Summary

• Choosing to feed or kill the newborn Mind Flayer in Baldur's Gate 3 has moral implications and can impact the game's outcome.
• The decision to assist the illithid is entirely reliant on the player's perception of Mind Flayers and willingness to act ruthlessly.
• Both choices offer the same rewards, but the moral dilemma of helping a defenseless monster or eliminating a potential threat remains.

[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Baldur's Gate 3]

With Mind Flayers as the central antagonists of Baldur's Gate 3, a side quest that involves the player feeding one is a tad unexpected. But early in act three, players have the chance to do just that: fetch a fresh corpse for a recently "born" Mind Flayer so it can eat to regain its strength. The choice to either kill or assist this illithid has some interesting results and moral implications, especially as the players themselves are getting closer to an illithid form.

In the case of this choice, the reward for the player's actions has surprisingly little to do with the outcome. It is a situation where the reason for choosing an action is entirely dependent on how the player sees Mind Flayers and their willingness to act brutally in the pursuit of noble causes. Its impact is not especially far-reaching, but it acts as an excellent moral tone-setter for the final part of the game.

Where To Find The Newborn Mind Flayer

A Rivington Windmill Holds A Dark Secret

When players first arrive in Rivington at the very beginning of Act 3, the amount of life and movement will likely be overwhelming. It is crowded and loud in comparison to the wilds they have been traveling through thus far and acts as a preamble to the bustle of the city proper. In all of this chaos, a pleasant windmill on a grassy hillside may seem like the least likely place for danger to lurk.

Approaching the mill's door, players will hear a shriek and observe bloodstains on the ground nearby.

Yet, approaching the mill's door, players will hear a shriek and observe bloodstains on the ground nearby. The door is locked, but a pair of thieves' tools or a hefty hammer can solve that problem and get the party inside the windmill's lower level. This basement is dark, dreary, and home to a Mind Flayer referred to as the "newborn", which is implied to have just turned illithid mere moments ago.

To Feed Or To Consume The Newborn Mind Flayer

Another Illithid Recommends Some Extreme Measures

Upon discovering the newborn, players will receive a telepathic message from the Emperor. As a fellow illithid who encourages the party to lean into their aberrant transformations, one might expect the Emperor to be sympathetic to this creature. Instead, he recommends that the player kill them and consume their brain in order to strengthen themselves.

At this point, the newborn is still weak and struggling from hunger, so it would make an easy mark for the player. However, more sympathetic folks may desire to hear the illithid out before ending its life. There are stranger allies in the game, and if helped, this Mind Flayer might decide to assist the party later on.

If given the chance to speak, the newborn will ask the player to bring them food (meaning brains) so they can get up to full strength. Since it would need the brain of a recently deceased humanoid, this implies that the player would have to partake in murder to meet the newborn's needs. With these options — to strike down the creature for self-gain or sacrifice another to help it — some players may be unsure of how to continue.

Feeding The Newborn Mind Flayer Provides Rewards

But There Is A Catch

For those who care little about the lives of others and simply want to help this illithid, there are a plethora of NPCs populating Rivington that can be dispatched and brought to the windmill's basement. However, there are better and less murderous ways to go about this. It happens that a nearby well in the center of town contains the dead bodies of several refugees, a sick but unfortunately convenient tragedy that provides several fresh humanoid corpses for the player to pick up discretely.

The player can intervene to stop the newborn and kill them before they unleash more carnage, but by that point, the damage is done.

​​​​Once players bring a body back to the newborn, it will crack open its head and eat its brain, restoring some strength to it. As thanks, it lends the player some psychic energy that allows them to take one new illithid power from their list. After this, the newborn will also give the player a Ring of Thruthfulness, and will leave the windmill after a long rest. That said, there are also other ways to obtain said benefits, and it doesn't involve feeding the creature.

This all seems well and good until the newborn shows up later in the Lower City. Since it regained its strength, the Mind Flayer is now terrorizing the citizens of Baldur's Gate and killing them left and right. The player can intervene to stop the newborn and kill them before they unleash more carnage, but by that point, the damage is done. No matter the player's intentions when trying to help this illithid, someone will eventually end up dead.

Consuming the Newborn Mind Flayer's Brain

A Bit Hypocritical But Probably More Humane

Alternatively, the player can attack the newborn before it manages to get back its full strength. Doing this will prompt the creature to say "No! I've had so little time!" which is sad until players the illithid wanted to use that time to kill people. The newborn is mechanically a slightly weaker mind flayer than others the party has fought up to this point, so taking it out shouldn't be too much trouble, especially since there aren't a ton of combat opportunities in Rivington and the party is likely close to full strength.

Consuming the brain provides the equivalent of one Mind Flayer Parasite Specimen. This item will remain in your inventory only until the illithid power skill tree is unlocked.

Once it is dead, the Emperor will praise the player and encourage them to eat the newborn's brain. While this is nasty, it also grants players one additional illithid power from the list. Plus, looting the newborn allows players to acquire a Ring of Truthfulness from its corpse. All of this comes with the added bonus that no townspeople will be killed later — by this Mind Flayer, anyway.

Killing The Newborn Mindflayer Is Better For Merciful Characters

Conflicted Players Cannot Look To Loot For An Answer

This does mean that, no matter what the player does, the physical rewards are exactly the same. Both choices let players get the ring and a new power, albeit in different ways. In of mechanical consequences, the only difference between these options is that the former results in the potential death of random civilians later on.

The rewards for killing the newborn Mind Flayer gives you an Advantage on Insight Checks, which is a fantastic boost when it comes to discerning an NPC's true intentions during a conversation. Be sure to equip this to the character who does the most talking and you will reap almost immediate rewards.

Therefore, the reasoning behind this choice rests entirely on the morality of the player character. More merciful, caring characters may wish to help a suffering and defenseless monster rather than striking it down, not knowing the harm their actions would bring. More cautious or pragmatic characters may jump at the opportunity to easily pick off a potential enemy. And chaotic, murderous characters may relish the carnage the newborn will later unleash.

Murderous impulses aside, this choice could be seen as a gauge of how the player currently views mind flayers. Withers suggests at the end of Act 2 that mind flayers don't deserve pity, but there is a serious moral dilemma that can arise for those sympathetic to them. It's small choices like these and their moral implications that provide some of the best characterizations in Baldur's Gate 3.