Hello there,

this will be about Minthara, and the general issues of how Larian is approaching and responding to concerns raised about her character because it's been 4 months and I need Larian to stop sweeping her broken state under the rug, especially now with the new recruitment, she deserves to work properly and be fleshed out as a fully functional companion, which she flat out isn't at the moment.

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1. she is still bugged, she has been bugged for 4 months at this point. there was not a single patch or hotfix in which she was in a fully fixed state since release, please let that sink in, i cannot stress it enough. this shows a serious lack of care for her character from sides of the people in charge of these decisions at Larian, intentional or not.

2. the recently released IGN interview (https://www.ign.com/articles/baldurs-gate-3-final-interview-game-of-the-year-2023-characters-endings) underlines the lack of understanding and care for the character too. there are other points to be raised about the interview, but this is about Minthara so I'll be focusing on that. they mention a dialogue that happens after the new recruitment where she judges the player for their choice of knocking her out and is distrustful, which is a straight up lie as this content doesn't currently exist in the game.

further, the lead writer goes on to say that he is happy with bg3 as is and would like to move on, and only give Minthara a few more lines with Orin, ignoring that her current writing leaves plot holes and direct contradictions in her character, such as her saying Bhaal ain't shit and Durge shouldn't follow him, but then disapproving of turning your back on Bhaal as Durge. or her lines after her act 1 scene where she says she decided the PC must die, but then as a response the PC can ask why the Absolute wanted them dead, while it was HER that wanted that. this combined with the 4 months of bugged state shows a lack of playtesting and making sure her current story and content is coherent, working and makes sense in and of itself. Larian, we aren't in EA, please stop using your players as playtesters, we shouldn't have to report these basic, easy to catch things.

3. I want to draw attention to the fact that:
- Karlach got a whole new ending cutscene and ending choice after popular player demand
- Astarion had his kisses and "thrusties" fixed after more popular player demand
- Minthara never actually got fixed, let alone had her content reviewed or tested by the team itself it seems, DESPITE fan demand
In case the bias wasn't clear yet.

4. what fans of Minthara have been demanding, is simply making her current content work and make sense narratively within her personality and thought processes as well as within her story. and then on top of that giving her a personal quest, working romance and overall fleshing out her content, as she is one of it not THE most lacking character in terms of her personal story, let me explain what I mean. when I compare her to Halsin, who is another "sidekick" and sideline character on a similar content level to Minthara, his story arc revolves around lifting the curse in act 2, this plotline doesn't happen or exist if he isn't recruited, it is mentioned but you're unable to play or complete it without having him there. now compare that to Minthara, whose story arc revolves around her revenge on Ketheric and Orin, two bosses you kill either way, whether she is present or not.

another person I can think of that is tied to getting back at a boss is Karlach who wants to fight Gortash, however Karlach has a whole other storyline outside of that related to her engine, which is also unique to her, Minthara is lacking this unique story content, which is why fans have been saying she seems incomplete and her being in a constantly bugged state definitely isn't helping this. tying new content to Orin as said in the previously mentioned IGN interview wouldn't really solve this problem or answer the demands of her fans - I really hope Larian can see that after some further consideration. she needs content outside of Orin or Ketheric and outside of the main plotline that happens anyway, she needs something that's unique to her like the others have. plus her romance is still broken, by the way.

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I hope the length of this post shows the love I have for the character, it's entirely prompted by feeling like Larian isn't giving her the attention and love I would like to see and is kind of pushing her to the side compared to the other companions. I know there are other characters with similar problems but I'm putting in my effort for Minthy since I personally care about her the most out of the companions. I also hope other people can add on things they can think of! or just share the love for her character, let me know what you think and report her bugs and lack of content to Larian!

I really like Minthara, she's a character who easily gets your interest the moment she says her first words. I'd love to be able to finish a playthrough with her functioning properly, but alas.


Minthara's fans aren't the only ones who think this is unfair, believe me.



Sometimes I think I hate this more than I hate the Emperor.

I only know her as the "drow who wears Astarion's armour" at the moment but I am looking forward to recruit her the next time around - so I hope for the bug fixes too.

Yeah I honestly don't understand what's going on. It's like her dialogue is load-bearing for the entire rest of the game's stability and fixing it TOO WELL will cause the game to spontaneously combust. I don't necessarily want to assume they're liars, if they say they think she's working it's likely one of their dev builds DOES have her working. But for whatever reason something specific to Minthara continues to mess up between their dev build and being patched to the live build.

It has happened so many times now that I truly cannot fathom the explanation, especially since relatively simple flag activations manually with a mod have tended to cause her to work properly when Larian just cannot ever seem to take that final step to full proper functionality.

Underdark has drow armor that looks even better on him, so you can have them both looking great while they murder things for you.

Not personally a huge fan of Minthara because I’ve only recruited her the new weird way on a good playthrough and I haven’t seen fully who she is. But I a million bazillion percent agree with the OP! Minthara is in serious need of attention, to the point where it’s just so glaringly obvious if you interact with her at all. There’s been clear bugs reported again and again on these forums, as well, about her romance being bugged, and that has never been fixed. So absolutely, justice for Minthara. I support this cause.

Edit: Also, I didn’t get the dialogue where she said that the player character was weak for sparing her, either. So that appears to be bugged.

Minthara is one of my two favorite characters. I’m honestly tired of going through patchnotes and being disappointed over and over again. It’s been so many months, and yet they fail to properly adress her.
I sometimes feel like Larian thinks they fixed her bugs, when they clearly haven't. Especially looking at the patch notes for patch 4 and 5, where they mention unlocking some minor content that I've not seen anyone actually get to work.

I was looking forward to patch 5, thinking that surely this time they’d do something, since they added a new recruitment method, and thus more people would get to experience her. Sadly, I was very wrong. It feels like she constantly gets the short end of the stick. I feel like the fact that she was locked behind a choice that most players don’t take is one of the reasons she just gets treated as an orphan.

That being said, from what I've seen from datamines with the recent patches, they seem to still be rewriting some things that are not yet reachable in the game.
So maybe it’s just taking them longer than anticipated to implement things. I don’t know why it would be taking this long, however. And I hate the fact that Astarion is slightly bugged for a short period of time, gets fixed rather quickly - mind you, still has the interactions, they're just not displayed properly - but with Minthara we don't seem to get anything at all.

I like Min also, but -- at the risk of being blasted by everyone -- she *is* a drow, of some importance in house of Baenre. And so the non-evil recruitment is kind of counterlogical to me. Anyway, I did the evil route and that is also completely broken.

Been advocating for Minthara getting equal treatment, love and respect in terms of content for years now, which is why even seeing something as simple as allowing her to be recruited on a good playthrough sent me into ecstasy. A small step for Minthara, but a giant leap to hopefully seeing her start being treated equally by the devs.

To me it's unthinkable seeing Larian ignore, mistreat and mishandle such a wonderfully unique and intricate character for so long, especially since these issues have been pointed out countless of times even during Early Access and now after full release. For Lolth's sake she's been a part of the game for as long as Halsin has, yet that smelly tree-hugger got all the recognition and content while she's been left to gather dust in a buggy and unfinished state.

Oh my god, I thought I was the only one thinking this for the longest time. After 4 months of constant bugs, missing dialogues, broken romance; I am absolutely fed up with how Larian is treating Minthara specifically. Drawing the comparison to Karlach and Astarion is necessary at this point. It's just so unfair.

Thank you SO much to the OP for shedding some light on this topic. I have been sending bug reports almost every week now and every update they just never fail to disappoint me. I will continue to bump this thread every now and then until Larian takes notice and does SOMETHING about her. I'm literally begging them to fix her properly. And we NEED an explanation!

Well i would like to see some new stuff for her.
Halsin and Karlach i never care or bother for then i even avoid then in all my last Games becouse of that..
Never saved Shadowcurse ever again after the first Time when playing Hero..haha
And she need a litle bit of Love too..
Btw.. i like her in Dark run too..
But have her in Both sides of the Game would be cool.. i mean Make it in a Proper Way..
Like yu can Refuse Halsin in act 1 and then yu find her in act 2. dont know.. some better way.
(becouse the way they make it was made out of a Real Bug that people just Broke the Game to Have Her in Hero Runs..huahauh xD)

Just make it Legit in some better way and Gave her a Nice Fix with new content maybe..

Trust me, you were never alone in this. I have been observing the forum, the discord server, twitter... you name it. People are taking notice of this longstanding issue with Minthara. The way Larian is ignoring her is a problem they need to address sooner than later.

I had heard of her bugs before but I never knew just how bad they were until I decided to recruit her after patch 5, with all the hassle of the knockout requirement that I had to reload my save multiple times. This whole sequence is immersion breaking and I'm not trying to exaggerate anything here. I could not interact or even click on her because, according to some articles, I followed "the wrong steps" so I can see why this is discouraging players to give her a chance.


That's how I saw Minthara too haha! She is so much more than that. I think she deserves more attention and a seamless good aligned recruitment. Coming from someone who loves to RP, the latter is not at all "counterlogical" to me.


Yes please, I want to see more of her. I'm enjoying my experience with her so far, even though her romance is bugged at the moment. Then again I don't place much importance in romance. Also, this is another personal wish of mine but seeing as Minthara is, or was, a member of House Baenre, I would love to see more significance being placed upon that fact!

Minthara is definitely so much more than that! And she does not deserve to be called a bonus character or a sidekick. I am utterly disappointed by what they said in the linked interview. People asked for Minthara to be a companion for YEARS during EA for her to get pushed down the article like she's nothing AND receive unfair treatment for such a prolonged amount of time. The game is amazing but I can't just sit still and accept this.

She is my favorite character in the entire game. And honestly? That's saying a lot because I initially did not like her. At all. So many people will miss experiencing her because like Greek said, they're discouraged by her currently broken state and multitude of issues. If any Larian employees are reading this, for the love of all that is holy in Faerun, eliminate all her bugs just for one patch. I beg you to add more FULLY FUNCTIONAL content for her too. I fail to understand how they can be happy with leaving her like this!

Even with all her problems, Minthara has an appealing story and an incredible amount of potential which is sadly wasted:
SPOILERS FOR MINTHARA'S ENTIRE ARC

Thank you guys for replying to this, it makes me happy to see so many people here care about her case and share some thoughts and general consensus about her current state and lacking treatment by Larian. I really hope some devs check this forum, since the IGN interview it feels like there is some genuine disconnect between how players have been perceiving the game and what (at least some) Larian members think of the current state of the game and Minthara. It's confusing and disheartening to see and begs the question why they included companions they seem to not care about?

I'm also surprised to see this issue has persisted since EA and people have been begging for content and fixes only to be answered with crumbs - please Larian, listen to your players, you're at an upswing with the attention the game has been receiving and this can very much solidify how people see you as a studio in the future. At least, be more transparent with us about what seems like obvious bias - perhaps there is some reason to it? Or I might be talking out of my ass, maybe someone that's been around since EA knows them better and can clarify.

Something I also wish for Minthara is for her "True Soul Of The Absolute" title to go away after she's been recruited.

She immediately loses her Nightwarden prefix in her name upon recruitment, so why does the True Soul title remain under her name afterwards when she just becomes Minthara Baenre. Makes no sense.

EDIT: For anyone curious there were numerous Early Access discussions about the horrible lack of care towards Minthara's side of the story. Even comparison images being provided to show just how laughably bad the content is imbalanced between Halsin and Minthara's side.

I've posted this in another thread (about Karlach), so it is repeating myself a bit, but I think this is because they wrote the companions more as protagonists than npcs. My guess this is why characters like Minthara (and Halsin, in his current version) were left in the dust. They are not origin characters. Example: Gale gets to ascend now, because he was the most popular origin character played as, and ascension to godhood is classic power fantasy fulfillment.

The nice thing is, that you no longer have to sacrifice a huge amount of content in order to have Minthara in your party. Maybe once more folks are able to experience Minthara, there will be increasing pressure to fix some of the biggest issues with her character.

I hope that they flesh out Minthara’s story and dialogue more, and enable romance for her, when you recruit her in the new way in a good playthrough. Because there’s quite a bit of bugginess and lack of care there as well, and no romance option. Not that I would consider romancing anybody besides my beloved Shadowheart, but it would be nice to at least have the option.

Minthara does have an incredibly compelling story, on a base level, so it would be great if it all got ironed out, and we could experience it fully.

Please keep endgame spoilers about other companions, which don't even have anything to do with Minthara, out of this thread.

Especially when not even using spoiler tags.

I'm curious, what mod is that? I have not tried to recruit Minthara yet because I've seen the bugged hell my friends who wanted to recruit and romance her have gone through- 3 months and unable to even trigger her kisses, Minthara acting like they've broken up with her or cheated on her, her dialogue sometimes simply not loading at all.

Wow. I had no idea Minthara was in such a rough state. I thought her problems began when patch five dropped, but apparently it's one of many problems that've been around since launch...sounds pretty ridiculous, and rather saddening because of how much the fans care for her character. Speaking of which, I'd like to get everyone's thoughts and advice on the latest Minthara "fix" that came out.

I am, unfortunately, one of the many players who got shafted by the incredibly flawed and bugged recruitment option they added for Minthara in the newest patch. The game thinks I didn't knock her out "correctly", so she didn't appear at Moonrise Towers despite the work I did. I could backtrack and reload a previous save to get her, but that would mean I'd have to redo 30+ hours of content in order to get back to where I was. Should I just suck it up and move on with the story, or should I wait and pray that Larian releases a hotfix/patch that'll fix the problem?

Figured I'd ask about it here, since the passion I'm seeing for the character makes me think that Minthara's worth all the consideration and waiting.

I am sorry, I added some goblins for Minthara's pleasure.

If she wasn't knocked out properly then no patch/hotfix will make her appear in ACT 2. If you have any questions on how to do so and wish to be absolutely sure, feel free to visit How To Recruit Minthara In A Good Playthrough.

Personally I was in the middle of ACT 2 with 120 hours played when Update #5 dropped and once I read the notes that Minthara can be recruited I immediately deleted my playthrough and started over. I love the character and I tremendously admire the performance, so it was worth doing


Much appreciated

It's just so that people wanting to provide some feedback in a thread exclusively about the character can do so safely.

I know of the "daughter of Lolth" mod. This will give you Minthara as companion in act 2 if you knock her out in the goblin camp. Without all the complications I 've read here concerning temporary hostile status etc..... Just a knockout does the trick. I played this, but, very soon after I got her company, I stopped , deleted the mod and restarted to do the "evil route". The dialogues with her in the modded game didn't make sense because the timeline was screwed up. She talked about events that had not happened yet and so on....
I went back to Nexus to verify if the name of the mod was correct and there's a warning now that the mod is no longer needed after patch 5.

I've been ranting to my friends about her state for quite some time now. It's a wonder that they don't tire of it, to be honest.
Here's to hoping that I won't have to rant about it for forever and the fact that we have the weird good recruitment (it seems to be so finicky to pull off that I'm fairly certain it's bugged) somehow gets more eyes on her and leads to her bugs finally getting addressed.

It just still bothers me a lot - so we either have to use mods to try and experience things, or we just go through this hell again and again just to keep submitting bug reports that only yield a generic response, if at all.
Never mind the fact that the workarounds with mods I've seen are more or less wonky, too - some people using a polyamory mod, just to make some things work, others using one that allows you to manually set things or trigger dialogues via a debug tool, its all not very appealing to me.

Sometimes I wonder if someone at Larian just deliberately keeps her bugged out of spite or antipathy. I jest, of course.

Thank you for this, Crimsomrider! Also, to the other person, Minthara would not be too pleased by the goblins lol. Let's all try to keep our discussion of other companions at a minimum. Take it as an opportunity to instead draw some comparisons and realize how unfairly Minthara is being treated by Larian.

I haven't been to this forum in a while and I'm very happy to see Minthara receiving attention again. As a fan who has experienced her character through both the evil path and the good one, I’m also glad to see more people are giving her a chance after the latest addition of the KO mechanic - as horrendously flawed as it is in my opinion. But I'd like to draw the attention back to how Larian is treating her.

Below is a list of Minthara's problems as of the latest update. No major spoilers, I used it to shorten my post. If I missed anything, kindly submit a bug report to Larian. I'm only sharing this here for those who are unaware of the true severity of her current issues. I also explained this further on the Larian official discord.


First, I want to say I wholeheartedly agree with everything OP said. While the game truly deserved the awards they received, Larian has a clear tendency of putting some companions on a pedestal (likely for marketing purposes). This is a problem and a cause for concern.

I think a lot of Minthara's problems can be tied back to the nature of her (original) recruitment as well. It has its appeal from a storytelling perspective, but ultimately because they have decided to gamify the D&D experience, I have to judge this from a game design perspective. It is plainly horrible because of the sheer amount of content you lose and how we get barely anything in return. As a consequence, only a small number of players will ever get her.

This is no excuse for their obvious neglect. I'm pointing out the recruitment was a concurrent problem viewed by the lens of many players (along with her bugs) and it is still relevant as the recently added KO recruitment is 100% metagaming. If this was meant to be a "solution" to player demands, it still begs the question why they didn't consider a better recruitment path instead. Something less immersion breaking, as Greek pointed out. At this point, I think I can answer that question myself, and I'm not too fond of the answer.

Agreed. The whole reason the IGN interview soured my perspective is because they didn't seem to express much interest in fleshing her out or developing her further than this. Nor did they address any of her existing issues. I put a part of the blame on the interviewer too, as they had apparent bias, but I'd rather not get into it here. To say this is a disappointment is a huge understatement for me.

I can only pray Larian will change their approach towards Minthara. Giving your support for her may be able to sway their opinion too, which is why I very much appreciate this thread!

What yu say is True..
she got overlooked by a Bunch of Players and Most will never even experience her as companion.
its the Normal Thing.. People always go Hero and most of Guys only play/beat this game Once.. so they never even Tried Minthara the Normal way like been Evil path.

And i beleave thats why Larian Rushed out the Park the Fix for Karlach and Halsin so Fast in the First place and they are still on it looks like.. hahuaha
so Minthi got Overlooked and super Bugged, like some other companions pay the price too and get bugged along the way.. most are still bugged becouse of what they Did.
BTW i never understood why so much love for those characters from the start.. weird stuff.
For me the best always were Shadow, Lae'zel, Astarion, Minthi..
Were the ones that from the start Make me want to Bring then in my Games..
And i felt Weird they Lock her in Only Evil Path.. but Ok. thats how it is looks like.

She really need Love from Larian.. no Joke..
like i said before.. Never Care for the other companions besides the Ones i talked here..
(I even Wish they make a Smaler Camp for me to Just Bring the ones i Like.. without 300 companions anoying my ass evrytime i have to rest.)

That's a list indeed. I’m relieved to say the first point is not happening to me. To hear that she has never been fully fixed is... genuinely confusing, and saddening.


As someone who went through the same thing, I express my sympathy for you, friend. It pushed me to take a break from the game for several days, but I went to redo those hours of content. No one here can decide what's best for you. What I can say though... from my playthrough so far, Minthara is worth experiencing and I can see why people are passionate about her, even now in her broken state. The other bugs will not stop me from finishing Act 3 and I won’t hesitate to replay the game, if she ever gets fixed, which I hope will be soon.

I think this has a lot to do with my personal opinion. I just dig her personality and dark sense of humor, and I don't play for romance. She has a lot of lines that made me either do a double take or just burst out laughing. Furthermore I find her unique for a drow and her morality is, let’s say, different from others. She’s also the oldest in the group, or maybe Halsin is. I don’t often play with Halsin though... and I can safely say I like Minthara more, no offense to him

I have played as Gale, and to me he plays like a classic power fantasy, so I disagree. As a character he is ok (now that his bug seems to be fixed), but I dislike his origin and find it problematic how certain parts of the story are restricted to him. But that is off topic. Back on topic, I have tried recruiting Minthara this playthrough and I think this results in her becoming bugged due to how the game handles the approval drop from 'temporarily hostile'. Made a report to Larian but so far no response.

The other question is how much content for the good path does Minthara even have? This might be another reason why Larian find her low priority. I think most players don't play evil in BG3, I have no interest myself either. Because my impression after a few patches is that Larian pays more attention to their numbers that player feedback.

It was always possible to recruit her on a neutral playthrough - so one where you completely ignore the grove conflict and just move on. She has lines about Karlach and Wyll, and she has banter with those two, as well. I'd argue that "neutral" is something almost nobody would ever consider, as you have little incentive to do so.
There isn't really anything that is locked behind an evil playthrough in Act II or III. The "good" recruitment has been something requested, which is the only reason why they even added it in the first place. The fact that this new recruitment method is bugged is another kettle of fish.

So I don't know if its the fact that we're too few players asking about her, but if it is, hopefully the new recruitment method changes that.

Unfortunate, but ultimately unsurprising. Considering how long Minthara's been in such an awful state, my expectations were already quite low. I'll still hold onto some shred of hope that Larian will fix this bug so that no other player will have to go through what I did, but after reading this, I think I'll just suck it up and reload an old save. If you could redo 120 hours worth of content, then surely I can do 30 lmao. Thanks for giving your two cents mate.


No worries mate, and I appreciate the warm sentiment. It's been nearly a week since that happened; the burn has been mostly healed, though I won't pretend like it didn't bother me initially. You're not the first person to recommend going back to redo that content, so I reckon the only thing really stopping me is the dragging sense of laziness I feel when thinking about redoing stuff I did so recently lol. I came quite a long way, but even still, you're probably right. Minthara seems like she's worth the bother, and it may not take me as long as before to get back to where I was since I've already done it, after all. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

On the topic of bugged recruitment, it occured to me that perhaps they mean the generic 'this npc will not talk to you due to low approval' dialogue, after which a trade window open and you have to bribe the npc so that they like you enough to talk to you.
Because I've got that after knocking Minthara out and recruiting her.

I forget the mod, I haven't used it in a hot minute. But it was basically just something that made it a little simpler to do console commands, so if you know what the commands and flag IDs are you can do it manually anyway. The main problem is that things like her affectionate word dialogue and the kiss just aren't hooked into her dialogue (I don't even think she has a camp kiss in the files honestly, just the ending one), so the only way to view it is to manually trigger it via command and that's just way too tedious to do more than once for the novelty. Not sure if Daughter of Lolth mod properly hooked the affectionate word in cuz I never used it but Ido58 is right that while it was an improvement over her pre-patch 5 state, it didn't do a good job accounting for continuity.

It's also been annoying since like what was it, the hotfix that claimed to totally fix her (and didn't) that she's had dialogue like other companions that would imply a romantic fade to black but it doesn't even have the courtesy to do that, it just sits dead in the water and you continue on as if the dialogue didn't happen.

The longer these bugs stick around the more I want Larian to just fess up to what that "extremely stupid bug" was way back when they first addressed ANYTHING wrong with her in a patch because it's apparently STILL causing problems.

I understand what they did there, I do, Minthara and some others aren't intended as origins and I'm aware of that, however I don't think asking for her to simply work as intended and to have a unique storyline, even a short one (which is something Halsin has as another non-origin companion) is that far out of bounds for the type of character she is. and if anything, your comment shows me that if enough people care about her, play with her in party and talk about her, the higher the chances are of her getting fixed and even getting additional content in the future! now I just hope that's all there is to it and Larian doesn't have a secret vendetta against their own character... (I'm half joking here)

Ohno this is about a datamined piece of dialogue I know they're talking about this but it's not currently in the game, which begs the question if they know what's currently in the live version or why else they would say that when it isn't in it (perhaps another bug in a list of them?)

And that is a horrible reason. It's time we stop excusing Larian for their obvious neglect and being biased in terms of how they’re implementing content. You're not required to play entirely evil to get Minthara, but I can understand the disinterest.

The only thing you will ever miss if you don't slaughter the Druid Grove is one romance scene, but that is putting it a little mildly as it is her only romance scene at the moment. Without trying to spoil too much, I'll say that getting her through this path will give you a better foundation with her in terms of relationship. It is an intimate moment for her character, and she calls back to that moment a few times across the game, but this is only a few dialogue lines. If you don't romance her, you're not really missing out on much.

If you defend the Druid Grove and recruit Minthara, either by knocking her out or using the Good Recruitment mod, you will only ever meet her again in Act 2 wherein you can choose whether or not to recruit her to your party. In this path, you can still romance her, she can still confess to you, and she will still have all her other lines and reactions towards what’s happening in the game but you won't get the romance scene.

The truth of the matter is: Minthara just does not have as much content as other companions, whichever way you get her. And yet, here I am and here are some other people being so passionate about her in spite of this. I think that speaks volumes that what's currently there for her is great, but it needs more polish. The longer Larian chooses to ignore her issues, the worse they look, and the new recruitment is already putting more attention on her.

Hmmm, no, that's not meant to happen. I never got that in my playthrough... and I don't think that's what they mean in the interview. I was here when people briefly talked about the datamine and I didn't get it after Act 2


Pretty sure it was hotfix 5... and that was when I was still killing Minthara in every playthrough, crazy times haha. Now she's one of my favorites with Lae'zel and Shadowheart. I often wonder about the stupid bug they were talking about and why they didn't just clarify it back then.

Please Larian, I have yet to complete a single romanced Minthara run since release because of this mind(flayer) f*kery with her being bugged to bits. I am on my knees, I am exhausted. I see this deep and wonderfully written character, and yet every time I see patch notes that mention some type of fix for her I genuinely struggle to believe if they are true or not because something in her dialogue always bloody breaks, romanced or otherwise.

I can’t do this anymore. It has quite literally stopped me from playing the game- perhaps that is petty, but dear lord its nearly coming on 5 months, damn well near half a year, and yet she still isn’t functional as a character.

Coming to add something, since a friend more proficient in D&D lore pointed it out to me:

In the Patch notes for Patch 5: "A romanced Minthara can now refer to her bond with you using a drow word for deep, unbreakable love."

Spoilers in case someone considers the word one:


As an aside: I've tried to post this three times throughout my day, and each time I click "post", the forum stops working.

It's not an excuse, it's an observation. Playing EA it really felt like Larian was trying to get people to play evil, but at the same time they failed to address feedback about how the evil path was lacking (in comparison to good). So why would more players choose that? And in full game it is still the same. I think this is because, unsurprisingly, their EA data showed that most play the good path so in the end Larian didn't bother.

For me the question isn't whether I can romance Minthara, I don't need that to like & enjoy a companion. So I'd be fine on missing out. But even going the neutral route results in losing the tiefling content in act two and three, with nothing interesting to show as alternative. That leaves the knock out method, and indeed it worked in my game, but I think it is bugged because Minthara had no party banters or dialogues of her own. I've had one conversation tree where my character could ask about her opinions, and that was it.

I understood that. I was answering your question more generally and I wanted to point out that you won't be losing out on much Minthara-related content no matter which path you take to recruit her. The romance might be a criteria for anyone else who was curious, so I wanted to expand on that. It is still “content” after all, but Minthara is a great companion regardless.

I think we all know her evil path recruitment is poorly implemented. I already talked about it in a previous comment. And sorry to hear that she might be bugged in your game. I just hope Larian notices this thread and realizes Minthara is in need of attention.

I'm not that well versed in drow lore yet, I'm still learning about it (inspired by Minthy :D), but I know Minthara isn't following Lolth anymore despite having the tag in the game, so after giving it some thought I think this might be another case of display of how

also I felt this, yesterday the forum was unresponsive almost the entire day for me :')

This got answered already but I'm curious. Has your friend finished the game with Minthara? She is definitely not a Lolthsworn drow by then? I'm not sure the word is only used by Eilistraee's faithful, so I'd like to ask if you have a source to that, 'cause I'm eager to learn. You know, what's more strange to me is the dialogue isn't even triggering in my game. And yeah, new here and I notice this forum works like 2 times per day.

Which point exactly in the game do you get the special word with Minthara please? I can try to reload a save just to see & hear it. I've finished the game many times and now once again already at the beginning of Act 3 around the time Patch 5 dropped, so I might have missed it.

well.... guess what, it's bugged at the moment xD i did my run with her i believe after patch 2 or 3 and i never got the dialogue, and from what i know it's still bugged at least for a large chunk of the playerbase now after they fixed it, so i have no idea when it's supposed to trigger :')

+1

Clear bias for all to see




Same. More content and less bugs please thanks

I finally made it to Act III with a completely new character, started post patch 5. In my old Minthara run Withers refused to acknowledge the relationship properly, this time around he actually does. Previously I only had it work with the Drow Twins.


However there sadly still is no different greeting from Minthara, nor a kiss option - which was to be expected. I'll see if I get the "special word dialogue" with her at some point with this, at least.

In my first playthrough, I didn't even get the chance to talk to her because I just went and rescued Halsin first. She then saw me with Halsin and began to attack lol. I was surprised to find out that you could recruit and eventually romance her if you want to since you could easily miss out her content like I did. It would be cool if we can get some dialogues options with her in that scenario.

That being said, I saw tons of clips of hers on Twitter and I would say she is a very interesting character.

Frankly speaking, it’s hard to believe she’s been bugged all this time. I genuinely enjoy this game but for some reason they can’t give Minthara the time of day. I know Wyll doesn’t have a different greeting either so that’s another proof of their bias shown by content imbalance

That + the IGN interview is why I made this post, it's so hard to wrap my head around how Larian STILL hasn't fixed her, we're coming up to 5 months. It's not only her - like you mentioned Wyll - but she has the LEAST. Not only does she have no greeting in her romance, she's lacking the dialogue tree to talk about the relationship, break up or kiss her. The "special word" doesn't trigger for a big chunk of people, overall her romance is barely there outside of the very start and very end of act 3 - if it even triggers right to begin with - and for that you had to up until recently:

1. kill the grove and miss out on a big chunk of content, including 2 companions and the tieflings OR ignore the conflict but miss out on both the tieflings and her romance scene
2. go through the entirety of acts 1 and 2, so you'd sink DOZENS if not hundreds of hours into the game at that point only to then find out....

she's bugged and has barely any romance outside of literal crumbs.

and now with the new recruitment, you get ZERO romance scenes on top of that. oh wait, even if you do get her act 1 scene, it's bugged on saves started before patches 4 and 5, Larian still hasn't fixed that.

It's the weight of how much time and effort you put into getting this character and romancing her compared to the bugged and lacking state her romance and content are in.

I think if you simply get her with the thought of "just another cool companion that can tag along on the sidelines" in mind, she's great! however her issues start to show drastically once you get her as a main companion and/or romance. so many people are redoing runs now to get her due to the new recruitment and i see a lot are being let down by the little content and bugs, it's greatly affecting the enjoyment and perception of the character as soon as she takes up any priority or focus for your run and to me it's utterly confusing why the writer(s) just don't seem to care about bugs and lacking content getting in the way of people experiencing the character they created.

It's possible they don't even know how bad it is. They don't properly test stuff.

Like, today on Discord someone from Larian asked a user for a save file because they can't replicate the "dead people re-dying" thing themselves. Somehow.

This thread makes me so happy to see how much people care about Minthara. She is one of my favorite companions because of how much depth she has. I feel like Larian only views her as the "evil" companion when she's not so black and white. She defends Shadowheart against Viconia, is friendly with Karlach (the literal sweetest character in the game) and even mourns Scratch if you lose him and talks about trying to get him back. She's a genuinely loyal person whether as a friend, ally, or romance and she really deserves better. Here's hoping Larian finally does something about Minthy after all this backlash

Aww, your comment honestly made me smile. And yes, I think Minthara is a very nuanced character that slapping "evil" on top of her can come off as shallow sometimes, especially when characters like Astarion or Lae'zel are mentioned. I hope Larian notices this thread too, it's about time Minthy gets some attention <3

Oh, I saw that too, which leads me to believe some bugs are just not appearing on their end. As for Minthara though, it's been 4 months and she gets a major bug after every patch. It's getting ridiculous at this point. I'd like to think they know most of her issues. The people that I've talked to about her have all said they sent a bug report to Larian at some point (me included) so I'm more inclined to believe they're just neglecting her, which is part of why this thread was made. Sadly we can't really do much but to spread awareness about this.

If anyone here got the "alurlssrin" dialogue with Minthara, do share your thoughts. Apparently it is only triggering for a (very) small number of people, but even then I don't really trust my source.

your comment makes me so happy <3 and i agree, it feels like Larian is pretty disconnected from how their game and Minthy are being perceived by players, i'm not sure how this happened.. i wished they talked to us more, even just giving vague updates, i understand they may not want to give concrete answers for anything and then be held to it if they change their minds, but communication or some explanation on their thought process regarding Minthy and the game in general could help a lot and go a long way to get dialogue going between the community and them, right now it feels like screaming into the void that is Larian feedback forms and getting automated responses back..

Mods make good games great, and best games better . Always have, always will. I refuse to play BG3 without mods.

I will keep repeating this until I go cold and blue for these two mandatory mods:

"Daughter of Lolth" if you want to experience as much content as you possibly can, not the half-arsed fan service in Patch 5 with Minthara. So don't delete it.
"Polyamory" to discover exactly how messed up Minthara was in the codes (or lack thereof to be precise - there were things simply missing, not bugged, pretty much nothing to trigger). And to admire the tenacity of the community against all odds.

Oookay? Why are you promoting mods on a thread focusing on the fact that Larian is ignoring her issues? Like how does this solve the problem lol? Kudos to the modders but this is not going to encourage Larian to fix Minthara.


Yeah it's almost like she's, I don't know, unfinished? I still remember the article where they said Minthara had 1500 lines locked behind a "very stupid" bug. I don't feel like there were 1500 extra lines from her. I guess Larian is okay with sweeping ALL of this under the rug because apparently she is just a "bonus" character that recently got unlocked. I never thought that was how they viewed her. That interview honestly and truly crushed me and this thread is like a flicker of hope. I just want to play through the game with Minthara without any issues.

I'm not sure why you're promoting mods on a thread that is specifically about Larian not listening enough and not giving Minthy enough attention and care to fix her bugs and finish her content. While I appreciate mods and their creators, this is sending the entirely wrong signals to Larian, in that they may take the existence of mods for her content as "well modders got this, now we don't need to work on it", which is counterproductive to why I created this thread

As Swen himself has said Larian would publish the officlal mod toolkit, don't you think modders will not discover even more of Larian's lazy coding, bugs and missing content than they already have? Larian is no Bethesda, but promoting mods is bread and butter to the longevity of this game, and perhaps entices the developers to think harder when they publish the NEXT iteration of BG3 (eg. Definitive Edition), or any RPGs they make in the future.

Think of it how you will, but my opinion is the modding is about taking back control, giving and rewarding players with choices that they, than petioning developers who want to preserve their artistic vision and narrative and force players down a narrower path.

Sorry for rambling. On the specific topic of Minthara, really after reading that IGN article I don't hold out any further hope.

I understand the point you're making. I also have a lot less faith in them after reading the IGN article, but most of us at this point just want them to address her bugs and give us a proper fix. That's the bare minimum they could give us and has nothing to do with artistic vision. I at least hope you've been sending them bug reports, because installing mods and silently hoping Larian is somehow enticed by this is hardly what I would call a better alternative.

Yeah, bugfixing is not what mods should be for. It should not be too much to expect Larian to simply get her as functional as every other companion unless they start getting very transparent about why Minthara seems so much harder for them to get working as they say she should be.

I think its a good sign, actually... or it may be my cope

Larian isn't Blizzard or some other scummy company, they have done so many updates since the game launch and their sales + player retention numbers have blown every estimated metric.
If Minthara is not getting a simple finalized bug fix is probably because they have some bigger plans for her... like why spend money on the same project twice?

So something big is probably coming... at least I am crossing my fingers.

Those are my thoughts as well, they're probably just cooking something and will address her properly eventually since Larian themselves are now okay with her no longer being exclusive to only her path. Sucks that she's not as fleshed out as the rest and for so long, but she isn't the only one either.

Larian simply rushed the release as the game is still being treated as an Early Access since lots of stuff is still being put in, optimized, completely changed or reworked. Karlach for example is very bare bones for an Origin companion, is missing some several comments about Dark Urge moments and she ain't even on any of the promotional arts, not even on the in-game loading screen

Personally though I'm quite happy to see them cooking up new stuff for the game, every update feels quite fresh and fun to explore ^^

I think this is


....but I hope you're right, larian i beg

Oh sweet summer child…

Not sure how Larian does things but 4 months of constant bugs is never a good sign in my eyes. They’re free to make me eat my words, I damn sure hope they do. I’m just not spending another second hoping they’re going to add more to Minthy UNLESS they give us an explanation why they're having THIS much trouble fixing her in the first place.

Yeah, I think addressing her problems would be a very good start from them, but even that remains to be seen so I totally understand the skepticism. Maybe it's cope, but after letting my thoughts simmer through, I'm also keeping a fairly optimistic view. Considering their history with DOS2, a part of me thinks they're not closing all the doors just yet. If they decide to develop Minthara further, I humbly request a more fleshed out and better integrated recruitment, regardless if that involves improving her current one (not talking about KO) or adding a new option entirely. And a companion quest please! :3

I'd say playtesting their own patch "fixes" would be a start. It is weird when you play the game and don't even know whether something is intended or a bug. When I recruited Minthara (using the knock out method), she had two dialogues (one about her opinions, and the generic one about low approval). And I play GFN, so I can't exactly look up her dialogue files to check what is supposed to be there.

Just got Minthara with the knock out method too. She’s been a blast so far. Hopefully they fix her soon.

Maybe this something big is the ultimatum between her and Halsin. I saw it got leaked xD

yea that's probably coming but is more of a fix to the issue of them sharing a camp/being unintended to be recruited together than adding content to her sadly :')

Bumping this because they still haven’t fixed her. It shouldn’t be too much to ask??

Hum seems like they should at least fix the fact that she accuses you of cheating when you actually haven’t. That seems like quite a widespread bug.

Yep, that’s the most noticeable bug so it gets pointed out the most. Reminding you all that Minthara is also supposed to have a kiss option in camp but it’s still not appearing despite the amount of attention brought to it on every other platform.

Patch 4:
"Kissing Minthara can now sometimes have an additional ramification."
The wording implies the option has always existed, but it didn't have ramifications prior to this patch.

Hotfix 11:
"Minthara should now properly kiss a second time without the need to retrigger the dialogue."
Larian is still under the impression that it works for some people (it's not).

Patch 5:
"A romanced Minthara can now refer to her bond with you using a drow word for deep, unbreakable love."
This one's not triggering either. Widespread issue, but most people don't notice because they don't read the patch notes.

My conclusion here is Larian has a magical build of the game where Minthara is fully functional that is somehow inaccessible to us. Either this is caused by lack of playtesting or neglect on Minthara in particular (because most people don't recruit her), it's impossible for them to be unaware of this now.

I tried to recruit Minthara (by not murdering the druids, mind you) and wasn't aware that she was supposed to be "temporarily knocked out" for her to be recruitable. I mean, what's the point of having "temporarily knocked out" and "permanently" since... well, you may only use the hability to knock people out WHEN you actually want them to live and maybe be able to talk to them after. So... yeah, I don't really understand the option to "permanently" or "temporarily" knock someone out.

Anyway, speaking about Minthara.

I knocked her out (probably permanently since she's not in Act 2 at all) and now I stopped playing cause I'm really disappointed.

I mean... I get fixing her romance is important, but could we have at least a fix for people being able to recruit her with permanent AND temporary knock out ?
I don't really have the strengh to replay everything just to be sure to "TEMPORARILY" knock her out

(I found some mods that helps, but it's either full "have her whenever wherever you want in your party, logic be damned!" (seems to be completly ... uninteresting for me) or "install this BEFORE act 2 and everything should be okay to recruit her" (but mentions some bugs in camp and all). So I stopped, hoping that a small fix would help. I did almost everything in Act 2 BEFORE going to towers (except Nightsong) so even the "install before Act 2" feels like I wasted so much time ;-; )

Would be great if, at least, she was recruitable without this "tempo/perma knock" thingy.

For me the same.

I did these steps in Act 1:
1. Talk to Minthara and promised that I will talk to the prisoner.
2. Freed Halsin and start to attack the Goblins
3. Knocked out Minthara. She got the status "Permanently Knocked out"

Now I'm in Moonrise Tower and there is no Minthara. Only the goblin from the Windmill in the destroyed village.
Is this a bug?
In the news pages there was only written that I have to knock her out when I attack the goblin leaders. No other steps.

Hi all, back again here! I've nearly finished my first run with Minthara. Starting to find missing reactions from her here and there and I'm not sure if that's intended.


This is not a bug. You just didn't do it the way you're supposed to. I know, I had to learn this the hard way too... Just to be safe, make sure to knock her out before attacking the goblins and she has to be temporarily hostile. If you attack Ragzlin, it will aggro the entire camp including Minthara and you won't be able to recruit her.


I sent a bug report about this last week. I doubt it's going to help much if they've been aware of this for months but hey, might be worth reminding...
I also sent a suggestion to make knocking her out easier. Who knows what they'll be cooking up? I'm glad I got to finish the year with Minthy though. Lack of content and all, she's been a great addition

Apparently if a permanently hostile character is knocked out, the game counts them as dead. So for this method to work, she needs to have the 'temporarily hostile' status, because then the characters count as ok. A temporarily hostile, knocked out character, should be back up after a long rest.

the KO recruitment being as broken as it is is just another piece on a list of bugs which leads me to question why it seems like they just don't put that much care and effort into minthara as a character... which in return begs the question why they made her a full companion if they clearly aren't motivated to work on her? unless all of this is a huge misunderstanding and they really have a magical copy of the game where she works without bugs and somehow also magically haven't gotten the memo that she's still bugged and not working as intended.

My guess Larian have intended for Minthara to be at least a camp companion, if not party, to balance out that a good playthrough would have Halsin as camp companion (and also Jaheira and Minsc). But the the entire main story got changed to make room for the emperor late in development, and I think they did not bother with the evil path because it was less popular. So now they try to patch her to fit into a good playthrough instead, but they don't playtest content properly before releasing the patch.

they said in the recent interview the emperor was a focal point of the story right away, or at least the "spot" he takes up in the story, i think just the character got reskinned? i heard something about another character filling his spot before, but the function he holds in the story was always filled


this is one of if not the biggest issue they have, i haven't experienced a game like this where content gets patched in half finished into the full release of the game, like minthara's KO recruitment causing a set of new bugs and her showing up naked which - while funny - kind of takes away her dignity and paints her in a more silly light in the eyes of the players, while she isn't meant as a primarily silly character, they're basically shooting their own character in a way, good job larian

Tbh, I think this is just a marketing pitch. They can't exactly admit that the rewrite resulted in cut companion content and messed up main plot. Because the way the tadpoles worked with Daisy in the EA was different, and there are still leftover lines from the narrator in the full game referring to that. My guess is that the emperor was a planned character, but for a different role.

aww i didn't know this, since i haven't played EA, so i'll just take your word for it. it's sad how much they overlooked once you start digging a little deeper into the writing and content :c i love this game very much tho and i really hope larian will do something more for it in general - and not forget about minthara while doing so!

Thanks for your answer. I will try this.

I load an old save and did this:
1. Stealed in Front of Minthara. So she became temporary Enemy. Knock her out and she was temporary knocked out.
2. Freed Halsin and defeated the rest of the Goblins
3. Did a long rest.
4. Looked for Minthara in the temple. She was no more ko. to be sure I didn't talk to her.

From my point of view the method sounds more like an exploit than as a feature.

I did one PT recruiting Minthara, using the "evil" path. Recruited her before patch 5 came out, but ended the game with patch 5.

What I find incomprehensible is that after the end, there was a nice intimate scene with Minthara (no sex, just talking), complimenting eachother, declaring love and making future plans. You can chose different futures for your couple.
Some months later, at Wither's party, the dialogues change depending on the future you chose. You talk about the progress you made in this or that direction.

So this seems to be all fine and well worked out, but before the end of the game, there is no hint about any progress or development in your relationship with Minthara. When she calls you "my love" right after you end the main story, it comes as a surprise really. " Oh, so we were, actually , a couple ? Surprise. Since when ?"

That is why I find it hard to believe that the actual content of the "building up to a couple" is missing from the game. Why put all the effort in the post-story wrapup and nothing in the actual story ?
So I guess there's a bug that blocks the in-story progress. But how can Larian have missed this ?

I guess they can't test the whole main story and side quests in all variants for every patch, so probably they have some saves in certain conditions that they use to test. Then maybe fix some bugs, retest etc... until it works. But if the "saves" from which they start testing are not updated from the beginning, they may initiate from a situation that cannot be reached anymore because of other changes earlier on.

Not trying to find excuses for Larian, but I just try to rationalize why the post-ending is there and not the actual in-story scenes and dialogues.

I agree with this. Daisy tried in her scenes to seduce to use the powers to do evil things. So I never trust her.
To be honest: I only met her during the first year of the EA. After this time I never used any Tadpole power so this scenes were never triggerd.

From my point of view Larian realised that the most players never used these powers because of the consequences. For me this is the reason

I have a feeling the epilogue is supposed to put a band aid over many such plot holes. I think Halsin's thing with the orphans also comes as a surprise if you romance him and he mentions his plan during the Post-Brain-Scene because it doesn't have any build up. Astarion talking about what he did after fleeing from the dock when befriended puts a band aid on that sore spot and Gale doesn't really have a conclusive ending in the game proper either unless romanced or pulverised. So I wouldn't be surprised if if Minthara got the same treatment, though I do hope it is just a bug that gets fixed.

A more general question: If I want to currently recruit her, can I chat with her before knocking her out or will that stop her from appearing at Moonrise? I got a little confused, by what I read on the subject.

Talking to her is fine as long as you don't pick dialogue that causes her to become hostile. You can even do Sazza's quest and get the reward from it.

You must cause her to become *Temporarily Hostile* which happens from things like attacking her while she's not hostile, stealing stuff in her room, getting caught pickpocketing her, breaking the drum that summons reinforcements, what have you. When her status is Temporarily Hostile, that's when knocking her out works and she'll appear in Moonrise later. It must be done in her initial location, it cannot be done in front of the druid grove.

Thank you for clearing up the confusion.

I've been wondering this myself. It's no secret Minthara and Halsin were added as companions due to popular demand during Early Access. So it's safe to say their addition was mostly for fanservice, but it's... poorly executed because they seem to teeter between developing them fully vs putting them in for pure fan appeasement. Like I guess they couldn't commit, so now Minthara and Halsin are stuck in this weird kind of limbo that it raises a lot of questions of what-if's and what-could-have-been's.

The complications might have come when they started adding more and more content in Act 2 or 3, as in they tried to bite more than they could chew and ended up having trouble prioritizing things. There isn't a good justification for this, but it all probably came down to saving money and resources with the rush of having to release the game in a predetermined time window.

It's just unfortunate for Minthara as she seemingly got shafted along the way to make room for other things. Other characters like Wyll are receiving more or less the same treatment, but Minthara is currently receiving the shortest end of the stick as she has the least amount of content and has been constantly bugged since release.

I also think most of what they said in the interview is a marketing pitch, or at least some form of "damage control" in response to the cut content discussion, but they certainly made themselves appear more disingenuous than ever before by not acknowledging any of the issues their characters have. As for the shift from Daisy to Emperor, someone already wrote a good summary on this thread if anyone wants to give it a read.

Maybe that's because it is. They never explicitly stated it's a feature or promoted it as a new way to recruit Minthara. I definitely see it as an exploit too, or rather a lazy workaround in response to the widespread complaint that we can't have Minthara without sacrificing a massive amount of content.

I think they should've made it easier because currently this method is nearly impossible to do without consulting a guide. But I also fail to understand why they didn't plan a more immersive recruitment instead, one that wouldn't require us to bonk her head out of nowhere. There are better ideas out there.

No problem, mate. You're good to go and she will appear at Moonrise later on... unless you come across some other bug.

I heard this method was there at launch but they removed it. At some point, people even started recruiting Minthara by turning her into a sheep. I think they just readded this because people asked them to. I could be wrong though...


This is the question we've all been asking haha! I sure hope they address this eventually, and maybe add more content to make up for it

So... I got to ACT 3 with Minthara legitimately recruited by invading the Grove and... I'm baffled. What in the world is Larian smoking over there by disrespecting her so much through such terrible negligence, she is ridiculously missing content and buggy.

The ironic fact is she actually has more content and feels more alive if the player recruits her by knocking her out rather than legitimately doing it, because she gets to react to plenty of stuff other companions do with their quests. For example her dialogue after Karlach is able to finally touch people is quite amazing and motivational.

But in this legitimate playthrough... YIKES! The amount of her clear-as-day missing and buggy content is insane.

• First she immediately acts when recruited as if Shadowheart did a whoopsie in the Shadowfell by spearing a certain someone, despite that not even happening yet
• Second why is this a one-time dialogue even, why can't we keep asking her about companions after specific points in the story to see her reactions to various companion events
• Third she has absolutely no dialogue options whatsoever to talk about the player's Dark Urges (she does with the knockout method though)
• Her "Wish to talk about private matters" dialogue branch is completely empty. Has been empty for the entirety of ACT 2 and still is in ACT 3.
• After exhausting her initial dialogue post-recruitment, she does not have any new dialogue up until the very finale of ACT 2
• Romancing her after the act's finale she will say that tonight we are fully hers... but NOTHING ever happens and Shadowheart (who I was fully romantically involved with at the time) immediately broke off her romance the very next morning. Thanks Larry...
• Despite Withers then recognizing Minthara as a love interest, there's absolutely ZERO new dialogue, acknowledgment or reaction from Minthara about us being romantically involved (probably because whatever was supposed to happen that night never happened, so now I'm stuck in a non-existent romantic friendzone with no way out because I can't even talk to her about it)
• Then in ACT 3 after the big reveal of who is actually in the Prism, absolutely ZERO reaction from her about what just happened. Nothing...

Jesus Christ... and Larian says she is fixed??? I decided to play Honour Mode with the worst outcomes imaginable just to see her content and test just how lacking such a playthrough would be. I knew it was gonna be terrible because I've tested it in Early Access, but I did not expect it to be this terrible in full release. Where the hell is all her content and thousands of voice lines that were supposedly locked behind some buggy trigger not working properly? What a massive disrespect and mistreatment of the character...

I'm so mad I'm gonna punch a Displacer Kitten

Reading this thread thoroughly makes me sad for Minthara. I was postponing my third playthrough for her. I thought with the new recruitment, or exploit? added she would be fixed by now so I decided to give it a try.


I just got this scene after going to Act 3... and yeah nothing happened. I romanced Karlach and Laezel before this and I immediately notice the change. With Minthara, she doesn't greet me differently. I can't even break up with her xD Not that I want to after all I did to get her, but the lack of option sure is strange. It's a big shame that her content is so sparse. I think she's a really interesting character.

She still does that in Patch 5? Pff.

I'm surprised you even got this option, it never showed up for me... also I'm even more surprised to read there is more or additional content from her when knocking her out, I've only ever gotten her by killing the grove so I didn't know. Now I'm curious how much more there is and if she's just as buggy and lacking in content there?? Man, I just wished Larian would finally fix her properly and prioritize her for once

Yeah, it's her dialogue about the player's Dark Urges.

For some reason she does not have that dialogue whatsoever if she's legitimately recruited, BUT if you recruit her by knocking her out then she has it. Weird that her knockout recruitment has more content that's far less buggy than her legitimate one

Example between knock-out and legitimate recruitment;

I never bothered to recruit Minthara legitimately, just watched videos about it, and I likely never will after knowing this. It just gets worse and worse.

I said it once and I’ll say it again, I’m surprised Minthara was released in this state. Other companions like Gale, Wyll, and Halsin have bugs too but they are nowhere near the amount Minthara has. The fact that they’ve continued to ignore this for nearly 5 months is ridiculous and no longer acceptable. What excuse do they have?

Nothing really. I’m not sure they’re ever going to address the situation. I bet they're just going to fix her one day and move on to other things. Like they've been pretty bad at communicating so far, and answering why she's been broken for this long wouldn't give them a good look - because there isn't really a good excuse lol, what would they say? Minthara's code was too complex? Even the modders managed to solve most of her issues: recruitment, bugged dialogue, etc. Also it's been proven time and time again that Larian is just biased. After everything's been sorted out, the vast majority of players will probably sweep this issue under the rug too.

So yeah, I'm not expecting much from them on that front, I just hope they learn from this. I certainly did. Seeing my favorite character getting sidelined for months to make room for more "marketable" characters was disappointing enough. I'll think twice before buying their games in the future.

They aren't even trying to hide this tbh, they've said in multiple interviews that she's a "sidekick" and doesn't get as much priority as origins, also that combined with their patchnotes about updates to her non-existent kisses makes me really think more and more they just aren't aware of her current state in the live version, or they're thinking all the reports are single bugs and not widespread issues, since her fandom is small and of the people that play with her mostly the same 5 people report her bugs it seems



This is wild to me, I can't recall if I had this in my run with her, but my run was after patch 2 or 3 when the game was much more stable and she was in the most "fixed" state she ever was, the only thing that was messed up was her romance flags, it's baffling she's so much worse off now, it's good I'm not currently going for her romance then, I'd just be even more disappointed :c

I really want to give her a chance in another campaign - she seems like such an interesting and funny character.. maybe waiting a bit longer will pay out for me and make the experience better. Still it makes me mad that so much about her seems a little buggy and weird
Right now she is just rotting at camp because I only recruited when I saved her from moonrise towers and my (good) Tav may or may not have made a super big oopsie at emerald grove and 'raided' that place without even talking to her prior lmao

But I love how people find different ways to recruit her without being evil (or stupid like me)

Their support team have stated they're "aware of the issues with Minthara" so I'm more inclined to believe they're just putting her on the backburner - which would be totally fine if the basic problems were fixed and she functioned like every other companion, but we know that hasn't been the case

Sad part is, I wouldn't even be as mad or disappointed if it was just Astarion or Karlach getting the attention. Halsin is not an origin companion and is supposedly Minthara's counterpart, seeing as they're planning the ultimatum for us to choose between them, but even he has a fancy kissing animation now while Minthara's is still bugged. He only has one major bug that I know of: his point-and-click lines aren't working.

If it's not her code being "too complex" then yeah, this is all just bias and pandering to the majority. If Minthara's recruitment were more appealing or straightforward, no content loss, no KO exploit needed, her fandom would be bigger and Larian would probably prioritize her more.

Halsin's probably one of the least-liked companions in the game. If they implement the Minthara vs Halsin dialogue it'll be over for him.

The only reason Larian can get away with not fixing her is that her recruitment was connected to the Grove and most people didn't want to do the massacre.

Yeah. I hate that you're right lol.

Even for variety alone. Why take along two druids, when I can have a paladin and the cool druid who has a short but sweet plot in Act3?

Yep and they didn't even implement the KO recruitment properly now, so many people can't get it right without looking up help or a guide, which speaks for bad implementation, why add it in the first place~ but at least, more people recruit her now and see her bugs and hopefully cry to Larian about it, so here's hoping they'll fix her eventually~

If they add the ultimatum, I'll ditch Halsin right away. Sorry, that's just how it's gotta be. Also I don't know why they added the knockout mechanic in the first place, you don't get any rewards for using it and it's barely important except for one or two instances. More importantly it doesn't solve any of Minthara's problems right now. Not really.

Wake up Larian, we're not in Early Access anymore.

I knocked out minthara in act 1 and he didn't appear in alzaluna. what the hell I wasted a lot of time

She has to be temporarily hostile when you knock her out. At least I hope otherwise it's two hours from my life trying to make her recruitment work.

knocked her out but she died to the acid bomb some guard threw on the floor - reloaded & did it again, wiped the camp, fingers crossed - will report back - from the moment she spoke i was like WHO IS THAT so i'd quite like to have her in camp finally rather than pining like tracker klagga lol

Be sure to not go back to check on her, like just go straight to Moonrise after you knock her out and long rest somewhere else. This is what I've been hearing lately.

I love how people are getting to recruit her now because of this, but imagine if we had an easier and more immersive recruitment too. They could've made it possible to spare and interrogate Minthara after defeating her at the Grove, and she could just run away afterwards. I want more content for Minthy :c

Nah that has nothing to do with it, people are just doing it wrong.

Long resting only has to be avoided between knocking out Minthara and killing Priestess Gut and Ragzlin, because the quest has to update in order to consider that all three leaders are dead. After that the player can play however they wish.

The PSA - How To Recruit Minthara thread has all the necessary info, including a video linked which has an FAQ pinned in the comment section in case these 3 simple steps are unclear;

• Commit a crime next to her to make her Temporarily Hostile
• Non-lethally knock her out
• Immediately after kill Priestess Gut and Ragzlin without resting until they're dead

Nothing more and nothing less is required to recruit Minthara, anything else is misinformation.

Oh, I stand corrected. Thank you for clearing that up, and for the guide :3

I will never recruit her that way since I prefer using the mod, but it’s nice to have that option - especially for console players. I still think she deserves a better recruitment path. They should fix her bugs first though…

Sadly yes. In my current legitimately recruited Honour playthrough she is broken beyond belief.

I am a 100% certain she is supposed to have an ACT 2 romance scene during its finale which acts as a basis for further development, along with a scene the morning after... but it does not seem to be in the game at all. So because of this she is recognized by other parties (companions, Withers, Drow twins etc) as my romantic interest, but she herself remains the same as when initially recruited.

And to make matters worse this lack of scenes immediately auto-breaks up any Origin romance the next morning.

I am now in ACT 3 for quite some time and I have not seen a single sign of affection coming from her, cannot even break up with her because she has no dialogue about the "relationship".

Unfortunately Minthara is still in Early Access. I also have no clue what restored content Larian was speaking of when they mentioned fixing something blocking her lines and romance, because she has NOTHING in ACT 3. And if this is her actual content then I may as well just romance the statue of Shar I carry around.

Her non-romantic content is at least somewhat there and fun to listen to, though there also are instances where she is clearly missing stuff, like not having anything to say about the very first night at camp in Act 3.

Whatever Larian is doing for Minthara may probably be coming in whichever update they release the romance additions they've been talking about. If it is not the next update, then they probably may be saving it for Valentines in February. That is my best guess when she might finally be getting some actual love and care.

I was too afraid to attemp the romance in a Good resist the urge run, because I worried it would glitch out. Instead I decided to headcanon Bae'zel as my honorable Gith girlfriend, who's basically a Demi-goddess right now, with Minthara keeping it mostly professional.

I just really enjoyed the idea that the real plot of this game maybe isn't about Illithid empire stuff, but rather about the Githyanki finally freeing themselves from Chaotic Evil Lich-Queens and Red Dragons. You know like achieving some kind of cosmic détente with the Githzerai, through Lae'zel's sheer force of personality, and then having Minthara be part of that saga. Minthara did attempt to angle for something more romantic, after we brought her into the fold, but I had to decline this time. Instead of romance, we gave Minthara the gift vengeance "by my Oath!" and she's been responsible for many of the key takedowns. I think she's nailed more of the big bads than just about anyone, when push came to smite, so definitely pulling her weight. Not sure anyone saw it coming, but she's totally saved the realms more than a few times now.

Here's a very spoilery Minthara high-light reel with a ton of images cause I couldn't help myself...


It was a lot of fun! Although I'm sure I'd still prefer a less crazy recruitment path for her, I definitely appreciated that she was able to hop on the team now. Even if it took a ton of meta hand waving and some creative clairvoyance to stitch it all together. It was the most entertaining run yet!

Happy New Year!

ps. Just cause it would only allow me to attach 10 pics per post, but I have like 100 lol

I might be misunderstanding your wording, but are you implying she has another romance scene already coded in the game right now, and that it's blocked for some unknown reason? I personally find that hard to believe.

The main reason Minthara doesn’t have a romance scene in Act 2 might be due to how she was originally tied to slaughtering the Grove and you could already get one scene from that. Seeing as she's not an origin companion, like Halsin, one romance scene is likely all that they planned for her.

I could see them moving the romance scene from the Grove slaughter to Act 2 for players who recruit her with the KO method, just to fill in the gaps. But I think it's safe to say there are currently no additional romance scenes for Minthara as dataminers would have already discovered them.

It’s a different matter if they’re planning to add another scene, they should, and I hope they do! The implication seems to be confusing for a lot of people, but I put the blame on the vagueness of Minthara's current state too. We have no way of knowing for sure which parts are bugs and which are just content that's not in the game yet.

I think whatever the “stupid bug” that was blocking her dialogue prior to Hotfix 5 is still blocking her romance flags that prevents us from accessing her romance dialogue tree. Even then, this is mostly wishful thinking. I don't trust much of what that article said as I also remember Swen exaggerated the number of endings we'd get. I'm pretty sure they just haven't done much for Minthara to begin with. I'd be happy to be proven wrong of course, any day now Larian.

Happy New Year to everyone, but especially the Minthara fans hehe :3

I mean it is unlikely there is a fully done scene lying around and blocked. I think they simply never really added it. They should - especially since the scene you get when moving from act II to III is just heavily implying that there should be one.

I know I thought I bugged it out somehow and that I'm not alone with that assumption. I honestly tried loading earlier saves, trying to talk to her later, thinking the Act III intro might somehow mess with it and block it, until I gave up and searched for confirmation wether it was just bugged or supposed to be that way. There isnt even a fade to black or anything, which made it feel like simply not triggering properly.
I wish I could say I hope they implement something, but looking at the buggy mess that everything regarding Minthara and for how long she's been in this state, I have to admit I feel pessimistic about it.

However, I am not that pessimistic about her getting major bugfixes overall - just not a scene that they apparently never really made.

Happy New Year!

No no it definitely is not in the game itself currently, but the way the whole scene plays out and how the next morning plays out is clear indication there is missing content that is supposed to be there.

Because Minthara's actual romance starts only after ACT 2's finale. She asks for permission to touch our mind so she can feel what we truly see her as, a lover. To which she responds; "...there will be no Gods or anyone else, tonight I am fully yours".

And... nothing happens after that. The very next morning other romances auto-break up with you immediately without even wanting to talk about it, while Minthara has absolutely no romantic dialogues nor reactions to it.

This massive gap between that night and everything that follows from that point onward is clear indication that Minthara is supposed to have an actual fully developed romantic scene, behavior change and dialogue about it which is simply not there so she has no romance at all because she is missing this scene.

Not to mention that even companions do not react correctly, it is a night and day difference. If you lets say hook up with Lae'zel while also romancing Karlach, Karlach has two different fully-developed dialogues with choices ready to break up;

• First one happens only if you approach her before leaving camp after Lae'zel's sparring where she is really jealous and annoyed at you for playing with her heart.
• Second one happens only after you leave camp so she gets a dialogue bubble where she acts disappointed, but understanding about it.

In Minthara's case companions don't have anything like that. They literally just go; "Oh so I see you have a piece on the side, m'kay". And that's it, whichever romance you had is now permanently dead.

Ultimately Minthara's non-existing "romance" is a miserably glued together placeholder from bits of scraps just trying to make it barely passable.

I think they were referring to her scene about touching the player’s mind, because that was not around for the first couple months of the games release, so she had literally no interaction for the entirety of Act 3 compared with what she has now (I stumbled upon the scene on YouTube because of a modder back then). It could also be referring to her scene about the drow word for love but as far as Im aware that is still bugged.

Oh okay! That makes more sense. And yeah, Minthara's romance is just barely there, hardly any content and no reactivity whatsoever. I think they put all her budget to her Act 1 scene and thought that was enough lol.

I’m personally not 100% sure the romance scene in Act 2 is missing content, like I think the no fade-to-black and no scene playing is how they always intended it, which is very misleading. It would be the perfect place to add another romance scene for her and would make for a more natural progression of the relationship, but I’m not too optimistic about them implementing this in the future. The more people ask for it, the more likely Larian will listen though.

What I assumed was (and this is the bare minimum) the next morning we would be able to access her romance dialogue tree, which would mean we can kiss her in camp and that she would have a different greeting. The former is apparently a known bug (that has been seemingly ignored) and dataminers have discovered the lines. As for different greetings, I think this just hasn’t been worked on at all as there are no traces of it that I know of.

It's definitely jarring that we have no indication to her romance at all outside of the Love Test and the drow twins. Everyone else seemed to have gone to full release but Minthara is still stuck in EA and Larian isn't even batting an eye at this.

You only know that you're in a relationship after you 've subdued the netherbrain. Then you need to decide how to continue and then you get comments from Minthara that confirm you're in love with eachother.
Then, post-warapup you have a scene with her in private where you discuss the future of your couple.
Finally at Whither's afterparty you can kiss and talk some more about yourself.

So Larian did put effort (and voiceovers) in these scenes that appear only after the story is finished.
Why would they prioritize these over in-story scenes ? Honestly, I was very (pleasantly) surprised when this popped out of nowhere at the end. I had really given up about the possibility to romance her. But it made the whole issue only more confusing.

No, that’s just one of the later ways you can know. It’s not the only indication. If you go to the dryad at the circus in Act 3, you’ll get to do the Love Test with her and if you get all the answers right, she can claim that you’re the first to know her heart. That’s already an indication of her being in a relationship with you as she would just outright reject you if you’re not romancing her.

The main issue here is her romance dialogue tree is allegedly bugged. This is what's been confusing everyone.

I don’t think they care and they haven’t started fixing or working on her at all. Every time they claimed to have fixed a bug with Minthara, I eventually discover that it’s a lie. My bug reports also seem to be useless because I sent them months ago and she’s still very much broken.

I think Minthara should be on the banner art with a multi-act arc and a polished up romance like the others. I read somewhere that she was irredeemable but I don't know, cause I just watched her save the Realms and it was great! We couldn't have done it without her! One of the best performances in the whole game and a spectacular visualization. I'd like to see the poster that has all of them, like everyone that can be recruited. No one left behind. She also deserves a black dye and a black die, like legit, give a me a black D20 and the whole Act III Minthara with no glitches for all those black eyes we took along the way. Then it'll feel definitive hehe. Meantime though, for all the nonsense, recruiting Minthara anyone and trying to do her justice with honors was my favorite campaign of all.

The love test for Minthara is... bizarre.

A few more bits of Minthara missing content;

She has absolutely nothing to say about entering two places in ACT 3 related to Dark Urge and a certain outcome, despite all other companions commenting on it. Disappointing considering how much she talks with Dark Urge about their storyline in ACT 3, only to have nothing to say about it when the moments themselves actually arrive.

Specifically these moments are;

If you think Minthara's love test is bizarre, you should see Astarion's where you can only get all of them right by picking the blatantly wrong answers lol.

Sharing my old screenshots here in case anyone wants to see the dialogue (warning, they're big):




Of course! I enjoyed reading your thoughts too. It's always nice to see people recruit Minthy and experience her character for the first time. She's very underrated imo, it's a shame she hasn't been getting the attention she deserves from Larian :'3

Minthara is kind of gated, or a challenge if you want to put it that way, because the game pushes you pretty hard towards siding with the grove. But of course she is by far the most fascinating and unique character you can have in your party. I am DU, but I am really curious to see her unique interactions and conflicts with other player characters, assuming they are not bugged or not implemented at all.

I have quit the game a long time now, waiting for the fixes that never come. The story and the characters are a huge reason of what makes BG3 good, and I don't want to experience a ruined version of those.

I am not keeping my hopes up either, because as Larian made public, only a small fraction of players actually recruit Minthara. There is also all the game awards hype, which means Minthara will be a long way down the bugfix list, if indeed she is in it at all. When you report any Minthara issue the reply is that they are already aware of it, but being aware of an issue and planning to fix it are two very different things.

Well, the "daughter of Lolth" mod, which provided a good path to recruit Min, but is now obsolete, had 143 K downloads. I think that means it was reasonably popular. I suppose these early recruitment attempts are not in Larian's statistics.

She's been a highlight of the game for me!

Bumping this thread in support of Minthara. I've just started a new playthrough with (Ascended) Astarion origin and I intend to romance her, because in my opinion she's his perfect match after Tav/Durge. She will be my permanent party member. It's a shame that such an interesting character is bugged into oblivion. She also deserves more intuitive, alternative ways of recruitment. Show her some love, Larian!

I have the same playthrough started lol. So for now Astarion stays in Act 1, waiting for Minthara to be fixed.

I don't want to romance her but I would really like to trade the problem bear for her after lifting the Shadow Curse - if that is how it works.

Not yet it's not. There is dialogue written for it in the files, but it's not implemented currently and we don't know if they actually do intend to use it later.

I hope they do something about her content by the time I finish act 1, but if they don't I'm going to do the same.

If they implement the choice between Minthara and Halsin then it would be nice if he could at least be convinced to stay at camp to do the Thaniel quest to lift the curse before he gets the boot.

If they do implement it the easiest solution is to just do the Thaniel stuff before rescuing her. The ultimatum dialogue that was found even accounts for the possibility of you doing that.

You might consider keeping Halsin around till act 3

True, but what I'm worried about is a scenario where you enter from the Mountain Pass and follow the drider, end up in Moonrise Towers at the start of the act, recruit Minthara and then have Halsin going nuts about it and demanding you pick one of them. You'd have to purposefully avoid Minthara to be able to lift the curse. It wouldn't be very immersive finding her while she's being judged, then going to her cell and telling her 'Sorry girl, there's this little thing I have to take care of with Halsin first, you just stay here and suffer for a bit longer. Don't worry, I'll come back for you later, I promise!'

I did it the old fashioned mass murder way, so no Halsin for me. I'm basically redoing an older playthrough that itself got murdered by patch 5. I got to the middle of Act 2 in that one. Poor Minthara was not doing well in the bug department, and talking to her as Astarion was kinda sad because he really gets her, but of course Larian didn't give them any special dialogue.

I'm going to do it too. I'm trying to make all the choices I think Astarion would make, remembering his comments, suggestions, approvals and disapprovals from my Tav playthrough and vids. I found his and Lae'zel's banter about obliterating the grove after visiting it for the first time rather funny. That is sad to hear that there are no special lines.

The choice to convince Halsin is something I'd like to have for other playthroughs.

Unfortuantely the Origins are in many cases excluded from party banter - and I can't see any pattern for when they are excluded and when not. For example for Origin Gale in Act 3 you do get the bit in which he promises Karlach to enchant her a flying axe, but their banter in the Blushing Mermaid about who buys drinks does not trigger. It's just weird.

And while Halsin might have a purpose in Act 3. I do like him well enough until the begining of Act 3, so I'd rather leave him behind and keep his character intact than take him along and ... well, there is more than one thread about it.

It's not the banter.

After you get Minthara out of Moonrise, you can talk to her in camp about how

The workaround for getting her as a knockout wasn’t clear and I may go back and try again. There should be a better indication it works

I made the mistake of clearing the camp and then knocking her out but apparently it’s a little more complicated. Now you are supposed to aggravate her/knock her out and then clear camp out. Really immersion breaking.

Darn, I've been wanting to recruit Minthana for a long time. She's the only character left for me to meet from the entire BG3 cast, but I'm waiting for Larian to fix everything regarding her, including her recruitment on the good route. Honestly, it seems more like a poorly made mod than an official way to recruit her. I mean, she and Halsin share a tent in the camp and they don't say anything to each other, knowing they are mortal enemies? As I said, it seems like a bug, really

I saw that she can now be kissed while romanced, so at least that's a small improvement. The kiss is the old lame peck that everyone started with though.

Hey guys, I came here to share some news:

As of Hotfix 16, it is now possible to kiss Minthara in camp.

Yes, after 5 months since release, the option finally appears when you talk to her. This was never possible before, even after they mentioned it twice in previous updates.

Although the hotfix does come with its own set of problems and Minthara is not excluded.
1. First of all, I found it weird that there was no mention of this in the patch notes. A heads up would have been nice. It seems they finally found whatever it is that was blocking the dialogue option from appearing and some of us were left with a pleasant surprise when we opened the game.

2. It is not possible to trigger the poison kiss in older saves. I've had 4 people share this to me since the hotfix dropped, it is unclear at what exact patch does the poison kiss start to apply but those who romanced Minthara near the launch date can't seem to trigger the dialogue nor the poison effect no matter how many times they kissed her.

3. It is not possible to trigger the poison cloud effect/debuff in older saves. There should be a chance for you to get a poison debuff after you kiss Minthara. In all my saves, I can only trigger the dialogue where you notice she has poison on her lips (point 2) but I never got the poison debuff. I had no idea it could even trigger until I saw a post on social media, and my friend came to me saying it triggered in a save where she romanced Minthara after Patch 5.

4. There is no unique kiss animation for Minthara yet, she greets us with "You wish to consult me?" as always, and we still don't have the option to break up with her. Hopefully Larian will add to this soon and fix the issues I mentioned above :3

And nothing about her bugged dialogue in act two, which I actually got a response from Larian that 'they are aware of the issue'. I guess I'll wait for a patch that actually fixes her content.

So, I'm finally almost done with Act III, and I still couldn't trigger the alurlssrin scene. I'm not sure if it is still bugged, despite Larian previously announcing they fixed it, or if there is some very specific circumstances needed to trigger it. If anyone actually managed to get it, please tell me how.

Same, never saw any scene with Minthara in ACT 3 where she uses the elvish word for love. I'm even a Lolth Drow too.

I'm also playing a lolth-sworn drow. They didn't block it off for that, did they? I mean, I get that its a word for the worshippers of Elistraee, but surely they wouldn't do that?

Hang on, I thought that nobody had seen her act three romance scene in ages because it just doesn’t trigger? When was the last time it’s documented that somebody saw that? Like in a YouTube video.

Its in the patchnotes for patch 5 that they allegedly unblocked the alurlssrin scene. I've also seen a youtube video from like a month ago, post patch 5, where someone had that conversation, their Tav was not a drow though. I'm not sure if its modded or not, since any video of that scene from before patch 5 was modded, as far as I know.

I just don't know if it's simply still bugged despite their patchnotes claiming otherwise, or it's really just insanely specific. There is some scenes and lines with other characters that you can get, but it's rather specific about what you need to do (or not do) to get them. Like with Isobel

Hahahaha I can't believe this...

ZERO romantic dialogues and reactions throughout the entirety of ACTs 2 and 3, other than the pitiful "Can I Kiss You?" option with a placeholder kissing animation while she acts as if we aren't even romantically involved. And then at the VERY END of ACT 3 when the whole world goes to tsk'va she suddenly has all sorts of lines where she's romantic as hell. Calling us love, being caring, inspirational, urging us to seize opportunity and not fall into doubt.

The very best of her character and her inner heart is quite literally shown only during the very end of the act while the whole world is falling apart. Omg... where was all this for the last 60 hours I've been playing!



It's like someone flipped her switch out of nowhere and realized she has a soul mate next to her. Unfortunately I never got any of her supposedly unique elvish love scenes either, so got no clue what's up with that those. Maybe it's an epilogue thingy.

Yeah, Minthara's romance has always been in a pathetic state and the "new" kiss option makes only a smidge of a difference.

I want to see if I'd get the alurlssrin line in a new playthrough as some changes only apply to newer saves, but at this point I've gotten tired because I'm starting to feel like an unwilling playtester for this game. Once again I'd like to urge everyone to send bug reports about Minthara since there are no guarantees Larian will check this particular thread.

You probably missed a lot of stuff that was supposed to trigger but didn’t. There’s no way her voice actor didn’t record any romantic dialogue for Acts 2 and 3. Crazy how badly it’s bugged. It must be incredibly frustrating, given that I’m frustrated by even small bugs with my girl Shadowheart. Folks on this thread are right, this is straight-up unacceptable.

There was not even the option to romance Minthara when I recruited her on the good path. It was all very weird.

We are all definitely playtesters lol

Hello, came here to add on to my comment. I randomly got the debuff for the first time today after downloading the new hotfix so this problem might be fixed now. Just to clarify, I previously said it isn't possible because some people I know spammed the option for half an hour (yeah, we're crazy) and got no dialogue at all while others got it very easily.

If anyone finds any new bugs, do share. There's still barely any content for Minthara though :'3

Crazy they made an unnecessary tweak for Gale, added the kiss option for Minthara which should've been present since release, and just left all her other bugs. No mention, no nothing. How many more bug reports do I have to send for them to fix her?

I read through some of Minthara's Consulting firm feedback on discord earlier today while waiting for the boards to come back to life.





https://discord.com/channels/98922182746329088/1198632096193855498

Nice work there! hahah

Also I just keep thinking back to when they changed her eyeshadow to white and gave her the pixie trim and the goofy ringmail. Various wounds, mostly grievous, and then like what, maybe 3-6 months before we finally got to see her Armor? No one is more patient. But her safety color there is still missmatched (as noted in one of the feedback volumes over there as well) cause she still has her clerical blue for the boots, instead of the black/violet/brass tones she's been repping with the Spidersilk.

OG Minthara had the Chain on and rocked blue as her safety color. She also presented like a War Cleric as the temp follower at first, before Paladin was added (probably why peeps figured Karlach would be the Paladin initially I guess) but anyway, she still needs the boots to match her new look since the overhaul back in 21.



I'd say nobody puts Baby in a corner, but then this is where she gets to hang at the Elfsong tavern if you go the knockout route... lol



Like half the time she has to pretend to be a potted plant while she prays?

Least in Rivington she's foregrounded...



I mean you can't tell me that pile of skulls by the tent isn't meant for Minthara! ↑ hehe

Why yes Mr Emperor, thank you for noticing ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

. . .

A shame I can't say the same about HER!



All jokes aside about her lack of romantic content, Valentine's is just about three weeks away so whatever Larian has been cooking regarding companions I hope it addresses Minthara finally.

Because if she does not get fleshed out with their upcoming companion content update, then it is safe to say she will probably not get fleshed out until the Definitive Edition which could be at minimum a whole year away.

Oh, my. Someone stumbled upon one of my Discord feedback threads.

Didn't make those, but some are made by my pal. I'm more of a 2D drawing kind of guy xD

You guys did not just come on here to cry about Astarion lack of content when he has 10 times the content everyone else in this goddamn game has. Begone.


Thank you, I felt this same way! Also I'm romancing her again rn in an mp run with my friend who plays durge, while I'm tav, and the difference between her lines unromanced and romanced is absolutely minimal it's laughable, she has the same lines and story related reactions whether she's romanced or not, it's such a joke. Larian wake up, wake up Larian

idk if this was addressing my original post but let me answer: I didn't miss dialogues for sure, I went digging deep into datamined contents, spoke to several people to contrast and compare notes and lines and whatnot, it's not there. Her romance is not even the minimum of everyone else's romance, even Halsin has more romantic content than her. However, if you don't believe me or the other people here, I encourage you to romance her and see for yourself! Especially if you romanced Shadowheart before I think you'll find the comparison of romance content.. noteworthy, to put it mildly

Please give her a tent, stop living with a druid!
but thanks for opportunity "good" invite her

Minthara still being broken is the main thing that stops me continuing replaying
She needs to be fixed and brought to parity

I have replayed act two with my DU, and recruited Minthara again. Didn't get the low approval bug, where you have to bribe her first, so perhaps they have at least patched that.

