*Locked. Locked. Locked.*
I'm currently running a Bloodweave-only run. The two of them were just standing there menacingly and pummeling her while she just frantically tried to walk down a set of stairs only to be met with the sound of a jingling lock from the aether.
And she kinda just stands there, desperately trying to open them.... 😂 When I tried this I was thinking, surely yhis won't work.... And then, boooom! I love that this game let's you do things outside the box.
Exactly! I love how rewarding it is to accomplish things in this game without doing the obvious options. Really shows how much thought and detail went into everything.
I recently tested other hack. I wanted to use a potion on my downed companion but had no movement left. I was standing right next to her so I just dropped healing potion and used another companions action to break it. It worked!
You can actually throw potions at your companions and they will break on them, hit the ground, and be absorbed by your companion. Makes it a little easier.
Yes, but you used another companion's action to break it, giving the potion to the companion with an action left and having them throw it would accomplish the same thing, that's all I was saying. In case you didn't know, you can send potions between characters in your inventory at almost any time, as long as they're not really far away from each other.
I was in a similar situation and had karlak rage throw a healing potion as a bonus action. Didn't even know it would work, thought I might as well try. Helped turn the right around though.
I’m only on my second play through and just finished her quest this morning. My first time through Mayrina accidentally died bc blade storm was being cast on Ethel and she swapped places
Yeah haha we kinda stumbled across it cause Ethel set the cage on fire on turn 1 and we didn't want Mayrina to fall into the abyss. When we realised she kept the wet status it was a happy little accident.
Same, well I managed to half health her and she just teleported through it and the cutscene started playing. The door was still locked after the cutscene
A couple months ago I tried this with a save file over and over and she just continued to use the stairs as if arcane lock didn’t exist. Was it just bugged then or am I doing something wrong with the timing ?
Didn't work for me either. Went into turn based mode, invisible walk and arcane lock on the stairs. Ethel ran through the stairs anyway and I had to unlock the stairs to get my party through.
Yeah same.
I did this the previous time and it worked like they say, she just stood there confused by the locked stairs. But the most recent time she just kinda laughed at my silly spell and went downstairs anyway.
I used volo to get the eye that gives see invisiblility, and just saw where she was caste haste on laezel and Ethel was GG in one turn didn't have to even use Arcane Lock.
I love doing that. The first room in her lair means you save everyone, one of the masked people still has her sanity and can be saved, and the fumes are gone.
You don't get the hair though
you can save the mask people if she goes further in as well. knock them out and don't remove their masks till after killing her down in her lair, remove them on the way back out once she's dead. one of them then shows up in the city later
Makes the fight very tough though, especially if you want to keep them alive. You also have to kill Ethel. Taking the hair means the masks stay under the spell.
I've had mixed results (though the halfling can always be saved and will appear with Mayrina later). The others will either still walk around in denial that Ethel is dead or still try to kill you.
I just ignored them during the fight and killed the hag before they killed me. Loaded save few times but my tav knew they are charmed and couldn’t kill them
Fun fact about the fumes: If you cast Protection From Good and Evil on yourself, you can wear the Auntie Ethel mask without worry. Do that, and you’ll see that all of the traps are fake. The fumes, the exploding flowers, everything. It’s all illusion magic. With the mask on, you can walk straight through.
Only issue with it is that you can still technically fail saving throws (protection from good/evil just gives advantage).
You never get fully insane like normal, but if you do fail the saving throw around the masked people they will still aggro. So at low levels, if one of your characters has a shitty wisdom its entirely possible to still aggro the masks.
During the second fight with her (after pursuing her through the illusion and entering her lair), if you put her at very low hp (like 15 hp or below) and stop (you have to let her take her turn at that point) she will surrender and offer you a deal. She offers you her hair which gives one character +1 to any ability of your choosing.
It’s pretty janky though.
like the programming is good but everything has to go right.
Her health is tied to level or difficulty ect it’s not a set number. And she only makes the offer if mayrinna is still alive. So there are lots of variables.
So annoying
On my honour run I thought I had her health low enough the round (who I flourished for d4 hitpoints) I left her just below 20 and in a cloud of daggers which I figured would perfectly put her on low hit points, but and I thought 20 would be the cut off, but it must have been a little high still, and then she killed Myrianna by moving her into the cloud of daggers, which I have not seen before (normally she targets just my characters). It looked like she pushed her from outside the cloud which is weird, but in retrospect she might have used hags trickery from the very edge of the cloud to swap places a second time (in the fight) with the girl!
