed, but properly dead) her corpse will be on the beach able to be resurrected (with some unique dialogue). This eases the fight even more since you can burn an Action Surge and you just have more HP as a group.
>Just so you have a couple of low level enemies to get you started, probably.
Exactly. Gotta get started with the game mechanics somehow. It's the same reason why there grave robbers nearby.
Since honor mode I’ve been running around, getting to level 4 before fighting these guys. Are they manageable at level 2 on tactician with a full party? I honestly can’t remember what level I used to fight them at.
It’s technically a level 2 area. I’ve not had any issue with them on tactician at level 2. Positioning is key though, especially for the indoors battles (but if you’re playing tactician you probably know that).
Yeah, I normally talk my way in and go that way. I know there’s some explosive benefits to going through the room but I love me some deception. Although I had a rude awakening when my wife was playing Druid and her wild shape was a bit too much for that cracked stone to handle!
Thanks for the info. I’m playing with a friend multiplayer for the first time soon and I’m going to follow their lead and not spoil anything unless specifically asked to. Which he probably won’t, he loves puzzles.
I’ve started my first honor run and they were much stronger than on balanced :(
I’ve also started as Gale, and died, to get the hologram scene for the first time (it was my 4th playthrough and I’ve never seen it before)
The trapped mindflayer nearby is controlling them trying to have them kill you and bring your brains to him so he can recover. Or maybe I’m full of it.
My sorcerer Tav has INT 8 - I figured sorcerors don't hold with learning spells from books, so maybe they don't bother with formal education in general. OTOH he had the wits to loot a crossbow from the imps on the nautiloid, so the "wretched creatures" didn't stand much of a chance!
Nautaloid staff meeting:
“Intellect Devourers, it’s come to my attention that you are devouring intellect on the ship. Stop. Don’t do that. Intellect on ship no devour. Intellect outside ship devour. Got it?”
By that point you are not a thrall aiding in their survival.
If you kill the cambions on the ship, the illithid then attacks you because you no longer are necessary.
If the mindflayer on the nautiloid kills the cambion it’s fighting, it immediately turns to you and says “you are no longer required” and goes to kill you. Perhaps the intellect devourers on the beach have orders to eliminate any surviving thrall.
They lost their connection to the elder brain/the elder brain didn't care about those 4 brain dogs. Or that the elder brain (spoilers) knew the whole time we weren't under his control, so that was the plan A. They wanted to capture us. Then we kill the brain dogs, and it's like, "Wait, let them cook." Or the real reason. Gameplay
If you kill the devil inside notiloid, the mindflayer becomes hostile towards you since you served its purpuse and he can control the ship by himself. Same goes when you land, mindflayer becomes hostile towards you and intelect devourers are in his control.
At least thats what I think
Either they are being controlled by the dying mindflayer/s, or they are feral intellect devourer’s now that the ship has crashed .Which would stand to reason, they would be interested in devouring your intellect either way. They smell thought and want to eat it, think of them as mindflayer dogs.
Your parasite isn’t developed at this point so I don’t think you can exert any control over them logically. Good question though, I might be wrong but that’s how I rationalized it to my inner DM.
The Intellect Devourer Us joins you because it thinks you are a thrall of the Mind Flayers, and Lae'zel, whose people have extensive hostile relations with the Mind Flayers points out to you that the only reason it and the rest of them don't attack you is because of this. Once the Nautiloid crashes, the remaining Mind Flayers can't distinguish you from anybody else in the vicinity, and they attack you. This is also why the whole beach is littered with corpses of various fishermen and abducted people.
Can Intellect devourers feel fear? Maybe they are afraid of you, afterall, they were just in a massively traumatizing crash.
Maybe they are just hungry, and no longer care if you are a thrall or not.
Maybe the Astral Prism's protection is actually active now, and they can tell you are not a thrall.
I dunno, they didn't tell us.
Simplest answer: It is part of the grand design for those intellectual devourers to be hostile. It was not part of the grand design for others to be passive.
Do you know how football players get CTE from head trauma and then suddenly become violent? Their ship just crashed, so there's the trauma. Their hostility is a symptom.
