A people from Baldur’s Gate 3 and Dungeons & Dragons are quickly labeled as unassuming but still amusing little fish-people who do not pose a great challenge. But when you look closer at their lore and abilities, these little guys are significantly more powerful than one might think.
Which people are we talking about? They are the Kuo-Toa, a distrustful, paranoid race of humanoid fish people that can be encountered in Baldur’s Gate 3, for example, in the Underdark. They look like grotesque little humans, with claw-like feet and a piranha head, sharp teeth, and bulging eyes – a appearance that inspires more smiles than fear.
Who or what are the Kuo-Toa?
In the D&D rulebook (5e), they are classified as Neutral Evil humanoids, who can breathe both in the air and underwater due to their amphibious abilities. They are highly sensitive to sunlight but have an otherworldly perception, allowing them to see even invisible objects or creatures from the Ethereal Plane.
In combat, they use their biting power as well as weapons like spears or sticky nets, which can entangle the weapons of attackers. They themselves are quite the opposite – due to their slippery bodies, it is difficult to grab or hold onto them.
But what exactly makes the Kuo-Toa so powerful? To understand that, one must take a closer look at their history.
The History of the Kuo-Toa
The Kuo-Toa were a race of small fish-like beings who were abducted by mind flayers and exploited for experiments until they were driven to the brink of madness.
As if that was not enough torment for the fish people, other races such as humans and elves began to drive the Kuo-Toa underground, but even in the Underdark, they found no peace. They particularly feared the Drow, who killed the Kuo-Toa on sight whenever they encountered them.
The experiments of the mind flayers not only destroyed the mental state of the Kuo-Toa but also awakened an incredible power, heightened by their recently maddened minds. They gained psychic abilities, enabling their people to create something truly special.
What Makes Kuo-Toa So Powerful?
When a group of Kuo-Toa develops enough crazy, fanatical faith in any deity they can imagine, they bring this deity into existence – the deity becomes real. Spawned from the delusional creativity and faith of a disturbed fish race, it comes with its own religion and accompanying priests and believers.
For a god to manifest, all Kuo-Toa priests must be fanatics. To do this, they build shrines to depict the image and offer sacrifices to the god and worship it. The supernatural belief and devotion of a high priest to an invented god becomes so strong that the invented god can grant him divine power. Such a high priest is like a high cleric and can even learn level 5 spells such as “Mass Cure Wounds” or “Clairvoyance.” These divine powers can also be transferred to their followers.
The priests of the Kuo-Toa gods, known as “Whips,” compete as successors for the role of high priest. The one who eventually rises to power and is allowed to lead the worship of the god can control the concept of gods and how they are perceived, shaping it according to his own ideas. This means: A high Kuo-Toa priest can invent his own god, who then truly exists according to his own visions, as long as his followers continue to believe in him.
This way, an “interesting” deity continues to exist that the Kuo-Toa still worship.
The Sea Mother, Protector of the Kuo-Toa
The presumably most important deity of the Kuo-Toa is “the Sea Mother Blibdoolpoolp” – yes, that is a name in the language of the Kuo-Toa, worthy of a deity like her and her peculiar appearance.
Blibdoolpoolp, who will now be referred to as “the Sea Mother” throughout the article for the convenience of the readers, is a grand example of the creativity and fragile mental state of the fish people. She appears in the form of a 6-meter-tall naked woman, with pincers instead of hands and a lobster head, whose unwavering gaze at close range can induce madness.
The Sea Mother hates the peoples of the land who have driven her children into the depths of the Underdark and watches over her followers while plotting wicked revenge.
Her holiday is the new moon, where celebratory rituals are held in underwater shrines, and gems, pearls, lobsters, and humans are sacrificed in her name.
Especially devout followers of the Sea Mother can transform their hand into a giant lobster claw with the spell “Touch of Blibdoolpoolp,” but that is not all. The Sea Mother can bless her followers, granting them the ability to become a 6-meter tall Kuo-Toa Leviathan capable of swallowing humans whole.
It is precisely these consequences of the Kuo-Toa’s fanatic belief that make them so powerful. As long as there are enough Kuo-Toa and their creativity does not wane, there are no limits to their power. However, there is a silver lining: Due to their history, they actually just want to be left alone. This should not be a problem, as the Kuo-Toa have received a lot of sympathy from the community since the release of Baldur’s Gate 3: Baldur’s Gate 3: Players demand an army of fish people, would be willing to pay “foolish sums of money”