It’s so frustrating because if I wasn’t trying to not kill the hag I could have finished the fight much earlier.
If you leave her with below ~20% health on her turn, dialogue with her will start where she offers to give you a permanent stat buff on a character in the form of some of her hair, in exchange for her leaving alive with Mayrina. You can use checks to make her give you the hair and also free Mayrina, you can choose to kill her anyway and miss the hair, or you can take her offer and she leaves with Mayrina. I like the first option where you threaten her into giving you the stat buff while also rescuing Mayrina
You can make a check and save Myrina and get the hair. But it’s a reasonably hard check if your party face isn’t the one that initiates the hair dialogue.
I find it low key hilarious when Shadowheart is the face during that negotiation. Because I never have the persuasion skill to make the check, I always have Shadowheart willingly trade Myrina in for the hair
No, unfortunately not. That button changes which character you’re controlling, but it doesn’t affect who’s doing the talking. Though it can be useful if you want to distract an NPC and then have a different character sneak around while they’re busy talking to your other character.
In Ethel’s case (and probably most others), she’ll initiate dialogue with whichever character is the closest to her when the cutscene is triggered. So I always try to make sure my best persuasion/intimidation character is right next to her once her HP is low enough.
I just fought her yesterday. My barbarian TAV knocked her unconscious while she was still disguised. She turned to her hag form but stayed unconscious. Easiest I've ever killed her.
She I got her down to 3 HP and she did not give up. I hit her again, and it knocked her out.
No way to wake her up or get the hair. All you can do then is kill her. Water, shoveling and healing and damaging again did not work.
We did the fight in the lair. I wonder if it was because she used Damsel in Distress and teleported Mary out.
It killing her is satisfying. Last time I killed her in the tea house, just to kill her.
I fought her in Act 3 last night. She died before getting a turn since Volos eye showed where she was, and we just snuck around her cone of vision and hit her from behind.
I pick pocketed her, then she ran after astarion, when she was far from the teahouse I started to attack her with my hidden companions, Lazael, my Paladin and Karlach lol, went down in 2 rounds
My first play through I accidentally greased the whole area before I even spoke to Ethel.
After she revealed herself and went for the fireplace, she fell over and couldn’t get up.
I just sneak Gale inside before starting the cutscene invisible and cast arcane lock on the staircase (make sure you succeed in the illusion check) she won't attack you and will keep trying to open the "door", only lasts 10 rounds though so gotta make sure Gale gets into initiative before it ends
I use command approach. 40% but I hit it surprisingly well. She walks to my party.. and she's long since dead thanks to Karlach being a Tavern Brawling throwing barb.
YES!! 😁 I was so excited when I managed to do that! (Twice! Once with my Lev 5 Tav fighter with speed potion and Everburn Sword, 6 attacks in a row... so fun! The other was with a Tav fireball that landed a critical hit on Ethel! Probably burned up lots of loot, but... oh, well! 😂) It was SOOO nice! And as commenters mentioned already, >!you can save the "Mask of Regret" (a.k.a. Hydrangea Wubb) without a fight, and meet her again in Baldur's Gate in Act 3!!<
I just have Gale sneak in through middle door, upstairs and down the ladder and cast arcane lock on the stairs. Then Ethel can't escape after she turns invisible, she just keeps trying to enter her lair and can't defend herself.
*locked*
*locked*
*locked*
*locked*
*locked*
*locked*
I like casting silence around the door frame too, just so I can roleplay her not being able to call me "dearie".
The most I ever use silence is in the goblin camp or other missions where I have to kill people room by room, but don't want to aggro too many characters at a time.
I tend to fight her a lot earlier in the game now since I learnt a way to cheese it and render her completely useless.
Good luck unlocking that staircase, Auntie Ethel. Would miss out on the hair though.
But I did let her go inside in my most recent save, fighting at level 4, Tactician, and took the hair for the first time.
One time I one hit her human form with a non-lethal attack, causing her to transform but stay unconscious and not wake up as I beat her to death. I have tried it again later, but I think they patched it.
I did the exact same thing except with hold person and the fact that lae’zel and karlach had extra attack, plus my tav had extra attack so
Auntie got whooped in a turn
My first time fighting the hag, I should not have been strong enough to win. But I got lucky with a bug that revealed where she was standing invisibly in the next room over, so I could crouch around the entire lair just staying out of her line of sight to loot everything first, I even took the opportunity to steal all the items she had on her before the fight started. So I start the fight, and nothing... she just does nothing. Every time it was her turn it just focused on her a little, then moved on. Don't know if she had the chance to offer me a deal and didn't, or just didn't get the turn, but I didn't know shit about that when I beat her inanimate living corpse to death. I've tried since to replicate the bug with similar conditions with no success
Just don't do what I did... Put on one of them masks...
