Baldur's Gate 3 - Why You Should Spare the HAG (Act 1 & 3)

In Baldur's Gate 3, we encounter Auntie Ethel - Aka the Hag - Whom you can choose to kill or spare at the end of Act 1. But what happens in Act 3 if you decide to spare her? Well, let's find out.
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#baldursgate3

[@vovasyhin7219]

She is so damn likable, the way she talks is down right hillarious. They found a perfect voice actress for the hag.

[@plaidmonkey1962]

Wow, I killed her so fast, I didn't even get the cut scene to spare her life.

[@MrHulthen]

That has a tendency to happen lol.

[@JK-ul3py]

I killed her even before she got away through the fireplace.. I'm already itching for another playthrough

[@chocopuddingcup83]

Same. Wyll blasted the crap out of her very quickly.

[@WalterWhite-jz7ct]

you need to get her between 1 and 20 hp to trigger it

[@LandTorpedo69]

Yea I was having trouble with her so I just shoved her off a cliff

[@Palindome]

You can actually get the stat boost item AND kill her. If you have a party member hiding behind a wall and doesn't participate in combat, after she gives you the stat boost (but not before the conversation is over) you can switch to the party member that was out of combat and kill Ethel while she's talking. Allowing you to get the stat boost and freeing her victims

[@omnicore776]

God Damn, I will try this

[@ThwipThwipBoom]

Bro there's SO MUCH freedom in this game and really rewards thinking outside the box. BG3 is a freaking masterpiece!

[@penguins0301]

This trick i used alot back in DOS2 i'm so happy they still keep this feature, lol

[@vihta545]

Would that save a Paladin from becoming an oathbreaker?

[@Palindome]

@@vihta545 I don't know, however I believe there's a way to get back to your original oath so it's not too big of a deal of your oath is broken

[@Caseyedwards-Turbojackelope]

I was seriously roughed up by the time i found her. After almost killing me I remembered I had some horn thingy that would summon orcs(? I think they were orcs or ogres). I called they horn, they came in and in one turn kicked the hag down the hole. It was the most epic build up with the funniest pay off in any game I have ever seen in all my 32 years.

[@carterromanofsky3579]

lmao the troll squad is how i beat the githyanki party while i was still underleveled. blew the horn and the homies rolled up and flattened them. it also helped i dropped the lvl6 fighter in my first turn on the successful run.

[@benjaminprescott384]

You got lucky. My Ogre assistants decided to just insta-kill Mayrina when Ethel did her Mayrina look-alike contest spell. I didn't feel like re-loading... Not sure what that's gonna mean for Hag encounter in Baldur's gate.

[@YourLocalCopiumDealer]

The smart one of the three ogres has an item boosting his intelligence. Apparently if you steal it before talking to them that conversation goes a little different... I just love little details like that.

[@AngraMainiiu]

"Awaken my Ogres!"

[@smallfryskilledge1550]

How do u get the horn thing

[@SrChr778]

No matter how you justify it, you ought to know of the natural rule of D&D: letting a hag live is simply a terrible idea. But of course, it's never that easy with hags, naturally. They always have some sort of failsafe in place. Yet getting a bonus and also keeping a girl out of her clutches is a victory in itself.

[@rodneya.]

Yeah. I'm kind of roleplaying and I'll kill anyone that try to crosses me. She deserved it.

[@AC-cb1oe]

in this case, its not a terrible idea considering even if you kill her, she still comes back later in the game and you have to kill her again.. so let her live, get the stat bonus and then just kill her later

[@arkadiuszjendrulek5540]

Not to mention, that if you play paladin, letting hag live breaks your oath (at least what happens with oath of the ancients), no matter if you persuade her to leave Mayrina alone. In BG3, since it's cRPG you can easily restore the oath with 1k gold, which is piss cheap considering permanent +1 to stat of your choice. I'm still kinda bummed, that in act 3 main character, Mayrina and hag act as if we killed her no matter if we did, or let her go. In my opinion, the fact that you bargained with her, and let her go, should in some way set you back when fighting her in later parts of the game, as according to some book I found in the game "Hags become more powerful with each eye they collect, and each deal they strike with mortals" or something like that.

[@yorhaunit8s]

@@AC-cb1oeI get it, but also... it's not like you can't live without that stat bonus. And killing her twice is twice as good.

[@Sinitsu]

@@arkadiuszjendrulek5540if you let her try to remove the parasite then you get a status effect paid the price which gives disadvantage on perception and attack rolls on hags

[@Andrew-in4oe]

You forgot to mention, in act 3 you should use a hag's bane in fight with her, it allows you to save the girl and get great rapier for saving her.

[@Nyakomata]

I just toggled non-lethal, knocked her out and then got the option to cut her open to save the child.

[@TheNemkris]

so you get rapier because of a little girl?

[@Andrew-in4oe]

@@TheNemkris her mother gives you rapier after you saves this little girl.

[@sgt.killjoy1552]

you can also knock her out, then cut the kid out.

[@Andrew-in4oe]

@@sgt.killjoy1552 i tried that, but i don't know how, she died

[@raphaelw8s4u]

If we have learned ANYTHING from human history, it's to BURN THE WITCH! (insert sarcasm flag here).

[@healmyvision5941]

She deserves burning but permanent + 1 is too good

[@davethorsen8538]

Only if she weights the same as a duck

[@ungabungus01]

Honestly mayrina is so retarded and self centered she doesn't deserve a good ending so I don't see the issue here

[@pbonfanti]

​@@davethorsen8538Who are you who are so wise in the ways of science?

