Wizards of the Coast is playtesting a tabletop version of Baldur's Gate 3's nastiest bargain. A new Unearthed Arcana packet released August 20 explores “Underdark Options” for Dungeons & Dragons players, and the headline addition is the Path of Ceremorphosis — a route for a player character to gradually become a mind flayer.
The Path of Ceremorphosis explores how a player character might gradually become a Mind Flayer. This path and its features are in part influenced by Tav’s potential journey to Mind Flayerdom throughout Baldur’s Gate 3.
Wizards notes the option is also inspired by the popularity of earlier villainous options in Unearthed Arcana that landed with players. The same packet includes aberrant subclass options for Barbarians, Rogues and Wizards.
The path begins at level 4 with the Tadpole Host feat, which establishes a “symbiotic relationship” between the character and a parasite in their body and grants basic psionic abilities, including the Mind Sliver spell. From there, players can pick up as many as three mid-level feats:
- Illithid Thrallmaker — boosts Intelligence or Charisma and grants Charm Person
- Tadpole's Safeguard — a defensive option that grants the Shield spell
- Ulitharid's Might — boosts Strength and adds a face-tentacle whip attack that counts as an unarmed strike
At level 12, the Full Ceremorphosis feat completes the change. “You grow four tentacles around your mouth, your head elongates, and your skin becomes purple and slick with mucus,” the playtest material reads. The character loses their original creature type and formally becomes an Aberration, though the wording suggests they retain their original species traits.
The full transformation then forks toward magic or melee. Players can learn classic mind flayer spells such as Detect Thoughts, Levitate and the newly presented Mind Blast, or specialise in Brain-Seeking Tentacles, which damage and grapple a creature at once while adding psychic damage. The designers frame the choice as psionic spellcasting versus “eating and metabolizing brains.” Players who get the chance to claim the feat a second time can take both.
Polygon notes the synergy potential is considerable: a full Psion class is due when the Dark Sun sourcebook arrives early next year, and existing psionic subclasses — the Psi Warrior Fighter, Soulknife Rogue and Aberrant Sorcery Sorcerer from 2020's Tasha's Cauldron of Everything — already run on psionic energy dice.
As with all Unearthed Arcana material, this is an experimental draft. The document says its three subclasses and transformative feat path “might be included in a future product,” so the final versions could change significantly. A feedback survey is scheduled to open on August 27.