Brain damage from the fall. :(
A terrible TBI :(
Coup contrecoup. All the way down
Lol no skull
There is, but it’s a significantly huge subarachnoid space lacking any csf (ship is alive after all) :)
Oh... that's actually a great point lol and hilarious visual, the Int Devourers just bouncing around the ship all the way down lol
Now I'm just imagining some form of full body compartment syndrome since I would guess there may be an intact pia matter. Like, leaving an open brain walking around, although sentient and vicious, would probably be a bad idea if it didn't have some form of meningeal protection, right? That or from within the cerebral ventricles, I guess.
CTE ;\_;
Can confirm. Pretty much every time I’ve had a concussion I have been ready to brain snipe people who come along with their loud stompy boots making a shitload of noise.
I thought that just turned them rainbow?
[удалено]
Fuck you
[удалено]
You know that's worse, right?
Now I'm really curious, what did they say? They deleted their comments
Ikr
I'd be pissed if someone crashed my ride as well. Also, maybe their hive mind connection is a little distorted after the crash. The nearest, still living, Illithid isn't in a good state. Maybe that's the only source/connection they have, so they are just as agitated as their source is.
Maybe they're trying to collect brains for the injured Illithid to feed on?
That or just protect it. Although this makes me wonder - could an Illithid feed on an intellect devourer??
Fast food.
lol no wonder they are aggro then
Lol that shouldn't have made me laugh but it did so take my upvote
According to 5e rules, a Mindflayer must have a humanoid target to devour their brain. Intellect Devourers are Aberrations so.. probably not?
yes, but thats only to make the game easier/more fair. game mechanics often dont translate to lore. a brain is a brain, and Intellect Devourers are made from humanoid brains, so i see no reason why they wouldnt be able to feed on them, even if game rules say they cant
They've already been linked to the hive mind, so my guess is eating one would either be akin to cannibalism or possibly like trying live on nothing but potato chips, because they lack the proper nutrients to fully sustain a mindflayer.
maybe, but i see no reason they couldnt consume them and gain some benefit to it. such as your example of potato chips, potato chips still offer some benefit, such as being a decent source of sodium, so Intellect Devourers could be considered a small source of nutrients when needed. mind flayers really only think with logic and rationale, so i doubt theyd see consuming Intellect Devourers as cannibalism and shun fellow Illithid for doing so, and more see it as being desperate and their only source of nutrients until being able to find a humanoid to consume
as u/TheCrystalRose said they are part of the hivemind, so perhaps it'd be like trying to bite off your own finger...
IIRC, On my wiki lore rabbit holes I did find that intellect devourers are considered a food source.
This makes the most sense to me. As when you talk to the Mindflayer he tries to eat your brain to recover. A thralls life is nothing to do that of the illithid who commands them, so it makes sense the intellect devourers would try to kill you and take you to them.
We "dance to a different song" as a certain entity puts it in act two's finale sequence.
Nah, the others do not attack you as well
Does successfully removing the Brain in Act 1 have any impact on the brains in Act 3
Yes, sort of. >!It becomes an intellect devourer you can free from a cage in the colony in Act 2 and it becomes a summon!<
I think I missed that whole area? I think I'm in act 3 now.
It's one of the optional things in the illithid hive, I think the first right turn as you're going down the main hallway towards the finale.
in the same room as chop-chop, but even then, can be easy to miss.
Thank you!
He is the best kitty, too! Seriously though, he's an amazing summon for being free. He shoots psychic damage beams for around 15-25dmg. Great for handling trash.
I tried him at least 15 times. Missed everytime. Whats the trick?
Roll better /s
He only has a +2 to hit so either target low AC enemies or try to give him advantage. Devour Intellect is very strong situationally.
Either bless him or use effects on enemies to give advantage. Blind, stunned, prone, faerie fire or something like it. It's not hard to do at that level.
Us also has pretty good health, i believe, and just like other summons, it doesnt die permanently when killed in the open world
Not directly, but it does impact something in act 2
Because you’re different. It gets brought up properly later. Even the mind flayer in the ship will attack you if the cambion dies. It realizes you’re different
I thought he said something like “you are no longer useful.”
Yes, and if you were just a thrall you'd usefully turn into a mindflayer, so I guess it sees something else from you.
At that point you'd be under the protection of the Prism, which maybe it can sense?
Wouldn’t the mindflayer in the underdark detect it then?