[@ryanpratt6993]

That’s some really flexible wood to let her shapechange like that.

[@tonyrame7548]

I found out that if you ambush the hag in her shop in act 1 and all your characters have "Alert" skill, you can quickly toggle knock out on her and kill the adds, after the battle she will be knocked out and you can fully loot her inventory and then go down into her lair and because she is knocked out, she has no influence on her thralls, so you can walk right through them without any battles, the mask door open, and you can go right to the girl and save her with no boss fight because the Hag is knocked out up stairs and loot her entire room, after that go to the end and warp to help the girl to go to baldurs gate with her undead husband, after that you can long rest and then go back to the Hag and she will go right down to the boss area where you can go again with no aggro from her thralls and you can quickly get her in 1 turn down to critical hp and then this time she begs for her life and there is no check on intimidation as she just offers you her +1 ability power to save her life which I found was really funny she does not even mention the girl you already saved which you normally need to deal with during the boss battle. I like to do the Hag quest last so you can keep buying her potions of giant strength 3 at a time every long rest and really build up a huge supply and then loot all the crap that you sold to her after you knock her out to do her quest, you really get to screw her the way she screwed other people.

[@Clandestinemonkey]

You sound like a Rimworld player, lol. I wonder if we can organ harvest her before she dies?

[@madlarkin8]

Sometimes you min/max... sometimes you roleplay... But if the game is really good you can do both without breaking immersion. DnD is meant to reward creative thinking, this game takes that lesson.

[@chillwhale241]

In her shop, you can also throw a haste potion with your support char on your 3 other characters and make sure you use a frighten skill on her so she won't be able to move to the cave. That way you'll have 13 actions to ko her (in 2 turns)

[@akraen1858]

That was the longest sentence I've ever read, but great info.

[@chillwhale241]

After I long rested I found her still knocked out in the shack. weird

[@kavun4905]

I can't , im a mommy dommy paladin , i can't let evil and devilishness escape from me

[@artemsheen8064]

You can cover your ears and close your eyes, while your other members get the goodies

[@disk3001]

This Sidequest goes so hard In act 1 I was blown away with how much effort was put into giving this "cruel fairy tale" feeling, with Auntie being one of the toughest opponents to go up against blind and no outcome feeling like the "good one" Has a lot of the Witcher books feel Then I was shocked when I stumbled onto the cellar and seeing the people with masks again. Seeing Maylina toughen up and fight against the Hag was so satisfying, if only we had the option of her being the one to throw the Hag Bane at Auntie Such a great quest that is up there with the best

[@sabnock31]

This has the "Witcher books" feel because it doesn't. It's based on the same eastern European folk tales as the Witcher. It has eastern European folk tales feel.

[@TobiOlan]

exactly!! That Witcher vibe made me not want to spare her, especially since the 3rd Crone escaped in Witcher 3. I felt like this quest was redemption, so I knew Ethel needed to die. I guess I'll spare Ethel since I get to kill her much later.

[@Li_Tobler]

​@sabnock31 isn't Witcher eastern European tho?

[@sabnock31]

@@Li_Tobler meh, I'm from Asia, whole world to me basically western.

[@theflyingkaramazovbrothers6]

@@sabnock31 That's funny because if you were a Westerner who said that about very different Asian cultures, you'd get called a racist here. I'm not saying you are one, I think people are just less forgiving and less empathetic (in terms of seeing, say, your perspective as an Asian) than they used to be on these issues.

[@frenchie_maple]

Sadly, my paladin-warlock rp didn't allow me to let her go... But I'm glad to have a chance to kill her all over again soon!

[@MrHulthen]

Haha that is it's own reward

[@wulf2863]

Oathbreaker is the only cool paladin

[@twistedelegance_]

I read "sadly, my young Padawan" lol

[@anakinvader9120]

Sameeeeee lmao. When I tried it, I got the whole "broken oath" scene. Had to reload as I was playing a strictly good rp 😂

[@badicusvibesimus182]

I accidentally found my way down to Ethel's lair before even talking to Grizly at the Mermaid's place. Felt kind of anticlimactic backtracking from the hag lair to start with the hag survivor group chain, but loved her reappearance.

[@ungabungus01]

I found the group and then found the lair by chance but destroying the mushrooms didn't make her appear so I had to reload and do it again 😢

[@Rime_in_Retrograde]

@@ungabungus01 Same happened to me, but the mushrooms' health regenerated when they weren't a part of the Ethel fight. Also, after fighting the masks I realized she was impersonating the bar owner/ pirate captain, so I just went upstairs to talk to her and started the fight properly. Stupid mushrooms -_-

[@sygmarvexarion7891]

Before getting to the Hag, you will have to fight some mind controlled people. If you want to play a Good character and not kill them, go into Passives and activate non-lethal damage. This will enable your melee guys to just knock them unconscious instead of killing them. Note that non-lethal mode only works with melee attacks, be them unarmed or weapons, it doesn't work with arrows and spells. Before the fight with the Hag, use a guy with an invis potion to go all the way to the switch that lowers Mayrinna's cage. Free Mayrinna, then go back to your group. Now come back with the whole group and engage the Hag. Her mirror images have 1 HP, so spells and abilities that can target multiple units at range are good but not vital. When she does transforms into Mayrinna, note that the real Mayrinna is level 1, and the Hag posing as Mayrinna is still level 5, so go after the level 5. GG.

