You can enter a romance with each of your companions in Baldur’s Gate 3 if you do it right. However, one character is problematic for several reasons: Minthara. You can only get the Drow if you are evil – and even then the romance doesn’t always work.
Spoiler Warning: The article discusses developments of various characters throughout all acts of Baldur’s Gate 3.
What kind of romance is this? Minthara is one of the companions in Baldur’s Gate 3, a Lolth-devoted Drow and a Paladin of Lawful Evil alignment by default.
You can usually only recruit the Drow if you are really evil, because you have to slaughter refugees for that. Players have been puzzling since release about how to obtain Minthara without wading through blood:
- some swear by a loving swing with the club against Minthara’s forehead
- others steal a priceless artifact and watch as goblins and druids slaughter each other
Regularly, you lead the goblin attack on the camp yourself. As thanks, there is immediately a sex scene with Minthara. If you do it right, you can win Minthara as your partner later in the game. Women have it easier here because Drow live in a matriarchal society.
The scene with Minthara is one of the most popular romance scenes in the game and quickly gets quite steamy:
This is what makes dealing with Minthara so difficult: Unlike all other romances, you can only interact with Minthara starting from Act 2. There, you have to free her from a prison again before she joins you permanently.
From there you can gather her approval. The problem: the romance with Minthara is still riddled with bugs. Some dialogue options do not do what they are supposed to – Minthara sometimes treats you like a stranger.
Romance scenes are also not triggered, leading players to suspect that they are simply missing. Nevertheless, some fans of the Drow have already committed and say: it’s really worth it.
For Minthara, you must forgo Halsin. He is so popular, that there is even a speedrun category for his sex scene:
“She would go to hell alone to take down Zariel”
In a large discussion on Reddit, it’s all about Minthara and what makes the Paladin so special. The creator says: he likes Minthara now as much as Karlach, which he never expected.
Although the Drow always seems tough and cold, her arguments always have a basis that is somehow understandable. Instead of arguing with feelings, she thinks pragmatically, albeit extremely brutally.
One user points out that Minthara is indeed capable of showing her feelings. However, this can only happen with Karlach, of all people. Normally, you don’t see the two together in the camp:
If you want a particularly rare version of the story, play as Karlach. Follow the Goblin side of the quests, then enter a romance with Minthara. A Karlach who has come to terms with death and is in a romance with Minthara shows a completely new side of Minthara. One that is willing to go through hell alone and kill Zariel in a crusade of vengeance for her beloved. Minthara is the “Ride or Die” chick you want on your side.
Other users say that Minthara reacts similarly with other characters. Unfortunately, I can only confirm this to a limited extent: when I did my evil run and entered a romance with Minthara, she was often still quite reserved.
Nevertheless, it somehow felt right. As the child of the murder god Bhaal, she suited my character very well. Just making sure you support each other, no matter what happens, was exactly what I expected from the relationship.
The most popular romance option is indeed Shadowheart, at least according to the latest figures. There are some exciting stats here:
“I’m waiting with my Durge run until she’s fixed”
Nevertheless, Minthara is high on the list of issues that fans still want resolved. Her missing or faulty dialogue options even prevent players from starting an evil run.
In the discussion about the new Patch 5, which is supposed to fix a major performance issue, calls for Minthara have also resurfaced. Users have already mentioned: they are waiting with their “Dark Urge” run until it is worthwhile to enter a romance with Minthara.
How long this will take, we do not know. The developers are already working on “new features” for the game, but there is still no date for when these will be released. More information will be available in the next community update.
If you decide to recruit Minthara as a companion and want to enter a romance with her, you will have to give up a lot. There is already an overview of this:
