While playing through Baldur's Gate 3, you will have a variety of choices to make that affect your game, and one of those choices involves choosing to help out dear old Auntie Ethel. When the party first encounters Auntie Ethel, she'll be in the midst of a fight with a couple of men looking for their sister, Mayrina.

During this conversation, you may choose to aid the boys in searching for their sister or help poor old Auntie Ethel by dealing with them. The best action here is to knock the boys out using non-lethal attacks. Once this situation is handled, Auntie Ethel will encourage the party to come and visit her at her cottage so she can properly thank you.

How To Prepare For Auntie Ethel

Rest Up & Prepare Spells

Before heading to her cottage, there are several things you should do first to prepare for this fight. First and foremost, one of the party's must ensure they have water on hand ready to be thrown or, preferably, the long rest in Baldur's Gate 3 before heading into a dangerous boss fight.

Once entering the cottage, you do have the option of having an amicable relationship with Auntie Ethel and avoiding this fight altogether. However, unless the party takes a darker, less noble path, this is likely not going to be preferred since Auntie Ethel, also known as the Hag, has a lengthy and growing list of victims.

The Gnarled Teahouse - Phase One

Auntie Ethel

Upon entering the cottage, speak with Auntie Ethel, who will eventually reveal her true form as a Hag. As it turns out, she does know the missing girl Mayrina, despite what she claimed previously, but will attempt to convince you the girl is there of her own free will. At this point, the party may ask the Hag for help curing themselves or begin the fight.

Even if you accept help, it will be a wasted effort as she cannot fix anything since the magic is beyond what she is willing to tamper with. Additionally, one player will lose an eye if taking this route, so you may not have the option to accept at all if Volo already removed one eye earlier in Baldur's Gate 3.

If possible, try to place a debuff on the Hag at the start of this fight. This will make the latter phase of the encounter a little easier.

Things will go smoothly for this first round once the conversation ends and the fight begins. Assuming all the enemies outside the cottage have been taken care of prior, the Hag should be the only enemy in the initiative. There won't be much to do here as she will only allow the party to knock her down to half health, so try not to use anything crazy right out the gate and save more damaging attacks for later.

Once she's down to half health, she will disappear into the fireplace, which is revealed to be an illusion. Follow her through the doorway to continue into the second phase of the fight, where you will face a few different enemies. If you need to do any recovery at this point, you should do so before proceeding.

The Overgrown Tunnel - Phase Two

The Hag's Masked Victims

Technically, the second phase of this fight in Baldur's Gate 3 is not directly with the Hag but is instead with some of her victims, who are now masked and compelled to attack the party. To reach the room, proceed through the first area and speak with the Gnarled Door, the large tree root face.

This is another of the Hag's victims behaving as an illusion, so to , simply head on through him like any other door. However, be warned that the Hag will likely set him aflame if you do that. If your party wishes to save him, quickly equip a Whispering Mask, head through the door, and immediately un-equip the mask.

Once in this room, the party will be met with a handful of the Hag's other victims. Each of them is masked and desperately trying to fight against her control over them. This means they will not always attack during their turn on the initiative. Occasionally, they will overpower the Hag and choose not to engage in the fight, allowing you a chance to strike.

To get past them and into the next room, the party can either kill them or use non-lethal attacks to take them down. Unfortunately, there is no way to truly save them, as removing the mask that's controlling them will ultimately kill them anyway. Note that this includes if you loot the mask from their body while they're down. So, if you avoided killing them during the fight, then looting their masks will make that a wasted effort.

Another alternative to fighting or killing the victims is sneaking past them and into the next room, but this isn't recommended. First, it can be challenging to get the entire party past every enemy in the room unnoticed. Even if successful, the victims can be pulled into the initiative when facing the Hag in the next room, making that fight significantly more difficult. So, whether lethal or not, take them down now.

The Ancient Abode - Phase Three

The Hag

Once the masked victims are down, head through the waterfall on the far side, which will lead into the next area. Here, the party will find a path blocked by noxious gas. There's a perception check here that will reveal some helpful clues about getting rid of it, but you can still figure it out even if you fail the check.

Ultimately, you'll find a vent near you that's letting the gas through, and to stop it, the vent must be covered. To do so, use the Fire Bolt cantrip to light up the gas and give the party a moment of clarity. During this moment of clarity, locate the Ruptured Stone and throw an item onto it. You'll need to leave the item there to keep the gas out, so use something that won't be missed.

It is possible to push through the gases as long as the party is in full health. Simply jump to the furthest possible point and move quickly through the gases until you reach the end. Damage will be taken, but it should be insignificant if the party moves quickly.

With that, the gases will be stopped, but that's not the only obstacle in your path. Explosive flowers will be scattered along the path, and their location is only revealed through the aforementioned perception check, so if you fail that, then tread carefully. At the end of the path, Mayrina can be seen hanging in a cage in the middle of the room with the Hag close by. If she has not yet seen you, the party does have the option of going into stealth mode and sneaking around the far right of the room.

Save your progress in Baldur's Gate 3, then head towards the back right corner, where a door leads to a room. Here, the party will find several items, but they will also find a way out. Go through this exit to reveal a fast travel waypoint nearby. The benefit of doing this method, as opposed to jumping into the fight right away, is that the party can perform another long rest now if needed, and then head back through this same entrance to fight the Hag while fully restored.

Regardless of how the fight is approached, perform a save before engaging her, as this is not an easy fight, and things can go sour fairly quickly. Save scumming in Baldur's Gate 3 is a great way to ensure you're not stuck with any unfortunate consequences. It's better to have it and not use it than need it and not have it.

If there is no need for a long rest, simply approach the Hag to initiate the fight. It will ultimately be revealed that Mayrina was there by choice and intended to trade her unborn baby to the Hag in exchange for bringing her husband back to life. However, she still needs to be rescued, and winning this fight is the only way to do so. The first part of this fight will require dousing Mayrina in water with Create Water or throwing an item, as the Hag will immediately attempt to set her on fire.

As for the fight, the Hag will have a habit of splitting herself into clones. This is where the debuff from earlier comes in handy. Luckily, the clones do not take on all statuses, so only the real Hag will have the debuff. This can save time and energy, as the party can direct their main focus to the real Hag. Once she's down a bit of health, she will clone herself to look like Mayrina instead. This is where it gets tricky, as you don't want to accidentally kill the real Mayrina.

There is a trick to identifying the real Mayrina. She should still have a Wet status effect from earlier, and as previously mentioned, the clones don't take on status effects.

If she does not still have this status effect, just use low-damaging moves to avoid killing her. The Hag will also use Hold Person frequently, so be ready to do some heavy damage to her and have plenty of healing items on hand to make it through this fight. Once she is defeated, go ahead and loot her, as she has some pretty nice items on her, and then be sure to loot her back room as well if you haven't already.

Following the fight, there will be some more conversations with Mayrina in which you can choose whether you want to help her bring her husband back as a Baldur's Gate 3 zombie, but that's completely optional.