No boss in Baldur’s Gate 3 is as nasty as the Vettel. This is not due to her strength – but to her biting insults.
If you play a Bard in Baldur’s Gate 3, you surely know the spell ‘Vicious Mockery’. This spell only does a little bit of damage, but at the same time, it causes the affected enemy to have disadvantage on their next attack roll – incredibly useful, especially on higher difficulty levels. However, the real highlight of this spell is that your opponent is mocked with biting comments.
But not only player characters use such voice lines to mock their enemies – the villains also have a large repertoire of painful insults. Chief among them is the Vettel Ethel.
Who is the Vettel Ethel? You can meet Ethel in Baldur’s Gate 3, depending on your choices, multiple times. The first time you encounter her is already in Act 1 in the small swamp area. Here she has her current residence and is currently plotting while fulfilling some wishes of the locals.
If it comes to a fight, however, it becomes clear that the Vettel apparently already has extensive knowledge of your characters and their insecurities. Because she has prepared individual insults for each origin character – which sometimes cut really deep.
What kind of insults are there? Depending on which character she attacks or whom you selected as your starting hero, Ethel spits out nasty insults. Often, these already refer to the background stories of the characters and their insecurities. Here are some examples:
- To Astarion: ‘Deep down inside, you love to be submissive, don’t you?’
- To Shadowheart: ‘Why would Shar love you if no one else does?’
‘You are not a complex puzzle. Just a sad, little girl.’ - To Lae’zel: ‘The frog with a tadpole. How fitting.’
- To Wyll: ‘Oh, look. It’s Daddy’s regret.’
- To Karlach: ‘When I’m done with you, not even Hell will want you back.’
- To Minsc: ‘How appropriate. The hamster has a pet.’
There are even insults for a scrapped origin character, Helia. She is also a werewolf – and Ethel could have already revealed that before the group finds out.
If you want to listen to all the insults, here is a compilation of all the insults Ethel has for your companions (from 1 hour 34 minutes):
She harshly insults your player character too – depending on which race you play and whether you chose a male or female character. For example, male Drow are told that they should bow before ‘more important beings’ – women. Because among the Drow, most men are enslaved.
To Half-elves she says: ‘I wonder which of your parents regrets you more.’
Especially cool: Did you know that all origin characters also have their own voice lines for insults? You only hear these if you change the class of the origin characters to ‘Bard’ or teach them appropriate spells. If you want to learn a bit more about the personalities of the companions, you should try rebuilding Karlach or Lae’zel as Bards and see how they insult their enemies.
Have you seen how Shadowheart’s girlfriend runs away with Lae’zel?