So I started a new playthrough after months of not playing, decided this time to play evil...ish character, at least for act 1 because I want Minthara legitimate way and I hate Halsin with passion. And to my dissapointement, I read that Minthara is still bugged and unfinished...? So many months after the game's premiere?
Does Larian even care about their female characters? Because so far I've seen fixes only for males. Hell, even Shadowheart who has slightly more romance related content than Minthara still has issues in her romance and I don't see any fixes for her on the horizon. But here we are with Minthara who's got the shortest end of the stick in the game, received only a small bunch of fixes to be forgotten again.

Damn, Larian, maybe wake up? Lesbians exist and we want some content and for female romances, too.

Minthara is the total unsung hero of BG3 in my view. It was Lae'zel who grabbed me initially, and Shadowheart of course when we hit the beach sure, but Minthara was the one who made me want to participate in EA if I'm honest.

She was the boldest maneuver of all!

She made me excited to see what would happen if we ever did get to Moonrise Towers.

She had the best pitch ever for a trip back to Menzoberranzan too!

If Minthara isn't on the banner art and all polished up for the definitive release I'll be pretty disappointed.

Also check this out... Damn! No surprise there that the Minthara art would be gloriously next level!!!!!



https://twitter.com/emma_chorussea/status/1755195121816011108/photo/1

So Minthara on my evil playthrough is pretty much broken. I can't tell her about my Durge or anything related to "personal matters", these dialogues don't exist. But my friend that plays "good Durge", recruited her via knock out and has dialogues with her about Urges and any other dialogues that are unavailable to me.

How is this even possible at this point? Larian doesn't test their own game?

I had that issue too.

Don't know what causes it at all, but from the two evil Durge playthroughs I've done recently (both on the same patch), only the first one couldn't talk to Minthara about the urges for some reason despite both legitimately recruiting her.

This is weird. Were you doing things differently somehow in each of those two Durge playthroughs or all was the same?

Yeah there were some very minor differences, but nothing that should theoretically make an impact on Minthara.

• I killed everyone at the Goblin Camp after sending her out to raid the Grove (in the 1st playthrough they just peacefully packed up and left after the raid).
• And in ACT 2 I unintentionally "accepted" to kill Isobel for Sceleritas Fel which made me entirely miss the scene where we get tied up by our companions (did get it in the 1st playthrough).

The rest of the playthrough was pretty much an exact replica.

I see, in my case I didn't kill any goblins and refused to kill Isobel for Sceleritas. So, these things definitely aren't at fault here.

Hey guys, I had this issue too and I recently reported it to Larian. I did some testing and I'm almost 100% sure I found the root cause last night.
The dialogue about the urges with Minthara disappear because of the Sceleritas scene, and I think this is definitely a bug - because it doesn't make much sense otherwise.
To be able to access this dialogue, you have to rescue Minthara from Moonrise before you get the scene with Sceleritas.

If you have some time, give this thread a read. I provided the details there.

who wants to bet patch 6 has no new Minthara content, they just added a new kiss to her, that's enough for the next 6 months~ /j

I really don't want to place bets on anything. I am looking forward to shields being usable again and see what comes, when it comes in regards to the rest. - I think it's called disappointment prevention. ^^

6 Months? Years more like if treatment of Minthy is of any indication.
Seriously though, I'm ready to wait for proper fixes if Larian at very least publicly addressed it.

Also the amount of her voiced reactive dialogue at Act 1's Creche makes me wish she was recruitable in Act 1. After all, game doesn't allow you to go o Act 1 from 2, after you rescue Minthara.
After all, Moonrise trial works w/o her present just fine, so she shouldn't be really hardlocked to it.

If interested you can actually take her entirely back to ACT 1 and play through all the content that remains after leaving the area.

That's how I got her and Nere together, was pretty awesome

So she really does have reactive voiced dialogue in Act 1? Neat.

Was justice finally served to Minthara in patch 6?

Going by the patch notes alone, of course not. But there do seem to be some improvements, so I'll report back any new things as I'm testing them. Especially her apparently improved recruitment on a good playthrough.

They themselves allowed it to be accepted along with Helsinki, and no one thought that their tents would be together?
Is it really that hard to fix?

Does she have a romance scene in act 3 now, or is it still bugged? Super curious to know.

Thank you.

"I'm also curious to know if it's now possible to knock her out when defending the grove? I also want to know if it's still possible to romance her on the good path? I ask because I'm not an expert on Minthara, it's my first time recruiting her.

Yeah you can romance her, you just don't get a sex scene out of it and miss the dialogue when rescuing her about hoping you'd show up (which apparently are the ONLY things still functioning properly on the evil path unless Crimson comes back to say otherwise if there are unlisted Patch 6 changes).

Do you mean the way she tells you she's yours tonight and nothing happens? Cuz there was never a bug for that, just early on a lot of people (myself included) thought it was bugged, but there's no sign of a scene for that in the files at all last I checked. That's big enough I can't imagine it wouldn't get a patch note if they added one.

I'm here to confirm that Minthara no longer requires specific conditions to be recruited and can now be also recruited even after raiding the Grove.

FUN FACT; If you loot everything off of her in ACT 1, she'll spawn in Moonrise with a 2nd set of her own camp clothes, thus you can own x2 of her own clothes to match as a couple!

Thanks for letting us know! Have they made her rescue from Moonrise any more dramatic? I found it weird that the guards outside Moonrise didn’t turn hostile while we were escaping last time.

Thank you! This is a great change! I was missing this option in my first run. Another set of clothing is a cool bonus, haha.

She also has lovely new kisses.

I really like it they finally allow you to rule the world with her. Her facial expressions in that scene are cool. It means I have a proper ending for my Ascended Astarion origin playthrough. Now I'll have to wait for them to fix her romance and lines.

Guys... they broke her again!

She's now dropping ACT 3 spoilers immediately upon recruitment. Come on Larian... (this seems to be her new dialogue when the Emperor is revealed for the first time, because she previously had no comments about it at all).




Not sure what you mean I'm afraid, the guard in front of her cell and the two guards by the bridge should confront you if you're escorting her out and should only turn hostile if you fail the dialogue checks.

Ha! Shart used to do that too after dealing with the magical circle in Balthazar's study. ^^

But it's good to know that I don't have to have a bad conscience to steal Astarion's armour from her after knocking her out.

Huh, I don’t remember getting any dialogue checks. I’ll have to pay close attention the next time I free her. And that is WILD that she drops absolutely massive act 3 spoilers the second that you recruit her? WOW. She used to drop spoilers about Shadowheart’s quest, but now I see that the situation is a whole new level of dire, lol.

I think you unfortunately may have ran into a bug then, because the guard right in front of her cell should call you out immediately if he sees her walk out of her cell. And if you try taking her out of Moonrise via the main bridge, the two guards will also stop you one final time.

As for this wild spoiler bomb, I'll go test the evil route real quick to see if it's bugged too

Oooooof, lmao. Poor Minthy doesn't have it easy, does she. I wonder what they mean by 'valid ways to recruit her', though. I'm assuming it doesn't need for her to be temporarily hostile anymore in order to have her?

I loved the kisses though, they're all so great.

So I just tested this bug by speedrunning to ACT 2 while ignoring the Grove entirely and unfortunately she's still bugged and dropping spoilers.


Correct, there are no more special steps required to recruit her.

Yeahhh that’s going to be rough for anybody who wants to go in blind without spoilers. I would have been so annoyed if *the game itself* had spoiled the Emperor and Orpheus for me, my first time around. That bug is going to get really old really fast for some people, lol.

Also it seems like Minthara and Halsin no longer share a tent, at least after the first long rest once she's recruited.

Halsin instead moves to a remote place at the camp after a long rest, so it looks like Larian is really going to implement having to choose between Halsin or Minthara in ACT 2.

Fear not guys, there might be an elder brain against us, but we have Minthara, a super brain, capable of seeing the future!

That's good, albeit a bit slow of a change. Oh, it's gonna be SUCH a hard and painful choice.

Haha, I like the eye roll. Yes, I’ve been looking for a way to get Halsin out of my camp for quite some time. (Sorry Halsin lovers, your point of view is 100% valid, but it’s just not for me.) So this seems like a good development, to me.

Act 3 spoilers

This option truly can't come soon enough. Actually, I'll be testing something on my Selunite this time:

- Kill Halsin at the goblin camp, but also kill the goblins, protect the grove and knock Minty out. I wonder what's gonna happen in that scenario. Will the game acknowledge his death or he's gonna be suddenly resurrected, because the game isn't programmed with a path like this. Well, I'll keep a save file just in case something breaks.

Excellent! Good work! Thanks for the screens!

As far as shadow dropping Emperor spoilers goes, yeah I mean she's clearly Clairvoyant. I don't care how villainous she comes off, if an NPC revealed that level of insight about what's going on right before mortal combat, any hero or wicked Durge who didn't stay their hand at the last minute would surely be a fool! The most valuable asset is information! And Minthara is shorthand for wisdom too. The wise call at this point would be to deliver on the Minthara Origin and the Menzoberranzan highway to hell expansion Campaign!

Fingers still double crossed hehe

I 've decided to share my findings, failed to see if it has been brought up to this topic yet and my sincerest apoligises if I am just spamming it up, read through pages and pages and perhaps I am just blind but this happened with a fresh new game started after Patch 5 and Hotfix 16 was released so keep that in mind.

This was the route of massacrating Grove so had plenty of mingle with Minthara early in Act 1 and whether this had any weight I would not know, playing two thirds into Act 3 with Minthara as a companion (and as love interest), she took me completely by surprise when this one time
With only three dialogue options to choose from I must of course have picked the one with least voice over lines, so I reloaded my game to an earlier segment and retraced my steps exactly the same leading to that kissing point and guess what I never managed to retirgger this scene, has anyone in this topic managed to see what actually triggers this whether its completely random or just buggy?

Reason it took me by surprise was because felt like it happened relatively early into Act 3 so I was nowhere close to reaching epiloque.

Post patch 6 I have kissed Mitnhara extensively through Act 3 again, every step of the way of doing side quests or uncovering new areas I would talk to Minthara and give her a round of kisses and same as before never managed to trigger it again,

• Have you kissed her at any point before getting that dialogue?
• Also which race are you playing?

I believe to get that dialogue you have to fail a hidden saving throw against poison when she's kissed for the very first time (similarly to how Shadowheart can only trigger a saving throw against wolves once per wolf), but I'm not entirely sure because I actually never managed to get it in my playthroughs.

Playing as a darge urge customised to a wooden female elf (not half elf) character and as soon as kissing was introduced for Minthara in hotfix 17, always give her dozens upon dozens kisses each time I play, so I must have kissed her like over 20 times in a single constant game of Act 3 before this was triggered (not first kiss by far) for me the first time, maybe noteworthy to mention the last "fog of war" I had left to explore was the abandoned plague ship and afterwards I went back to elfsong tavern camp.

This now just confusing to me because the very first time I kissed her either I succeeded the saving throw or you are given more chances in hopes of failing this saving throw again?
I just hope its not buggy where as, the games treats it as triggered event despite reloading to an earlier point.

Hello and welcome if anyone here is new to Minthara! The poison dialogue triggers randomly and people have speculated it to be RNG. You can get it as many times as you can in your game, so it can happen again for you later. I'm not sure if it's related to a hidden saving throw - in some of my saves, I get poisoned after 1 or 2 times, and in others I get poisoned after kissing her like 20 times lol.

A neat little detail I found a while back is Minthara can give you various types of poison and these are completely random.




She also gives you drow poison which can put you to sleep and a few more I forgot the name of. She's got a lot in her arsenal, gotta catch them all :3

Does the type depend on what poison potions are kept in her inventory perhaps?
Maybe reason i fail so miserably now is because my wooden elf has strong saving throws, thank you so much for sharing this information.

Has me wondering if keeping her inventory clean from poisons would have any weight, hopefully not but now I am going to keep er stuffed with tons of poison.

-edit-
While I know wooden elfs are immune from being put asleep and generally can come with good saving throws, but I kept my constitution stats to only 10 for mine and just feels so random.

I can assure you it doesn't. I admit I hardly ever use poison and I usually just store them at camp, Minthara is already overpowered as it is

I don't think there is a saving throw for the dialogue itself, but who knows? There is however a visible saving throw for when you get drow poison - if you succeed, you won't be put to sleep. It also shows up if you're an elf but you automatically succeed because you're immune. And another saving throw for when you get a poison cloud - if you succeed, you won't take damage.

Can't say much about stats. I'm playing Dark Urge with high constitution and I got the poison dialogue like 3 times in a row, just my luck lol.

Huh, I just managed to trigger it on my testing save.

• Tried to spam several kisses, nothing.
• Then I gave her all my poisons and tried another round of kisses, still nothing.
• Then I disguised myself as a Githyanki (because a disguise resets back all her available dialogue in ACT 3) and I got instantly poisoned.
• No saving throw was listed in the combat log, therefore this is highly likely just a dialogue with a low chance to trigger each time she's kissed.

On the topic of Minthara bugs, I've got what I presume is one of the new camp animations, which was her waving and then sticking a knife in the air.
I think this might be an animation from act one, where she puts the knife through the map on the table.

WOW
finally! It's time to play!
Thx!

Just did it, it went smoothly. The grove acknowledges hes dead (not sure how, maybe a birdie told them) except Kagha. She says she's waiting for his return which is weird.

Other than that, party went well, slept and no cutscene the next day.

Okay, that's awesome. I was a bit slow with my game lately, but I'm glad you tested that! Althought it's very weird how Kagha doesn't really acknowledge his death. Writers really do hate her. Or maybe it's a bug, but somehow I doubt it.

Well, either way. Glad to know I can have Minthara on my good playthrough without Halsin!

Loving the new kissing animations but besides that she keeps repeating the same line about the Emperor every time something new happens. Also she seems to have skipped a conversation after killing Orin. I’m kinda disappointed about this, I feel like I’m missing content :c I’m pausing my durge until some of these issues are solved.

Still, I’m glad her tent is finally hers an not a mix of her tent an Halsin’s! Nice to see some improvements at last.

If you cast the spell of disguise self you'll be able to engage in that specific dialogue after killing Orin while hoping that it gets fixed in the future, given how many races we have in the game its one nice way of revisiting her past dialogues so many times.

This is... such a strange workaround but as long as it works I'll be using it. Thanks!

Sigh... two months of waiting for this...

So it looks like this new bug where Minthara talks about the Emperor is far more severe than I initially thought. It's overriding all her reactive commentary, meaning she'll keep repeating this bugged line over the originally intended comments every single time when there's a newly developed situation throughout ACT 2 and ACT 3. So yeah, Larian REALLY broke her again...

I'm so glad that these forums have 30000 threads about every stupid topic in existence regarding sex, romance and other trivial bullshit that span up to 30 pages long, as Larian adds even more content to existing functional companions...

Meanwhile Minthara who is completely broken since Early Access, lacking content and only gets more broken with each update? Yeah screw her... the only thing her fans can hope for is that her pitifully miniscule incohesive content that's barely holding together doesn't break even further, but apparently can't even get that either.

The Emperor line bug is awful. I wanted to hear her thoughts regarding Astarion ascending, Viconia, the gnomes, Orin or whatever and she's just "Unnerving as it is..." I can only imagine that at the ending or maybe even in the epilogue she'll keep repeating this line.

And reviving her with Withers does not fix this. She's quite broken right now. Also I have the option to ask her about companions but nothing happens, maybe that happens to other people as well?

Our lady has been forsaken by Lolth, the Absolute and apparently Patch 6.

I definitely want to highlight this comment because, even as someone who doesn’t want to romance Minthara, I would like to be able to get to know her as a companion. And it is egregious that she is still in such deplorable condition so many months after release. It is very frustrating that Larian has a pattern of tinkering with something a little bit, only to break it (or something closely related to it) completely. (Just one example being, adding content for Mol in Act 3, and then her entire scene in act 2 breaks.) This is an egregious bug, not just because it ruins Minthara as a character by removing her reactivity, but also because it spoils one of the most massive reveals in the game. So I hope they set to fixing it as soon as they’re able. Help us out with another hotfix, Larian?

As much as I adore Shadowheart, I strongly agree with you that other companions should be fully functioning before even my darling gets (more) new content.

This, this so many times, it's almost giving me the impression that the actual people behind the work of her has moved on to their next project and different set of hands are trying to work on the game regardless how talented..
Surely hope I am wrong on this, would it be possible to see her break down like this even if the core developers responsible for her creation being involved with all the changes done to the game, thoughts, anyone?


It is starting to feel painful to see Emma Gregory's work getting lost in the pool of bugs and vermin pulling them apart limb by limb, praise to absolute that she will get properly fixed before this game hits the "golden" standard of not needing updating anymore because I will keep on sending bug reports by tickets till she does get inspected and combed clean to full functionality, Lolith have mercy if not.

We've been waiting for so so long. Like pretty much since October of 2020. I guarantee that if there were heuristics on this one, Minthara has probably been the most knocked out NPC of all time. I mean she is now the dictionary definition of a knockout.

The Minthara fans are hardcore and the most patient. Everyone else shows up at the elfsong tavern with hugs and kisses raising a toast, and we roll in like 'don't worry, we're ok, we just got hit by another truck. It's totally cool...'

How many times must she smite the Emperor and save all of Faerun to get that extra Origin slot in the UI that's so obviously meant for her? I thought resisting the Durge was potentially the most satisfying, but I can't get no satisfaction? Legit, what does it take to see Minthara up on the banner art and the box cover?

She deserves her own separate questline in Rivington and the Lower City that's just all about her.

I want to see her run game on the whole Upper City and come correct with like 6 dyes in her inventory - all black & black, when we get there, if we ever get there!

She should have like 6 nights out on the town, just to make up for every patch where she got left in the lurch.

One thing that I found disappointing is that she will not travel to the Underdark. When she is recruited at Moonrise Towers, she is on a quest of vengeance and will not travel back from the Shadowlands, which makes a bit of sense for a reason...but if there is one environment ripe for content where Minthara's character can shine, it is the Underdark!

Well after her being broken again I'm done sitting in the corner like a good little boy and being grateful for mere breadcrumbs while every other companion is getting full course meals for years now.

Larian has displayed terrible utter negligence towards Minthara and by doing so proved they don't care about her whatsoever, while parading that f***boy Astarion around as if the whole world is centered around him. Time and time again they made it impossible to enjoy Minthara, because like an utter k'chakhi the only thing I get to hope for Minthara are pitiful BREADCRUMBS that merely ENABLE ME TO ENJOY HER BUGGY CONTENT, instead of actually looking forward towards meaningful unique content that would solidify her as a character and make her story cohesive.

I've been here pointing out Minthara's shortcomings and Larian's terrible mishandling of the character for almost two years now, the reason why Emma Gregory has been entirely unnoticed for so long now and why she barely has any interviews about Minthara due to constant mistreatment of the character that's legitimately making it impossible for players to enjoy her.

• First they entirely lock her behind a bulltsk'va exclusivity choice for the pitiful idea of having an "evil" playthrough that doesn't even exist to begin with.
• By doing so they alienated her from about 70% of the playerbase by deleting content related to over 60 NPCs along with Shadowheart's romance and companions like Halsin, Wyll and Karlach as well as potentially Gale and HERSELF TOO!
• This terrible imbalance of content based around a single dumb choice made enjoying her as a character incredibly difficult due to ACT 2 and ACT 3 being horrifyingly devoid of any meaningful content.
• And even if the player obtains her with all the devoid content she's still broken as tsk'va because half her content is unavailable due to bugs.

In the last two years without counting the epilogue; what has Minthara gotten in terms of unique content that improves and solidifies her as a companion? NOTHING! She got a barely functional optional recruitment that merely enables her in a good playthrough and look how many players immediately became interested in her with absolute minimum effort, despite how broken she is! Been saying this for a long time. Meanwhile what did Shadowheart get this update, the main character of the game with the most fleshed out story, romance and whole two acts entirely dedicated to her? She got new unique interactions for her camp stool.


HER CAMP STOOL!

Minthara is broken as utter tsk'va and Shadowheart gets unique interactions for her stool in the camp.

How many threads are there about Minthara currently active on these forums? Just this one. How many bug reports about Minthara are currently there? Just mine (with zero comments). How many threads are active about Astarion, Halsin and other companions? Just look at them, every day 30 comments pop up in every single one. If this tsk'va happened to Astarion, we'd have 3000000000000000 threads about it by now. But Minthara? One thread, one bug report, barely any comments.

I love all companions equally and it's fantastic that Larian is improving all companions (with the exception of Minthara for whatever reason)... but precisely because of this horrible utter negligence by Larian I'm forced to exclusively focus on just Minthara like a k'chakhi fanboy that's starving for any Minthara related breadcrumbs in the patch notes, because unlike all the other companions that actually have their full content available and working, Minthara is just broken PERIOD to the point her players can't even get to enjoy the very little remaining content she has.

• Update #5 - Minthara can be knocked out now in ACT 1 (without mentioning extremely specific steps required which I had to personally test and spread the word because Larian didn't implement it properly)
• Update #6 - Fixed the recruitment so she can now get knocked out without the special steps required.

Meanwhile does she get any actual content that solidifies her as a character or adds to it? Nah... broke her again so that she now drops ACT 3 spoilers and makes players avoid her even more.... LULZ! SUCKS TO BE YOU!

What about her other issues?

• Her judgement scene in Moonrise still not having any failsafe if the player never met her or joined her in ACT 1, making the main character act as if they know each other.
• Or her not having a camp tent of her own, instead having to share it with Halsin like a homeless dog kicked in the rain by the side of the road.
• Or her romantic evening not triggering any romance related scene when she officially becomes a romantic interest in ACT 2 after saying "tonight there are no gods, I belong only to you!".
• Or her romance not having any relationship dialogue that allows the player to ask how she feels or to even break up with her.
• Or her greetings not becoming more romantic after becoming a love interest, just acting like a robotic consultant instead.
• Or her Dark Urge dialogue becoming unavailable for whatever reason, making it impossible for Dark Urge to talk about their urges with her.
• Or her not having anything to say about Dark Urge either getting eternally damned or free after getting rid of Orin.
• Or her not having any camp decorations in Elfsong Tavern while every other companion does.
• Or her not having a body, arms or feet in the leveling menu if she's not wearing all equipment slots.

*Sorry for the rant*

You actually can whether its an intended side effect or not is the question, this involves casting a silence spell on Miinthara before you go back to Underdark as long as you won't enter the Sharran mausoleum in Act 2, that is the start of no-return point to Underdark.

But it would be actually neat of course if there were some clear and purposeful designs for her and Underdark in some unique way, typically a missed opportunity.

I also forgot to mention above that she can't be broken up with once she's officially a love interest because she's the only companion that doesn't have any relationship dialogue. Can't ask her how she feels or anything of the sorts.

My theory is that there is something big coming for Minthara, she has been a popular demand since the start. Way more than Halsin in EA, the reason why she always seems to be limping along is probably because it would be a waste of resources to fix the same thing twice.

I really hope so. I was forced to put my Minthara playthrough on hold because the latest patch broke her so bad, it's really frustrating. I really like her writing and dialogue which make her feel like a lot more than just a "fanservice addition". She's more integrated into the main story than most of the origin companions. She really deserves to be more fleshed out and fixed!

I truly do not wish to be negative, but I highly doubt anything is coming for her (other than the potential datamined Halsin dialogue where he'll scamper off)... and that's coming from someone who has been incredibly hopeful and positive for two years now that Minthara will become solidified and fleshed out as a companion, even after hearing how "Larian is happy with the state she is in now" (meaning entirely broken and barely reactive as a companion state).

That's why I mentioned Shadowheart's stool above; because someone like her who is the most fleshed out companion even during Early Access, received new fully-voiced unique content for a background piece of her camp decoration. A piece of camp decoration gets new fully voiced content...

Broken Minthara on the other hand; zero new content additions, zero optimizations to her barely-holding-together content, zero added failsafes for her Moonrise scene or her romance and barely any fixes. Instead she only got more broken to the point her content is once again inaccessible due to bugs and issues. Did she get any new fully voiced unique content for her knockout recruitment or her legitimate recruitment by ignoring the Grove? Of course not.

And naturally they'll force Halsin to leave because that's just how Larian deals with Minthara, making it incredibly difficult to like her by cutting off more content;

• Shadowheart and Lae'zel? Can't stand one another, argue all the time, threaten each other and even almost kill each other... become best friends.
• Karlach and Wyll? Wants to murder her, but they become immediate buddies after a single talk and become oathsworn to each other by the end.
• Halsin and Minthara (a mindcontrolled victim of the Absolute)? DEAAAAAAAATH! CHOOSE ONE OR THE OTHER, CAN'T HAVE BOTH!

This blatant favoritism of everyone but Minthara is once again an occurring phenomenon just like it was during Early Access. Halsin's entire side became a massive elaborate story full of characters and intricate details... while Minthara's side is a pitifully put together desolate content with absolutely no other characters, full of holes and contradictions that got entirely ignored and left to gather dust as it merely plays along the established heroic paths, because Larian is very clear that in their games there are no evil story choices that lead down different paths; there are just heroic actions for which you'll get punished with removed content if you don't follow them to the letter.

We are 7 months in now, 5 months away from a year since release;

• Minthara received absolutely zero new and unique content since release (epilogue content does not count nor do her idle camp animations)
• She received zero optimizations and zero failsafes for her existing content. Shadowheart has x5 failsafes in place when it comes to being recruited, Lae'zel has x3, Wyll has x2, Karlach has x2, Astarion has x1.5, Halsin has x3, Jaheira has x3... Minthara? None, the avatar acts as if they know and joined each other even if they never met in ACT 1.
• The barely put together optional recruitment is a minimal step in the right direction that's realistically just a minimum effort enabler of her content in a good playthrough that doesn't add nor change anything. Couldn't have made a meaningful cutscene where she retreats instead? Couldn't have added a line or two so she references this in ACT II or at least reacts somehow to it?
• If the player even obtains her via the optional recruitment, they'll never get her romance scene. Couldn't have made it so that the player gets the romance scene if they never romanced her in ACT 1? Every other companion has a failsafe for their romance, Minthara is the only one who doesn't. Murder the Grove or no hanky panky for you.
• And so on...