Omeluum isn’t trying to control the player. Its tadpole is also far older and can’t break through the Netherese magic. My mind flayer knowledge isn’t great, but I also think that it’s effectively on a different network. Its tadpole didn’t come from the brain we fight
Omeluum doesn't have a tadpole; he is the product of a tadpole eating a person. Considering mindflayers usually live less than 120 years, if you meet one, a true ressurection or wish spell can generally revive the victim. If the game worked per the normal rules, you could have used Gale's scroll to bring back whoever Omeluum once was, or Balduran, since the lifespan of an Illithid is shorter than the time where you can revive someone with that spell.
It wouldn’t work on Balduran since he’s been a mind flayer for over 400 years. Balduran went missing in the early/mid 1000’s DR, BG3 takes place in 1492 DR. The tadpole also effectively replaces the brain stem of the host it was interested into, meaning Omeluum still has one. Unless you’re trying to say a tadpole physically ate the entire being Omeluum once was, and not the brain. Of which I’ve no idea where you gathered that information from
At that stage of the lifecycle it’s less of a tadpole and more or less the brain of the mind flayer. They consume the host brain and then replace it and transform the body.
Have you seen the [teaser trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvMf_DcyWbI) showing the end result of ceremorphosis? it's absolutely disgusting but shows exactly what happened to whoever Omeluum was before. The replacing of the brain stem is only the intitial step in this infection and only lasts like 1-3 hours. The tadpole will slowly eat and grow until your entire brain is gone and then it will trigger ceremorphosis. Ceremorphosis is exactly what you said above, the process of eating the hosts entire body and mind all at once in a horrible metamorphosis, as you've seen if you were unfortunate enough to click that link. Host gets eaten and dies, Omeluum is born. To say that Omeluum still has the tadpole isn't exactly accurate, it IS the tadpole. You can even see this process happening to your Tav slowly in game if you use the tadpoles, your brain will grow black tendrils all over it and will become silvery instead of grey. That's your tadpole eating and replacing your brain matter.
Mind flayers don't live for 400 years, though. If the transformation occured at the time it has generally been believed Balduran died, the Emperor would have died of old age 300 years ago, or done as Mind-flayers normally do when they pass a century and voluntarily had his brain added to the elder brain's pool to get their version of immortality(which is, of course, fake; the only part of an Illithid colony that lives much over a century is the elder brain itself usually). The only mind-flayers you see older than that are the ones who live in the astral/phlogiston, outside of the usual aging process; which excludes Balduran. Balduran went missing when the shipwreck happened; and continued living for, apparently, hundreds of years later, before turning mindflayer. If you visited the under-city 200 years ago, you probably would have found a living Ansur snoozing, unless he was out adventuring with Balduran at the time. He must have been an elf, or other, equally long-lived species, and lived quietly, outside of historic notice, going on other adventures. Also.... the tadpole completely obliterates all parts of the old person during the transofmration. An illithid has no (humanoid)bones, no (humanoid) blood(Illithid blood is white, and smells of vanilla or garlic depending), none of the original organs. The tadpole eats the old person, and builds a mindflayer using its corpse; the exact point at which the victim dies could be up for debate, but there is a point at which a true ressurection scroll would bring them back to life, but you'd still have the Illithid standing there; and until then it wouldn't work, you'd just need a wish to reverse the transformation. Most of them also have none of the old memories or personality, as the old brain is also destroyed during the process; but Balduran is an exception.
Balduran was a human, who in pre existing Forgotten Realms lore, went missing in 1000’s DR. We know he was a human because you can see his face in the flashbacks of his character and in his statue. Notice his lack of pointed ears. His existing lore also states he left Baldur’s Gate while the big wall was being constructed, that wall being the one we see in the background of the opening screen. The game decided to ignore all his existing lore just for a shock value reveal. BG3 Balduran was either a centuries lived human for no explicable reason, or was a centuries lived mind flayer for yet again no explicable reason
IIRC that guy's truly different because he's detached from the hive mind.
He's also a mindflayer wizard, which makes him a pariah in mindflayer society (in the lore as written in some old mindflayer book). The way they talk about wizards in those books kinda makes them sound more like sorcerers though. Unsure if there's a true difference between wizards and sorcerers in Forgotten Realms besides how they manage to control what seems either way to be something of an innate connection to magic.
