Man, let me tell you about the absolute headache I put myself through this past week. My buddy, Jake, he’s one of those guys who thinks there’s a single ‘correct’ way to play an RPG. He was totally convinced that the only way to get the true, good-guy ending in Baldur’s Gate 3 was to keep that gooey little tadpole locked down inside your skull, never touching it, never using any of the cool illithid junk that pops up.

I told him he was completely missing the point. If the choice doesn’t have consequences, then it’s not really a choice, right? We had a massive argument, and frankly, I felt like I was losing it because I didn’t have the hard data. I hadn’t pushed the consequences far enough on my first two runs. So, I decided I was going to literally dedicate my entire weekend to brute-force the ending four different ways, focusing only on that Ceremorphosis decision. I needed to see exactly where that path led and what it actually did to the epilogue.

The Setup: Locking Down the Variables

First thing I did was establish a clean save file, right at the start of the final push—you know, when you’re facing the Elder Brain and all the big decisions are popping off. I needed to control the party relationships somewhat, so I made sure I had Karlach and my romance partner (I chose Shadowheart for this run, she offers a decent contrast) at the highest approval possible. This was critical, as I suspected they would be the ones to really throw a fit.

I marked out four distinct paths I was going to follow, using this one core save:

• Run 1: The Vanilla Hero (The Jake Path). I resisted every single power-up. I refused the Astral Tadpole earlier in the game. I fought my way through, and at the end, I made sure Orpheus was the one doing the ceremorphosis, or that someone else stepped up. This was my baseline, the “good” ending.
• Run 2: The Halfway House (My Power Path). I accepted the initial tadpole powers and used them freely throughout the game (the black veins look), but I rejected the final step of turning into a full Mind Flayer. I wanted to see if the veins alone mattered to the ending slides.
• Run 3: The Full Transformation, Good Intentions (The Sacrifice). This was the big one. I took the Astral Tadpole much earlier and became a full-blown squid-face, but with the intention of dominating the Elder Brain and then sacrificing myself. This is the path people argue over constantly. I wanted to know if turning into a monster for salvation actually counts as salvation.
• Run 4: The Full Transformation, Bad Intentions (The Power Trip). I dove in. Full Mind Flayer. Then, I chose to dominate the brain, taking over the whole system. This was the guaranteed ‘Evil Overlord’ ending, just to see the scale of the destruction.

The Grind: What I Found When the Music Stopped

I spent about sixteen hours just rushing those final sequences and watching the epilogues. Man, the differences are nuts, and it’s mostly about your companions’ last words, not the big world-changing stuff, though that changes too.

In Run 1 (Baseline), everything went fine. Karlach lives, Shadowheart is happy, everyone is cheering. It’s the standard high-fantasy farewell. Boring, but clean.

In Run 2 (Halfway House), this is where it started to get interesting. The slight changes in the dialogue showed up. My love interest mentioned the change, but it was generally accepted as a necessary evil. The epilogue slides were almost identical to Run 1, which proved that just having the black veins isn’t what triggers the real bad ending consequences. It’s the final squid-face transformation that does it.

But Run 3 (The Sacrifice)… this is where my notes really filled up. I did the deed, became a flayer, and then killed the brain. I waited for the fireworks. The scene with Karlach was heartbreaking. I remembered her final lines. She told me she couldn’t look at me, that this wasn’t the friend she knew. I saw the fear in Shadowheart’s eyes—the romance definitely takes a huge hit, even if you saved the world. The final slides painted a picture of a lonely, monstrous hero, and you realized that even if you kept your mind, the transformation itself put a permanent wall between you and the people you fought for. You cannot go back to being human, and the game makes sure you know it. It’s a tragic ending, not a good one.

And finally, Run 4 (The Power Trip), I took the reins of the Absolute. Everyone—and I mean everyone—turned on me. My final scene with Shadowheart resulted in me either killing her or turning her into a thrall. I watched the world burn in the ending slides. It was a complete disaster, a pure evil conquest. No redemption, just domination. The character I had built over 100+ hours was just a footnote in a new Age of Horror.

The Final Verdict for Jake

I came away from this with a solid, undeniable answer for my stubborn friend. Yes, you can be a hero and become a Mind Flayer, but no, you can’t have a happy ending. The ceremorphosis, regardless of your intent, forces a tragic, lonely fate because it fundamentally alters your nature and how others perceive you. You trade your humanity for victory.

So, the practice proved the choice is real. It’s not just a fancy cosmetic option. It defines your epilogue. I sent Jake my notes. He’s been quiet all week. I think I won that one. Now, maybe I can finally go back and just play the game for fun again without all the note-taking and save-scumming, but man, I’m glad I did it. It’s worth seeing everything this game throws at you.