I've personally stopped hoping Larian will magically divert their attention to her and realize what she needs added, what she needs fixing and what she needs improving. Instead I am now just collecting data and footage of everything that's wrong with her, which I will soon post as my own detailed thread fully visualized with exact things that need to be done for her and keep pushing it into their face until she is acknowledged and fixed.

Unfortunately being an annoying and extremely vocal minority is how things get done around here. I don't want to be an unpleasant pest, but apparently if that is what it takes... then so be it.

Too bad, I was hoping they'd fix Minthara and add more romantic content for another playthrough, but it seems she's still broken and lacking content. All my sympathy to Minthara fans; I hope Larian someday deigns to do her justice and sets aside their absurd favoritism for other characters, and starts focusing on those that lack content. Looks like I'll have to postpone my run until the next patch. PS: Personally, I don't see a problem with implementing the ultimatum dialogue. Obviously, most people will choose Minthara over Halsin; maybe then Larian will realize how beloved Minthara is within the community and start giving her the attention she deserves.

Here's one of the 13 issues so far on my list plaguing Minthara that I'll be covering;

• As well all know when Minthara officially becomes a love interest in ACT II she says "...tonight I belong only to you.", but naturally nothing happens that night... or any other night for that matter. Doesn't matter whether the player romanced her in ACT I or not, they don't get any romance scene at all. So why not have a short, sweet and simple fade-to-black romance scene if the player already romanced her in ACT I (if they didn't then naturally it'd be her full romance scene from ACT I).

Because I'm not one to just talk, here's a visual presentation too. Nothing groundbreaking, but at least it's something instead of nothing;

While i agree and would love to see something to happen after Minthara saying the famous "...tonight I belong only to you." line, at same time would also hate to see some crappy repurposed work soiling her down, the lovescene in Act 1 is so perfectly well done from an artistic point of view and goes hand in hand well with the synonym of evil, feasting on killing innocents to feasting on one another.

So if anything was to be done for players who goes the knock-out method of recruiting, it should be a lovescene with equal quality and ambition.

-edit- Crimsonrider, when I say "crappy and repurposed work" was in no way shape or form refering to your interesting video footage you put together,as I recognised the animations frame by frame from what you got there just do not want anything done that could potentially put Minthara out of character as an ambitious character that strives towards power in her point of view and one it feels like a disservice from a narrative point of view given how much you do miss out on going a different route of recruiting than the original, I always feel like the consequences bestowed upon you is more than worth it for Minthara as what ever the future may hold for Minthara just want it to feel like part of the intended design choices she was settled into after numerous (visual) reworks from early access as it feels just great right now, disregarding the few obvious mechanical flaws of course likely stemming from the fact she wasnt put into a playable origin slot.

Naturally, this is afterall just a conceptual 'what if' presentation using repurposed animations to put the point across that there needs to be a romance scene in ACT II to fill this night because it is romantically implied. Which is why I mentioned it is nothing groundbreaking, but having even something as basic as this feels better than not having anything at all.

• If the player never romanced her in ACT I; they would actually get to experience her slightly adjusted love scene from ACT I properly in ACT II.
• And if the player did romance her in ACT I, then ACT II would instead have a very short and simple fade to black unique scene to merely portray that she truly does belong to us that night.

The reason for this is because Larian will never ever make a completely unique quality scene for Minthara in ACT II, as she already has her love scene. Therefore it has to be the scene from Act I slightly adjusted if she was never romanced or a simple sweet and short fade-to-black scene as if she was romanced.

The reason for this is due to the fact that other companions have a single love scene with a failsafe to ensure it is not missed, along with several other romantic scenes... but Minthara doesn't have any failsafe for her love scene nor any romantic scenes either for that matter. She is a love interest without a love scene (if missed) and with zero romantic scenes.

Obviously as passionate as I am about Minthara; spending a whole week animating and creating a proper new unique romance scene for Minthara just for the purpose of pointing out her issues would be a waste of time when I have 13 more issues on my list to address and document, since I'm already wasting days being a playtester gathering feedback as it is.

But if they start actually caring and stop leaving Minthara under the care of a single unpaid intern for 7 months now, we might actually get the Minthara we deserve.

If not, then I actually will do her justice by doing everything myself.

The counterpoint generally presented is that having any way to recruit Minthara into the party that doesn't involve slaughtering the Grove will somehow diminish the Villainous and Goodly paths in this game, both at the same time. As if she's the only thing holding the Villainous path together (sans Durge), and that if somehow you make the wrong choice on that, you're basically playing wrong or doing a disservice to the character or the authors' intentions. The cognitive dissonance on that take is just unreal to me the more I let it sink in though.

We're supposed to pin it all on her? Given everything in the setup - that's the takeaway lesson there? Like what, that we shouldn't at least try to help this obvious cult victim Minthara break free of her programming by the absolute? We will never even get to confront the real issue being raised or that framing, or get the "cult" part, if the character is just off'd instantly and mindlessly so the PC can play conformist and feel all goody goody about it. This is very tough though, because the meta only reveals itself upon subsequent playthrough, and probably Durge run even, which will just break the brain, and kinda puts a different spin on everything that happens. Particularly the resist angle on that one.

Take the party counterpoints to Minthara, which to my mind would probably be Karlach and Wyll, since they will party break over this one hardcore. It's especially tough for Karlach though, because it's totally possible to run into her after the big branch has already occurred. Like she's not in a very obvious location on the map. It's pretty easy to blow right past her or to miss whatever setup on that.

If this does happen to the player, say they mess up at the Goblin camp, fail to recruit Minthara, but also somehow Halsin dies, or just botch the Grove, or whatever thousand little things that might happen in the variables, suddenly a character who might slot in as a replacement otherwise (Karlach), instead puts us immediately on blast holding us responsible for everything that's just happened. Even if it wasn't the PC's malicious intent, or even their actions, but perhaps just a mechanical mistake or some other cross faction thing. They accidentally clicked a red chest or AoE'd the wrong whoever, failed a check and now boom, everyone is killing each other...

Karlach isn't buying it at all. Despite us all having the same tadpoles in our heads and the ability to basically read each other's thoughts or motivations, and to have empathy potentially. There are a bunch of ways that the PC might goof, agro the Grove by accident, and then Kagha will kill all the Tiefs and complete the rite of thorns. Say say a witless Durge, who even though they mean well, still gets everyone killed by accident. Karlach will have none of that. She's an archetypal barbarian so you'd think she'd maybe understand the whole being blinded by rage thing, or being misled by someone she trusted or getting duped into falling for a charlatan (in the form of Gortash, Zariel etc).

But then here's Minthara, who's not even being brainwashed into this really, so much as being dominated (effectively drugged) by Orin and Gortash, and we're meant to feel nothing about that? Even after we see the meta on it? Some of the best interactions in the whole game are between Minthara and Karlach on the same side, kicking the shit out of Gortash and Orin in the endgame, and putting the breaks on all that nonsense - but how as the player do you ever get to see that?

Currently there are only a couple workable options. The first is to play Karlach as an Origin, but then play her completely against type. Meaning that as the PC, you'd do all the stuff as Karlach, which Karlach as a companion would disapprove of or party break over. This is weird, and yet there is an incentive to play that way as Origin, simply to see something you haven't seen before. This is a bit more extreme than say Gale becomes a Barbarian, or Shadowheart and Lae'zel are star crossed lovers from the first meeting on the Nautiloid as Origins, but also rather similar. We can do all that stuff with those Origins too, playing against type to see content that otherwise would never be there, but for the characters of Karlach and Wyll this seems particularly messed up somehow. Probably because the other characters occupy that gray space where we're not sure exactly what they're about, even if ultimately (when you let them make their own choices, or follow the obvious prompts) that they will trend towards Hero. So that's the first way to see it, which also requires playing as a pre-set Origin.

The other way to see it is to spare Minthara, while somehow also saving the Tiefs from the goblins and Kagha. This is an ultra meta approach, in that nothing the player is being fed along the way will indicate that such a path might be the more heroic and self sacrificing approach down the line. The only PCs who will naturally find themselves in that position are when the party completely commits to non-lethal, almost from the start of the game, and even then only since the most recent patches. If you do this, then there is a redemptive path open to Minthara. Perhaps not the one that matches with her first hot take, but again, most people will not even catch this on the first run. It's a replay factor thing. Likely a replay after one has already tried going totally villainous too.

Why do we suppose that there are so many players (actually I have clue how many there really are) but who want to try so hard to recruit Minthara along the heroic path at that point? Is it perhaps because it's just the right thing to do? Like cause it gives a more satisfying hero's journey, even if the story would seem to push us in the opposite direction? That by trying to force the player the other direction with hard party breaks, some players will just always try to push back on that, because Minthara herself is compelling, and one of the only ways for the PC to express a true redemptive arc. An arc that isn't ultimately self serving and hypocritical if the shoe were on the other foot.

Then add to this, just little off hand remarks made here and there, which indicate that Minthara doesn't know that half those lines that were recorded probably never get delivered. We can't play as Minthara (as Origin) currently, so there's no playing her against type in the same way one might my play Wyll or Karlach against type. I think they're doing it backwards there. If you want the story to be more compelling the framing shouldn't be irredeemable villains who are born bad and stay that way no matter what we do, it should be flawed Hero's who can still fail if their cognitive dissonance pushes them to become overzealous or to grandstand about it or don a mask on it and just pretend with the blinders on. It's the reflexive holier than though thing and then turning to violence as the appropriate response that's sort of weaksauce. Nothing is more compelling to me than a character who used to think they knew it all and had complete confidence, coming around to realize the flaw in that way of thinking. So even though Karlach and her heart is framed as the martyr or the tragic sacrifice, I actually think it's Minthara who slots more naturally into that role. If it was Minthara who offered to become the Mindflayer, that would seem an even more impressive turnaround to me than say Orpheus (who we just met) or Karlach (who doesn't deserve that fate) or the PC, cause that would be a pretty big deal and a lot of character growth in a relatively short span of time if Minthara stepped up. Well maybe not, cause Minthara is half way there already, it's just that she's under the influence of malign forces outside her control, getting sold down the river by Orin and Ketheric unless the player intervenes to give her a chance.

Peeps I guess would say, why go through all those mental gymnastics to try and redeem the unsung hero of this game? But my thinking is like, how about all the mental gymnastics required for not doing that? Even with a charlatan background Tav, it would put me to the test. For Wyll his big test of character (which isn't much of a test) is to spare Karlach at a cost to himself which isn't much of a cost. By going along to get along, the good character gets everything and nothing challenges them or their worldview. Everyone just nods like yeah, of course, burn the witch, she's a wicked Drow! As if we learned nothing at all from Viconia whatsoever. And then Minthara tells us point blank that she'll never tire of sitting on dead men's thrones, and peeps are supposed to think she's the big bad, given all the messed up stuff the dead three and their chosen did to her? We need to make sure she dies or that everyone else has to, and she has to be literally knocked on the head? Seems sus. All I'm saying is that.

OK maybe not, cause I always more to say about Minthara! hehe

But legit, why is it that so often the reaction to player feedback is something like, don't trust your players when they tell you what they want, or stick to your guns don't change the narrative to appease the fans cause it can only make your game worse, as if all fanatics were the same? Some fans have better reasons than others, maybe. I'll go with maybe. Sorry I had to get that off my chest, cause I've had it with that take! I don't care about what Plutarch might have thought about Theseus' fucking ship, and Hobbes was an absolutist of the first order. That thought experiment isn't very interesting to me, well actually it is pretty interesting! I'm super glad someone finally brought it up! I kinda love this stuff! That framing between being & becoming, and what's more the thing? It makes us really put the thinking cap on and puzzle over some of these issues. BG3 is such a great way to discuss all kinds of interesting questions. It's a cool article, here's the link...

https://www.thegamer.com/baldurs-gate-3-ship-of-theseus-kissing-animations-minthara-patch/

How about Ariadne builds the ship instead? or better yet they just dynamite barrel the gender binary tropes on that altogether, like a broadside from the port bow, just to piss Plutarch off and put him on blast hehe, cause that's another binary like good & evil, active & passive, and all the rest that are boring and have been fronted for like 2000 years now, harmful ideas that just kinda linger forever and become inescapable even worming into the language. BG3 has done much already to disrupt the usual framing and this is to the good on that front. It's an excellent first step. Give me something new! Something I haven't seen or heard before really. A new voice, a middle voice, maybe that voice!? Minthara's! Cause it's just so great!!! Something that can apply outside the game too for the expansion metaphor - then it's working. Games are tools to teach as much as they are to decompress and cut loose. It's cool when it aims for oath breaker wisdom as well and takeaways of that sort. I love this game! I love Minthara!

ps. sorry all that and I completely missed the point. The point would be - build a whole n' other ship! In other words - siding with the Grove or Camp that can still open a new path, that is still hidden or oblique, with Minthara and all that other stuff as the catalyst? Or both but with more parity. I hope they would do this with an expansion, by adding paths rather than closing them off, or paving over them. Or if we can't get that, then at least let us play dysfunctional Swiss Family Robinson with the pieces of the shipwreck in Acts I and Acts II somehow - cause by the time this becomes an important issue to anyone, let's be honest, they've either played the game already, or are already familiar with the meta on it, or it's a reload anyway. It's always great to experience a great story, but for this sort of thing, I want to help re-write the story as the player, while playing, on the next out. On the fly, cause that's BG/D&D for me. Doesn't have to be an amazing story or totally coherent if it's the riff, but just that when we get to weigh in like that as players via the set up and the systems, that has lasting appeal. Replay and party comp and all the stuff I like in a BG game or B flicks. Add to it, rather than replacing. Build some crazy tree fort on a shaky foundation in the sand for it as the player to revisit the story with the meta built into it somehow? I would show out for that like every weekend! lol

pps. kinda related not related, but also timeless and apropos. Shouldn't BG3 just have a riff on this? I mean in case this really was a first out and there are players who maybe never even caught that flick. This scene was probably scarier for me than anything in the Dark Crystal when I first checked it out as a kid, like that one and the Nome King from Return to Oz. Something about the claymation and grabby rocks that is just like the creepiest craziest analog. Sticks with me, that riddle with double doors, and instead it's a trap. We already have the Oubliette in this game and everything!


Something about Minthara taking on the Minotaurs in the Underdark!!!

I mean come on!!! How could we not want to see what that looks like? hehe

Counter point to the Labyrinth helping hands would maybe be the ones from this flick... lightin' em up! Like if Minthara somehow rode in on a Magnifique for the expansion but then just kept on riding, past the Emerald Gove and all that! Past the castle! Forget the woods! Basically at this point it just needs to not break the reel and melt the silver screen or be all cutting the ending into the middle by accident lol. Like if we can get that, I was having fun doing the silence trick to travel back in time a couple weeks ago. But obviously the silent era isn't quite I want. More like this...!

Well said Black Elk, well spotted.

I'm glad I'm not the only one here who realizes just how insanely much of a victim Minthara actually is, not just by the Absolute and her entire life in general, but even her writers who use it against her to present her as the "bad guy".

Someone who was dealt the worst cards imaginable in life from the moment she was born... yet unlike Astarion who is also a dominated victim, Minthara is instantly condemned and fully held responsible by majority of players and even Larian for actions she did not even do herself... the hypocrisy makes me very angry.

One thing related directly to this that I am extremely angry about and is also one of the issues I am going to be addressing is that she retains her True Soul Of The Absolute title even after she is recruited, when SHE IS A VICTIM of the cult.

Like WTF. Imagine if Astarion had "Cazador's Little Slave" under his name as a title or Karlach had "Archdevil Zariel's Property"... imagine if their past traumas were pinned under their names as their titles, as if that's who they are. So what the actual F is up with this constant perverted mistreatment of Minthara where even her victimhood is being used against her.

Pinning that title under her name like serving the Absolute is the very identity of who she is, when she's just the Absolute's dominated victim which created the most traumatizing experience of her entire life to the point she is so afraid of losing herself forever and nobody ever even truly knowing her or even remembering her... her greatest failure in life she cripplingly fears because of what Orin did to her. Using it against her to present her as a bad guy, as if being a True Soul is what she truly wanted. It just really makes me mad because Jaheira has her title too, but her title is a defining trait of her character that does her service.

Everything Larian did with Minthara is so tone deaf and blindly made for the purpose of forcibly trying to portray her as an "evil" companion by literally pinning her entire victimhood on her, when in reality SHE IS EXACTLY like Lae'zel. Just like Lae'zel she doesn't kill mindlessly, comes from a very strict brainwashing society, loyal to no end, reasonable, pragmatic, honourable to an extent and living as an exile in a world she knows nothing about. And every player that ends up killing her is literally killing a victim and fulfilling her ultimate fear, but they're morally okay with it because Larian used her victimhood against her to portray her as a "bad guy".

Disgusting!

I for one AM REALLY CURIOUS to see how they will make Halsin leave once that leaked dialogue is added to the game, because the only way I see drama escalating is if Halsin becomes unreasonably emotional and starts blowing off steam.. I do not see Minthara arguing with him at all because she is incredibly reasonable, levelheaded and would not see any purpose in breaking up any potential alliances against the Absolute.

But just watch, they will somehow pin it on her again.

Like many others, I also put my Minthara playthrough on hold due to the many bugs and issues with her character and dialogue. It made me so disappointed to learn just how neglected her character is that I made an account just to throw in my two cents.

Players are WELL FED with content from the other companions, like others have already mentioned. But we get breadcrumbs because we like the one truly evil companion? The one companion who's romance has been broken since the start and never polished? It's so noticeable because it's such a stark contrast to the detailed, cohesive stories, romances, and interactions we get with everyone else.

PLUS, this issue with the bugged dark urge dialogue REALLY has me peeved. She feels like the most relevant companion to that story arc and you can't even talk to her about it!

Please Larian, just fix our Baenre babe... #JusticeForMinty

I'm glad to not feel alone about Minthara being so victimized, I don't see her as evil once you got to know her dialogues on what led her to Absolutes grasp and rest of it.

It was such a joy reading Black_Elks reply and I feel privileged to be part of fans who feel so passionate about MInthara.

The thing is she isn't a truly evil companion whatsoever, but I don't blame you for thinking so because Larian intentionally made it impossible for most players to perceive her any other way due to how much is lost by legitimately recruiting her (something that's not even her fault) and using absolutely everything against her trying to make her look bad.

She's in fact an almost-exact reflection of Lae'zel and even better than her, because unlike Lae'zel whose biggest flaw is her own dense sense of honourable duty no matter what to the point she'd even doom everyone around her, Minthara is a calm pragmatic who looks at a situation and acts accordingly out of necessity and logic, not out of malice or any misguided reasons.

• Both come from a brainwashing society with very deep rooted cultures (which is why Minthara is fascinated by Lae'zel a lot)
• Both kill and enjoy killing, however unlike Lae'zel who literally does kill for the sake of glory and doesn't have a single issue with murdering the Grove, Minthara hates mindless purposeless killing (both for the Grove and Dark Urge)
• Both are loyal to no end, except Lae'zel remains loyal as long as your actions align with her own dense sense of duty. If they do not, she'll betray you in an instant even if it dooms the party or the world.
• Both are reasonable, however Lae'zel (once again) stops being reasonable when her duty clashes with what must be done and would doom the party or the world.
• Both are exiles in a world they know nothing about, with their own cultures often clashing due to their inexperience.
• Ultimately Minthara is a calm pragmatic, while Lae'zel is a blindly emotional honour-bound naive fool (I don't mean this as an insult, she just truly is a blind naive fool who's unable to see what needs to be done).

And most importantly; the Minthara raiding the Grove is not Minthara, that's just a dominated puppet. The real Minthara is the person we meet during the love scene in ACT I and afterwards in ACT II once she's rescued, someone who would never even raid the Grove to begin with, not because she is a saint, but because she would have no reason to mindlessly kill refugees.

In short; I would fully put my life in Minthara's hands and sleep peacefully at night without a care in the world because she is the epitome of loyalty, I can't say the same about Lae'zel despite how much I also love her. So although I understand why people think that Minthara is truly evil, she is in fact not the worst companion at all. Astarion would be the worst as he truly loves inflicting misery upon others, followed by Lae'zel and only then Minthara.

But thank you so much for joining the forums, every voice is appreciated in support of Minthara!

I wonder if the writers continuing to treat Minthara as the evil companion is because her redeeming qualities only come into being when she was made recruitable. I would not be surprised if when she was written he was always meant to be evil and a loyal true soul, with all the extra stuff added when they decided to male her a companion, much like the act 3 Halsin stuff people have a problem with. So as a whole the writers still associate her with her original, fully evil identity. I've never seen any companion Minthara dialogue since I've never at any point tried to recruit her or raided the grove, so presumably I and players like me never have any idea there's anything more to Minthara. All this does is further prove to me that adding her and Halson as companions was a mistake because Larian are not capable of doing so in a satisfactory manner.

Nah, even during Early Access Minthara was never portrayed as a genocidal evil maniac, but the Absolute's slave who becomes caring, compassionate and terribly conflicted when the artefact temporarily breaks her domination during that celebration night. Here's my comment about her romance even back then during Early Access where we were discussing the "evil" path;

"I found her romance to be very sweet, especially with her wishing to take us as a consort to Menzoberranzan and belonging to each other for eternity."

To which The Red Queen replied that our definitions of sweet wildly differ

But I was honestly not wrong, because Minthara is incredibly beautiful with her charming personality, full of unconditional love and devotion, loyal to the very end and in awe with the main character. She is the only companion who ENTIRELY has the player's back no matter what after she's rescued. And even while she's half-controlled by the Absolute, she tries to kill the main character peacefully in their sleep so they don't feel pain.

Larian also had plenty of other detailed aspects about Minthara that were never included, including the fact that she would get pregnant and all companions (including Karlach calling her Minthy and wanting to be the child's godmother) would comment about it. So she was not only always intended to be a companion, her content was so much more fulfilling and not even clashing against having Karlach if legitimately recruited.

But Larian clearly rushed the game, cut corners, merged some storylines to "make sense" and by doing so left her entire side to gather dust just like Karlach and Wyll got ruined for release. Karlach and Wyll's early access stories were SO MUCH BETTER than what we got, because Karlach in particular had business in Baldur's Gate due to Zariel and her lackeys, while Wyll was rushing to save Mizora from the Absolute. The full release Karlach however is just... a virgin romance simulator and Wyll is Wyll.

Minthara is simply a victim of Larian rushing and having no freaking idea what they're doing with her, which is still going on 7 months after release.

Minthara is not a white character.

Minthara is a member of a race Larian consistently paints as evil for being dark-skinned people.

Minthara is a member of a race Larian reduces to being nothing but "evil sex elves" out of exoticism and racism, and Minthara's entire characterization revolves around those attributes because being a non-human/elf equates to being non-white in the eyes of Larian's writers and thus defined entirely by Not Being White.

I can't imagine anyone seeing anything in Minthara that is even remotely interesting or likeable, unless one also subscribes to the racist notions that Larian's writers built her entire character, personality, and role in the story around.

So there's a lot that's been said about the drow relating to this, and there's plenty of discussion that's been had and is still being had to this day, but to not derail into all that, one thing I will point out is that all the baggage comes from D&D itself, Larian didn't originate it. They're just running with the established lore of the setting they were given. I'll knock Larian on plenty of things, but I don't think this is a fair one to lay at their feat.

So there's a lot that's been said about the drow relating to this, and there's plenty of discussion that's been had and is still being had to this day, but to not derail into all that, one thing I will point out is that all the baggage comes from D&D itself, Larian didn't originate it. They're just running with the established lore of the setting they were given. I'll knock Larian on plenty of things, but I don't think this is a fair one to lay at their feat.

Please lets not derail the thread with an obvious racism bullshit bait, REPORT and IGNORE. His comments in the last 2 hour are all just the same racism bullshit in threads for Astarion, Halsin, Lae'zel, Minthara here and Karlach.

Here's another of the 13 issues that are going to be covered for Minthara;

Unlike other companions who have wonderfully varied dialogue and greetings whether they're a love interest, a former flame or just exceptional friends, Minthara has zero variation in her greetings. Instead this one line is all that Minthara has for her character, regardless whether she's an exceptional friend or an actual love interest;

• You wish to consult me?
• You wish to consult me?
• You wish to consult me?
• You wish to consult me?
• You wish to consult me?
• You wish to consult me?

Compare this to Shadowheart who has at least x6 unique romantic greetings; x3 as a love interest and x3 as a former flame.

D&D itself has turned away from depictions of entire races as innately evil, especially when it comes to races explicitly labelled as "dark" parallels to those traditionally prominent among good-aligned characters and player characters. Larian had every opportunity to do the same, but instead relished in depicting all "dark" and foreign races as evil and backward, the race of oppressed peoples as criminals and leeches who deserve the scorn they receive, and fixating almost entirely on humans and elves among party and NPC representation as a parallel to white people.

We know blackface is racist nowadays. We wouldn't tolerate blackface in a video game with the excuse that blackface used to be acceptable. Larian wrote a game in which dark-skinned people are consistently either evil or associated with evil. A dark-skinned woman is the evil counterpart to a good-aligned white male character. The black spellcaster party member is someone who associated with devils to get his powers the lazy way, as opposed to the white spellcaster who wooed a goddess with his talent for magic. The two white-skinned characters returning from previous games are potential party members; the two dark-skinned characters returning from previous games are one-note villains.

They're never going to give any sort of significant romance content to Minthara, because they fundamentally do not see Minthara as being akin to a person they would have any respect for in a relationship. She is a sex object from a culture of sluts. That other people created the original drow culture based on racist ideology does not make Larian embracing said racist ideology acceptable.

I think Larian stated at some point (or was it their ceo?) that they were given a lot of freedom when it came to d&d. And well, they did rewrite the mind flayer lore, including a character like Omeluum who is unlike others of his kind. So I don't think they were really that tied into writing Minthara as evil.