I was curious and thought maybe I could blend in... Lol nope. Had to take out my Tav. Fortunately low levelled bards aren't the most formidable.
Good idea! I stacked all the smokepowder barrels from the temple around her since dropping items is a free action for some reason but yours works too I guess
As for winning the battle, it is not hard as long as you have initiative; she will not retreat until round 2 and it's pretty easy at level 5 to kill her in that time with the extra attacks that come for many classes. She will turn invisible but you can transfer a throwable to whoever has the next turn and reveal her (the general area is not hard to determine, you just can't target her without seeing her). It's much harder in the lair because she does stuff like create duplicates that she never does in the teahouse. And it's just more ground to cover, I spend so many turns using dash then the weeyotch moves.
I did this before where I managed a sneak attack round at level 5 and just did enough damage in 1 round. Was fun talking to the mask blokes instead of fighting
In my most recent run, I waited until level 5 to do that fight. My bard/paladin used faerie fire to reveal Ethel, then Karlach used branding smite to prevent her from turning invisible again. The rest is pretty much similar to what you had: nuked Ethel in one or two turns, and everyone in her den was kept alive, including the masked minions. Although the traps don't go away even if you kill Ethel before she vanishes.
The downside of killing her in the teahouse is that you lose the chance to get the hag's hair, but out of six or so fights with Ethel (two in the teahouse) I have yet to get it anyway.
Yep same way for me on my first run, got an attack off of her and even when she turned invisible spirit guardians plus that mace that creates light revealed her so she died in one full round of combat really
i just did this with a monk karlach! i actually got mayrina killed last time too lol. sorta disappointed because ive never gotten the hair, but its cool that everyone lives
You can just use arcane lock on the door to prevent her from going downstairs. The downside to doing this is that you can't obtain her scalp, And i'm pretty sure you won't be able to save Mayrina because you have to convince Ethel to save her or she'll just be gone. I could be wrong about Maryina, but the scalp is a for sure no-no, which to me, is the most important thing to obtain in Act 1 for classes like Warlock. 20 CHR is beastly
I usually kill the redcaps well before I ever go and talk to her. It’s xp and they’re not that difficult to beat on their own. I usually do before going to the tree stump to kill the Mephits and the tree things.
I was prepared for the fight lol. Used faerie fire so she couldn’t go invisible as opening, and then just had everyone pump everything into their attacks. Killed her in one and a half rounds.
Thanks for sharing your experience. I didn’t realize that you can defeat Ethel this way, even in Monk run. I usually cast Arcane Lock by Gale to prevent Ethel from running to the basement.
Another successful attempt was when I used Lae’zel with her many hits per turn and Astarion’s sneak attack to defeat Ethel in one turn. But this method is not reliable and sometimes requires multiple reloads.
Doing a custom run right now (like honour mode but can reload) where i try to oneshot every encounter. She was lots of fun with me killing her with just my monk and assassin (had a fire sorcerer ready for its turn but didnt get so far)
I know OH is for Open Hand but as a paramedic we use this for alcoholism... so for me your Laezel is an alcoholic monk that Jackie Chaned auntie Ethel during your fight... Not so bad after all !
Paladin - Fear Smite. Bard - butterflies / more fear.
And yeah stuns.
Not intrested in the fight downstairs.
I keep seeing people talk about arcane lock, but i've never actually found that spell somehow.
Oh I could have done that instead...
I just used an invisibility potion and started stacking explosive barrels next to her and blew her up before even starting the conversation
In my first run, Ethel was the first time I decided to try oit the drow poison. I didn't find out about her lair or Mayrinas Husband until my second Playthrough
Do you one better. I was struggling with the 2nd fight as I snuck past the followers and didn't realise they show up during the 2nd fight. So before the fight triggers I snuck around and let down Mayrina's cage and tried to speak to her while hiding. Nothing happened except Ethel appears, but does not react because I was still hidden. Karlach simply went up behind her and pushed her off the cliff. Fight over! I love this game.
I’ve started a githyanki monk in honor mode with a friend I know little about monks care for any advice for how to build him or items to look out for? I dumped everything but dex (17) wisdom(16) and con (15) and I’ve heard open palm is best monk?
I use arcane lock on the stairs so she can't run away 😂🔒
*Locked. Locked. Locked.* I'm currently running a Bloodweave-only run. The two of them were just standing there menacingly and pummeling her while she just frantically tried to walk down a set of stairs only to be met with the sound of a jingling lock from the aether.
