Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Fan club of Minthara

I don't see a reason for us to temper our expectations more when they've very clearly acknowledged the problem with her, and are going to be fixing it. People really do value this character and know there will be more to fix some of her issues.

I for one dont want an alternative way of recruiting Minthara at all. Keep it as is I say. However as much as I love Larian, Im very dissapointed about large parts of The cut content. Jaheira romance for one (Even though I can understand The reasons for cutting it). Mintharas cut Romance parts is a close second.

I want to do a «slightly» evil run at some point (as Male probably) and Minthara will be The big motivation for that. I really hope The restore most if not all of her romance and dialogue.

Could it be that The pregnancy was cut due to fear of backlash from The ultra «woke» crowd? I mean your have to Play a male for that to work.

PS: Larian, if you are considering Recruiting Minthara early as good, then plz only do it as an option. Dont replace what is already in game.

Okay, no random broadsides at "wokeness" please. I think we should all be aware by now that it means all sorts of things to different people, most of them generally and controversially political and derogatory in a way that's not appropriate to just sling into a point on a gaming forum. And obviously there's no homogenous "crowd" all calling for the same "woke" thing and to imply there is is insulting to the variety and complexity of political and social beliefs that people have. Let's just not go there.

It's perfectly possible to wonder if making a pregnancy story a central part of a romance plot might have been rejected given that it would only work when the player character is one sex, and therefore that romance wouldn't work as well for player characters of others, and even to consider whether that is a sacrifice worth making, without making it political.

(Oh, and I'm not sure whether any of this is spoilery for what's actually in the game as I don't know anything about Minthara's romance. If it is, please do put in tags.)

You can choose the path for other companions as well, and since she is more a neutral-evil alligned character, recruiting her in a good/neutral playthrough seems logical.
She has the same goal as your party if you follow the "main" path of the game.

Leaving her as she is would result in her still being overlooked and rejected by the vast majority. Showing passion for her true character always feels like being judged by the community because of the crazy evil things you have to do right now.

You don't lose anything if we get more options, you can still recruit her on an evil playthrough. That's wonderful.
But Minthara's well written character will still be missed or rejected by most players because she is either just a goblin leader for those who don't know she is recruitable, or they simply don't like to play evil.

She is a very well written character with a potential redemption arc.

My Brother in Christ, how human procreation is political? Not sure I understod your point. Obviously Minthara can't have a child with a female partner only a male partner, idk what's political about that.

Anyone know roughly what approval level you need to trigger the conversation in the circus with her? Whenever I try to pick Minthara she refuses to participate

To clarify, my point is precisely that there is no need to bring politics into a discussion about the pros and cons of having pregnancy as a key plank of a romance arc (if that is indeed what this conversation is about, given I've not been following it). But taking swipes at some notional "ultra-woke crowd" is bringing politics into the discussion, so please don't do it. If you have any further questions about my moderator guidance, feel free to PM me.

I fully agree with this, and I really liked your storyboard on perhaps that alternative way of recruiting her Act 1. I don't honestly expect this to be changed since at which point why would anyone at all go the evil route, but that's a whole other discussion. I'll just be happy to see these lines, however many of them there are, worked back into the game when it happens. What I find fascinating is that even with this massive hole thanks to the bug, what we do have so far is really compelling. There's simply no other companion that provides her perspective, and happens to be awesome when she does it.

How abooooooout we led the people in charge of creating BG3 decide what is to be in the game and what isn't? I've seen so much whining all over about the "need" to have her available for all kinds of characters (goody two-shoes included). This isn't Skyrim, you don't get to be Archmage without being able to cast one spell. This is exactly what people wanted - a game with consequences and with huge replayability. Larian has delivered, 100%. Even with Minthara's current buggy state, it's still amazing that you can actually recruit her at all. I'd be happy if she was literally just a henchman after getting her as a companion, it's still more than most RPGs offer these days.

If that is really the reasoning and we can't have stories about the most normal human subject matters anymore simply because they don't appeal to the lowest common denominator (and are therefor perceived as politically inopportune) then that's pretty bleak. It's especially ironic given this game is somewhat of a spiritual successor to Dragon Age Origins which famously had the Morrigan archdemon ritual.

Nah, consequences can exist side by side with freedom of choice, and Minthara is an interesting enough of a character that she shouldn’t require losing nearly half the cast as the only way to obtain her. Between that and the bugs she has the feedback about her is warranted and pretty legitimate. Haven’t really seen any unreasonable feedback about her yet

Folks, let's not continue this discussion about a straw man introduced by Odieman, especially by quoting my moderator intervention that was specifically aimed at trying to shut down a potential politically charged argument about a position that, as far as I'm aware, no-one has actually taken.