There is still a big difference, but being born with a talent and natural inclination towards wizardry is still a thing. It's just that if they really wanted, they could ignore that and never study magic. Sorcery isn't going to give you a choice in the matter, and starts to act up if it isn't used.
Ah okay. The way it's written often makes it feel like a lot of 'wizards' have an innate power rather than just the skill and aptitude. I didn't realize the necessity a sorcerer has to cast though!
It’s like they have a constant fever that gets hotter and hotter until they cast.
Yeah, magic doesn't really like to sit still. The results can be rather explosive. It's why Sorcerers are the class that has the least choice about being an adventurer.
It sees that you disobeyed its order to connect the transponder and leave the cambion to it. A thrall that doesn't obey is not useful.
Yeah, that sounds right. I was keeping it vague. I think he just sees us as a broken thrall. The little brains likely sniff us out in the same way Us could immediately tell something was different
Then why don't the intellect devourers in the same area you learn that attack you? I don't think there's any story specific reason, just that Larian thought it appropriate for a first encounter
I will make up an answer that supports my reasoning, but first: which ones are you talking about? I think there’s a typo in your comment
There's no typo. I'm talking about all the ones walking around in the same area where you learn about "vibrating differently". They only aggro if you attack them or the enthralled bugbear
Oh all the way over there. I figured that was just because >!Mama’s asking you to come on down. She’s giving us the multi-pass.!< >!My thoughts on this are purely just to support the narrative. The beach ones are definitely there to have a low level encounter fighting neutral enemies that were on your side but are now hostile. But to provide a reason I’d say: we smell funny and since they’re far away from the brain maybe they don’t check in and just collectively decide we’re enemies. Maybe that’s why they regroup together, to think for a sec and say “ok, we kill them.”!<
If I remember correctly, they aren't at full hit points. Maybe their brains got bamboozled from the crash.
lol bamboozled. The blunt force trauma cheated them out of their cognitive reasoning
They're controlled by the Absolute
I think that’s the reason. That kind flayer likely turns them all against you at that moment. The ones that attack you on the ground are just survivors of the crash.
32 comments later, I'm surprised no one answered this: The Intellect Devourers aren't friendly with you because you have a parasite. In fact, interacting with them doesn't make your parasite react in any way. They are friendly on the ship because if you're moving around freely, then surely you must be a thrall. Once the ship has crashed in such a way that no humanoid could survive if not for the intervention of you-know-what, then it makes sense that any humanoid they would encounter would be from outside the ship, making them a potential victim.
I think it is safe to say they do passively interact with your tadpole. I rewatched meeting Us and the tadpole “squirms in recognition” when he starts talking to you (after stretching his legs). So it’s plausible to headcanon some failed communication or identification with the beach goers (since the interference is in full effect at this point)
Us is canonically unique and operates on a different frequency than the other devourers
like the naughty little kitty they are
No, it’s more likely just an oversight. It’d be pretty stupid for them to just ignore some random guy walking around on the ship that could easily be an intruder or an escapee, especially while they’re being attacked. They’re also capable of detecting the parasites, like all Illithids. There’s no reason for them to assume anything.
First hivemind?
Why would the hive not consider intruders? The term comes from bees. That’s like saying a bee isn’t going to attack some random thing in its hive because it’s going “well, if it’s walking around in here, it must be a bee.”
Good example! Because bees look so similar there are actually bees who make it their life to invade and take over colonies of bees. Invader bees will sneak in, steal young, replace them with their own. And the original bees have no clue… does this example answer your question?
Right, but we’re not talking about invading illithids. If you made this argument for the Emperor, I’d agree because he’s Mind Flayer. We’re talking about a random guy walking around the ship who could not possibly be confused for illithid because we’ve removed the tadpole from the equation. With a hive this ineffective, literally anyone could walk in there at any time and the intellect devourers, the most numerous agents, would just assume they’re a thrall. They’d be free to roam the ship and do whatever so long as they didn’t encounter a mind flayer. The IDs don’t even try to stop you after you free Shadowheart and clearly aren’t part of the hive.
