Ceremorphosis – do you know the signs? Baldur’s Gate 3 starts with your character being infected by a mindflayer tadpole, and throughout the adventure you have the option to embrace the power of this psionic aberration, or seek ways to pry it out of your skull before it’s too late. Now tabletop Dungeons and Dragons has added experimental rules for your character to undergo the visceral mind and body transformation into an Illithid, thanks to the new Unearthed Arcana Underdark Options playtest kit.
Wizards of the Coast released the new experimental rules on Thursday, and they’re available to download for free from D&D Beyond. The Path of Ceremorphosis is a set of DnD feats, similar to the Path of Villainy from earlier this year. This path lets you infect your character with an Illithid tadpole and eventually go through the full, skull shattering transformation into a brain-eating Mindflayer.
The new Unearthed Arcana pack also has options for three D&D classes: there’s the Path of Unlight for the Barbarian, who infuses their Rage with Radiant energy; the Rogue House Agent, who gains a suite of social tools that can also be leveraged for combat bonuses; and the Imaskarcanist, a Wizard that burns their own hit dice to empower their allies. You can download the pack for free from D&D Beyond to check those out.
Path of Ceremorphosis feats
Starting on the Path of Ceremorphosis begins at level 4, with the Tadpole Host feat. Gaining a cranial passenger unlocks new psychic abilities, with a number of D6 Psionic energy die equal to your proficiency bonus, and the Mind Sliver cantrip, using Intelligence as your casting score.
You also get the ability to spend Psionic energy to boost Psychic Damage. Notably, you can only use the dice you gained form this path to activate this and future features, not any dice you’ve gained from other sources. The feat also grants +1 Intelligence.
Once you’re hosting a Tadpole, a choice of three new feats open up to you. Most of the bonuses they provide are the same, so you’re incentivised to only pick one. Each fear upgrades your Psionic energy dice to D8, gives you Telepathy out to 10 feet (or adds 10 feet to your telepathy range if you already have one), and they all give you +1 to one of two or three ability scores. As for what’s different between them:
- The Illithid Thrallmaker always has the spell Charm prepared, and can use any spell slot or spend a Psionic Energy die to cast it. If they spend a Psionic Energy die they can then roll the die, and reduce one target’s saving throw by half the result.
- The Tadpole’s Safeguard always has the spell Shield prepared, and can use any spell slot or spend a Psionic Energy die to cast it. If they use a Psionic Energy die and cause the triggering attack to miss, they can roll the die and deal that much Psychic damage to the attacker.
- A character with Ulitharid’s Might grows tentacles from their mouth which can be used to make Unarmed Strikes with an additional five feet of reach.
Once that Tadpole in your character’s brain is nice and fat (and they’re at least level 12 and have picked two or more feats from this list), they can undergo Full Ceremorphosis, totally transforming into an Illithid, increasing their intelligence by 1 and becoming an Aberration.
This feat can actually be taken twice – the first time you take it, your Psionic Dice increase to D10, and the second time they upgrade to D12. There is also a choice of two Illithid Specializations, and you’ll pick one each time you take the feat:
Brain-Seeking Tentacles let your character both Grapple and Deal damage when making an Unarmed Strike as part of an Attack action. Additionally you can spend and roll a Psionic Energy die to deal that much damage plus your Intelligence modifier to the target of an Unarmed Strike, reducing their Saving Throw to resist the grapple by half the result, and – if the target is reduced to 0HP by the attack – refunding the spent die.
Mind Flayer Spells grants you Detect Thoughts, Levitate, and the new spell Mind Blast, which can be cast using any spell slot or by expending a Psionic die. Mind Blast is a level 6 evocation that fires a 60 foot cone, forcing targets to take an Intelligence saving throw or suffer 6D8 Psychic damage and be stunned until the start of your next turn – creatures that save take half damage.
There’s a little something for every character here, though Wizards and Monks are probably going to have the easiest time synergizing with the this feat path, between the focus on Intelligence and unarmed attacks.
Are you planning on infecting your character with a brain eating parasite from beyond space and time? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community!
Source: Wargamer