[@crazyplinto7895]

or you can just wear the hag mask, go without a fight trough them to hag, star a fight with her(she will summon her clones AND masked slaves) and kill her, they all be saved and without mask. Why it's better? Bc non lethal damage often works really bad or not working at all. You can knock enemy out but they will disappear after long rest like if enemy were dead and not unconscious.

[@sygmarvexarion7891]

@@crazyplinto7895 You get mind controlled if you wear the mask.

[@edo2514]

@@sygmarvexarion7891 You can use Protection From Evil and Good prior to putting it on to protect yourself from the mask's effect.

[@jrtomlin1805]

You really do not have to use invisible if you have Misty Step. That will put you next to it and you can lower the cage and release her.

[@grondhero]

I used an invisibility potion, lowered the cage and _poof_ Auntie Ethel popped in. They may have corrected/fixed this trick or I may have done something wrong that I didn't notice.

[@rachaelmeyer5361]

If you kill Auntie Ethel, the "door" is waiting outside of the hags house to the right. I think you need be able to talk to animals to trigger it, but the "door" will show you treasure for saving them.

[@jasonsantos4717]

This didn't seem to trigger in my game after killing Ethel

[@bluegoose7832]

Are you saying that the frog was the door??? After killing Ethel, a frog celebrating her death led me to some treasure

[@StairFacts]

The frog isn't the door, but it does lead you to treasure.

[@piggybox]

too bad I killed the frog before I arrived auntie's house... @@bluegoose7832

[@Zenoriko]

As a paladin I was able to put on one of her masks and after succeeding in a roll It turned into a mask of Truth if I'm not mistaken, this let me go through her thralls and unlock the secret entrance through the Underdark which is where I brought in the rest of my party as they weren't able to overpower the masks. But I did not know about her pleading for her life, cool detail.

[@Mayeru]

i got to the underdark first before even realizing auntie Ethel existed, that's how distracted I get while doing side quests. I used the mushroom teleport in the Underdark and suddenly appeared at the back of her house, which then I had to break in and jump through the window in order to knock on the door and enter as if nothing has happened.

[@Shywer]

This game is insane i love it :D@@Mayeru

[@crunchyoats1862]

My character failed the will throw when he put the mask on and became a puppet of the hag and started killing his party members.

[@Zenoriko]

I also found the underdark before finding the secret entrance but left it for later exploration so finding the way to the secret entrance was a bit of a challenge especially with the stalker and underground lizard guy in the way :D@@Mayeru

[@dimitriuss]

ok i just dealt with the hag. What are these masks were talking about...?

[@anothervagabond]

RE: the mentally dominated people in Ethel's first lair. One of them (the Mask of Regret) actually comes to her senses once you kill Ethel, and she mentions that she hasn't been enslaved by the mask for as long as the others, which is the only reason she still has her own mind and personality. The other masks just keep standing around doing nothing because there's nothing of the people they used to be left inside, they're just empty husks controlled by the masks. She also shows up as one of Mayrina's hag-busting crew in act 3 if you save her in act 1.

[@robfus]

In my game I knocked them out (still alive) then I had to long rest out of the cave and they were gone. They entirly disappeared for me :(.

[@qamalqureshi8329]

​@@robfusyou had to revive/heal them after you killed the hag

[@robfus]

@@qamalqureshi8329 the problem is i knocked tyem out and had to long rest i was out of spellslots and when I returned they were gone before i reached the hag

[@qamalqureshi8329]

@@robfus you could throw a healing potion

[@robfus]

@@qamalqureshi8329 you can do that?

[@Shan_de7]

No bonus reward is more satisfying than killing a witch twice

[@Accessdenied89]

I was so very disappointed that I didn't get to face the entire hag coven. I really believed in my heart I would face her and her sisters in act 3 😢. I thought this because of the letters to her sisters I found at her home. And because pissing off one hag means you piss them all off. While Auntie Ethel is one of my top 5 favorite characters in the game. I'd be lying if I didn't confess my disappointment about the end of my hag encounters.

[@thesongoflunch]

This is but one of the many act 3 disappointments when it comes to setups with a lack of payoff :(. Don't get me wrong BG3 is fantastic but I was left that little bit sad at the empty feeling of some of the Act 3 quests. Usually went, go to the waypoint, fight the boss with no real build-up To avoid spoilers... the... more devilish related quest was brilliant though.

[@Accessdenied89]

@@thesongoflunch agreed on the devilish quest. Not sure which route you took. But mine was EPIC!

[@rotonek2887]

​@@thesongoflunchstoo sugarcoating lol. The game is just unfinished, you can plainly see it with karlach quest

[@wulf2863]

​@@thesongoflunchit's just like divinity original sin 2, super frontloaded game that gets worse by the end

[@ZorroVulpes]

@@wulf2863 unfortunately that's how modern gaming is. most people get bored of games in a few hours because focusing on things and not being as passive as possible are "hard", just look at achievements. 13% of bg3 players never left the nautilus and only 50% of elden ring players beat Margitt. Game developers have no incentive to make the final third of the game good. You really only have to get several hours into most games for your achievements to start getting glowing borders around them

[@PenguinPotstickers]

She was super bugged for me in act 3 because I had snuck down to her lair and shot all the mushrooms, so when she returned to her hag form she had 0 health while still being alive and I had to heal her and punch her at the same time

[@yvesnerona13]

Almost went nuts with this lol couldnt figure out what to do. lol Bitch wont even talk to me after it transformed, thank you so much for the help.