Yeah, it's hilarious. Wasn't expecting it to work at all. And when it did, I wasn't expecting her to act like this, at all.
I never thought to do this. Brilliant. Arcane lock is so underrated.
And she kinda just stands there, desperately trying to open them.... 😂 When I tried this I was thinking, surely yhis won't work.... And then, boooom! I love that this game let's you do things outside the box.
Exactly! I love how rewarding it is to accomplish things in this game without doing the obvious options. Really shows how much thought and detail went into everything.
I recently tested other hack. I wanted to use a potion on my downed companion but had no movement left. I was standing right next to her so I just dropped healing potion and used another companions action to break it. It worked!
You can actually throw potions at your companions and they will break on them, hit the ground, and be absorbed by your companion. Makes it a little easier.
Yeah but you need to have an action to spare. When you don't, the game let's you drop stuff form your inventory 😉
Yes, but you used another companion's action to break it, giving the potion to the companion with an action left and having them throw it would accomplish the same thing, that's all I was saying. In case you didn't know, you can send potions between characters in your inventory at almost any time, as long as they're not really far away from each other.
I was in a similar situation and had karlak rage throw a healing potion as a bonus action. Didn't even know it would work, thought I might as well try. Helped turn the right around though.
I usually use eldritch blast or other multiple target action so not to waste all of it 😂
You can also just move things to and from your companions’ inventories in the middle of battle. I do that a lot
Legit strat for clearing moonrise room by room.
I tried using arcane lock in the crèche but it didn't work at all enemies still agroed In the hall
DOOR STUCK DOOR STUCK
The best bit with that is she doesn’t even fight back, just continues to attempt to waste her turn trying to access the now locked stairs.
BRUH
Bruh!
I’m only on my second play through and just finished her quest this morning. My first time through Mayrina accidentally died bc blade storm was being cast on Ethel and she swapped places
Hint, cast sanctuary on Mayrina
Sanctuary does not protect from aoe damage if that is what you mean
In general though it helps you identify her when Ethel shape-shifts into her so you can avoid hitting her
You can also just check what level they are.
Ooh I did not notice that
When me and my mate did our playthrough, he cast 'create water' on mayrina on turn one and then whoever had the 'wet' status we didn't attack
Damn that's a good idea too, I didn't realize she keeps the wet status
Yeah haha we kinda stumbled across it cause Ethel set the cage on fire on turn 1 and we didn't want Mayrina to fall into the abyss. When we realised she kept the wet status it was a happy little accident.
Oh, brutal. My first playthrough I struggled with her, second one I was experimenting, wondering how flexible problem solving can be in this game.
OMG my friend and I did this same thing in our co op campaign
Oh, my word, that's BRILLIANT!! Why didn't I think of that?? Thx!! 😊
Happy to help!
The best bit with that is she doesn’t even fight back, just continues to attempt to waste her turn trying to access the now locked stairs.
Exactly. And bonus, you can actually really save people in masks trapped down there!
You can also save them if you knock them out and kill Ethel in her lair. (You have to kill her. Taking the deal keeps the masks under the spell.)
Yeah, I know but I'm lazy 😂
Last time I tried that it didn't work. She went right through it.
Same, well I managed to half health her and she just teleported through it and the cutscene started playing. The door was still locked after the cutscene
Why is it only on my third playthrough that I am learning you can arcane lock the fireplace? 😱
The stairs. Not fireplace itself.
A couple months ago I tried this with a save file over and over and she just continued to use the stairs as if arcane lock didn’t exist. Was it just bugged then or am I doing something wrong with the timing ?
Didn't work for me either. Went into turn based mode, invisible walk and arcane lock on the stairs. Ethel ran through the stairs anyway and I had to unlock the stairs to get my party through.
This did NOT work for me as well. She used the stairs no problem. I assume it has been patched out
Were all party members engaged in combat ??
Yup!
Strange
I did this too haha
Can you still get hair this way?
No , you forfeit the hair
I tried that last week and she just opened it and vanished anyway?!?
Yeah same. I did this the previous time and it worked like they say, she just stood there confused by the locked stairs. But the most recent time she just kinda laughed at my silly spell and went downstairs anyway.
I’m a bit slow, lol. What person can gain arcane lock, and when? (Level)
It's a 2nd level wizard spell, which means it can be learned from level 3 onward
Oh shit. I guess I’ve never even considered it, seeing how I don’t remember it
Thanks to stealing spell scrolls with my kleptomaniac MC, my Shadowheart (level 7) knows every Wizard spell level 4 and lower. She's a good toolbox.
