Ever dreamt of sprouting face tentacles and wielding psychic powers? Now, Wizards of the Coast is bringing that deliciously twisted transformation from Baldur’s Gate 3 to your tabletop games. Get ready to embrace your inner illithid!
From Video Game to Tabletop: Becoming a Mind Flayer
Inspired by the mind flayer transformations in Baldur’s Gate 3, Wizards of the Coast has released a new Unearthed Arcana playtest exploring “Underdark Options” for D&D players. This includes aberrant subclass options for Barbarians, Rogues, and Wizards, but the star of the show is undoubtedly the Path of Ceremorphosis.
Embrace your inner illithid with the new Path of Ceremorphosis!
The Path of Ceremorphosis: A Step-by-Step Guide to Transformation
According to Wizards of the Coast, “The Path of Ceremorphosis explores how a player character might gradually become a Mind Flayer,” drawing inspiration from Tav’s potential journey in Baldur’s Gate 3. The transformation begins at level 4 with the Tadpole Host feat, establishing a symbiotic relationship with a parasite and granting basic psionic abilities like the Mind Sliver spell.
The full transformation offers players the option to emphasize physical or magical combat.
As you level up, you can acquire three mid-level feats. Illithid Thrallmaker boosts intelligence or charisma while granting the Charm Person spell (a functional representation of mind control). Tadpole’s Safeguard provides the always-useful Shield spell. Finally, Ulitharid’s Might grants a strength boost and allows you to whip enemies with your face tentacles – perfect for Monks or Pugilists!
At level 12, you can adopt the Full Ceremorphosis feat to complete the transformation: “You grow four tentacles around your mouth, your head elongates, and your skin becomes purple and slick with mucus.” Your character officially becomes an Aberration.
The new Unearthed Arcana playtest offers a mechanical way for BG3 fans to recreate their characters at the tabletop.
The full transformation allows you to specialize in either psionic spellcasting or “eating and metabolizing brains.” You can learn classic mind flayer spells like Detect Thoughts and Levitate, or focus on Brain-Seeking Tentacles to damage and grapple enemies simultaneously. This new option is a fantastic way for Baldur’s Gate 3 fans to recreate their characters at the tabletop.
This Unearthed Arcana material is an experimental draft for public playtesting, with a feedback survey opening on Aug. 27. While the final versions may change, this strongly suggests we’re getting an entire sourcebook focused on the Underdark soon. With options like the Psion class coming in the Dark Sun sourcebook next year and existing subclasses in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, players can create incredibly powerful and synergistic mind flayer builds. Will you embrace the forbidden psionic power and let the tadpole consume your brain?
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