[@Modhunter42]

Make sure to post this as a Bug for Larian to fix... Unlike Bugthesda, Larian does Real fixing.

[@loadofcheese]

You can save one of the masked servants in act 1 if you kill Ethel before she teleports away the first time she reveals herself in the teahouse. 3 of them will refuse to believe that she's really dead (which she isn't tbf) but the 4th will thank you for saving her and, if I remember right from early access, say she's headed to Baldur's gate so you can probably meet them again. I didn't manage to do this in the full release so far so idk what happens if you manage to find them again.

[@sadchiefanakin1496]

Wish I could have done this, I had used none lethal damage and then tried to remove their masks, not realizing this killed them until later.

[@pokemon202668]

She may join the other half survivors in the abandoned house

[@StuartRobertson-y4n]

i Unpetrified the dwarf and he was so thankful until he realised, He was still sick and died on the spot xD

[@pokemon202668]

@@StuartRobertson-y4n yeah i found that out the hard way lol. they only live if you choose to kill her outright and not take her gift

[@StairFacts]

@@StuartRobertson-y4n If you kill Ethel first then he'll be unpetrified and realize that his sickness was a curse placed on him by the hag.

[@natchy99]

I went in there as a friend, and didn't talk to her about Mayrina. When Mayrina whines about overeating, Auntie Ethel banishes her to the cage in her lair, but doesn't transform. Since she was mean to Mayrina, I had my rogue sneak attack her, which made her transform and retreat into the lair. The sneak attack damage did not follow into the upcoming battle. She turns invisible, and will not come out until you approach Mayrina, then she attacks. She almost always gets the initiative, but I got lucky on my first shot, and found the real hag, then threw a silence radius on her. She is very weak if you silence her. Might have missed the mercy plea because she died in the silence radius. I love the fact that you can get Hirelings from Withers. It lets me do what I want without worrying that all my Companions will leave. Some games allow you to make choices, but penalize you when companions leave the party. Not a problem in Baldur's Gate 3.

[@Polypoly06]

I killed her before she can retreat. -You need an ability to see invisibility. - You need to CC her. - You need to prepare to wombo-combo her in a few turn.

[@natchy99]

I agree, if you prep for her, See Invisibility will make it super easy. My party in the first play through has no Primary Spellhound. Bard, Rogue, Cleric, Barb. I like it, but See Invisibility is a luxury for a Bard.@@Polypoly06

[@blaiskris]

you can go back to the teahouse after killing her and talk to the dwarf and elf, but didn't get the chance to get this option as well, the final blow just finished her off

[@MjollTheLioness-o4y]

I was going to kill her but then got the cutscene. Instead of her speaking to my PC she spoke to Laezel. I was able to use Laezel's warrior status to intimidate her into giving me Mayrina and her hair. She was not happy lol. I actually look forward to fighting her again.

[@troybilko]

She found her way into the abyss via eldritch blast from wyll

[@Constellasian]

Damn. I managed to kill her before she could escape to her underground lair. I guess I'm out of luck until the next playthrough.

[@pintlemounted]

So I killed her so fast I she never even got to her lair. I explored it totally confused before freeing mayrina.

[@theresia9830]

How did you do it?

[@mrtinytankky8265]

I sparta pushed her into the pit during her fight in act 1, super proud of myself that I finally used the enviroment for once during combat. Afterwards I found out that you get no rewards for that, since all the good stuff went down with her...

[@knucklessg1]

Same 🤣 Also not sure what that will mean for act 3

[@Nasuradin]

If you kill her in act 1 aside from the mask of regret person reappearing in act 3 with the survivors group, you can free the petrified dwarf without him dying and tell the elf its safe to leave, but they dont give you any kind of reward for it as far as i know

[@Nempo13]

exp is all

[@SaturninePlaces]

If you are having issues getting her to surrender: make sure you took out the enslaved enemies earlier in the dungeon so they don't spawn during the fight, and make sure it gets to the REAL Hag's turn for her to give up, I got it with 20hp. She may also just not give up with a certain number of crones alive, I had 1 illusion up still but idk for sure.

[@a.j.4076]

This is not a reason why you should let Auntie Ethel live in Act 3. You should fix the title.

[@bigggamer4399]

Sparing the hag in act 1 is also an easy way to break your oath if you're an ancients paladin if you want to be an oathbreaker.

[@Flintlockon]

True! but the easiest way to break your oath that i have found is freeing the goblin Zazza from her cage at the back of the tiefling area in the druids grove. Grant me power ghost paladin!

[@darcraven01]

so, fun fact... if you can keep one character out of the fight with her in act one (staying far enough away, like in the room with the masked people and hide for good measure) if you get her to give you the deal, accept the hair (and save the girl if you want) then before you exit the dialogue you swap to your hidden character and it'll give you the hair option. then you bring your hidden character down and you can deal the killing blow. though given that she returns it doesnt overly matter (at least that worked in early access.. unsure if they changed it cuz i killed her too quick and didnt get the option for hair)

[@88Spint]

Totally the best voice acted character in the game, brilliantly written too. Exactly how I imagine a hag to be.

[@ryanwhitaker4444]

Some of the performances in this game are phenomenal. Kagha, Gale, Lae'Zel and Astarion are incredibly acted IMO.