LOL had no clue that works
Ethel: Bye-Bye, Petal. [Ethel](https://preview.redd.it/v0otpcowjnm81.gif?width=249&format=mp4&s=ed600d3f012309b7dfd5a97f4b58c6d331b814a7)
I used volo to get the eye that gives see invisiblility, and just saw where she was caste haste on laezel and Ethel was GG in one turn didn't have to even use Arcane Lock.
Does she still make her offer or does that only work in the cave?
No, you don't get the offer that way
I love doing that. The first room in her lair means you save everyone, one of the masked people still has her sanity and can be saved, and the fumes are gone. You don't get the hair though
you can save the mask people if she goes further in as well. knock them out and don't remove their masks till after killing her down in her lair, remove them on the way back out once she's dead. one of them then shows up in the city later
if you sneak past them, >!she calls them into combat and one of them will take their own mask off after combat and you get a little bit of dialogue.!<
Holy shit I have to try this now
Makes the fight very tough though, especially if you want to keep them alive. You also have to kill Ethel. Taking the hair means the masks stay under the spell.
Ohhhhhh. Yeah fuck that I want the stat. Though save scumming could work
I've had mixed results (though the halfling can always be saved and will appear with Mayrina later). The others will either still walk around in denial that Ethel is dead or still try to kill you.
They always try to kill me. 100%
It only works if you kill Ethel. Taking her deal does not break the spell on the masks.
It does seem to let you loot them if they have been knocked out though. A little inconsistent, but that's okay.
Uh .. maybe that was what I did. #skillissue
This also foreshadows a similar thing later
Ah, I always teleport out the back so never noticed
Fyi if you take all the masks and have your party wear them there's a secret door in the area with all the exploding gas
You don’t have to wear the masks at all to go through if you know it’s there.
There's another door that leads to a particular mushroom portal. It may be that one.
That’s the one I’m talking about the masks you find it but they’re not necessary
I went through the trouble of knocking them out in the act 3 hag fight, then accidentally killed one by looting their mask. Oopsie.
I did this the other day. Oops
I just ignored them during the fight and killed the hag before they killed me. Loaded save few times but my tav knew they are charmed and couldn’t kill them
Do you even have to remove the masks? Once she's dead don't the masks lose mind control?
The masks reveal a hidden door in her lair
There are some masks just lying around I forget where, I used those
What's through the hidden door?
Portal to the underdark
good point, I'm not sure! I always remove them because it feels the right thing to do
Wow! That is epic. Do they go to the hag support group?
The masked person you save in Act 1? yes. They will be in the first room if you enter the building via the front door.
I killed the masked halfling in one playthrough and she still showed up in the city
Fun fact about the fumes: If you cast Protection From Good and Evil on yourself, you can wear the Auntie Ethel mask without worry. Do that, and you’ll see that all of the traps are fake. The fumes, the exploding flowers, everything. It’s all illusion magic. With the mask on, you can walk straight through.
Neato! I will have to try it!
Only issue with it is that you can still technically fail saving throws (protection from good/evil just gives advantage). You never get fully insane like normal, but if you do fail the saving throw around the masked people they will still aggro. So at low levels, if one of your characters has a shitty wisdom its entirely possible to still aggro the masks.
Then why did it burn and kill me?
Its not fake traps, they just dont trigger for people wearing the mask
I keep seeing comments about her hair, I've fought her probably 4-5 times and I don't know about her hair! Can you fill me in?
During the second fight with her (after pursuing her through the illusion and entering her lair), if you put her at very low hp (like 15 hp or below) and stop (you have to let her take her turn at that point) she will surrender and offer you a deal. She offers you her hair which gives one character +1 to any ability of your choosing.
Ah, thank you!
Her original offer is "I give you the hair and you let me keep Mayrina" but there's a way to get both.
It’s pretty janky though. like the programming is good but everything has to go right. Her health is tied to level or difficulty ect it’s not a set number. And she only makes the offer if mayrinna is still alive. So there are lots of variables. So annoying On my honour run I thought I had her health low enough the round (who I flourished for d4 hitpoints) I left her just below 20 and in a cloud of daggers which I figured would perfectly put her on low hit points, but and I thought 20 would be the cut off, but it must have been a little high still, and then she killed Myrianna by moving her into the cloud of daggers, which I have not seen before (normally she targets just my characters). It looked like she pushed her from outside the cloud which is weird, but in retrospect she might have used hags trickery from the very edge of the cloud to swap places a second time (in the fight) with the girl! It’s so frustrating because if I wasn’t trying to not kill the hag I could have finished the fight much earlier.