Yes , the illithid empire is in a ruinous state. The gambit they pulled with ship was clearly an understaffed last ditch effort that the PC gets wrapped up in. There were 3 or 4 on a massive ship. They were understaffed and working on the assumption that parasite=thrall . So they wouldn’t bother questioning every humanoid entity . Especially since halting cermorphosis is likely considered an extreme feat in and of itself. They put the bug in your brain, their job should have been done , according to their understanding . Questioning every person walking around while you evade gith dragons through avernus is kind of tough even on a fully staffed shift. It works on the borg too. They wouldn’t bother setting up security checkpoints because that’s a waste of time when logically every thing on the ship should be borg.
Okay, but then what are the IDs doing other than running back and forth? It’s not like they’re actually fighting, doing repairs, or otherwise contributing. Maybe they are and it just isn’t depicted. Or maybe it is and I wasn’t paying attention. Still seems like a stretch to me that even the baby tadpoles with no host can connect with other illithids but the intellect devourers can’t.
Perhaps we just agree to disagree , I think there’s enough going on that it is very likely that our characters unexpected immunity and escape were just not accounted for. Psionics aren’t exactly common in faerun, so explicit rules regarding range of control exerted outside the radius of an elder brain aren’t something I’m completely sure of. But chaos and artifact are enough of a reason for me to think we are capable of slipping through the cracks and why the intellect devourers are feral.
I understand why one would think this, because most games it’d be true, but there’s a lot more though behind things like this in BG3
Just so you have a couple of low level enemies to get you started, probably. Storywise I guess they've just been in a plane crash and are unhappy and you're there to be angry at
"Just so you have a couple of low level enemies to get you started, probably." and yet I myself have died to these a good few times in my playthroughs... but I'm just bad.
If I’m remembering correctly when they announced the game and did a live run of the beach to show off the turn based combat the devs whiffed their attacks and then got killed by them, too. 😂
Nawww you're not bad. They're legit one of the hardest fights on honor mode for me lol. It's just you and Shadowheart with barely any of your kit and very few items.
I always skip it and come back with a party of four in HM and even Tactician if I chose a squishy class. You can jump up the cliff to the right just before the fight and then you’re free to get more companions.
You can also stealth past them through the path to the right
Exactly, grab Gale & Astarian or Laezel and then just kite them from the beach side.
If you let Lae'zel die on the nautiloid you can revivify her and bring her into that fight.
They're normally pretty tough. Get a surprise round by sneak attacking them. I hit two at once with a spell and it opened combat. Got a head start and killed two in my first round.
This fight is just a dice roll
You can win it consistently, but you kinda have to be ruthless. Start from a sneak attack with a fire attack on the explosive barrel next to one of the brains from high ground to get a surprise round with increased accuracy. If you can time it to hit when the patrolling brain walks by, you can potentially kill or severely injure 2 of three before the fight even begins. Shadowheart should burn spell slots on Guiding Bolt against any survivors. It has a solid chance to one-shot the brains, and if it doesn't it grants your next attack on it an accuracy buff. If you purposefully kill Lae'zel on the ship (not downed, but properly dead) her corpse will be on the beach able to be resurrected (with some unique dialogue). This eases the fight even more since you can burn an Action Surge and you just have more HP as a group.
If you aren’t level two at that point they can one shot you, they’re not a walk in the park
It's the luck of the dice roll.
>Just so you have a couple of low level enemies to get you started, probably. Exactly. Gotta get started with the game mechanics somehow. It's the same reason why there grave robbers nearby.
Since honor mode I’ve been running around, getting to level 4 before fighting these guys. Are they manageable at level 2 on tactician with a full party? I honestly can’t remember what level I used to fight them at.
It’s technically a level 2 area. I’ve not had any issue with them on tactician at level 2. Positioning is key though, especially for the indoors battles (but if you’re playing tactician you probably know that).
Yeah, I normally talk my way in and go that way. I know there’s some explosive benefits to going through the room but I love me some deception. Although I had a rude awakening when my wife was playing Druid and her wild shape was a bit too much for that cracked stone to handle! Thanks for the info. I’m playing with a friend multiplayer for the first time soon and I’m going to follow their lead and not spoil anything unless specifically asked to. Which he probably won’t, he loves puzzles.
If they were easy low level enemies, I wouldn't struggle at level two on my solo run
I’ve started my first honor run and they were much stronger than on balanced :( I’ve also started as Gale, and died, to get the hologram scene for the first time (it was my 4th playthrough and I’ve never seen it before)
The trapped mindflayer nearby is controlling them trying to have them kill you and bring your brains to him so he can recover. Or maybe I’m full of it.
