As you escape Act 2, you will get your hands on an interlude chapter as you approach the start of Act 3. While you know you’re on your way to Baldur’s Gate, you do get some very interesting content to kick off Act 3 with a bang. Players are presented with a choice on whether or not to take an evolved tadpole and become more Illithid. Here’s a guide on whether you should Evolve or not in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Should you Accept The Emperor’s offering and Evolve in Baldur’s Gate 3?¶
The Emperor presents you with a new tadpole, which you can either accept or refuse. We are here to discuss whether you should evolve or not in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Before you start questioning your sanity as we did, taking the evolution of the Illithid tadpole option is not as bad as it sounds. You don’t grow tentacles and start walking around Baldur’s Gate as one of them. Instead, you get dark veins around your eyes, lips, and nose, showing you’re juiced on tadpoles, which is more obvious in cutscenes than when you’re moving around in-game. We have a few images below of Minthara if you’re interested in seeing the before and after in all its blueberry glory.
Apart from the slight visual change in the characters that accept the evolution from The Emperor, those characters will unlock the final layer of Illithid powers. If you’ve been spending your excess tadpoles on upgrading your powers for a build, you will now find the final tier of abilities available. You’ll still need to follow the designated pathway to get those end powers from the Illithid powers menu, but, you can now dump the excess tadpoles you have into each character that accepts the Emperor’s offering. You will also get the movement skill, 
Fly, immediately. This operates exactly the same as Jump. However, you take off instead, and it means you can avoid taking fall damage too. It’s handy for exploring otherwise hard places to get to. Think of it as Jump and 
Feather Fall combined into one.
(1 of 2) Each party member has their interests in whether they should take the evolved path in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Each party member has their interests in whether they should take the evolved path in Baldur’s Gate 3. (left), Here is what happens to your character if they take the evolved tadpole. (right)
As for the negatives, there are some relation dips for your parties when you first decide to evolve from the Emperor. However, you can still convince your party members to take the deal when you speak to them on the streets or in your camp. Some party members are very much open to the idea of taking them. For example, those with Minthara in their camp don’t need to convince her. Simply talk to her about it, and she’s straight in on the tadpole. Astarian will use anything to rid him of Cazzador, so the Illithid evolution is an easy option for him. Meanwhile, characters like 
Shadowheart and 
Lae’zel are not for it, but, can be convinced if you have very high relations with your character. So, either respect their innate nature not to want it, or feel free to try and convince them to take it.
Other than that, there doesn’t seem to be any negatives to come from it. We have yet to finish the game and see if evolving has any major consequences on the storyline. It largely feels like a role-play and party dilemma thing rather than a punishable action, but we will update the page if we find out more.
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