Another pretty significant issue that Larian is entirely ignoring for 7 months now;

Every single companion, with the exception of Minthara as usual, has their full relationship dialogue available, filled with interesting tidbits that solidify the romance. Minthara on the other hand is the only companion that does not have a relationship dialogue whatsoever nor any romantic responses.

There is simply no excuse for this blatant favoritism of everyone except Minthara.

Another example of having zero fail-safes put in place for Minthara's scenes;

Just like Minthara's judgement scene at Moonrise not having a single fail-safe put in place to take into account if the player never met her or even joined her in ACT I, there is also not a single fail-safe put in place for Minthara's scene with Sazza in ACT I if Minthara has already been met prior to rescuing Sazza. Because of this Minthara will be acting as if this is the first time she's meeting the player, like a forgetful amnesiac despite already fully talking with the player about locating the Grove.

*Here's how a few simple tweaks make the scene make sense if the player already met Minthara prior to rescuing Sazza*


*For the record Halsin's introductory scene has 3 different variations depending on whether the player visited the Grove, hasn't been to the Underdark yet or has already been to the Underdark... no such care is given to Minthara*

Oh i was so glad i could finally recruit her in my 4th playthrough!
To immediately be dissappointed. Apart from her not remembering my char, (well, i have imagination, lets think she didnt remember because they meddled with her brain). There's this bug i got where her body dissappears. Im sure you already know. Im sorry, i gave her armor to Astarion in act I (but put back everything else, i swear!). So her inventory is now bugged. Her music instrument, mace and armor are not there, but she has everything else duplicated.

She got a body back when i gave her new armor, but i had to level up a floating HEAD. I submitted a bug report, but *sighs* her dialog is busted too. I really wanted to meet her, she looks so cool, and the little non bugged dialog i got is interesting!

Also she evicted Halsin and adopted Thaniel? Her tent is so nice too, underdark-y themed. Probably my favorite looking tent.

I hope they fix her!

You referring to this? [BUG] - Minthara Missing Body Parts In Leveling Menu

If so, it's also on my list of issues that will be covered for Minthara. In any case I'm sorry that you're disappointed, rest assured that every single person here is as well with her situation.

Yes, that is exactly it! Did you get the duplicate items too? I dunno when started happening, but before you could pick just *some* items from certain characters, but now you can only "loot all". Putting things back maybe break it more.

I am not dissapointed at her, just at the situation

Yup, sorry for the confusion. Was actually referring to her overall situation, but I worded it quite poorly

This whole situation with Larian completely neglecting her and injecting content for literally every other companion except her is just depressingly absurd, because despite how terribly buggy, broken and unfinished she is, she's a fascinatingly well-written character even in her current barebones state.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Yet another example of complete lack of care towards Minthara's scenes;

Minthara's judgement scene at Moonrise Towers has absolutely no fail-safes in place to take into account never meeting her, never joining her in battle or knocking her out. The scene at Moonrise Towers does not react to any of these variables whatsoever, instead the dialogue is forced to refer to meeting and joining Minthara against the Grove, despite the player never doing that.

• *The player should not know she's a loyal servant of the Absolute if they never met her to begin with.*
  
  

• *Naturally one may assume the avatar is merely 'pretending' to know her, however that is simply not true due to the fact they know details in the very next dialogue*
  
  

*Here's a quick showcase proving that skipping entire ACT I by going straight to Moonrise Towers will still have the player acting as if they met and joined Minthara*

That video about " You wish to consult me?" had me laughing for a good ten minutes because of the thumbnail picture.. like an echo in your head.

Meanwhile I'm still doin' my best via feedbacks https://discord.com/channels/98922182746329088/1211730128275640331

It's heartbreaking that after all this time even minor things are not properly addressed.
Even in her broken state, I still consider Minthara a far more intriguing companion and Tav's lover compared to any other companion in this game. But honestly? With each passed month I lose hope more and more...

So here is my raw feedback so far which I will naturally be formatting and eventually posting fully detailed and visualized once I collect all the footage, but wanted to share it here for those who are interested to look through it and mention if I missed anything or if anything else needs to be added or changed.

Keep in mind that this is literally the BARE MINIMUM Larian would have to address to even remotely consider Minthara an actual companion and even an actual love interest;


ISSUES THAT NEED FIXING

• If the player already met Minthara prior to rescuing Sazza, Minthara will act as if she never met the player during her scene with Sazza.
• Minthara's judgement scene at Moonrise Towers doesn't have any fail-safe in place to account for variables such as never meeting her in ACT I, never joining her for the raid or fighting her. Instead the scene pushes forward the narrative as if the player met her and joined her, despite never doing so.
• Minthara has zero variation to her greetings when she's approached, as her one and only greeting is the constantly repeated "You wish to consult me?" line.
• If Minthara dies even while she's an active member of the party, other companions will still be triggering their ACT I mocking banter about her corpse.
• When Minthara officially becomes a love interest in ACT II's finale, she does not have any romance scene that very night nor the morning after, despite clearly implying the night is supposed to be romantic and sexual.
• As a love interest Minthara is missing her romantic personality when she's approached by the player.
• As a love interest Minthara is missing her romantic greetings. She only uses her single "You wish to consult me?" neutral line.
• As a love interest Minthara is missing her relationship dialogue branch. She can't be asked how she feels nor can the player break up with her.
• Minthara's dialogue branch about Dark Urge's violent urges becomes unavailable due to a bug with Sceleritas Fel when he approaches Dark Urge about killing Isobel.
• Despite Minthara fully admiring, supporting and being incredibly vocal about Dark Urge seizing their legacy, she has nothing to say to Dark Urge if they become eternally cursed by Bhaal or freed of Bhaal, after Orin is dead. Considering how much she loves Dark Urge and how much she is against being dominated, it is against her character to not have anything to say to her lover about it.
• When Minthara is recruited to the camp via the optional knockout method, she and Halsin are sharing the same camp spot. She deserves her own place.
• Minthara's parts of her body (torso, arms and feet) are missing in the leveling menu if she's doesn't have those equipment slots equipped.

REQUIRED IMPROVEMENTS

• Sazza's quest - If the player met Minthara before ever meeting Sazza, the dialogue with Sazza should reflect this as the player already knows who the Drow at the Goblin Camp is. Currently the quest has zero fail-safe in place if this happens, so the player is acting like a dummy who doesn't know who Minthara is.
• Knockout recruitment - Just like Mother Superior in ACT III, Minthara should automatically be knocked out in battle once her HP is dropped to 0, thus allowing the player to either spare her or kill her through a cutscene that would solidify her optional recruitment as an actual piece of lore and not just a shoddily put together recruitment that players still consider 'unofficial' despite being made official.
• Minthara's 'True Soul Of The Absolute' title - This title under Minthara's name HAS TO BE REMOVED once she's recruited. She is an abducted victim who was lured to Moonrise through an elaborate master plan by Ketheric, forcibly dominated against her will by Orin to be her personal pet and then later became traumatized by the whole experience to the point she's cripplingly afraid of Orin.
  
  Having that title pinned under her name is literally using her traumatizing victimhood against her to falsely accuse and misrepresent her as something she is not, as she never wanted to be a True Soul whatsoever.

REQUIRED ADDITIONS

• Minthara Doesn't Have Any Personal Quest
  
  Unlike Halsin who actually has an actual constructed personal quest with multiple outcomes and meaningful consequences on ACT II's overall story while taking numerous details into account, Minthara does not have any actual personal quests whatsoever because her "quest" is literally piggybacking off of the unavoidable main quest villains Ketheric and Orin who can't even be avoided anyway, as well as Dark Urge's personal quest.
  
  Therefore she has absolutely zero influence on the story nor has any meaningful personal payoff for herself as a character, because having her or not having her in the party changes absolutely nothing about these characters or the story in general... unlike other companions whose personal stories have significant outcomes and payoffs for their own characters.
  
  She needs something unique her own or she needs to be far more integrated into Dark Urge's personal quest so she can grow as a character together with Durge, something that makes her stand out just like Halsin stands out and has a meaningful outcome for her as a character. Her presence needs to have an effect on the story and characters related to her, especially once Orin is dead. It needs to open a new chapter for her, which she currently does not have whatsoever.

• Minthara Doesn't Have Any Romantic Scenes
  
  Apart from the numerous issues mentioned above which make Minthara pitifully barren both as a companion and a love interest, she is the only companion who does not have a single romantic scene or action outside of the one and only scene in ACT I.
  
  Unlike other companions who have numerous romantic scenes throughout all three acts allowing the player to sit down and truly connect with them, like Shadowheart or Karlach; sitting by the campfire, having a love scene in ACT II, chirping happily like a bird the next morning, bursting out of joy when she's told she's loved, the funny dinner date etc... or Shadowheart who has multiple romantic scenes throughout all acts and even the ability to receive gifts like the Shar statuette or a Night Orchid or even being hugged when she's crying...
  
  Minthara literally does not have any resemblance of an actual romance whatsoever. There's not a single moment where the player just sits down with Minthara and enjoys her company to allow connecting with her on a deeper level, zero romantic scenes and zero affectionate actions that are initiated by her alone.
  
  It's honestly disturbing how Minthara's entire cinematic romance (who is an incredibly loyal, devoted and caring love interest once she's a free woman) is just her one and only romance scene in ACT 1 where she's at her most vulnerable traumatized state as the Absolute's dominated & brainwashed victim, literally making the whole event being no different than having sex with someone who's vulnerably drunk/drugged and completely unaware of themself and their surroundings, which is precisely what's happening to Minthara during that entire scene.
  
  An enslaved brainwashed woman who is attracted and in heat for all the wrong reasons, taken advantage of as she's terribly confused, afraid and even being deceived by both the Absolute and the player in that very moment, born out of events she does not even remember because that wasn't her raiding the Grove in ACT I. A victim who even says during the love scene while she's still being partially dominated that she does not even know who she is, feeling like a stranger from another lifetime... so why is the pinnacle of her cinematic romance a moment in which she's a dominated brainwashed victim. It's extremely disturbing.
  
  She needs newly added romance scenes in ACT II and ACT III to allow the player to explore and connect with her character on a deeper level, she needs more romantic actions that expand her character and personality (examples below), and possibly a newly discovered hobby in Baldur's Gate so she has something going for her as a companion. She loves banquets, she loves food from the Underdark, she loves her homeland and even misses it, she relates to felines a lot and there are a ton of cats in Baldur's Gate, yet all of these aspects of her personality are learned from random comments she throws out, instead of learned by sitting down with her and truly getting to know her and explore her character, like all the other companions.
  • Her ACT I love scene should have fail-safes in place to ensure a modified version of it once she's a free woman can trigger later in ACT II if the player never romanced her in ACT I (either by never meeting her, knocking her out or simply refusing to have sex with a dominated victim).
  • In ACT II she needs to have a love scene when she officially becomes a love interest, so she can finally as a FREE WOMAN enjoy true genuine feelings of pure love, passion and trust with her romantic partner, something she NEVER got to experience in life due to her backstabbing culture that forced her to be so distrustful of everyone.
  • In ACT III she needs to have numerous romance scenes/actions to solidify her as a love interest and allow the player to explore deeper layers of her personality so they can truly connect with her. As noted by examples of Shadowheart and Karlach who have so many romantic scenes and actions which they themselves initiate even so the player can connect with them, Minthara has absolutely no such scenes at all in ACT III nor does she even act as if she's romantically involved for the entirety of ACT III (with the exception of 3 unique encounters that aren't even her own; the Dryad, the Nymph and the Drow twins).
    
    She literally does not refer to the player as "love" at all until the very finale of the game after the Emperor pulls the party into the Astral Prism as they fail to use the Netherstones against the Absolute.

An example Of New Romantic Scenes & Actions;

• Minthara Reacting To The Player's Honesty Or Deceit From ACT I Romance Scene
  
  When Minthara becomes terribly conflicted, confused and even afraid when she no longer hears the Absolute's voice due to the artefact in ACT I, the player at that point can either be honest with Minthara or deceive her about the artefact, which makes her react differently the next morning. However she never reacts to this later in the story once she's free.
  
  Minthara learns the actual truth about this the moment she escapes Moonrise, so it would be a fantastic attention to detail to have Minthara react on whether the player always had her best interests in mind even when she was so vulnerable. Being honest in ACT I could unlock new unique affectionate dialogue, scene or even approval for her in ACT II. After all honesty is the very core of Minthara's romance, so it feels weird she never ever reacts, confronts nor acknowledges the player's actions while she was in a vulnerable state.

• Impressing Minthara With A Dinner
  
  One of Minthara's biggest regrets as an 'independent Drow' (to the uninitiated; it means exile of Lolth) is having to eat bland surface food instead of her favorite spiced Ulaver wine and thinly sliced rothe steak.
  
  Other companions have so many romantic scenes and romantic actions, whereas Minthara has none... so as a start it would be great if the player could come across these delicacies somewhere in Baldur's Gate and by doing so spend a night with Minthara enjoying a nice cozy romantic dinner and getting to know each other some more as she's made somewhat relaxed and reminded of home, as she struggles with her fear of Orin.
  
  Baelen & Derrith Bonecloak after all constantly venture into the Underdark and have a Rothe with them, so why not have them or any shop next to them have rothe meat that could trigger a dinner with Minthara.

• Minthara's Feline Nature
  
  A wonderful mostly-unknown trait of Minthara's personality is that she relates a lot to the nature of felines, something she herself outright says in ACT III by how she hates being wet and how she would scratch the eyes of anyone annoying her. Why not play more into this aspect of her personality by having her adopt a feline and comment more about cats around Baldur's Gate, so she has something going for her character in ACT III. Something that brings out her charmingly caring personality more, something the player themselves can connect to while they're with her. Because she is incredibly caring and affectionate about things she enjoys, hell she even likes Scratch enough she'd raid the kennels to save him if the main character gives him up.

She simply needs something because as wonderfully written as she is; due to her massive lack of content the player does not get to truly connect with her because she has no situations where they're given a chance to just sit down and relax and do something with her... unlike with Shadowheart or Karlach or literally any other companion. There need to be scenes that would open parts of her personality and make her lively by her initiating scenes on her own, not just being a robot that follows and occasionally reacts to random stuff.

This would be a start of actually making her a proper companion and not just a pitiful ignored husk with broken non-existent content that's been left to gather dust for more than 2 years now, with zero love, care and attention given to her.

Beautifully written and on point with how she could and needs to be improved and given the "origin" character treatment, it is a massive undertake and is likely months away from becoming reality or even longer to see changes of this size so I hope you are mentally prepared for the road ahead, I would love to be proven wrong by seeing her get more solidified much sooner.

The one infamous dialogue that leads us into thinking a romantic scene should happen after rescuing in Act 2 I see one minor improvement you could include, by having it become Act 2 exclusive dialogue, unless Larian has a way to organically have background of a scene change if players choose to trigger it later in Act 3 instead, it would have to be moved into the romance dialogue tree whcih we all know she is lacking, assuming this is how game structures the origin characters.

I have struggled to get on here with that infamous gateway 504 non-sense but I cant think of what else to add right now that hasn't already been mentioned endlessly.

Sincerest apologies for the double post, gateway error is brainwashing me up.

That idea with the automatic knock-out is a good one, especially since it puts another save-guard in against her accidentally dying when things get a little out of hand - as they tend to if you accidentally upset the whole camp.

One of Larian’s latest tweets suggests that they may be doing something with Minthara in the next hotfix. However, it looks like it might be a very tiny thing, which may not satisfy the folks here. Hopefully they will also fix her broken reactivity. They say that the hotfix will likely be coming out this week. I’ll quote their tweet:

“Our next hotfix is undergoing final testing, and we’re aiming to release it this week.

Among other fixes, Hotfix #20 solves an issue where Minthara would sometimes stop following the party in Act II and III. Keep up, minty.

We'll update you all when it’s ready for release!”

A lot of great suggestions there. I also like the idea with the knock-out recruitment and I'm mighty tired to ask for consultment (and I really hope they are fixing the Emperor line bug ASAP!).

To the things that need fixing I want to add that she is still stuck in her "grove attack" persona crying "For the Abslute!" in every fight up until the ending.

About the Act 2 romance dialogue I'd be happy if they at least concluded that one with a kissing animation and fade to black. Right now it just cuts off when you expect more happening.

I wish they would adress her repeating the same line over and over again. Bug like this is unacceptable, I already missed ton of her dialogues due to this issue.

Thank you everyone and please if I may have missed anything else that needs improving, feel free to point out.


I also wish to address here what seems to be a common train of thought about humbling expectations;

When it comes to Minthara; her players are the most humble and patient fans out there I've ever seen for over 2 years now, despite the blatant lack of love, care and attention by Larian towards her.

I personally love Larian, I admire Larian, I respect Larian and give credit where credit is due... but I also give severe criticism where criticism is due. What they're doing to Minthara is an absolute travesty and her players can't afford anymore to be humble, patient and grateful with mere breadcrumbs hoping things will change about her after 3 years almost, because they won't. Nothing will change as long as her players do not start causing massive tidal waves to make them realize enough is enough.

Because these new additions to other companions listed below is not Larian being unable to fix her or improve her character, this is just blatant not giving a damn about her whatsoever when even Halsin (who is also not an Origin companion) is getting improvements;


I don't wish to be petty or ungrateful for all these improvements, but the favoritism is obvious as they're ignoring a 3 year old issue now.

• Shadowheart received reactive relationship dialogue for a piece of camp decoration, while Minthara does not even have her most basic relationship dialogue available.
• Shadowheart also received a hug for her ACT III personal quest finale (which was requested by her fans mind you), while Minthara's community has been requesting them to fix Minthara for over 2 years now. The basic minimum so we can at least have a functional companion, Larian? Hello?!
• Halsin received even more reactivity in ACT I in an already ocean of reactivities regarding the whole situation with the Goblin Camp, meanwhile Minthara still has NONE even for the most basic expected continuities (all of them documented in the feedback posts #1, #2 and #3).

I am on a warpath ever since Update #6 because of all this and I will keep ripping through every single issue with Minthara to the end of time and calling out Larian until they realize enough is enough. There's no holding back anymore until Minthara's fixed, improved and given the respect she deserves like they've given all the other companions.

All they have to do is just start caring and showing respect to Minthara, like they do with all the other companions.


Could you elaborate on this a bit more please? I assume you recruited her either by knocking her at the Grove or siding with her during the raid.

I know she does that if the player goes back to ACT I with her, but I haven't seen it ever in ACT II. The only thing I know of is that if she dies as a party member, other companions will trigger their mocking ACT I banter about her death. Like Shadowheart smirking about claiming Minthara's scalp as a trophy.

So I'll need some details to properly test, record and list the issue.

I haven't taken her to Act 1, but I went back to the Monastery right after recruiting her because Lae'zel nagged about the crèche (Minthara temporarily left my group when I went there, as she should). Ever since I had her she is using her grove attack lines ("Finish them!" "Slaughter them!" "For the Absolute!") in every fight at the start of every new combat round.

I could test going back to a save before I recruit her in Act 2 and not go to the creche and see if this was what bugged her out.

Usually going back to ACT I has a tendency to break not just her, but Halsin as well even if they're not in the party. But you are quite correct that it seems to be an issue.

I'll try testing a bit more and seeing what's exactly triggering it once this supposedly new hotfix releases and HOPEFULLY fixes her stupidly crippling Emperor dialogue bug.

Thank you for elaborating though, much appreciated!

Yes, you're right, just tested it without going to Act 1 after recruiting her and there's no issue. Annoying to be stuck with this in my newest playthrough though as I did not know that could happen and I'm already in Act 3. *sigh* There's a pretty big chance to end up with this bug if you go the Underdark route to Act 2 and then Lae'zel forces you to go to the crèche.

And while testing I found a new bug. As soon as you walk into the Moonrise Towers throne room for the first time Minthara runs up to you, drags you into a dialogue cutscene and throws the "When you are done, we will celebrate our victory at your camp." line at you.

I like how you wax poetic about how much you love Larian, and then just casually reference an incredibly fucked-up mention of scalping that highlights Larian's philosophy of relishing in the slaughter and disrespect of non-white characters.

You will not twist my words about a bug to fit your idiotic bullshit racism against Larian, which you've been spewing in every single post of yours so far in other threads.

In case you haven't noticed; nobody wants you on these forums as all you do is derail constructive feedback threads with racism. Go to Steam forums, at least there people love foolishly arguing. Otherwise leave me out of it. Do not engage with me, do not quote me, do not reply to me AT ALL.

Okay, different folk can find different things problematic, and if we do take issue with representation in the game then we all have the right to explain our problem.

But as forum members, we all should be doing our best to keep discussion calm, constructive and friendly, especially when touching on topics that we know are likely to be sensitive or controversial due to their connection to real life.

And we should all also recognise when we have made our personal perspective clear and not slip into spamming other forum members by repetitive posting.

Unfortunately, Thelxiope, I’m seeing a pattern of posts that could be doing better on both these fronts. Let’s nip it in the bud.

EDIT: And also let’s not get drawn into arguments and personal insults, Crimsomrider. If we don’t want to hear what someone is saying, then we can report and use the forum functionality to mute them.

While I'm collecting footage and documenting all the issues related to Minthara, I wished to take a moment and share a comment by @DaggerPrince from the unlisted video in this post because every person's voice about Minthara is helpful and deserves to be heard;


Naturally Larian is not doing this for political reasons, it's just their usual MO of not putting enough effort into aspects of the game that do not follow the intended heroic goody two-shoes narrative, as similar issues were happening with Divinity Original Sin 2 too.

That's why Minthara's side is so lackluster and barely worked on since Early Access because as is evident by their statistic 60% of players never even raided the Grove and therefore never even got to experience her as a companion. But we'll keep fighting for her and doing our best to put her on their radar and fix her.

Another major inconsistency due to lack of any safe-guards;

The rude party remarks towards Minthara's corpse from ACT I have no safe-guards set in place, because of which all of the companions including the avatar will be disrespecting Minthara's corpse even after she becomes a companion if she dies at any point throughout the game.

Doesn't matter whether Minthara is recruited legitimately by raiding the Grove, knocking her out or entirely ignoring the Grove... there's no safe-guard to prevent companions breaking character like this at all.

*Very classy Shadowheart*

Yes, that's really bad. Especially if she's your chosen LI.

Especially so, as it unfortunately happened to me in ACT III with my avatar telling her romanced Minthara to rot, after she and Shadowheart accidentally died to firework boobytraps in Felogyr's basement.

Peak romance right there ^^

Also sorry for not replying earlier, still testing some stuff about that thing with ACT I. Plus this Hotfix #20 doesn't fix Minthara's crippling bug still (what a suprise), so it'll take a while for me to properly document her other issues as well. Update #7 probably coming in two weeks, so most likely then.

Even these minor issues are being ignored for so long;

If the player unequips Minthara's armor, handwear or footwear equipment pieces, her body mesh will be missing those exact body parts in the leveling menu.

*The Absolute truly does take mind, body and soul by the looks of it*

Wasn't one of the mantra's with Larian Studio during early developemnt of Baldurs Gate 3 to go all the way with designing aspects that situationally only 0.1% of players would see, like a reward for those playing around and going in a certain direction with the game's permutation, alongside toying around and combining barrels, spells, potions and just going all crazy with the game?
Just alarming to see this in a full release of a game, seems I only scratched the surface of what can be found oddly shallow with Minthara.

Here is a link to an old interview I found interesting, Baldur's Gate 3 on new endings, strange problems and the future

I am forever grateful and love seeing all the love being showered in terms of bug fixing, adding epiloque chapter, honour mode, kissing animations that brings more life to the game and what else I might have missed but it should not have to matter how many players have experienced Minthara to have had these fixed and polished up by now, it may sound stupid but maybe I will just assume in good faith that Larian Studio is aware of all these and perhaps something is being cooked up that sweeps all of these issues up in one big update but it does get alarmingly worrisome at this point that there might just be nothing, just hope this is brought to awareness before it is too late!

I don't look at Baldurs Gate 3 as a live service game so its also kinda alarming to see myriads of wishlists of things seemingly pointless, things that mostly is perceived as what the players needs rather than whats best for what the game needs which essentially is wasting up the resources Larian is pouring back into the game.

I am more than willing to wait for as long as it takes to bring justice to this aspect of the game, if it was in some form just acknowledged that its in the awareness by this point.

(edit) I am aware that the founder has moved on to his next project by now and left the reins of this game to the development team, so it just feels like things are not being stoked like they used to be with founder actively involved.

Hey everyone! On the topic of Minthara's issues, which Crimsomrider has wonderfully highlighted, I also made a bug list to keep track of them last week so I thought I'd share it here. It's been updated for Hotfix #20 and it will continue to be updated periodically to give you the latest info.

Google Sheets

Here's a little preview in Dark Mode:



The aim of this document is essentially to gather information so that it may help:
1. Players who are returning to their game after a new update,
2. Players who are recruiting Minthara for the first time,
3. The Larian development team, so they can (maybe) have an easier time looking into Minthara-specific issues.

Folks on Discord and other platforms have kindly given me information about the issues listed here. If anyone here wishes to contribute or suggest a bug that is not yet on the list, please let me know! Send me a message here or over at Tumblr and I'll reply when I can. Reporting bugs to Larian Support should still be the first priority, but I think we also need to share this on social media to spread the word. Let’s hope they fix and improve Minthara soon :3

────────

Now, onto replying to other posts, hehe. Thank you for your list, Crimsomrider! It's clear you've put a lot of thought and effort into writing and even making videos about this. I hope you've been sending these to their emails to bring it to their attention. Would you mind if I shared the link to your videos/pictures on another platform? More people need to see this. There are a few things I want to comment on, however! I wish I could have done this much sooner but the forum has been dying on me, rip.


They've been sidelining Minthara for months now but every time I complain somewhere, I get someone who tells me that she's a non-origin character and that it's delusional to think she should get an equal amount of content as others. By that logic, everyone who sent in suggestions for Minthara and Halsin to be a companion during EA is also delusional - but Larian still listened, so it's irrelevant tbh. I get a little annoyed when people are oblivious to, or worse ignore, the fact that Minthara is nowhere near finished as a companion by the game's own standards and think this isn't valid criticism.

With that said, I do acknowledge that Larian is trying and have been making improvements to her as of late. So, saying they've put "zero" care and attention to Minthara is doing them some disservice. At the same time, I understand the positives quickly get overshadowed by major bugs like the one that's been introduced in Patch #6 where she spoils a very important character reveal for everyone.

The game sure is "complex", everyone loves to use that excuse (I do too) but one has to wonder why Minthara has been on the receiving end of crippling bugs like this for 7 months now. As someone who sends bug reports almost exclusively for Minthara, even detailing out the steps to reproduce these issues, I feel like all my efforts have been in vain lol. I'm optimistic Larian will fix all of this in due time, but I can't deny it's frustrating to see they're still treating her like this. Just, the lack of care. We're really just asking for the bare minimum here.

They have already fixed this to my knowledge. As of Patch #6, Halsin now moves to a random spot at camp after a long rest and they are completely separate from each other. I think it would be better if Halsin got his own tent too, but they might still be working on the ultimatum - which, judging from the datamined dialogue, doesn't make too much sense narratively. I hope they reframe the conflict a bit better before implementing it, it's very one-sided right now (imo) we need higher stakes and Halsin's reasoning for his little tantrum should be expanded further.

I wonder what causes these two bugs. I never got them. I’ve spoken about this with other players and I was under the impression they were older bugs that have been fixed for a while now. Are you perhaps playing on an older save, like Patch 1 or 2? She now has the ‘Nightwarden’ title, which should be removed too tbh. I did some research and Nightwardens seem to refer to a group of clerics and paladins that are in service of Lolth. If there are any lore experts in here, feel free to correct that definition if I'm mistaken, but that definitely doesn't sound like Minthara either.

────────

As for the knockout recruitment, I have always been in support of an alternative for Minthara even as someone who enjoyed the evil route. An automatic knockout system or better put - a safeguard, is definitely preferable to what we have now. They could add a cutscene where we are given the choice to kill or spare her, but the latter might have to lead to an interrogation and her fleeing later on if we are to follow the current game events where we meet her in Act 2. Act 1 recruitment for Minthara is very very unlikely to be added this late into development, unless they've been working on it since day 1.

Anyway, that's all my rambling for now. Fingers crossed the Emperor bug gets fixed next week, I've been trying to document her lack of reactivity as well but this issue has been getting in the way. As for Patch 7 though; according to Larian's Community Manager on Discord, it might come much later than two weeks: "As this is no small task, we hope to introduce the initial stages of modding support in our next big patch, which is still several months away." So we might just be getting hotfixes for now, or they're going to sneak in small patches in-between. The wording is a bit confusing, but I'd be happy if we could get a bug-free Minthara for just one update.

By all means feel free to use the videos/images for whatever you want, no need to ask me. All I care about is Minthara getting the love, care and respect she deserves from the developers

As for the emails; haven't sent a single one, a waste of time. These single post issues I'm posting here on a daily basis are just to highlight all of Minthara's issues and keep the discussion going. My primary focus remains solely on finishing my mega feedback list which I am visually formatting to include all of my videos/images posted here, so it looks nice and proper once it's live.

I was planning to finish it and post it as its own unique thread this week, but this stupid bug with the Emperor dialogue is blocking me from recording the footage I require. So in the meantime I'm just arming myself with my own memes to remind Larian of their mistreatment of Minthara.


Those people are unfortunately just oblivious and have no clue what they're talking about.

Everything the community has been bringing up for years now and everything I've personally listed is the BARE MINIMUM she requires so that as a non-Origin companion she does not have inconsistencies, missing content, lackluster unsatisfying content and outright false narrative that doesn't take into account player's actions. That's her bare minimum so she can be a solid non-Origin companion with established equal treatment and in-game logic of other characters.


The reason why I say they've given her zero care and attention is because it's true, especially when you compare her to Halsin or her side with Halsin's side. Naturally that doesn't mean Larian NEVER did anything for her, but in the grand scale of things what they do is NOTHING in relation to what she is missing and what she needs and what they do for other companions. 7 months in and she still does not whatsoever even meet the bare minimum quality standard set by other companions, as she does not even have her basic content available that every other companion does.

I've been here since Early Access and I remember all of it like it was yesterday. I've been here advocating for equal treatment of both Halsin's and Minthara's sides for over two years. Halsin's side got EVERYTHING, while Minthara's side remains exactly as it was during Early Access. Buggy, unfinished, broken in some places and entirely unreactive to player's own choices/actions.

They have not looked at Minthara nor her side of the story since Early Access, instead just patched together the bare minimum to ensure it plays its own railroaded short-term narrative that doesn't react properly to player input and abandoned it since. They also cut out most of her actual content due to rushed development, including her pregnancy which was fully voiced. So these mere content breadcrumbs thrown at her each major update are not nothing when she's missing a gigantic amount of her most basic content. Content which she would have had if the game had not been rushed and Larian paid attention to her side of the story (not counting the epilogue naturally).

Meanwhile;

• Ragzlin still does not have his vision with Ketheric Thorm in the game (only Gut and Minthara have theirs)
• Ragzlin still refers to female characters using voice lines intended for male characters
• Sazza still teleports away right in front of you if you already visited the Goblin Camp and rescued her after the fact
• The Goblin warlock at the camp celebration is still using her Early Access voice line referring to the Absolute as a male
• And naturally all the previously mentioned issues tied to Minthara

Does this deserve praise? Is it disservice when they've so blatantly abandoned Minthara to the point she has just one greeting line, no relationship dialogue and zero romance scenes as a love interest? Is it disservice when they can't even put one single intern to playtest it and collect all the issues so they can get fixed 7 months into full release? Nah, this is me giving them fully deserved critique on an aspect of the game they absolutely abandoned and quite obviously do not care about.

If you want me to speak plainly; Minthara as wonderfully written as she is, as a companion is an utter development embarrassment along with her entire side of the story. Uncared for, unfinished buggy mess patched together with scrap that's clearly not been playtested by anyone in the studio for the entirety of full release. Because if they actually cared about Minthara or her side of the story they'd immediately notice the blatantly obvious issues and inconsistencies and FIX THEM already.

• We would not be 7 months in with each update breaking Minthara.
• We'd not be 7 months in with Minthara still not having her most BASIC content available (no personal quest, a single greeting line, no relationship dialogue and no romance scenes as a love interest), which Halsin as her counterpart does.
• We'd not get an update in which Minthara is cripplingly broken AGAIN and spoiling the game for a month straight to so many people.
• And we'd not have people hoping they could get at least one single update where she ain't broken in some shape or form.

Utter incompetence and utter negligence towards Minthara. They deserve to be critiqued and called out on it because they had two years of feedback from Early Access and 7 months of feedback from full release to act on it and do right by Minthara. At this point it's clear they just don't care at all because they did nothing with it, and that's why I'm here now on full blast with no holding back when it comes to criticism.

*I made this feedback image 2 years ago during Early Access to point out their absolute lack of care towards her. The only thing that's missing two years later is Karlach being on the list of lost content. Just further proof.*



I just saw your screenshots, but I cannot confirm this as she always loses the Nightwarden prefix for me once she's a companion. Her 'True Soul Of The Absolute' title under her name naturally never goes away though. It could be a mod you're using perhaps, as I don't play with any and never had that happen.

Anyway apologies for the long reply, but know that I appreciate your comments. And thanks for that sheet, I actually did not know that Karlach and Wyll do not react to Minthara's recruitment. I'll be sure to record that as well and put it on the list

The bug I was writing about is tied to travellig back to Act 1 with or without her AFTER you recruited her. It occurred for me when I recruited her at Moonrise and then went to the crèche afterwards (without her). This was in a playthrough started about a week before patch 6 dropped. So this bug is not fixed.

Another lack of reactivity regarding Minthara's recruitment;

Unlike all the other Origin companions; Karlach and Wyll do not react to Minthara joining the group after she's rescued from Moonrise.

This makes no sense because Minthara has comments and banter with them, including early reactive dialogue about Karlach's 2nd engine upgrade. Plus the player was always able to have all three together legitimately, even before the Update #5 knockout method.

*Don't be shy guys, go say hi to her*

Technically speaking, making a report is just a few clicks away. You've already written them quite nicely here, so you could just copy-paste this to them. Not a lot of time wasted XD

I fully understand your frustrations though. I haven't been there since EA, but look at it this way: why do we think Minthara is being neglected? I always remind myself the majority of the playerbase don't exactly recruit Minthara. Most people like to play good and the knockout method is too much of a hassle for casual players. Less people playing with her means less bug reports, and Larian's modus operandi seem to be popular demand. What better way to encourage them to prioritize her more, if not by sending in more bug reports and suggestions? Also, this forum has been almost completely inaccessible so I'm not too optimistic they will see your posts here, which is a huge shame.

For the record, this is not me trying to excuse their negligence. After 7 months, letting a major bug that replaces 90% of her lines slip past their radar has removed all doubts, they definitely don't care for her as much. But I think this is the least we can do, plus reports haven't been a total disappointment imo. They fixed a couple bugs I reported recently: Minthara unsheathing her weapons unprompted and an unvoiced dialogue at the House of Healing. The Emperor bug will also be addressed in the next hotfix according to Larian's CM on Discord.

About this issue, I loaded my saves today and the "True Soul of the Absolute" title is indeed there until the end of the game. I think I just haven't been paying attention, and mods don't seem to affect this XD - so yes, thanks for pointing that out! This is likely an oversight and it's been added to the spreadsheet.

As for the "Nightwarden" prefix, I can confirm this disappears after she joins your party, and only then. By that I mean literally joining your party of 4, not recruitment. I long rested a few times after recruiting her and the prefix stays. So, if you go the entire game without ever asking her to join your party, it is very likely the title will never be removed. I personally don't take much issue with this, but it does make me wonder why they decided this should be the trigger. Frankly, I've also wondered why "Nightwarden" was ever added to Minthara at all when she doesn't even serve Lolth during the entire course of the game XD

Ah, unfortunately, I haven't been able to reproduce this bug. Prior to Patch #6, I took Minthara back to Act 1 using the Silence spell as per my friend's suggestion and I didn't have this problem. Yesterday, I decided to go back to the creche without Minthara, leaving her at camp, and her battle lines seem to trigger normally when I got back to her in the Shadowlands. Maybe this depends on how you recruited her? I bonked Minthara for this save and the gobbos are dead.

You're not the only one though. My friend had this issue too a while back but sadly she already forgot the specifics. Please let me know if anyone else encountered this bug :'3

────────

Another bug I found while testing the issues above: one of her idle animations is broken. It's the one where she brings out her knife to stab the map on her table. I long rested with her after a fight and this is what I woke up to.



Minthy stabbing the air out of sheer spite >:3
What's interesting is I can move her around and she doesn't automatically return to her tent, so now she can chill with Withers and Arabella.



No idea what could've caused it. I don't have any mods for this save and I did a full clean up before starting it. Idle animations go through a cycle though, so I was able to get Minthy back to her senses by re-entering the camp.

Impressive stubbornness. There are some points about Minthara in your messages which I personally can't be agree with. Like ACT 1 " literally making the whole event being no different than having sex with someone who's vulnerably drunk/drugged and completely unaware of themself and their surroundings, which is precisely what's happening to Minthara during that entire scene." but it's okay. We all have our opinions. Thank you for your work.

I recruited Minthara the classic way (attacking the grove), so it might also be tied to that.

You are correct that majority do not try to see her side of the story, but it's important to also take into account that lots of players do not want to see it precisely because Larian never bothered to flesh it out and improve it. Hell even I did not care about her side of the story up until Honour Mode came out - my excuse to fully immerse myself with the immoral route.

So I played through Minthara's story four times total (twice in Early Access and twice with Update #5), they just barely patched it together and left it alone once it was "playable enough" as all the focus and effort went into the intended heroic narrative.

Between Early Access and full release; the one universally reached consensus by the community remains that Minthara as a character is awfully lackluster and that her side of the story just plain sucks because it does not have anything unique of its own and only deletes content. It's been pointed out for over 2 years now and keeps being brought up all the time because every single choice that one makes in the game contrary to the intended heroic narrative leads to removed or deleted content without any long-term payoff.

• Sided with Minthara? All the goblins pack up and leave, never to be seen again.
• Sided with Nere? He ends up zombified.
• Sided with the Duergar? They just pack up and leave, never to be seen again.
• Sided with Marcus? He's either a glorified statue at Moonrise or a corpse in Balthazar's study.
• Saved Sazza? She just leaves, never to be seen again.
• Sided with Balthazar? Leads to exact same path as the rest, except zombified Ragzlin makes an appearance.

Every single choice done on Minthara's side leads to extremely short-lived linear narrative with no long-term branching and reactions because Larian didn't want to bother with it, while the intended "good" narrative has story choices branching out throughout all three ACTs reacting to it. And to put even more salt to the wound Larian gave two more good-aligned companions (Jaheira and Minsc) because all of the effort went into the heroic narrative.

Larian could have had Sazza, Nere, Marcus or even Viconia join the group as compensation for losing 5 companions from the other side, but obviously immoral narrative is not their intended narrative so we get nothing. We don't even get the one and only Minthara properly integrated and as you've seen yourself Minthara despite having stuff at the Mountain Pass, was cut off from it too because who cares. What reason is there to cut her off from it... literally no reason.

So it's Larian's fault that people are not interested in trying out Minthara and her side of the story because they made it impossible to enjoy it. Who wants to waste time playing a clearly rushed, unfinished, buggy mess of a story that leads nowhere with a companion that is broken 7 months in a row with non-existent romance, while content just keeps getting deleted with every choice made. I certainly don't and never will again, hell my ending for an evil Dark Urge did not even have an epilogue, just a stupid disappointing one liner and fade-to-black.

I also wrote feedback about it too, but who cares... Larian certainly doesn't care


Well that's weird, because I tested it yesterday and she loses the prefix the moment she steps into camp. So not sure what's going on, but I'll try to keep an eye out on it once I feel ready to suffer through an Update #6 playthrough.


Probably meant persistence. Since I'm not actually stubbornly discussing stuff here, merely persistently pointing out issues

But about that point I made;


But that is not the issue nor is truly relevant; the issue is that she does not have any love/romance scene after she is truly free and fully herself in ACT II. That's the real problem, the fact that Larian did not make any for the actual Minthara.

As I said we all have our opinions and that's okay and even more: it's very good.


To your point then and my opinion

It may feel like developing slow because after the romance scene in Act 1 she just does not spend time with you or stay in the camp so narratively it would be difficult to drop in cue's without breaking the immersion to let the player know you are in a relationship and I 'm glad it was decided to keep it the way it is now, it will just have to take players own inlellect to grasp at the relationship status exactly as you get the dice advantage later on during rescue scene.

Given the myriad of dialogue choices and if you drop into her fears and fail the dice check for example, game flags you both as not in relationship and you get disadvantage on the dice checks during rescue scene,.

So one could debate that if she truly is not herself none of these relationship notions would even matter at that point as Minthara would not care and just busy enjoying the trip, other than mechanically in the context of gameplay element which I doubt its solely there for.

While most of the comparisons are okay'ish I feel comparing Minthara to Chop to be unfair,

Back to our regular scheduled program;

Sazza's introductory scene does not have a safe-guard in place to account for the fact that the player already met Minthara and Priestess Gut prior to ever meeting Sazza at the Grove. So just like with Sazza's scene at the Goblin Camp where Minthara acts like she never met the main character, the same happens here where our own character acts like they never met Minthara.

*Maybe Drow are just terrible with remembering names*


This would be the simplest fix ever if the player already met Minthara by simply replacing the dialogue with;

• 1. 'Boss lady'? You mean Minthara?
• 3. Yes, she sent me. Ready to get out of here? (No deception check since the player is not lying here)

I wish we could confront Klagga and his love letter to Minthara, maybe even show her his love letter haha

I am not sure if this on your list (and I currently don't dare to click through the pages because the forum is very unstable) but I noticed that if you recruit Minthara and have not previously used tadpoles, you will now get the option to convince your hesitant companions of using tadpole powers too. I assume this is because Minthara unlocks the Illithid Powers menu but from a narrative point of view it makes no sense. It would be nice if she tried to convince a hesitant player though.

Also, when long resting after having the scene in the throne room but before rescuing Minthi, Wyll said "Minthara's still imprisoned in Moonrise. If I were inclined, I could save her. Not that I'm inclined." The "I" makes me think this is an Origin-Wyll thing that slipped in, despite not being on his Origin (I am on Astarion's Origin atm).

No. It's still lie because Minthara doesn't value lifes of goblins at all except as cannon fodder on battlefield. And Minthara sent you to find/infiltrate the grove not on rescue operation.

It's not currently on the list, but I am aware of it and yes it's because of the tadpole system immediately enabling as soon as she's recruited. Funnily enough if you never triggered the 2nd Guardian scene and go back to ACT I after recruiting Minthara, you can trigger that Guardian scene and they'll act as if you consumed tadpoles yourself despite never doing so, due to being instantly flagged by the enabled tadpole system.

I believe Minsc despite being tadpoled, does not auto-enable the system so it should not be a massive thing for them to fix.

I'll check the idle comments with companions too.


Obviously she did not send us to rescue Sazza... but she did send us to the Grove and therefore although Sazza is not originally included in the plan, still falls under the overall plan to infiltrate the Grove.

Yet another oversight with poorly rushed Minthara;

Minthara does not have a laughing voice line for the [Sentient Amulet]. Larian you do know she can laugh, right? You do know you even recorded her laughing lines, RIGHT?

*It's okay, that's why I'm here. Laugh it up Minthy*


*In case any Halsin fans are reading this, he also doesn't have laughing lines for the amulet so might want to bring it up to Larian*

I am just guessing, but it might be because Minsc is opposed to using tadpoles and needs to be convinced to use them, while Minthara is pro-power, having several abilities unlocked.

Yup, though they can do the same with Minthara as well. A simple dialogue asking her not to indulge if the player never used the tadpoles. Or simply not enabling it at all if the player never used the tadpoles.

After all Astarion too despite wanting to munch every tadpole in sight, won't do it without our say so. So with Minthara this is just a result of rushed development causing a gameplay bug/oversight that directly clashes against the narrative of our main character, but it should not be a huge issue for Larian to fix 'if they care to fix it'.

I don't disagree, I was just wondering about the why. I also wonder if tadpoles are bugged in general, Minthara is currently the only character in the group who has consumed additional tadpoles, yet when I was influencing dear Barnabas to break free, it still gave me the "Favourable Beginnings" bonus for my PC which surprised me.

Apart from the issues described, it would be great if she got a real "good" path recruitment, not just this meta-gamed knock-out solution. Exploring why you want to save her could be interesting especially for a more morally motivated character. Is it because your character could have so easily been in her position or because you want to maybe use her later on? Why is she different from the goblins? If you choose to defend the Grove convincing her that the "Goblin trash" she is forced to work with just won't cut it, could be used to end the battle earlier, like with Auntie. - and she definitely needs some protective measure like Viconia or Auntie for the battle. There is just too much stuff flying around in that scenario.

A pretty major roleplay issue for non-tadpole players;

When Minthara joins the party, her auto-enablement of the tadpole system causes the narrative to treat the main character who never consumed any tadpoles as if they did.

*I swear Guardian lady, she made me do it!*

Hey all, there is a mod on Nexus to fix the repeating dialogue for Minthara. Judging by Larian's track record with her, I'm not expecting them to fix the bug this week (or anytime soon) so I'm using this now to resume my playthrough. Here is the link if anyone wants to use it too.

I prefer to avoid delving into mod usage and remain positive it will get fixed eventually, while it is nice to hear a hobbyist being able to fix it we should not have to rely on them from a broader perspective, thank you for sharing though!

Biggest reason I prefer ot avoid mods is to save future headaches with them seeing as Baldurs Gate 3 is still actively developed, even if biggest focus is bug fixing.

Of course, it's there as a choice

This bug has been crippling my gameplay as well as my friends' who are just now playing the game. While I agree and know Larian will fix this eventually, they have the tendency to put off fixing Minthara until months later. Just downloading this so we can get back to our multiplayer run without missing out on anything, and I personally never had much headache with mods.

I tested this in my non-tadpole playthrough some time ago.

Yes the options to convince party members to use the tadpoles and when the Dream Guardian speaks to you it has that dialogue but, the most important aspect imo is when in act 3
Also when I asked about this UI behavior thing on Reddit someone commented that the UI will activate anyway on Act 3 upon reaching certain locations. I haven't been able to test this.

These two things in combination constitute my biggest problem with her treatment. In Early Access the devs really stressed that they wanted people doing the evil stuff so they could get data on that, so I did! And Minthara's dialogue AFTER the ethical quandary of her sex scene actually has some of her most interesting, most in-depth writing. You get insight into her fears and hopes and even if you offend her and lose the opportunity to recruit her by looking into those fears you get GREAT content out of it. You get some early insight into her matriarchal upbringing and a nice little mention of Menzoberranzan and how she'd love to take you as her consort there, you get reactivity when you save her later (unfortunately though as you've shown this path has far more broken than working). With a start that strong it was exciting to see where they'd take her. But they left her pretty barebones so that's like... ALL you get out of recruiting her the original way to balance out everything you lose and it's just nowhere near enough. Then you fast forward to her new recruitment method and while that's great and in a world where they won't hunker down and fix all her bugs it's nice that more things work on this path they still left things broken and you instead just lose all that early intrigue she gives you. Damn shame.

It's wild that they left her in such a bizarrely broken state, and I can only imagine it's mostly for Halsin's sake. Sure he needed Act 3 content when they decided to make him recruitable but as time has gone by I've just become more and more convinced that they basically forgot she existed and ALSO needed to be worked on between EA and launch when they shifted their effort to Halsin. It's the only reasonable explanation I can think of for why there are SO many problems with her and why new bugs with her appear with every update that tries to fix any of her problems. It feels even more odd because before the game launched they seemed ENTHUSIASTIC about her and the evil path content.

LMAO, Larian still hasn't fixed her boots either. Still have to use "Drow Leather Boots for Minthara" mod from Nexus, that brings back matching footwear from Early Access.

With todays hotfix#21 out and as seen from the logs, MInthara's reactivity got fixed!
Least in my old save which was started when patch 5 and hotfix 16 was released, Minthara is so far working as intended with her reactivity, so happy to share this and eeger to hear from others how you experience MInthara now.

Going to start a new game from scratch and see how well it works and whether anything else needs attention.

This is a bad joke at this point. Holy shit.

Maybe she has prescient abilities....

Error 37 - MINTHARA CONTENT UNAVAILABLE;

Minthara's unique Dark Urge dialogue branch may become unavailable due to a bug with Sceleritas Fel's camp scene in ACT II where he approaches the Dark Urge about killing Isobel.

Bloody hell, Larian.
It has been seven months and my favorite character in game is further reduced to a walking meme.

Seriously, I was quite happy about this one - when I got this the first time. Halsin never ever commented on Mystra's command in my game.

Oh and about the tadpole thing: We left the Shadowcursed lands to visit the crèche, when we returned I had Minthara eat all the leftover tadpoles in the trunk and the companions reacted as if my character had eaten them. That probably belongs into the same category as the wrong reaction from the Dream Guardian.

I made it to Moonrise towers in my current playthrough.
Knocked out Minthara at the Druid''s grove in Act 1, and found her in the MT prison. I let the guards stop their torture and helped Minthara release her mind from the absolute.

I then fought and killed all the absolutists in the prison area.
After that Minthara had become unresponsive. I can't talk to her and she won't move.

I went out, killed all the guards on the docks and returned to the prison, but Minthara still just stands there, unresponsive like any barrel or burlap sack.
A bug ? Or am I still missing something ?
(hotfix 21 installed)

That is a bug which was already present from before todays hotfix and happens under a certain permutation, so this is not a new bug introduced by todays hotfix and I had it bug reported about a week ago.

To me it happens inconsistently if I side with goblins, delve into fears and fail persuasion checks with Minthara so that she forces me to non-lethal knock out at camp when ganged up by goblins in the camp, so once I reached the prison area I had to do the dice checks during rescue with disadvantage as we were not flagged into a relationship by the game.

Perhaps its less permutation depended than I thought.

In act 1 I pretended I would open the grove's gate and then betrayed Minthara. In the battle that followed I knocked her out and killed all the other assailants. (Robbed her weapons and armor)

In Act 2, I let Ketheric send her to prison. When I found her in prison afterrwards, convinced the interrogators to let me handle it and then linked with Minthara to push the absolute's mind-torture out.
The inquisitors were surprised and then I opted to attack them together with Minthara.

After they were dead, Minthara became "plant-like". No conversation possible, no movement from her side.
So meanwhile all absolutists in the prison and on the docks are dead. The thieflings and gnomes are saved and in moonlight inn. I took a long rest, returned to the prison and Minthara remains in the same unresponsive state. The marker for the quest "decide on Minthara's fate" is still there on the minimap.

Behaves exactly the same for me, only times when this is not happening for me is when I sided with Minthara in Act 1, get the romance scene and successfully stay on her good side before she leaves for Moonrise Towers.

Since i started a new game from scratch today I am going to play the side of being evil same as before (recruiting Minthara without non-letha measure) just to see if it happens under that permutation too, in which case sucks if it does because since introduction of patch 6 it only happens to me inconsistently when its through non-lethal way of recruitment path.

I recruited her via knock-out (before the most recent hot-fix) much like you described Ido, just that I knocked her out in the goblin camp. I tried it via defending the Grove but some unfortunate explosions forced me to return to a previous save.

It really is unacceptable that one of the companions is THIS buggy and non-functional several months after the release of the game. How on earth did they break her so badly? The fact that they removed a dialogue bug and replaced it with an almost identical dialogue bug is exasperating. (It looks like what they cared about in this case was making sure the plot wasn’t spoiled, not actually fixing the character.) This shouldn’t be happening.

It seems like Larian needs to take this more seriously and get all hands on deck until BG3 is actually finished. They released it unfinished, and in my opinion they’re obligated to continue working on it until I no longer have to continually plan my game around possible bugs. Or get my honour mode game spoiled by bugs. Savescumming should be a luxury, not a necessity.

Bumping this thread because I am dead tired of the fact that there is a relentless stream of Astarion fans complaining about one facial expression in one kiss animation, when the man already has the most content out of every character, and some of the other characters need attention. Especially Minthara.