Ah, apologies. I thought you were making this point. Must have misread.

She was always intended to be a companion so this is a bit of a reductive way of looking at it. Yes, Larian is doing a lot better with a lot of this stuff than most RPGs have done. But they also have a track record of fumbling the finish line and wanting/needing to do big content updates. Leaving her as someone you can only recruit by specifically NOT killing all the goblin leaders would be fine, if going that route wasn't so punishing or at the very least had unique content unto itself. I love the idea of losing party members over how you approach that. But between how much you lose and the absolutely nothing of value you gain from raiding the grove, and how you can clearly tell the journal and tieflings bug out if you

there's just no real incentive to approach things that way except Minthara herself. It doesn't make sense. The Evil path was pitched as this interesting alternate way to play and quite a bit LATER that's more true, but in Act 1 it turns out there's nothing much unique about it EXCEPT having sex with her and a little bit more context in the post nut clarity which imo is a bit of a bad look. Why is sex the primary reward for atrocities when the punishments for it are so much more true? Even trying to True Neutral your way into Act 2 has most of the same big content losses as going evil, you just mitigate the party specific losses.

The more I think about it, the more there just flat out isn't a reason good enough to leave her recruitment restricted like this. Halsin's limitation makes sense because he's intrinsically tied to the druids and the Grove which makes it all the more hilarious that he's still good to go if you
Minthara is not intrinsically tied to the goblins, she's being mind-controlled and it's typically a good guy move to help with that sort of thing even given the reverse mindbreak tag (a phrase I never thought I'd say). So she should still be good to go if you eliminate the goblin threat as long as she's not dead.

the datamine has shown tags and conditions for pregnancy known about=player not the father.
Also the timeline of the game, just logistically the player being involved doesn't really work unless you long rest ALOT. I really hope that plotline comes back as so much of her character is tied to what her mother did to her, and what Orin did to her and like, if somehow Orin could be the father? like shapeshifter, not human? idk it'd have thematic resonance? Like not a redemption arc but a coming-to-peace-with arc for a Vengence Oath paladin could be, brilliant, ending with committing not to continue the chain of her house and raise the child with you in love and kindness while still being evil, because it benefits her for her child not to suffer like she did. It'd be a unique story? idk
But I'd be cool with not including it especially as the game doesn't have a sizeable timeskip for baby to happen in?
For a idk, 1 year later DLC adventure or something it could be awesome but I don't see how it fits in to a story which is about a mad rush across a quite small amount of geography to stop an imminent threat?

The trip to Baldur's Gate takes like two weeks going around the Shadowlands right? Going through isn't exactly a lot faster due to the circumstances you run into there. Then Baldur's Gate is however long that can take after that. I don't think they ever intended for a baby to fully be around like in BG2. I read the lines as more of an early realization and whoever was commenting on it sort of mulling over what that means given the current chaotic situation. I think involving Orin so centrally in that is asking for a big mess other than maybe reactivity where she gets nostalgic or jealous over it or something. But otherwise yeah there's sort of a LOT of unexplored depth to Minthara's situation with Menzoberranzan and her family that would be so interesting to see more thoroughly discussed as she goes through her character development, and how the idea of having her own child would settle in with the rest of her thoughts. Still that's really easy to mess up so I don't blame them if that's what got cut (but I can't imagine it was anything else).

I think the idea of ??fathering Orin is bad. This will not be a child who grew up in love and care, this will be a new Dark Urge, Baal spawn

Do we have any new info on when the "very stupid bug" should be fixed? Still holding out on my second playthrough because of it.

I can't agree with those who want to get all the companions in one replay (with flowers,cotton candy and kittens in the end). Minthara's choice is very adequate since getting closer to the Absolute (and her underwear optionally) is a good option of finding a cure. Tieflings and druids are useless for you, so if you are not playing a hero it is a 100% adequate choice.

BUT! Even after all fixes you will not get that amount of quests and dialogues from Minthara comparing to how much you lose. It's like losing 70% for getting 30% at the VERY LEAST.

So the is either a way of making more Minthara related content (quests, locations, even companions like DLC), which we might get in the future, or a more possible way of making her recruitable with others (which would be kinda dissapointing choice for me personally, but still viable).

Minthara appears to be fixed in Hotfix 5, at least in terms of the bugs that were blocking conversations from working properly.