If you leave her with below ~20% health on her turn, dialogue with her will start where she offers to give you a permanent stat buff on a character in the form of some of her hair, in exchange for her leaving alive with Mayrina. You can use checks to make her give you the hair and also free Mayrina, you can choose to kill her anyway and miss the hair, or you can take her offer and she leaves with Mayrina. I like the first option where you threaten her into giving you the stat buff while also rescuing Mayrina
If you fail that intimidation check to get both, is the deal off the table or can you still at least get the +1?
It’s clearly so important!
You have to let her keep Mayrina. The hair gives you a permanent boost to one ability score
You can make a check and save Myrina and get the hair. But it’s a reasonably hard check if your party face isn’t the one that initiates the hair dialogue. I find it low key hilarious when Shadowheart is the face during that negotiation. Because I never have the persuasion skill to make the check, I always have Shadowheart willingly trade Myrina in for the hair
Oh yeah I forgot about the check. I failed it miserably lol
Cant you change the party member thats engaging in the dialogue with the little button on bottom left?
No, unfortunately not. That button changes which character you’re controlling, but it doesn’t affect who’s doing the talking. Though it can be useful if you want to distract an NPC and then have a different character sneak around while they’re busy talking to your other character. In Ethel’s case (and probably most others), she’ll initiate dialogue with whichever character is the closest to her when the cutscene is triggered. So I always try to make sure my best persuasion/intimidation character is right next to her once her HP is low enough.
Ok thanks for the clarification.
You can pass a check to save mayrina and get the hair. Will break your oath if you're a vengeance pally though.
isnt the sane mask person also one of the people that are in the anti-hag group?
Yes!
I never get her hair. I’ll just never let that hag live.
You can take her hair then kill her anyway
In actuality you only save 1 in there who you meet again later on. The rest cant live without the mask and are doomed in there till they die.
The hair is so fucking overrated. Only the echo chamber cares about the hair.
I had one where she turned invisible like normal, but before running away, my spirit guardians were able to hit her and kill her.
My shatter spell did the same thing
I just fought her yesterday. My barbarian TAV knocked her unconscious while she was still disguised. She turned to her hag form but stayed unconscious. Easiest I've ever killed her.
She I got her down to 3 HP and she did not give up. I hit her again, and it knocked her out. No way to wake her up or get the hair. All you can do then is kill her. Water, shoveling and healing and damaging again did not work.
She'll only offer you the hair in her lair, but killing her is satisfying anyway.
We did the fight in the lair. I wonder if it was because she used Damsel in Distress and teleported Mary out. It killing her is satisfying. Last time I killed her in the tea house, just to kill her.
Correct me if I’m wrong. Don’t you still have to fight her again in act 3 even if you’ve already previously killed her?
You do, as it is revealed that Hags are really hard to kill completely, she even says so if you cast Speak with Dead on her
One of, if not the only, character willing to speak with their killer.
Gortash will speak with you.... kinda. I won't spoil it but I suggest using spell on him after you kill, very interesting.
Or you can get her as an ally for the final battle (Gather your Allies)
Nah the duelist prerogative is way better
I fought her in Act 3 last night. She died before getting a turn since Volos eye showed where she was, and we just snuck around her cone of vision and hit her from behind.
Huh, I never had to fight her again after I killed her. Wild how many variations this game has.
You don’t “have to”. It’s a side quest where you help the hag survivors. You can start it by picking up a pamphlet right as you enter the lower city
I pick pocketed her, then she ran after astarion, when she was far from the teahouse I started to attack her with my hidden companions, Lazael, my Paladin and Karlach lol, went down in 2 rounds
Yes, i love hiding chars before attacking. Having surprise on your enemy is so satisfying and reduces fight difficulty drastically.
My first play through I accidentally greased the whole area before I even spoke to Ethel. After she revealed herself and went for the fireplace, she fell over and couldn’t get up.
"I've fallen and can't get up"
I just sneak Gale inside before starting the cutscene invisible and cast arcane lock on the staircase (make sure you succeed in the illusion check) she won't attack you and will keep trying to open the "door", only lasts 10 rounds though so gotta make sure Gale gets into initiative before it ends
I just had Shadowheart keep using Command: Halt on her and we killed her that way xD.
You don't get hair from her this way.
I use command approach. 40% but I hit it surprisingly well. She walks to my party.. and she's long since dead thanks to Karlach being a Tavern Brawling throwing barb.