[@xtradany5398]

"This group of made of survivors." Gestures toward zombie

[@benjamincroxson2020]

there is actually as book you can read that tells you the only way to destroy the mushrooms providing her immortality is to use fire on them. I used flame arrows and it seemed to do the trick, but again, couldn't figure out a way to save Vanra's child. At least she can die for good though

[@MrHulthen]

You need to use a "grenade" called Hag's Bane that you throw at Ethel to make her vomit up the kid. You can find the recipe in the ruined house where Mayrina is, in the vault under the stairs

[@Gladerunner2113]

@@MrHulthen If you don't craft Hag's Bane, you can also do a non-lethal knock out Ethel, which will trigger a cutscene where you cut the child out of the hag Its a bit glitchy though, I'm not sure of all of the variables (of whether it works while the healing mushrooms are active, or her masks are active)

[@broutefoin]

Hags bane potion works, if you dont have that, toggle on non-lethal damage to knock her out, she'll puke up the kid, then you can can execute her once youre out of the cutscene.

[@Vliesie]

Spoiler Alert: But Good one How to save the girl Yabble to Fill For Spoiler Yabble to Fill For Spoiler Yabble to Fill For Spoiler Yabble to Fill For Spoiler Yabble to Fill For Spoiler Yabble to Fill For Spoiler Yabble to Fill For Spoiler Yabble to Fill For Spoiler Yabble to Fill For Spoiler IF you want to save the little girl where u found the victims theres a safe on the wall recipe for a hags brew throw it at her thank me later

[@swivelshivel6576]

Pro-tip for act 3 fight: toggle non-lethal as to knock her out so you can cut the child out.

[@MacwinsTV]

If you were reading then you need to make a special potion , throw it on her she vomits the kid. You can find about special potion where you find the girl house 2nd time.

[@CreativeUsernameEh]

@@MacwinsTV No, you don’t “need” any silly potion. toggle non-lethal daamge works too.

[@Li_Tobler]

​@CreativeUsernameEh both ways work so I don't really see the point of your comment

[@SirAlric82]

I killed Ethel and saved the girl, but then she started bitching at me because i ruined her genius plan to exchange her unborn child for the resurrection of her husband. So know apparently the only way to finish the quest now is to use the wand to reanimate her husband corpse and give control of it to her, so she can go searching for someone who can actually resurrect him. Which i'm not going to do because it seems like a terrible idea. So basically i have an unfinished quest now in my diary. I must have done something wrong i think.

[@despenadam2147]

you can keep the wand

[@grondhero]

After you've defeated Auntie Ethel in her tea house, you can go back and talk to some of her victims, such as the guy who was turned to stone. They'll thank you and realize she tricked them.

[@gemodemplay415]

Oh I made this witch despair. At the end, after speaking to her dead body, I threw her into the pit where she would have thrown that stupid curly haired woman. I also took the wand and had Connor as a perma slave to use him as a target dummy or bait for enemies for the rest of the game.

[@ZeepDr]

Good to know! Thanks for the vid! Would love to see more content like this. :)

[@catplantASMR]

omg i didn't know about this oops i killed her and kept the zombie guy lol

[@JordanJumpin]

one of the masked people come back and are part of the hag survivors group if you kill ethel in act 1

[@PRUNKGAMING]

Not gunna lie, I helped auntie ethel out and recruited her for the final end game battle 😂😂😂

[@FirekingBarong]

So for everyone who killed Ethel before she could even teleport away, like in my case (lvl 5 and 3 crits...), you wont get any permanent buffs anymore even if you give the reanimation stick to Mayrina. In that case, keep the stick! You can use it indefinatly to reanimate that zombie guy for 8 turns, wich is extremely good to have.

[@ZenJestr]

if you want to know what happens: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > she revives herself and the events shown in this video play out. you can even ask her how the fuck she survived, too. basically, sparing her in Act 1 is the optimal choice but yea I didn't get a chance on my playthrough since I got a upcasted Divine Smite crit on her that took her over the cutscene threshold and killed her lol.

[@FirekingBarong]

@@ZenJestr I kinda expected this ^^ So that stick is also just a good bonus to have then i guess, i knew i should have stayed on the Savestate where i kept it xD thank you

[@sneauxday7002]

i make every reaction ask me for this kind of reason lmaao@@ZenJestr

[@Akiraspin]

Devotion aint free. The blood of the unnatural gotta litter the Oath of Devotion armorset. Auntie unEtheical, AKA Shrekrina is not my advocate, she is a green hag and probably an Unseelie as well. Selune and Lathander, not Shar and The Queen of Air and Darkness, ok praise the Morninglord. :DDDDD (this copypasta was brought to you by a 4chan lurker)

[@shawngillogly6873]

Sorry. Vengeance Paladin doesn't have a choice in the matter. Mercy is for non-Edgelord Paladins.😂

[@MrHulthen]

Lmao, well there are still some great rewards at the end of the questline in Baldur's Gate, so you do have something to look forward to

[@shawngillogly6873]

@MrHulthen This is the best way to handle the quest, imho. But I didn't want to go Oathbreaker. That's for my Dark Urge run, where I go Lockadin and embrace the Ilithid powers.

[@wulf2863]

Oathbreaker paladin can do any choice (:

[@shawngillogly6873]

@wulf2863 I'm going to be an Oathbreaker Lockadin w/ a Great Old One patron who pushes the Ilithid powers as far as he can w/o actually turning next game.

[@insomniacresurrected1000]

Auntie Ethel did not give me the option to save her, or I literally nuked out her out of existence with spells, and special arrows. So much did I fear her in my first playthrough.

