Auntie Ethel guide – Baldur’s Gate 3 Dungeon guide

How to beat Auntie Ethel in BG3?

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Last Updated: March 29th, 2022

One of the toughest encounters in Baldur’s Gate 3 so far is the Auntie Ethel Dungeon. Where you once thought a lovely little – albeit very suspicious – lady lived, you’ll later find that things don’t quite add up. Delving a little deeper, or confronting Ethel, and you’ll learn she’s actually a Green Hag. A powerful one who lures people in with offers to grant them their wishes, but like a genie, Ethel isn’t quite as honest and generous as you might think.

Players can even try to have Ethel remove your illithid tadpole, but at the cost of your eye. Should you agree to this, she will remove your eye which gives you a constant and permanent debuff, but you’ll also learn that she can’t remove it because of Netherese magic intervening. A nice tidbit of lore at the cost of your eye!

However, in order for you to save Mayrina – the pregnant girl who’s hoping to get something out of Ethel’s deal – you need to delve deeper into Auntie Ethel’s dungeon and face her head-on. This is certainly one of the hardest encounters in Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access so far. There’s a series of obstacles you need to consider and plan around, so let’s go through it all.

Recommended party

You’ll need yourself – obviously – and if you’re not playing multiplayer this is the party we’d recommend:

Lae’zel
Gale
Astarion

The Masks

Before reaching Ethel, you’ll encounter a group of four unfortunate souls, in pain and need. But sadly, they’re under the control of Ethel whilst they’re sporting the Fey masks. Sadly, whilst in Early Access, there’s no way to save these people just yet, so if you were hoping to save them then you’d be wasting your time. Although some players have managed to save at least one, it’s likely that once the game is out of EA, you’ll be able to work out a more desirable outcome. And if you sneak past them, to go straight to Ethel, the hag will summon them to aid her in the fight against her.

For now, whilst there’s no other option, dealing with them up here without Ethel in the way, you’ll need to kill them here. They’re a tough fight but if you use your stealth and get the upper hand in a Surprise round, you’ll manage to slowly whittle them out. Keep in mind that one of the Masks of Vengeance is powerful and can use its reaction to attack you after any melee hit on them.

So the best thing to do here is deal with the Masks, taking them by surprise. Then make your way down the elaborate and intricate system to Ethel’s lair. You’ll encounter a few traps along the way but as long as you’re careful, you’ll make your way there with ease.

Ethel’s Fight

Ethel’s fight firstly involves taking you by surprise, then using her first found to set fire to Marina’s cage. At this point, you’ll need to act quick or she’ll die, you can do this by either pressing a button near Ethel, or you can throw a bottle of water of cast Create Water on the cage. This will stop the fire and you can focus on Ethel. If you dealt with the Masks, she won’t summon them by now, but instead, she’ll summon duplicates of herself.

Deal With Auntie Ethel - Baldur's Gate III Wiki Guide - IGN

Keep in mind, that as long as these duplicates are alive and well, they can cast magic and attack you like the normal Ethel. You can very quickly deal with them by casting a spell that targets multiples. A good one is Magic Missile, this will remove any of the false ones, or you can cast Bane as this will do the same thing. Or, you can use your first turn to cast Witch Bolt on the real one, and as long as it hits, should she duplicate, the Witch Bolt will remain on the real one. But this method doesn’t remove the other duplicates, you’ll need to take them out one by one.

At this point you need to whittle Ethel down, getting rid of any duplicates she summons. And if she turns herself into Mayrina, your best bet is to use a spell like Bane or Magic Missile to find out who the real one is.

Best methods

There are certain spells you need to use that’ll heavily influence your win, these are the spells you need to make sure you have before you get to Ethel:

Silence: Casting Silence doesn’t involve a save and is a sure-fire way to make sure spellcasters can’t do their thing. That includes Ethel. You’ll want to cast Silence on her before she can get to her work.
Grease: Once you’ve silenced Ethel, you’ll need her to stay in place. Grease is one of the easy ways to inconvenience her, although it’s not guaranteed to work.

No-Hit run

Players have also found more ‘cheeky’ ways of dealing with Ethel. Including a way of getting Ethel down to zero health without even letting her use a chance to retaliate. This is probably the best way to attack her, and it involves casting Silence on her. Which stops her from casting any of her spells whilst she’s in that area. Now it’s just a matter of keeping her in that range. You can use various spells like Grease, Spike Growth of Ensnaring strike to keep her in place whilst the rest of your party wails on her.