Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Advice for Auntie Ethel

I went through her whole mini dungeon at level 4 feeling pretty lost and not really understanding the best-or even really a good-way to approach it, only to stand no chance in the actual fight itself against her. I'm reaching out asking for all the advice and help I can get for that entire questline from start to finish. I don't want to just have to ignore that entire area until we're able to level up to lvl 5 but as it stands that seems to be what I'll have to do, because I found the fight so crushing that it sapped away any interest I had in playing the game until the new community update renewed it because I felt so outmatched and without any way to improve my chances. So advice on every section of the questline, any secret things that I could possibly miss, anything I could do or find ahead of time to make things easier on myself, advice on how to actually save Mayrina (because honestly I'd be pretty mad if I went through that whole mess and couldn't save her) just everything any of you can tell me to guide me through that whole thing. I just want to get through it in a way that doesn't completely make me hate the game. I'm a very average player who is gonna be running a Drow ranger in this next playthrough as well, if that's relevant.

Give the full party composition.

Well when I went in, I'm pretty sure I took Gale, Lae'zel and Shadowheart. But I change around my companions regularly and if there's an optimal party composition for this fight, I'll take it.

The dungeon only really has one fight in it, which you can avoid if you want to; the rest is more of an atmospheric experience, which is pretty neat.

The enemies in the encounter have broken cheaty abilities that stand outside 5e rules considerably, and the current issues with the implementation of status effects (prone and fear in particular) make those abilities particularly egregious. For that fight, I'd recommend (if you're intending to do it fairly and not abuse larianisms for an easy win), employ some CC on the heavy hitter, or just keep away from him. The healer should go down in one or two shots as soon as you can spare them. Try not to group your party members up, since their 'special' abilities are AoEs that can debilitate your whole party.

For Ethel herself, the biggest tip I have to offer is this: Mark her. Hunter's mark (if you'll be playing a ranger as you say), Hex, or some other lasting effect that you can stick on her will mean that you can see which one she is when she duplicates herself. It won't stop the clones from messing with you, but it means you won't waste shots. Multi-hit spells, like magic missile are also excellent for taking out clones quickly and easily. The second time she splits up, you'll notice that none of the clones are marked: Ether herself turned invisible in the same action, and is not any of them. If you don't want to cheat or exploit, but you have access to faerie fire, you can ping her with it before she splits the second time ,and deny her ability to hide - or you can guess where she is and try to catch her in it after she splits. Elsewise, just wait for her to reveal herself again, and knock out the clones in the mean time.

If you skip the fight above, Ethel will summon the masks to help her - knocking them unconscious first, alone, will prevent them joining the fight.

To save Mayrina, you just have to get someone to the switch and hit it before the cage burns. This can be a matter of luck if the damage Ethel does on her first freebie strike goes badly - she can do a little, or a lot to the cage on the first hit, and that can swing it. If you've got an Astarion or other rogue who can dash three or even four times, you can reach the button right away. If you've got a halfling in your party, you can throw them to the button, though it'll hurt the character a little if you do so. Alternatively, if you're a druid, use alight wild shape (cat for example), and have someone throw that - you'll turn back immediately when you hit the ground, from damage, and be able to hit the button on your turn.

You can sneak to the lever allowing to save Ethel and start the fight by activating it+ already have your party setup on highgrounds thx to sneak. And then just focus down the boss.
Haste potions for this fights are absolutely priceless.

I had a custom cleric but the cleric should just spam his most powerful ability and try to tank the shit out of her.
Lae'zel same as cleric - tank + spam most powerful abilities ( i don't know fighter skills in 5th edition, in my playthrough she died forever).
Gale -> before you're even close to the fight mage armor. And then duplicate image once in the fight. He will surive way more and then you can just NUKE the hell out of her with the mage.
I don't know rangers abilities. As far as I know they are archers so that makes it quite straightforward.

The haste potion obviously goes to lae'zel or your character depending on which will do more damage with x2 actions.

If you got any buffs to throw with the cleric it can help. Clerics are tanks /spell supports / dps in that very particular order. Not healers(in fights).
They can get quite powerful healing abilities that can help midfight but early on wasting a cleric turn to heal is a no no.

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IF you don't mind cheese you can sneak behind her and one shot the boss by throwing her in the pit.... I did it and reloaded cause I wanted my boss figth.
Edit:

General strategy:

When she divides herself in a few copies a ranger with haste can very easily find the real one. Also usually when she divides herself she does it in a very AI way....hard to explain what i mean here. It's kinda obvious where the real one is going to be cause she needs to be in range of her abilities. The real one won't be on the opposite side of the room.

party composition :
I think Cleric,Warrior, Ranger, Mage is a very good comp for the fight. A very high dmg party. You can potentially drop the cleric for the druid but ...I didn't play the druid yet in 5th edition so once again I have no idea how it plays out. Normally he can replace the cleric in his duties while offering a bit more DPS thanks to his different forms.
Never liked druids personally. I prefer my characters to be able to respond to every possible danger and every possible moment instead of having to choose.

Thank's a bunch for the advice, both of you. This is really helpful stuff, I appreciate it.

You can also use water to put out the fire so the cage won't burn.

The fight against Ethel is in my opinion the one fight, where you are better off leaving the fighter (Lae) at the camp, since Ethel is zooming around so much. I have instead Wyll (for Hex) or Astarion (who is better with a bow than Lae'zel) in the group and it worked well.
As someone said: make sure, that the masks are dead before entering Ethels lair, because she summons them and then the fight will become really hard.

The masks I normally fight by sneaking into the dungeon and getting to high ground with as many characters as possible, before they spot me.

I normally start the fight in Ethels hut since by then it is pretty clear, that she is evil, and once or twice had the luck to kill her there. You can then talk to the halfling mask and she can be freed, which is nice. Don't talk to the other masks, they will attack you.
I think you can abuse the killing Ethel in the Hut mechanic, if you want an easier time, but the normal fight should be doable, if you try to keep an eye on the real Ethel and mostly ignore the copies.

To beat her Before she goes to her lair I had my fighter, laezel, shadowheart and gale.

I put shadowheart and gale in invi used them to turn off the fireplace and walked right in. From the bottom of the stairs I cast create water and kept the stairswell frozen. I had my battlemaster fighter keep her pinned down by frightening her and pushing her around. By the time the redcap reached us she had less than 15hp left. She tried to run away teleporting to the fireplace but slipped on the ice trying to reach the lair. Finished her off right there. The most difficult part was dealing with the redcaps after so I cleared the ice and fold back my characters together in front of the lair access. They have incredibly long jump so beware of that