[@StreyX]

So far, the only way that I've seen that works for saving everyone in Ethel's lair is to bypass fighting them, engage Ethel, and insta-killing her via shoving her into the chasm. You get to talk to them that way and know they're alive, where as if you knock them out; they leave behind their stuff as if dead.

[@Aramans]

hmmmm.... yeeted her with an knockback-arrow into the pit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ oops

[@yennefer440]

Oops I killed her 😅

[@MrHulthen]

Oof! Well, atleast you get some good rewards when finally dealing with her in the city

[@EyebrowsGaming]

>Spares the Hag >Is playing Oath of Ancestors Paladin I fucked it up guys

[@Webhead123]

I stumbled onto Ethel's shack from the portal to the Underdark, tried going through her portal in the fireplace and it triggered combat. So, now seeing her transform into a hag, I promptly blitzkrieged her in a single round. Never even had a chance to prompt a side quest. Oh well. Watching her ugly mug drop before she could even react was pretty satisfying.

[@ThePie_NedGreen]

I did the same thing too, but since marlina was being a cry baby I just kill her and loot everything. Then I went back and found some fish people

[@__Infinity_Hearts__]

can you cover what happens if yu nock out both the hag and maryina during the fight and then also what mayrina item is used for =p

[@unArthodoxDR]

Personally, I found myself overwhelmed by Act 3's side quests. There were a lot of them, almost all required some sort of combat preparation, and since I was primarily focusing on the RP elements, I didn't have the best team, just picked up the folks my character would appreciate having. I was _this close_ from dropping the game. (spoilers here) But this quest just kind of... revitalized my excitement. I see an old foe, with a relatively unique problem where "you can't kill her without killing the child." It made me think. And despite the solution being very simple and actually quite easy, I felt good to see everyone being happy for a job well done. Now, I no longer treat other quests as side quests. Just little adventures the team stumbles upon and tries to make the best out of a bad situation. Often failing, but celebrating the little victories they can. I appreciate how much Baldur's Gate 3 allows you to write your own story.

[@MrHulthen]

Very true. Side quests are very involved in this game & i absolutely love it

[@WalterWhite-jz7ct]

the problem is that the Game gives you all this freedom but can't handle it. I've done some side quests that made my companions tell me stuff in camp that never happend to me because i did them out of order. The Game has a progression but it's so obscure that it always gets tangled up with other stuff (best example is the Mointain pass cloister where the creshe is. I never once found the option to use that giant canon on the roof but my companions all say something like "im glad we didn't use it to kill the Gith"...and im like "THAT WAS AN OPTION? WTF?")

[@Hirosanman]

Wait, that's an option???@@WalterWhite-jz7ct

[@soldslayer6658]

SPOILER if you pick up the blood of lathander... the secret weapon under the cloister... without putting the required item inside, the weapon does destruct the cloister@@Hirosanman

[@diegocfq]

@@WalterWhite-jz7ct The characters believe it was an option. However there is no evidence that that cannon was even functional. There are diaries where one acolyte writes that another monk of Lathander saw the cannon being shot once (which sounds like it's a made up lie to the younger monks because the real purpose of that temple was to keep the secret mace you can get there, in which case, they never could shoot the cannon anyway because it was just for show).

[@venetoaward]

sucks if you're an oath paladin, you'll lose your powers

[@luke_fabis]

There's one character in Act 1 who can escape Ethel's influence, and she ends up with the hag survivors in Act 3 and vouches for your character. The rest are too far gone. She doesn't really do anything else, so if you're a minmaxer, it's the worse choice. But if you're trying to RP at least a little, the right thing to do is kill Auntie Ethel without harming her masks.

[@daerlix3164]

Yeah, I wasn't lucky with my fight and didn't see option to spare her. She cast madness on my paladin, he threw explosive under himself killing both her and the girl, it was hilarous.

[@DarthShino]

Just a WARNING for Paladins... Letting her live will break your oath... even if you save the girl too... at least for me it did (Vengeance) Also... Magic Missile for the win! Let Gale cast it at level 2 and ... well let's just say it will be very useful for the fight.

[@SheinelI]

Or just start the fight with silence

[@Ershiin]

I mean... Its an oath of *vengeance* :p

[@DarthShino]

@@Ershiin Right... I expected it to happen, tried it anyway, and it did. Not everyone will think of that though... so thought I'd share.

[@ocskopf]

I broke my vengeance paladin oath by telling Minthara the location of the Grove so i can have big epic battle against badguys, lol

[@lemonzest8650]

Keep one party member hidden and outside the area (fight should be more than manageable -1 member), and once you complete the skill check to get the +1 ability point, switch to excluded member, choose the ability point you want, sneak up behind Ethel and kill her to free her victims and get that sweet sweet EXP (you get no EXP if you take the deal and let her leave).

[@ForFutureHistorians]

I killed her, actually I never had the cut scene where she makes the offer.

[@MrHulthen]

You nuked her from orbit before she had the chance i presume? 😂

[@ForFutureHistorians]

@@MrHulthen II dont know mate. I was focused how to save the girl from burning cage.

[@mjentertaintment2706]

Fun fact Barbarians can intimidate her into letting Maryana go AND giving you the piece of her skin that gives a +1 ability score. She isn't super happy about it.

[@nir4s63]

While fighting Auntie the first time in Act 1 I struggled to get her to offer a deal at all despite her being 4-9 hp. The problem was silence spell to which I managed to throw her into in the middle of the fight. Suprisingly this spell supresses any dialog from being iniciated.