Edit: I was able to recruit Minthara under patch 5 by making her temporarily hostile, and knocking her out at the goblin camp. Then in Act 2, the guards in the prison started torturing her, and that’s when I killed them. After she recovered slightly from being tortured, I could talk to Minthara and recruit her. She was responsive. I haven’t tried under patch 6 however, not sure whether this would work now without bugginess.

Thank you, Crimsonrider, for lobbying on Minthara's behalf. She is one of my faves. It seems her content was unfinished when it came time for Larian to press the gold master, so to speak. They could have removed her companion content and just left her as a boss villain like the other two goblin bosses. Instead, they included the unfinished content they had.

On the one hand, I'm glad we're able to enjoy what content there is. On the other hand, Minthara's potential as a character is woefully unfulfilled. With the complexity of her story background, she could easily have a rich, deep companion plot line on a par with one of the origin characters. In her current state, she does not.

Under those circumstances, it may have been best for Larian to keep her companion content out of the release and save it for a BG3 "expanded edition", taking the time and care to make her a full-fledged party companion. She certainly deserves some TLC and the royal (noble?) treatment. I hope Larian finishes what's clearly a half-finished job and brings back her VA to build an expanded role for her. Considering her vast, loyal fanbase (of which I count myself a member) and the half-baked, buggy nature of her current incarnation, it would be awfully nice for Larian to just release a BG3 "Minthara Edition" as a free download. You yourself have certainly earned it. With all of the time you've put into finding and reporting Minthara bugs, Larian really ought to pay you as some kind of part time QA contractor. You're practically doing one of their employee's jobs for free.

I tried some more things (like attacking her) but nothing changed.
So I went back to an old save prior to my interfering with the torturers and restarted from there.

Instead of convincing them to let me do the torturing, I took the last option : Tell them to let Minthara go.
This resulted in the beginning of a fight of course.

When the 2 cultists were dead, I told Minthara we would leave immediately. In the previous run I told her to wait so I could clear the prison from the remaining cultists first.
So we went to the door directly and this time she followed. I made her invisible and we rushed to camp without further fighting. She is there now, and the quest "decide Minthara's fate" is completed.
I'm not recruiting her yet, I want to go back with my current party and eliminate the cultists from the docks and prison , and free the gnomes and thieflings again. All this progress was lost by going back to that old save.

When Minthara thanked me for saving her, there was a difference between the first time (when she blocked) and this time. This last time, we also connected psionically and she saw all of our previous adventures and the prism and guardian that protected us. The first time this cutscene didn't occur. Maybe -- and this is just a hypothesis -- the previous attempt blocked because this cutscene didn't play and Minthara couldn't move until it was done. I base this theory on no evidence at all, just observing what was different.

For people who still are moving on in Act 1 or 2 and haven't confronted Min in the prison yet, these choices ( move her out as quickly as possible without any firther fights) may be an option that circumvents the bug.

I also noticed that only the guards in her cell and in front of it reacted to her. When moving with her to the docks right after freeing her, the guards on the dock did not bother us at all. Later, when she had become my companion, I got a warning that I should maybe not take her into Moonrise again ... but none of the guards registered her at all.

As quoted from a friend who doesn't want to be named "it was in the datamine since launch, but since it was labelled as unreachable up until patch 5, people thought they had realized it wasn’t a good idea and were in the process of rewriting it, but turns out they decided to go through with it anyway for some reason. "

If you while it makes sense in the context of power to see a fresh outrage coming from a drow such as Minthara with her ambition revolving around power and if your approval of her is high enough the break up does not actually happen, supposedly if it falls (mine was 99 and did not move down not even by 1) down below 40 you get the option to persuade her into staying in relationship with you later on, but on the flipside of this writing it also feels just inconsistent as this is the only sure way for the dark urge to reach the epiloque with Minthara, I was under the impression that the dialogue would be slightly reworded to reflect the narration changes in respect of epiloque.


If this was planned and written with epiloque in mind, why not just keep it unreachable to a point where its ready for a proper release along with the consequences or is this just a way of testing the waters to see how playerbase reacts to it?

I actually enjoyed and loved seeing MInthara get heated up here but at the same time it felt a little inconsistent that seconds after so, she whispers in a soft tone "come to me" as we indulge in yet another passionate kissing scene, maybe in a future update she will temporarily become independed and retreats back to camp sulking over the loss of power and we can reconsile with her? and if you already in a romantic relationship you can just pass the dice check on it.

Highlighted in red is what I feel would be the next best logical step to do, the same manner of treatment like Karlach received upon death of Gortah, retreating back to camp.. what's your thoughts on this?

(edit) I see this as an opportunity to have more dialogue content for Minthara with a possible romance scene played when reconsiling with MInthara, where this time around we would be doing the leading in an extensive manner to pamper her up with, this would fill in the gap for lack of a romantic scene for MInthara in Act 3 after all...

I can't belive they really managed to bug her further!


I'm not a fan tbh (even though her VA's delivery is perfect as always). I can accept her being upset, but the "we are done" is just too much. It really sounds like a break-up after all you have accomplished together (and after you rescued her).

She of all people should sympathize with DU not wanting to be a slave to Bhaal. So we should be able to calm her down by telling her that. But instead she just shows contempt.

I guess her stomping off and us being able to reconcile at camp would be a good compromise if they insist on leaving this in. A real break-up would be unacceptable.

It goes against every prior dialogue with her. Her poor experiences with
It certainly feels like does as much harm to her characterisation to have enabled this dialogue... what if this was simply a clumsy oversight and it wasn't meant to come out yet?
Would have felt so much more better from a narrative point of view if it had rather been in the process of a rewrite for this moment in the game, so thats all I could think of in terms of compromise if its really here to stay as is.

This dialogue has been in game since launch but was flagged IMPOSSIBLE. I really hope this was just a bug with the flags as they are constantly mucking up her dialogue triggers right now. Apart from it being ooc for her this would also mean that a DUrge player would never have the chance to see her romance epilogue.

Sometimes I really do feel like we're being punished for liking Minthara so much and Larian is being petty with their inconsistent writing like the one with her breaking up with good Durge.

Honestly, I don't know what else to think after that + Minthy being broken for MONTHS. MONTHS. It's unexcusable.

Not only that, it's also pretty inconsistent since she's all about freeing yourself from any god's or master's whims. And yet wants us to be slaves to Bhaal? For what, power? What power exactly, other than having the urges to desecrate bodies because daddy wants it? And possibly killing Minthara in the future?

Larian, I am begging you to stop changing things and just fix that poor woman so I can romance her in peace.

The timing of it all when I was doing a good durge run and romanced Minthara, as I was about to do the Orin quest this hotfix happens. And the repeating lines.

Rip to my second try at romancing her I guess since my first one was so bugged to the point I couldn't up her relationship status.

I can't believe that Larian rewards Minthara's fans with this, after months of waiting for them to fix it and give it more content, what do they do? well make it impossible to have a romance with her in a good run with durge, it really seems like they love doing the opposite of what people ask of them, super nice

This is usually the effect I see a topic driven by passion tends to do, least has done in the past on a different forum for a different game by a different company, where the more fans express a desire of something and topic gives the total opposite effect out of it, like harder you push more likely eyes will divert away from it.

I just genuinly hope this topic won't have a similar such butterfly effect for this game, I don't honestly expect Larian dev team to come on the forums and read as much into forums for how consistently inaccessible it tends to be as of late with these forums, I always send bug reports and feedbacks by e-mail directly to Larian myself and have done so for 5 months by now while always being constructive and appreciative and not cause any disservice unfairly with what has been achieved.

I think what I found so funny from the breakup with Durge is that it's not even a breakup, Minthara would go back to saying "I am yours. Come to me." and literally making out with Durge on the altar right after saying "If you have any strength left, bring it to the battlefield. You certainly do not have enough to share my bed anymore." and storming away. Barring obviously flawed and inconsistent characterization, they didn't even bother getting the breakup flag to work regardless of what their intention may be XD

I admire the patience, really. There are only few who can stay positive about this, and it's usually people who have never experienced Minthara for themselves but still somewhat care for her. Among those who have and dearly love her character, the frustration has truly reached its peak that sometimes we don't bother anymore and just go on to enjoy fanwork.

────────

I'm personally not at all mad at Larian for this, I just pity them because they seem incompetent, or rather ignorant, when it comes to fixing bugs with Minthara specifically. Everyone else seems to be lightyears ahead in being developed, at least in terms of just functioning like a normal companion and having coherent progression, while Minthara has been staying in the Early Access section since the very release of the game. She is quite literally being developed as we speak, and we have no choice but to witness this because they've chosen to give us constant updates. Larian is inviting us to watch over their shoulders and witness the disappointment that is their subpar priority management and decision-making.

Regarding bug reports, a friend of a friend dug deep into the bug where Minthara's dialogue options with Durge are erased after having a scene with Sceleritas, even sending the instructions to fix this in the form of a long list of code - marked and explained. That was in Early January. Thanks to Hotfix #21, it is now clear there have been zero improvements in how they're handling Minthara and said bug (and many others) have remained unfixed after 7 months. Instead new ones have sprouted, and they're not unlike her older ones. Press F for all the Minthara fans.

I just came across Minthara breaking up with me as a redeemed Dark Urge in my playthrough. Anyone care to explain what in the hell did I just witness?

After everything we've been through as an incredibly loyal, devoted, supportive and loving couple, even telling me 2 minutes prior to my duel with Orin all about our alurlssrin bond and hoping we'd always be together... she starts scolding me, insulting me and treating me like a useless piece of trash, a mere weapon, an object, a Bhaal's BITCH!!! Abandoning me in an instant like I'm nothing to her, all because I refused to be a slave to a psychopathic lunatic of a god?!

• Did Larian forget she hates the gods with passion?!
• Did Larian forget she sees followers of these gods as victims whose devotions are rewarded with death?!
• Did Larian forget she considers all gods evil pricks?!
• Did Larian forget she would NEVER EVER serve anyone again, let alone have her lover fall into the same trap?!

Seeing that horseshit of a scene left such an awful taste in my mouth that it pretty much entirely ruined Minthara as a character for me now and lost any respect I had for Larian. Her entire character arc butchered with a single scene and thrown into the trash! It's clear to me now that Larian sitting on their lazy ass doing nothing for over two years hasn't been enough of a punishment for Minthara and us as her fans, they also gotta piss all over her character so she can't even be likeable anymore. All they're capable of is just piling up more and more horseshit bugs on top of her and pissing all over her character.

Just what in the hell is this scene that makes her an insane lunatic treating her love interest like utter trash that means nothing to her?! DISGUSTING!!!

That's why I said I feel we're honestly being punished for liking and romancing Minthara. Because "we're not supposed to". It truly feels like a big middle finger from Larian.

Dev 1: So people like Minthara
Dev 2: Not Halsin?
Dev 1: Nah
Dev 2: Lmao make her unlikable then, make her break up with good Dark Urge
Dev 1: That's sick, will do!

It's also very much contradictory which gives me major whiplash. Sad. Minthara has always been about you and everyone else being free of any god controlling you, yes, even Bhaal because being a slayer offers no power - you are still a slave to your dad.

So, what gives really? Did the writers completely forgot that part? She's so inconsistent it actually gives me physical pain.

Yeah this is kind of odd considering in Act 2 she was kind of Fuck all the gods, we will grab our own power.

So... why is she suddenly so pro-god?

Thats just...horrible...

Wouldn't be surprised at the slightest.

YES, that's EXACTLY how I felt. I was literally stun-locked for a whole minute after seeing her treat me like utter shit out of nowhere. All of this coming from Minthara who has been nothing but extremely grateful, pragmatic, devoted, faithful and supportive throughout the whole journey.

• Minthara who thanked me MULTIPLE TIMES for saving her life
• Minthara who is so grateful that she feels like she can never pay back what was done for her
• Minthara who after dealing with Orin says SHE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO DO ANY OF THIS WITHOUT US
• Minthara who wants to spend the rest of eternity with us
• Minthara who is incredibly pragmatical and always keeps her emotions in check
• Minthara who literally uses the rarest word in her vocabulary to describe our relationship, because we're the only ones she ever truly let inside her heart

Only to then do a complete 180 out of nowhere and for the first time ever become completely irrational and emotional while scolding me, insulting me and abandoning me out of anger because I refuse to remain Bhaal's enslaved bitch?! Something she has a single line for in the ENTIRE FREAKING GAME?!

• She has ZERO INFLUENCE on Dark Urge's personal quest and provides ZERO UNIQUE CONTENT regarding it
• She is a f***ing shallow robot that just follows us around with no content of her own whatsoever
• She has ZERO INFLUENCE on anything throughout the whole game
• ZERO REACTIONS to having her in the party
• ZERO WEIGHT to having her around...

And then Larian decides they're gonna make her a problem for Dark Urge's personal quest, despite her having no influence on it whatsoever?! Who came up with this drivel?!

My feedback which I was hoping to post today literally has this as one of the bullet points for her;


I WANT HER to carry more weight in ACT III, I want her to have more impact on the story, to have something of her own or to grow together with Dark Urge as a character by making their personal quest more intertwined so she DOES have an influence on it and unique content for it.

Not this horseshit where she is out of nowhere a genocidal irrational lunatic that starts attacking her own love interest like a spoiled brat! THE REAL MINTHARA WOULD BE THE FIRST IN LINE TO RUN UP TO US AND PASSIONATELY EMBRACE US FOR TELLING BHAAL TO F*** OFF!

It's definitely leaning towards character assassination. Some people have theorized it's a bug as she doesn't really break up with Durge despite reacting so harshly to it, though we can't be sure if that specific part is a bug or if this entire exchange triggering is the bug. It makes absolutely no sense.

The kiss option is still there afterwards, and people have reported we can still get her epilogue even after triggering this. Truly disheartening to see no improvements have been made in terms of how they're treating her. It's been 7 months, we are not in EA anymore.

I think its fair to say Minthara is kind of half finished, same is true for most of the characters in Act 3 and in Act 2 there is really not a lot of content when you compare it to Act 1.

Larian may have run out of time and to be honest the further game progresses the more permutations there are so there more content possibilities they had to cover while in Act 1 everyone starts at the same page.
So if you could have all possibilities playing out in one play through the character development and presence would be a lot but not so right now because you are seeing one small tail end of a very large tree....

I hope between now and the eventual final patch/Definitive Edition there is more character content in Act 3 for all the characters and a complete overhaul for both Halsin and Minthara because they feel half finished even more so compared to the others.
Thats why these scenes feels out of character probably... its all they got?

With what we are witnessing right now she feels like an incomplete character. A scrambled mess and it's like the writers don't know where to go from there with her. Weird how they paid more attention to Halsin as a companion/being more relevant to the story than Minthara considering they're both non origin companions. (granted, Halsin has his own problems but he generally feels more complete compared to Minthy)

You'd think they'd give the same courtesy to her, but even in the 'evil' path she feels incomplete it's almost sad. She feels very shallow in this, she went from a ambiguously morally complicated character to this plain 'muh power' character in this particular scene... not sure what was the point really, writers should keep notes on each character on what they've said previously before making such drastic actions. And, in Minthy's case, the 'fuck all the gods, it's you and me against everyone. We are not going to be dictated by anyone and we will make our own life' just got thrown out the window. How is it possible?


Character assassination indeed, as rendemption put it.

First they commit character assassination on Viconia DeVir, entirely contradicting her character growth in BG2 and either of her epilogues (in both ending she pretty much switches to True Neutral alignment and in non-romance ending joins forces with Drizzt and becomes a hero ffs!):





Then they do everything in their power to ruin Minthara.

Does Larian has some anti-Drow agenda or something? WTF is this stinky pile of crap?

Larian should grant me the title of lore-master as I am about to NUKE their Hotfix #21 lore-contradictory drivel out of the sky, because obviously I know their lore and character better than they do.

This is the real Minthara! The fascinatingly complex and wonderfully written grounded character with a caring heart, unwavering devotion and impeccable voice of reason that everyone loves. An independent Drow who hates the gods, hates senseless butchering, hates madness and would never ever bend over to serve divinity or cause any harm to her 'alurlssrin';

Lmao. 'A madwoman, butchering prey in the name of a god who would discard me without a thought once i was no longer of use. Bhaal....'


Yeah.. about that.

I felt very fortunate to have experienced MInthara as extesnively adn as bug free as was possible month or two prior to release of patch 6 the very first time I sided with Minthara, I grew very affectionate and consider Minthara as my top favorite trust me, I did not even know how long term msot of her issues have been until this topic brought my attention and motivated me to reigster up it, it feels very painful to see all of this...

.. I do feel very strongly about the characertization done to Minthara with this latest change which isn't even fucntioning properly on itself..

Here is why I consider this a bug and/or incompetence from one who did not understand why this specific dialogue was coded "IMPOSSIBLE" in the line, my theory is that when her reactivity got part way fixed, someone must have inadvertedly removed this tag from the line and for the god of Mystra, why is this not documented in the patch log if its an intentional change?

It just does not make any sense since release of patch 5 that introduced epiloque chapter, I sent a very technical and extensive bug report regarding this and hoping it gets redacted back with the "IMPOSSIBE" tag, it seriously should have been brought back to drawing table and be re-worded, this feels like content that was recorded and worked on from long time ago, like why was this piece of line not reworked to adjust with the narration changes patch 5 brought to us?

I remembered one more bug with Minthara which you need to add to your list. It's about interaction in Cazador's palace. Minthara comments about influence of this place on Astarion even she never saw him. In my playthrough I killed him when he tried to bite my tav. (almost beginning of the game)

Oh! Do you have any screenshots for this? Or a recording? I need to personally confirm this before adding anything, but I have Astarion in all my playthroughs at the moment.


100%, I'm really questioning their ability to write if this is intentional. I think the conflict (as a concept) works but they need to put in a lot more work for this to make sense.

I want this to be a bug, a sign of their sheer incompetence, but I'm reminded Minthara's poison kiss also had the "IMPOSSIBLE" tag before it was then removed and fully implemented. We've never had bugs like this, I don't think? Her bugs were always strange, she would repeat lines and suddenly break up with you at a certain approval, but it has never brought back datamined content from early release days (yeah, this is pretty old) so a part of me thinks this isn't a mistake. But this begs the question why they would release this now when it's clearly not ready?

Whatever they do, I just hope they don't leave this as it is. It's so surreal and immersion breaking since the breakup doesn't even work.

Yup, 1000% character assassination.

I truly do not understand why they even made that scene to begin with because Minthara is neither a power hungry lunatic nor a genocidal maniac that only sees the Dark Urge as a weapon to be unleashed upon the world.

• When Minthara talks to Dark Urge about their urges in ACT II, she extremely disapproves any potential notion of harming her... yet when Bhaal is about to kill the Dark Urge they made her disapprove when we refuse Bhaal due to not wanting to be a danger to her since she's our FAMILY that fights with us?! Do they even play their own game?!
• Not to mention she fell head-over-heels in love with Dark Urge due to being fascinated by their love, care and devotion to her, not because they're a Slayer. The core of her romance is getting to truly know her heart and who she is, so this stupid scene entirely changes the motive behind her affection from honesty and admiration to just pure vile power objectifying hungriness. She literally ends up being worse than Bhaal now.

There are SO MANY contradictions it is insane... the only scenario I see this scene existing is if Minthara as a companion had two different paths for her character; one being her community-loved cool neutral pragmatic path and the other being this power hungry angry lunatic bitch they made her in this scene. This scene would only make sense if in such a path the Dark Urge player was constantly pushing the idea forward of wanting to reunite with their father, similarly to how Shadowheart or Astarion have their evil paths as a Dark Justiciar and Ascended Vampire.

This scene simply has no place in the game and needs to be removed. As proven with the video above it entirely contradicts Minthara as a character, her principles and her attitude throughout her whole journey, but here is even further proof @ 08:55 why it needs to get the hell out of the game because it also completely clashes against the aftermath of ACT III too;



Also yup I noticed we still technically are in a relationship and can kiss immediately after, but unfortunately it killed her as a character for me. As I mentioned in the PM, I no longer want to have her around me at all because Larian's mistreatment and butchering of the character is physically torturing me.

At this point I am close to just uninstalling the game and leaving for good, as there is nothing for me here but misery with each damn patch. Bugs, issues, inconsistencies I can handle all day long, but butchering a character like this through awful writing? Never.

So to quote Minthara directly from this horseshit scene to express how I feel about it; "Killing me would've been a mercy! At least it would've spared me of hearing this drivel!"


I'd like to add it, but unfortunately I don't have it in me to play through the entire game just to collect an inconsistent idle comment, especially now after Larian ruined the game for me.

Funny. Same but mirrored everytime killed him except one time when he admitted his vampiric nature in dialogue with Dark Urge very soon after one incident with bard.
Here's the video. I don't have save where I kill Astarion but I think I've captured the problem.

Sad to watch it. For me the whole arc of Dark Urge is a big joke (especially reaction of companions after one bard incident). I don't understand this character and don't want to. Just played him to know and that's it. So this new line of Minthara for Dark Urge just proved my point of view for me and it didn't bother me at all (and it didn't ruin Minthara for me). I'm sure they will fix it (or I hope so but looking at this tendency they will actually fix it like she will really break up with redeemed durge after rejecting Bhaal).

I have another one for your list, @rendemption, Minthara seems to "eat" companion comments. I just did dialogue encounter with Yurgir, usually your companions opt in at three points during the conversation. I had Minthara and Gale with me and two of the spots went unused, when I parked Minthi at a distance and did the scene again with only Gale for company all the comment slots were used, same with Gale and Shart.

Can't get the main story consistency right too;

When a redeemed Dark Urge completely rejects their Father, the camp conversation with Minthara after Orin's death will have a line for redeemed Dark Urge still considering themselves as 'part of the family' with Minthara acting as if Dark Urge accepted Bhaal's gift and mastered the Urge in order to dominate the world.

This line should not be available at all to a redeemed Dark Urge, as none of this is true.

*I think Orin bumped you a bit too hard on the head there Minthy*

Crimsonrider you should consider making a full length parody of Baldurs Great 3 , that video had me reel into laughter with the goblin stepping in saying "What?" this is priceless and a good way to bring issues to lightt.
Thank you for putting that together.

Thank you for the footage! It's been added to the list! I hope you've submitted a bug report to them too.
Now I wonder if she has other comments pertaining to other companions even if she never met them, aside from Astarion I mean.


I will have to test this as I remember everyone commented normally in that scene pre-patch 6. If you have any footage, that would be tremendous help. Otherwise, thanks for the heads up! I'll get around to it myself, eventually.




I decided to add the breakup to the bug list, but I highly doubt she is meant to really break up with redeemed Durge tbh. And like, not only because it's out-of-character for her and rather extreme, but also because for this dialogue to even begin to make sense, they'd have to remove these epilogue lines:



And these lines:



All evidence seems to point towards this being cut content, but I'm ready to eat my words. I have lost all faith in Larian XD


I thought the same thing. Although I do have to point out Minthara is power hungry no matter what - that is her core trait. She is just lenient in most cases, as she said in one of her endings: she is not unreasonable, and survival seems to matter more to her nearing the end of the game.

There should be more prerequisites to trigger the breakup, like low/med approval, what choices you made throughout the game, what you've said to Minthara, etc. But even then, as you said, there are way too many contradictions for this to make sense. If her anger is a kneejerk reaction, as in her fear overwhelming her and causing her to act without thought, I can see this making sense, but there has to be a follow-up and the breakup itself has to be rewritten to not revolve around "You rejected glory, and I reject you."

As of now, it hasn't ruined her character for me, because this is not the Minthara I know lol. There are several articles released about this already so maybe Larian will respond soon.

Instead of removing all those epilogue lines it would be so much easier and logical to just remove this post-Orin break up dialogue, quite literally can be done just with one simple tag.

At the end of the dialogue, there's no flags like ORI_State_PartneredWithMinthara = False and ORI_State_WasPartneredWithMinthara appearing anywhere. Those flags are the ones which set up the breakup you get with her when you sleep with Mizora. Them being missing means you do not actually breakup with her, so its clearly bugged or just half finished work.

Was told that this conversation is listed as a topical greeting in the game files, if you continue playing without interacting with Minthara for a while, you should get to a point where the dialogue is skipped altogether if anyone else feels like trying this out after Orin is killed.
I am still in Act 1 with a fresh new dark urge run as I'm curios to see if that matters anything so will give me a few days to reach to Act 3 again.

Hey Larian can we get some working content for once? Anything? No?

If Minthara is abducted by Orin, all of her camp pop-up dialogues related to Orin and the aftermath will be completely broken after she has been rescued.

*So traumatized by Orin that she can't even speak*


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Oh my apologies for not being clear enough.

I didn't mean that she isn't power-hungry whatsoever, but that she isn't a power-hungry lunatic and a genocidal maniac. Naturally she wants to seize power where she can for the purposes of reshaping the world to make it better by rejecting all of its current flaws and being free of the gods who keep exploiting all of existence for their own whims. But despite her intentions and ambitions, she is neither a lunatic nor a maniac that will walk over all those dear to her while throwing everything away if she does not get what she wants, because she is a beautifully ambitious and incredibly reasonable person that at the end of the day is content with just her love interest and minor conquests.

So I was merely speaking in the scope of that horseshit scene where she is portrayed as a completely power-hungry lunatic and genocidal maniac whose entire personality is being portrayed as an egotistically demeaning insane psychopath who objectifies Dark Urge as a mere weapon she wants unleashed upon the world, which is completely against her character, personal journey and lore.

Like you've said it yourself quite well, that is not the Minthara we all know and love. The real Minthara does not deal in irrational ultimatums and emotional tantrums, instead she always keeps her cool and is a voice of reason for every situation. She'd be the first in line to run up to us and passionately embrace us after telling Bhaal to f*** off because if there's anything she truly admires, it's staying true to ourselves and not letting gods exploit us for their own games. After all she constantly comments about this for Shadowheart rejecting Shar and Lae'zel rejecting Vlaakith.


I've actually tested this yesterday and the video above shows a part of this test;

• The only way for Minthara to avoid this horseshit break-up scene is to intentionally let Minthara be abducted by Orin. After she is abducted she will go back to camp, have some pop-up dialogues which are all bugged too (what a god damn surprise) and she'll never again speak of Orin or anything related to her.
• If however she is not abducted by Orin, there is no way to avoid this scene unless you never speak with Minthara ever again for the rest of the game, because it's queued to trigger immediately on a normal interaction. Does not have a pop-up dialogue.