D&D: Larian Studios Explains Why You Can’t Kiss A Mind Flayer In ‘Baldur’s Gate 3’

Baldur’s Gate 3 offers players whole worlds of possibilities. Except you can’t kiss a Mind Flayer. Larian Studios explains why.

Baldur’s Gate 3 features a wealth of options for its characters. The game lets you befriend spiders, become a badger, foster an owlbear– and so much more. But the one thing it won’t let you do is kiss a Mind Flayer.

Naturally, players wanted to do exactly that.

This is a tweet from @calamarti on Twitter, who filed a bug report titled Mindflayer Kiss Issue:

For some reason the cutscene where I kiss the mindflayer doesn’t play. This is a reproducible error. I really like mindflayers and would like this problem fixed or perhaps have a mindflayer companion as a suggestible fix.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who’s played D&D for even a little bit. I mean, I get it. You see a writhing appendage or a vaguely humanoid-shaped slime and you just start to wonder: “Is it going to feel good to lick and/or be licked by that?” There are whole companies designed to deliver that exact fantasy.

If you know, you know

That’s why “I roll to seduce” is such a meme these days. It’s also lazy mechanics and roleplay, but we won’t get into that now. Point is, a player character lusting after a horrific alien monster who only wants to eat their brain is nothing surprising.

It’s the malevolent eyes, really. They have shades of “I can FIX this horrific monstrosity that only craves my death.”

You Can’t Kiss a Mind Flayer Because Respect

But what is surprising is that Larian Studios responded. And with a pretty serious answer too.

“Our writing and cinematic team originally were planning to have this scene in the game. But on further discussion we came to the conclusion that to have a truly romantic moment with the mindflayer it all needs to be done telepathically. I know that for us mere humans this might look more disappointing but we have to respect the wishes of the mindflayer too. We have to find the right balance between what we want, and what they want.

Kind regards,

Reinaert”

So, Illithid Romance is off the table. Until the mods come out. But you can already download a playable Mind Flayer mod. It’s just a matter of time before you can kiss a mind flayer, really.

Happy Adventuring!

Author: J.R. Zambrano

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]