Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Help Tips & Tricks Fighting Auntie Ethel without killing the enchanted people

This means that if you sneak past the masks and then confront Auntie Ethel, she will summon them for support. If I remember correctly, this only happened during the last Patches (7-9) because Larian wanted to test different difficulty levels. But no idea if it wasn't like that before?

Here is my documented approach https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=843515#Post843515

Are there any good tips for sneaking past the masks? Because I always have trouble with that and haven't really managed it in any of my playthroughs.

Use Potions of Invisibility by throwing them on your party for the AOE effect.... This sometimes only catches three of them and my fourth party member has to use a second Potion of Invisibility or Scroll of Invisibility. Moreover switch to TB mode and sneak past the masks until you've jumped through the waterfall with all party members. But be careful after the jump you have to sneak a bit ahead, because one of the masks could see your party during their patrol through the waterfall. Also, the waterfall removed my invisibility after I jumped through it. Then deactivate TB mode.

Use shadowhearts group are stealth. Only hairy one is the guy by the waterfall, have to go once he turns.

There is maybe a bug in the game.
I killed Ethel in the Tea House and went to the basement.
There the enchanted people walking around but I can't talk to them only attacking.

In case it wasn't mentioned already you can sneak up on her from behind(take the first path down instead of the one with the flower trap) and cast silence where she is standing(her line of sight gives it away). Then she won't summon the masked slaves and can't cast anything as long as she's in the silence bubble. If you don't want to kill her, make sure she gets out of the bubble when she's low on health, or she can't initiate dialogue.

In my playthrough with Ethel, I would start by dousing the fire and casting sanctuary on Mayrina. It keeps you from being fooled later on and keeps her from harm mostly, or you can simply pay attention to their AC, the real Mayrina will be the easiest to hit.

I'll keep a wizard with magic missle which never misses to deal with hag copies, ignoring them is a fatal mistake.

During the time Ethel is disguised as Mayrina leaves her vulnerable to the hold person spell. You get one chance to cast it on her depending on how many have that spell to cast before Ethel's next turn. If successful, this will leave her open for a pounding. If she breaks free, cast command on her.

Was a pretty easy fight for me. I did it at lvl 4 before the underdark.

Use the Protection from Good and Evil.
Put the Mask On.
walk the Hole Shit to Her, Fuck her Hard, Intimidate the Hell out of Her.
(but yu have to Gank Her really Fast..)
Free evrybody. lol
yeah Show that Hag Bitch whats the True Meaning of Greed Are Guys.

YU ARE THE BOSS F. Yu Hag>

(best advice never go face her before yu have atleast lvl 4.. its easy this Way.)

(if yu dont know how to do it from what i Say.. there are already 3 tutorials showing how i do it.. some other Crazy dudes already realized the same as me..)
But this way yu will only have to Face Her, and will avoid all Traps along the Way inside her Lair.

Heavy Spoilers look at your own risk.

Hmmm, will it work the same way with the mask minions if you confront them together with Ethel down in her lair?

Hello. Not sure if the correct procedure is to reply here, or start a new thread, but ...

I managed to knock all of Auntie Ethel's masked thralls unconscious after entering the area behind the fireplace (before the showdown with Auntie Ethel).

It seems to work fine, but as soon as you removed the mask from the final person (I checked twice, it doesn't matter who, just the last one of the bunch), they all die. Like D-E-D.

Is this intended? I am very disappointed, sigh, spent such a long time trying to figure out a peaceful solution to this.

For now I will remove the masks from all but one, and see what happens.

And now the first one whose mask I took, died. I give up. Some people just don't want to be saved.

Yes, this is intended. The lore reason is that "their mind collapses", or perhaps it's a failsafe in whatever deal they made with Ethel. Normally though, you remove a mask, that person dies on the spot. Only one of the 4 can be saved, and it requires passing up on a major reward. However, once they're knocked out, they're dead to the game regardless (since they were red type and not yellow type enemies). You already were far past the point of being able to save them.

No, she also dies. The game also counts them as dead if knocked out. She'd be double dead, if you will :P

I tried to save her in multiple ways, but came to the same conclusion as multiple guides: it's either the hag hair, or the life of that halfling.

The only thing I haven't tested is letting Ethel summon them, killing everyone but that Halfling, and seeing if she's freed even with the Hag alive -- but someone reported a bug about that just yesterday. Not attractive.

Thanks for the responses! So sad that it is all in vain. But at least I can continue now without racking my brain over these four.

Does the Arcane Lock trick on the stairs behind the fireplace not work anymore? I haven't tried it lately, but if pulled off correctly, it used to leave everyone except the headless woman alive. Well, for a limited definition of "alive," as far as three of the Masks were concerned.

It works sometimes. It works better if you can box the entry way closed on top of that, but it still deprives you of the hair.