During Baldur’s Gate 3, you will encounter many potential allies who are willing to support you in the final battle to save the city and the entire Sword Coast. However, there are also allies who help you for other reasons. One of them is quite hidden but extremely helpful.
Spoiler Alert! This article will describe content from the first and third acts of Baldur’s Gate 3.
Who is the secret ally? It is Aunt Ethel, the treacherous hag, whom you can find in Act 1 and Act 3 of the game. Throughout your journey, she wants to implement her plans for a successor, which you can either prevent or assist her with.
In both situations, you can decide how to handle the hag’s demands, but to ensure her help in the final battle, there is only one way, which is presented by a player on Reddit.
Here you can see the game’s trailer:
The help of a hag is never free
How does Aunt Ethel become an ally? To get Ethel as an ally for the final battle, you must be willing to make sacrifices. In your first encounter in her true form, she wants to keep Mayrina’s child to raise as a successor. You ultimately have to grant this to her after a battle. Ideally, you can finalize a deal with her at the same time to gain a permanent buff through Ethel’s hair.
In the third act, a woman named Lora is searching for her missing daughter. In the bar “The Blushing Mermaid”, you can talk to Captain Grisly about this case, who then claims that Lora is crazy and that she should be killed. If you follow the “Captain’s” request and kill the mother, Grisly turns out to be Ethel, who has stolen the child to create a new hag.
Now you can make a second deal: You spare the hag and leave her the child, after which Ethel offers her help in the final battle.
How can the hag help in the final battle? Through Ethel’s magic, she can grant “Greater Invisibility” to up to 5 team members. If you move quickly and do not attack anyone, you can bypass a large part of the battle to save your spell, HP, and item resources.
Especially in Honor Mode, this can be a crucial advantage. The final opportunity for recovery equivalent to a long rest no longer exists in the most difficult mode.
How does her help affect the ending? If you maintain a good tolerance level with the hag at the end of the game, you will receive an “interesting” letter from her in the epilogue of Baldur’s Gate 3:
Hello Petal,
I have given birth to Vanra – or Aunt Vanra, to be precise. She has been fighting with me the whole time, my goodness. I have told her all about you, and she can’t wait to meet her new godparent.
Man, they grow up so fast, don’t they?
With her and Mayrina’s brat, I have a nice little coven. Right now, we are of course holding back – I don’t want my girls to be overwhelmed too soon. But over time, they will make their debut, and the Sisters of the Seeing Pearl will be whole again.
And all of this just for you.
With all my love,
Aunt Ethel
P.S. I have lived for a very, very long time, and I only regret one thing – that I didn’t mount you like a tree when I had the chance x
An extremely friendly and optimistic message from the old lady. However, it is likely more fitting for a character that is willing to sacrifice the lost future of two children for their own profit. Those who want to further throw their morality overboard to become the ultimate villain in Baldur’s Gate 3 could gather more inspiration here: If you want to be the ultimate villain, the lead developer has given us a guide on how to do it in Baldur’s Gate 3
