Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Spoilers: Lost with Aunti Ethel

Hey guys, so I just sacrificed my eye to try and get rid of the tadpole and now I am stuck with a pretty crippling debuff and no idea how to deal with it. I let her go, poked around the cottage, found the weird grave thing and got punished for trying to interact with it. So I'm pretty much stuck and would love some guidance. This is my second playthrough (I never made it to the underdark because of a bug with the puzzle to get me into it) and I completely skipped the quest in my first playthrough, so I have no idea what the deal with it is. I already found the game difficult without the Hags Kiss and if I can't get rid of it I'm probably gonna just put the game aside until the next patch smooths out more of the rough edges. Can any of you clever players out there direct me to what I should be doing now?

Unfortunately, the answer is "Dealing with the regret of trying to make a deal with a hag". That damage is permanent.

Jeez. Is there any way to get around it at all? I don't mind reloading a save if I could do something like attack the hag immediately after she tells me she can't fix the tadpole to escape the curse. Otherwise that seems like a massive burden to put on a character for an indeterminate amount of the game.

Like all sensible hags, she takes her payment before she tells or gives you anyhting, so, unfortunately not. However, you never need to accept her deal. Just don't say yes; tell her it's a bad deal.

If you want to rescue Marina, you're going to have to cross Ethel and defeat her anyway - you don't need to forcefully attack her outside of story, if you'd rather not; you can just infiltrate her lair and let the events play out as they will beyond that point.

Good gracious, that is a harsh price to make a player pay, do you think they'll implement some kind of separate cure? Because forcing a player to keep that for an entire playthrough feels like it crosses a line into being actually unfair.

Any advice for trying to rescue Mayrina or infiltrating the cottage? I've been doing evil playthroughs so I've not tried and at this point I don't really care about game spoilers.

Well, for evil characters, raiding a hag's stores might let them find a way to solve their problem without having to take her deal, if you want a functional justification ^.^

As for advice getting through Ethel's place, and her lair below - take your time, there's no rush to get to the boss. be thorough, look at everything and enjoy the atmosphere they've tried to create for the place ^.^

For the boss fight itself - avoiding any overtly cheap tricks or exploits - if you have a way to mark Ethel herself (such as with hex or hunter's mark), that will be a great benefit to you.

Incidentally, it's not the only situation that can cost you an eye... though the other one does give you a way to offset the loss. Along with the fact that we have a companion who is one eye down, and the fact that the creature who took said eye is also in game, and keeps it as a trophy, I kind of feel like someone on the design team has a little bit of a fixation...

I appreciate the advice, thank you. And yeah, there is an odd fixation with eyes and their loss it seems. Interesting.

More hag advice:

If you don't care about the items she carries:
If you have convinced Nettie to spare you after poisoning you or completed the grove storyline:
If you recruited Lump, use him. Just make sure:
Since you can sneak up on her, place a smokepowder barrel and start the fight with a bang. If you have fought her previously, you know there are places she likes to appear - mine those, too. The secret to using smokepowder to maximum effect is:

About the lost eye: