Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Hag quest cut content/story change

I have played the game 3 times now (since release) and have over 380 hours in total. I know that many people have complained about cut content and ACT 3 but no other quest illustrates this issue more than Hag quest. I get that they have changed their original idea, so that instead of Hag coven we fight Ethel again in ACT 3, but the quest on its own makes no sense in it's current version, or better said it only makes sense if you go down a specific path and even then it falls flat if you think about it.

So firstly the game still has all the remnants of the quest since early access. Best showcase for this is Staff of Crones. It is an uncommon staff but its colour is orange as you can see in the first image. Why? Well because in EA Gale could only consume specific magical items (special powerful ones like Staff of Crones, or Sword of Tyr...) so it has remained orange. It also cannot be sold to vendors at all.



Other remnants of cut content are all the dialogue and letters you can still find in final build:

Letters:





And if you save the halfling:




Also, if you manage to save Mayrina brothers Ethel mentions how they are in Sutton farm, north of Baldur's gate. Now you might say how she is lying but she only says this if you go down certain dialogue options and there are no dead bodies in the swamp. If they do die she does not say this.



Lastly it makes no sense for Ethel to die in Riverside Teahouse if you do decide to kill her if the mushrooms already exist. And if they do not already exist, then how did she come back to life? Also, no matter what you do, if you let Ethel have Mayrina, the quest acts as if you are Mayrina's savior. Not only does it break quest continuity, because why would Ethel try to find another child if she still has Mayrina and her child, and why should she move to Baldur's gate, it does not even try to address the new situation. Like they did with Mol, she "somehow" escaped, they could have at least gone with this approach but not even that.

So it is clear that they had one plan initially, which is what we saw in Early access. Somewhere down the line they decided to cut some content (which I know is fine and happens in video game development) but then they never adjusted ACT 1 and kept it as is.

Other examples of this is Omeluum's ring. He still has same dialogue option as before, still says how it can prevent effect of Tadpole but now it just gives advantage against being charmed. But that is just one line of dialogue, the hag quest is a quest that spans across two acts.