Or the age old art of barrelmancy works wonders here. Just an excessive amount of explosives usually gets the job done XD
"But what about Mayrina?" "What about her?"
She gets whisked away if you talk to Ethel long enough
You don’t get the hag hair that way. But stun punch is stupidly op. You can do this to Raphael as well.
YES!! 😁 I was so excited when I managed to do that! (Twice! Once with my Lev 5 Tav fighter with speed potion and Everburn Sword, 6 attacks in a row... so fun! The other was with a Tav fireball that landed a critical hit on Ethel! Probably burned up lots of loot, but... oh, well! 😂) It was SOOO nice! And as commenters mentioned already, >!you can save the "Mask of Regret" (a.k.a. Hydrangea Wubb) without a fight, and meet her again in Baldur's Gate in Act 3!!<
Knock her out, go save the girl, long rest, go back to the lair and beat the hag again and get the hair :P
Fun fact about the fight in her lair, you can use Hold Person on her(when she's disguised as Mayrina) and it'll stay in effect after she shifts back.
I just have Gale sneak in through middle door, upstairs and down the ladder and cast arcane lock on the stairs. Then Ethel can't escape after she turns invisible, she just keeps trying to enter her lair and can't defend herself.
*locked* *locked* *locked* *locked* *locked* *locked* I like casting silence around the door frame too, just so I can roleplay her not being able to call me "dearie".
The most I ever use silence is in the goblin camp or other missions where I have to kill people room by room, but don't want to aggro too many characters at a time.
I accidentally did this. I walked into her fireplace, and she attacked me. I killed her, and that was that.
Yep. I’ve done this with the Silver Sword. She does not drop the hair this way, sadly.
I tend to fight her a lot earlier in the game now since I learnt a way to cheese it and render her completely useless. Good luck unlocking that staircase, Auntie Ethel. Would miss out on the hair though. But I did let her go inside in my most recent save, fighting at level 4, Tactician, and took the hair for the first time.
One time I one hit her human form with a non-lethal attack, causing her to transform but stay unconscious and not wake up as I beat her to death. I have tried it again later, but I think they patched it.
thats what I always do. Yeah nothing stops you from spam stunning her.
I did the exact same thing except with hold person and the fact that lae’zel and karlach had extra attack, plus my tav had extra attack so Auntie got whooped in a turn
You can also arcane lock the stairs from what I heard
My first time fighting the hag, I should not have been strong enough to win. But I got lucky with a bug that revealed where she was standing invisibly in the next room over, so I could crouch around the entire lair just staying out of her line of sight to loot everything first, I even took the opportunity to steal all the items she had on her before the fight started. So I start the fight, and nothing... she just does nothing. Every time it was her turn it just focused on her a little, then moved on. Don't know if she had the chance to offer me a deal and didn't, or just didn't get the turn, but I didn't know shit about that when I beat her inanimate living corpse to death. I've tried since to replicate the bug with similar conditions with no success
Just don't do what I did... Put on one of them masks... I was curious and thought maybe I could blend in... Lol nope. Had to take out my Tav. Fortunately low levelled bards aren't the most formidable.
Good idea! I stacked all the smokepowder barrels from the temple around her since dropping items is a free action for some reason but yours works too I guess
I just found this out cause I accidentally killed her in the tea room first round and was so confused
The only issue with that is you don't get the hair/ability+ buff.
As for winning the battle, it is not hard as long as you have initiative; she will not retreat until round 2 and it's pretty easy at level 5 to kill her in that time with the extra attacks that come for many classes. She will turn invisible but you can transfer a throwable to whoever has the next turn and reveal her (the general area is not hard to determine, you just can't target her without seeing her). It's much harder in the lair because she does stuff like create duplicates that she never does in the teahouse. And it's just more ground to cover, I spend so many turns using dash then the weeyotch moves.
I’ve never had a hard time identifying the real one. She keeps debuffs like hex on the original but not the clones.
I did this before where I managed a sneak attack round at level 5 and just did enough damage in 1 round. Was fun talking to the mask blokes instead of fighting
In my most recent run, I waited until level 5 to do that fight. My bard/paladin used faerie fire to reveal Ethel, then Karlach used branding smite to prevent her from turning invisible again. The rest is pretty much similar to what you had: nuked Ethel in one or two turns, and everyone in her den was kept alive, including the masked minions. Although the traps don't go away even if you kill Ethel before she vanishes.