[@dl4071]

makes sense as you can't make any noises when you're silenced....they thought this thru ngl

[@ofekcohen4567]

Who knew there optios, i actually just pushed her to her death.

[@lixnix2018]

What happened to Wyll why has he horns

[@MrHulthen]

Well uh, something happens very early on in Act 1 xD

[@lixnix2018]

@@MrHulthen thanks for the not spoiler answer wasn’t sure if it was a mod or story I am still on vacation and will be able to play the game in a few days finally

[@Jackthat1]

@@MrHulthenI laughed when he said not to take the deal “ you’re one to talk”

[@Veldazandtea]

Quest related. It happens of its own accord.

[@SonicAF]

@@Jackthat1 He does it all the time and I always chuckle. Nevertheless, that's the point. He knows the consequences of an infernal (figuratively or literally) deal first-hand and he shares his experience. He isn't a hypocrite.

[@zachariashulthen]

oh it soon time for Baldur's Gate 3 for me in the winter :D

[@RhysCanKill]

When we first entered her boss room, we were a little unprepared; so we snuck into the side room with the mushroom circle that leads you out. One of us initiated combat, while the party hid in that room, then the one who initiated escaped. This led to her standing still while facing the northern wall, allowing the strongest party member to sneak up just beside her and being able to push her into in chasm, killing her with little to no confrontation. One of the best moments in our playthrough so far.

[@What-go8ng]

just snag the invisibility potion from the chest and invis behind her

[@Pruemedia]

I let her live, but didn’t accept her stat boost either… Assumed she’d be even worse to deal with later in game if she goes through reincarnation, and didn’t trust her deals, based on the ways she “helped” everyone else in her gallery. Wasn’t interested in whatever twist May come along with a stat boost from her… But, based on this… It looks like I should have just taken it. Oh well.

[@gustavonomegrande]

If you silence her at her house in act 1, mayrina won't go along and you can get the extra stat without giving away mayrina nor needing a skill check.

[@grizzlyadamblack]

Damn I didn't get her to stop and ask for her life wth.

[@aeli999]

Spoilers but Auntie Ethel is actually in the Druid's Grove when you first go there. I only found her in my third game. I keep finding things I missed. lol

[@MrHulthen]

Dang, i missed that aswell lmao

[@yennefer440]

That's how I met her. She told me to come to the swamp.

[@cmdr.jabozerstorer3968]

Indeed and she gives you some free stuff. Nothing exciting though. She lulled me into a false sense and well, when I later found her on the road with Myrina's brother's, I sided with her and killed her brother's, Oops.

[@cmdr.jabozerstorer3968]

And yes, I believe you can attack her that early before she even gets to her swamp home.

[@MrHulthen]

@@cmdr.jabozerstorer3968 hahah oh man

[@Lu5ck]

I killed her for the companion approval. I do assume that I would see her later on as she proclaim she will always come back, just troublesome to.

[@xmixaplix]

Everyone in the comments: never trust a hag The hag: you want power? 😈 Me: 🤔 go on...👀

[@whssy]

I killed her in act one and got the hair anyway. Maybe you just forgot to pick it up? OTOH Mayrina died in my playthrough. Not got to the part in act 3 yet so I assume mine will play out a little differently.

[@bartkoscinski9421]

Spoiler warnings are supposed to come before the spoiler, not after. Blocking this account from my feed now.

[@tizardloes]

It came before?

[@emperorehryn2370]

There's a surprising amount of "bad options" that reward you with fantastic buffs

[@alexrosu4405]

I've played enough rpgs to know the monsters and as soon as the Auntie Ethel (in the grove) told me to go to her house on the edge of the forest I could smell her hag stink. I decided then and there to bring her Tyr's justice but I took some detours and ended up in the Underdark, from there I just stumbled upon the hag's house backyard sneaked into her home positioned my team and took her out in one round. I knew I was probably skipping a lot of content but I'm just disgusted by hags and rightly so ( I found out in the next playthrough what she was planning to do and I knew the first time that it was something along those lines). What I'm trying to say is this is the best game ever 100/10.

[@Rime_in_Retrograde]

I was so annoyed by the fight in Act 3. I stumbled on her lair completely by accident (I didn't find Mayrina, but I did stumble on the mother looking for her daughter, and then decided to check the bar's basement). At first I thought the victims were leftover from when Ethel was still alive, and that the masked dudes couldn't be saved like those in her first lair. And *then* I found the mushrooms and realized she was still alive; I tried to destroy them, but they regenerated until I went upstairs to talk to the bar owner / hag. Come to find out that the masked victims could've been saved, and the mushrooms could only be destroyed during an annoying fight... thankfully I knocked out Ethel and saved the child, but still :/

[@Revotur]

I heard that if Minthara fails in act 1 and doesn't get the sacred groove, she can be recruited later, but not as a follower of the Absolute. Is it true and if so, how to make it fail and at the same time allow the refugees to survive?

[@Ildun]

I snipe her in manual turn based mode, and my "Save Mayrina" glitched, cannot progress :( Oh, and I pickup her body, wonder how she revive, crawl up from my bag? :D

[@truecross4090]

Imma have to adopt for the spoilers, but I'll be honest. I couldn't take the buff. She wanted that baby and idc if it is rp or not I am freaking obligated to sever the head of someone cruel like that (I'm aware of what that baby probably is, but my character wouldn't be). By her dialog I'm assuming she has a simulacrum. Not sure how to spell it, but I read about it before and I know it is in DnD. So if the worst case scenario is I get to behead a child thief twice well...actually. That sounds like a best case scenario.