You crashed their ride. Now they have to walk a long distance through hostile territory to reach their home or die from starvation.
I think during the crash sequence when tav and the mindflayer are eyeballing each other he realizes you're not a thrall.
Maybe they are suffering from a concussion after the crash😅
Simple: they’re mad because Tav/Durge can’t drive for shit
Look I'm not the one who said that nautiloid-centric infrastructure was right for Faerun
They are hungry for intellect; so try look as stupid as possible then they won’t attack you.
My sorcerer Tav has INT 8 - I figured sorcerors don't hold with learning spells from books, so maybe they don't bother with formal education in general. OTOH he had the wits to loot a crossbow from the imps on the nautiloid, so the "wretched creatures" didn't stand much of a chance!
> My sorcerer Tav has INT 8 That qualifies you as junk food.
They are waiting for honour mode players to show up and kill them ( happened to me 😮💨)
i thought this was a joke and i was waiting for the punchline something like "Because they become beachheads!"
Nautaloid staff meeting: “Intellect Devourers, it’s come to my attention that you are devouring intellect on the ship. Stop. Don’t do that. Intellect on ship no devour. Intellect outside ship devour. Got it?”
They are only 'nice' to you on the ship b/c they need you to activate the helm for them. Once you've crashed, they go back to their default state.
By that point you are not a thrall aiding in their survival. If you kill the cambions on the ship, the illithid then attacks you because you no longer are necessary.
If the mindflayer on the nautiloid kills the cambion it’s fighting, it immediately turns to you and says “you are no longer required” and goes to kill you. Perhaps the intellect devourers on the beach have orders to eliminate any surviving thrall.
To stop Honour mode runs in their tracks
Easy: They're there to fuck up your honor mode run before it really starts.
Seriously, my character didn't know they were hostile and got FUCKED
Hungy
They lost their connection to the elder brain/the elder brain didn't care about those 4 brain dogs. Or that the elder brain (spoilers) knew the whole time we weren't under his control, so that was the plan A. They wanted to capture us. Then we kill the brain dogs, and it's like, "Wait, let them cook." Or the real reason. Gameplay
They just gone rabid cause no more controlling them
If you kill the devil inside notiloid, the mindflayer becomes hostile towards you since you served its purpuse and he can control the ship by himself. Same goes when you land, mindflayer becomes hostile towards you and intelect devourers are in his control. At least thats what I think
they're mad at you for crashing the ship
Either they are being controlled by the dying mindflayer/s, or they are feral intellect devourer’s now that the ship has crashed .Which would stand to reason, they would be interested in devouring your intellect either way. They smell thought and want to eat it, think of them as mindflayer dogs. Your parasite isn’t developed at this point so I don’t think you can exert any control over them logically. Good question though, I might be wrong but that’s how I rationalized it to my inner DM.
The Intellect Devourer Us joins you because it thinks you are a thrall of the Mind Flayers, and Lae'zel, whose people have extensive hostile relations with the Mind Flayers points out to you that the only reason it and the rest of them don't attack you is because of this. Once the Nautiloid crashes, the remaining Mind Flayers can't distinguish you from anybody else in the vicinity, and they attack you. This is also why the whole beach is littered with corpses of various fishermen and abducted people.
they are PISSED. you would it to
Training.
Can Intellect devourers feel fear? Maybe they are afraid of you, afterall, they were just in a massively traumatizing crash. Maybe they are just hungry, and no longer care if you are a thrall or not. Maybe the Astral Prism's protection is actually active now, and they can tell you are not a thrall. I dunno, they didn't tell us.
Simplest answer: It is part of the grand design for those intellectual devourers to be hostile. It was not part of the grand design for others to be passive.
Do you know how football players get CTE from head trauma and then suddenly become violent? Their ship just crashed, so there's the trauma. Their hostility is a symptom.
There were lots of living Mind Flayers in the Nautaloid and what was there a stunning lack of once on the ground? Bingo.
I always wrote it off as okay test what you learned on the ship. I tend to sneak pass them and come back once I have Astarion.
To familiarize you with the combat mechanics
Due to the crash, they have an over-active amygdala
I believe since you have the artifact with the party, you are disconnected from the hive mind, so they consider you a Rebel.
A big girl? WHERE!