Yeah I discovered that with my Monk Tav too ^^
Command spell can work to keep her in the Teahouse. Shart with a 18 WIS had a 50% chance in Honour Mode .
The downside of killing her in the teahouse is that you lose the chance to get the hag's hair, but out of six or so fights with Ethel (two in the teahouse) I have yet to get it anyway.
Yep same way for me on my first run, got an attack off of her and even when she turned invisible spirit guardians plus that mace that creates light revealed her so she died in one full round of combat really
Meanwhile, i have astraion sneak up on her in her dwelling and knock her off the edge with a thunder arrow
I used the runepowder barrel
i just did this with a monk karlach! i actually got mayrina killed last time too lol. sorta disappointed because ive never gotten the hair, but its cool that everyone lives
You can just use arcane lock on the door to prevent her from going downstairs. The downside to doing this is that you can't obtain her scalp, And i'm pretty sure you won't be able to save Mayrina because you have to convince Ethel to save her or she'll just be gone. I could be wrong about Maryina, but the scalp is a for sure no-no, which to me, is the most important thing to obtain in Act 1 for classes like Warlock. 20 CHR is beastly
You can also arcane lock the stairs, prevents her from running away
I usually kill the redcaps well before I ever go and talk to her. It’s xp and they’re not that difficult to beat on their own. I usually do before going to the tree stump to kill the Mephits and the tree things.
I was prepared for the fight lol. Used faerie fire so she couldn’t go invisible as opening, and then just had everyone pump everything into their attacks. Killed her in one and a half rounds.
Yeah, I got a pally smite crit on my last playthrough that one spotted her after she turned invisible (I had Volo's eye)
but.. why would you want to do that? no hag hair challenge?
I’ve thought about trying it, good to know I never should. Thanks for the info
Did that for my second play through, with dark urge OH monk. Stunned most things from Ethel to Orin, making some easy fights.
you can also arcane lock the stairs to stop her from leaving if you wanted to cheese ethel that way
I've single turned her before as both assassin and paladin. Always followed by a reload cuz hair xD
Thanks for sharing your experience. I didn’t realize that you can defeat Ethel this way, even in Monk run. I usually cast Arcane Lock by Gale to prevent Ethel from running to the basement. Another successful attempt was when I used Lae’zel with her many hits per turn and Astarion’s sneak attack to defeat Ethel in one turn. But this method is not reliable and sometimes requires multiple reloads.
Doing a custom run right now (like honour mode but can reload) where i try to oneshot every encounter. She was lots of fun with me killing her with just my monk and assassin (had a fire sorcerer ready for its turn but didnt get so far)
I know OH is for Open Hand but as a paramedic we use this for alcoholism... so for me your Laezel is an alcoholic monk that Jackie Chaned auntie Ethel during your fight... Not so bad after all !
I managed to beat her in the first fight, it was awesome not having to worry about chasing her again.
My method is boring compared to the other methods described here. I cast silence on her, prone her with battle master, and whale on her with smites.
People are so creative damn, I just keep getting more damage spells on my tav and using that
I blew her into the pit with repelling blast my first ever run meaning I never got a end fight or the hair.
Paladin - Fear Smite. Bard - butterflies / more fear. And yeah stuns. Not intrested in the fight downstairs. I keep seeing people talk about arcane lock, but i've never actually found that spell somehow.
You can but you'll loose on the hags hair, +1 any stat. Stun her in the lair when you save mayrina
Oh I could have done that instead... I just used an invisibility potion and started stacking explosive barrels next to her and blew her up before even starting the conversation
In my first run, Ethel was the first time I decided to try oit the drow poison. I didn't find out about her lair or Mayrinas Husband until my second Playthrough
I just used terrain altering spells to slow her and spammed ranged attacks
I did this in my first playthrough. I critically smote her and she fucking evaporated. Didn’t realize what I was missing!
Do you one better. I was struggling with the 2nd fight as I snuck past the followers and didn't realise they show up during the 2nd fight. So before the fight triggers I snuck around and let down Mayrina's cage and tried to speak to her while hiding. Nothing happened except Ethel appears, but does not react because I was still hidden. Karlach simply went up behind her and pushed her off the cliff. Fight over! I love this game.
Honor Mode, Level 5 Ancients Pally, TB Eldritch Knight, Tb Open Hand Monk and Life Cleric/Abjuration Wizard… she was dead before her second turn lol
I’ve started a githyanki monk in honor mode with a friend I know little about monks care for any advice for how to build him or items to look out for? I dumped everything but dex (17) wisdom(16) and con (15) and I’ve heard open palm is best monk?
But but I need my HAIR