[@jacobboeser]

I didn't even know there was an option to spare her. That fight gave me such a headache I snuck gale around where she spawned and yeeted her with the blast spell over the side instantly killing her when the fight commenced. I read somewhere that the devs actually patched her being pushed off the side, but I guess they didn't think about blasting her off the side lol

[@dimitriuss]

what level was your party and what was challenging about the fight? Genuinely curious as I stumbled in there at level 4 and didnt have any issues. She had one nasty turn after using some kind of mirror image spell, but i just popped them with magic missile charges and then ran her down before she got another turn she made a deal.

[@jacobboeser]

@@dimitriuss I was actually level 4 as well. and I believe I made it challenging on myself because I snuck passed the bewitched servants and she spawned them in when i confronted her. I figured If I snuck passed them and killed her then their bewitching would lift. That and when she uses her illusion spell, I got like 9 or 10 enemies against me. also my party was half health anyway and out of rests because I have a tendency to not do long rests before an area/boss is cleared. I also tried several times to use the ogres I befriended to fight with me. But because Mayrina isnt in my party, they kept killing her. So I couldn't use them. So yeah...I probably made it difficult on myself, so I just cheesed her as best I could.

[@Isidore22]

My friends and I killed her in the home before she could even escape. It shuts down dialogue options later and kills the Mayrina story options with husband, BUT you can save the people with the masks. They don't aggro and talk to you. They are not aware they are wearing the masks. I pickpocketed a mask off one of them and they are free of the spell and say they will go to Baldurs Gate to hunt the rest of the hags to save people.

[@Demane69]

Just about to face here. I don't think my Drow Spore Druid/Necromancer will have any issue with sparing her. lol

[@jakob3044]

Bro I used command 'freeze' and divine smit her to death before she could even leave the teahouse. Two tirns on my min-maxxed Half-Oec Pally with haste potion. No mercy

[@TheLaluciDaniel]

had Astarion hide in a corner in act one, and after I passed the check to make her leave the girl and give me the hair clump, I had Astarion sneak up and kill her while she was chatting to us, freeing the thralls too. But I made sure they were knocked out first. So now I got all their stuff as well, as well as all the masks for my collection.

[@aarons.2323]

I left her alone at first, she didn't transform, but then accidentally found the entrance behind the fireplace, and that aggro-ed her and... yeah. Haven't gone back to fight her yet. I thought about save scumming since it was a total accident, but... nah. I've done it a few times when I miss some dialog checks, but I left it as is for her.

[@valacarno]

Knowing what the society have done to her in the original mythos to create such a monster out of a beautiful and sincere young girl, it is morally unacceptable to do her even more harm.

[@CapDrew]

In her cave it can actually lead into the underdark. I’m not sure if you have to access the mushroom circle first or if you can skip that part to access it

[@kria008]

i was sad that you didnt fight a whole coven cause it seemed there would be one from her correspondence in act 1 and iw as looking forward to that so hard...

[@chronoallusion3172]

I just left her completely alone and she doesnt seemed to be showing up in act 3. I met her after completing all the underdark. She took my eye and thats it. I dont know how to activate her in act 3. Its weird haha

[@andews6871]

I killed Ethel in act 1 and managed to avoid killing the masks during the fight. After beating the fight without knocking out the mask of regret she broke free from the hag mind control magic and thanked me for killing the hag. All the other masks just walked around doing nothing. Later in act 3 I found her again at the hag survivors group, (her name turned out to be Hydrangea Wubb) but she didn't do or give me anything asides from helping kill the crabs that get summoned by the redcap. Makes me regret not taking the ability increase now, but alas I'm not loading a save from 50 hours ago.

[@Flintlockon]

A good deed is its own reward!

[@leonseawood8184]

Nice spoiler in the title

[@minnymoon1360]

How can you get the item ad keep the girl? So she can take the wand and try to bring her husband back herself? Is that possible?

[@danielj6897]

Lae'zel and Astarion are like the devils on my shoulder and Shadowheart is the angel on my other shoulder. Unfortunately 2 beats 1 so I always end up siding with the devils lol. Anytime they disapprove of my actions I'm like, "Welp, I guess I'm justified in being a dick." *Quickloads*

[@sanketvaria9734]

When I played first time, it went as usual. But second time, I knew so I exposed her at the home in front of mayrina. The fight occurred right there and after killing her some of the NPC got freed in her lair

[@Peleski]

20 dice roll isn't easy in the early game, unless you're "save scumming". Besides, the +1 isn't permanent if you are rezzed, I don't think it's worth it.

[@DISTurbedwaffle918]

Can't. I'm a based and righteous looksmaxxing gigachad Paladin who swings Lathander's Blood around like it's my birthright. No mushroom can prevail against me (except those dudes in the Underdark, they're chill).

[@freddykruger1086]

I actually ended her in her house before ever going to the basement. Missed a lot of content coming from divinity og sin 2 im just used to cheesing my way trought. Its hard to slow down and just "try" stuff to see what happens..im always like whatever..hide..this char in convo..if convo goes bad wreck everything in 1-2 turns. I need to take a step back and enjoy rpg in a blind/non numbers obsessed manners x)

[@MrChupacabra555]

Stopping before the spoiler. Just encountered her in her lair, but haven't had the Big Fight yet, was wondering if I had to kill her or not. I'll find the rest out by myself 😄