Baldur’s Gate 3 offers you a ton of content that you can discover or miss. However, most of it consists of smaller items or snippets of conversation. But if you don’t engage with a certain old woman in Act 1, you’ll miss out on a whole story. There is no warning for that.
Spoiler Warning: This involves story from Act 1 and Act 3.
What kind of NPC is she?
- Aunt Ethel is a “nice” old woman whom you can first meet in the Tiefling camp. There she “helps” you, but it quickly turns out to be a scam.
- In reality, Ethel is a nasty hag and one of the toughest bosses at the beginning. If you follow her quest, you’ll learn more about her.
- However, the entire questline surrounding Ethel is optional. You never have to encounter her again if you don’t want to.
What does Ethel do in Act 1? Actually, the hag invites you to her hut in the woods – which quickly reveals itself to be a witch’s house in a stinky swamp when you arrive or succeed on a relevant check.
Tip: If you’re in an “evil” playthrough or simply enjoy chaotic decisions, you can sacrifice your eye to Ethel and receive one of the best buffs in the game.
If you follow her quest, you discover that Ethel has made a deal with a young, pregnant woman. She wants to bring back the dead husband and demands the unborn baby as payment.
You then have the opportunity to prevent this deal. Hags are rarely fair. This leads to a fight that is so infamous, that some players prepare for hours. However, Ethel does not disappear completely but reappears later.
The fight against Ethel can be exhausting. Have you misallocated your skills? Here’s how to reset your character:
Those who let Ethel do her thing will miss her in Act 3
As a hag, Ethel is quite difficult to kill. She doesn’t just die when you finish her off. First, you need to destroy certain plants in her lair; otherwise, she simply revives. You won’t discover this until Act 3.
There, you’ll meet Ethel again with a long questline and many NPCs who have been betrayed by the witch. All this escalates into an epic adventure that will keep you busy for quite some time – depending on your play style, easily between 5 and 10 hours.
A player on Reddit has discovered, however, that if you let Ethel do her thing, you will never meet her again. If you do not visit her in Act 1, she also never appears again in Act 3. An entire area beneath the tavern, which would otherwise be Ethel’s new hideout, simply does not exist. It actually does not exist.
Even some of the NPCs you would meet during the quest suddenly become completely normal. In fact, they are doppelgängers while the originals are being held captive.
This also makes sense, as Ethel has no reason to leave her swamp. There are enough lost souls there who are desperate enough to ask the hag for help, even if they know it likely won’t end well for them.
In general, it is better to get rid of Ethel. After all, not only is the questline exciting and exceptionally well told, but you also save a few virtual lives. And there’s good loot to be had as well. Plus, you miss out on special content that only the hag can offer: She insults every character personally!
