I would normally be 100% on board with this, if that difficult decision came AFTER you get to know her. But as the very first stepping stone required? It's entirely too much lost as a result, especially with how her romance continues to be a major problem even after Larian believed they fixed it. That you can't romance her without slaughtering the grove I think is compromise enough to allow her to be saved without dooming the Tieflings to be Thanos-snapped out of existence.
I'd be okay with that too! Really, mention expanded Minthara content in any form and I'll very likely agree. I honestly just wouldn't want the grove fight removed entirely because, at least to me, the intensity of the choice is memorable and part of what makes her story so compelling. But I'm also not part of the "I can fix her" crowd I see so often surrounding Minthara. I don't want to fix her, I want to be at her side as she learns to cope with the years she's lost to being thralled and the gruesome choices she's made as a result of that. Which is also why new dialogue in Act 2 regarding what happened at the grove would be at the top of my wishlist if Larian decided to keep working on her. Throw in a Tiefling specific response too for those of us who have Tiefling characters as well.
Another thing the grove fight offers is the chance to expand the story into a continuing cycle of mistakes. Making awful choices for your lover/the object of your affection can be cute in its own little messed up and misguided way. The following in the spoiler text are just ideas I've had about my own interpretation of Minthara and contain some Act 2 or possibly 3? spoilers so feel free to just skip over this if you'd like.
I haven't finished Act 2 yet (restarted the game after the big fix patch came out not wanting to risk missing out on anything from her oops) but from the spoilers I've accidentally seen, Minthara isn't a stranger to doing bad things for someone you love. During her time with Orin she was manipulated, lied to, and the love was one sided. I imagine as Act 2 progresses and approval with her goes up, you could get dialogue that reflects on what happened at the grove and the player character's reasoning for following through with it could deepen your relationship with her. By mentioning you did it for her, Minthara could draw parallels to a younger, more naive, version of herself and the current state of the player character. Except in this case the love wouldn't be one sided and she would be there for you to help you move past the tragedy while also feeling a deeper trust for them.
As for getting to know her prior to making the choice, I can picture a list of options with different skill checks that would lead to some expanded conversation and then the eventual discovery of what she plans to do to the grove (and your choice to start to convince her not to go for the grove if that's what you want).
- [ILLITHID] Prying into her mind (the same way we choose to the night after the grove incident)
- [PERSUASION] Directing the conversation to focus on the goblin's (and their two leaders) incompetence
- [DECEPTION] Mentioning that it is far more urgent to go to Moonrise towers than stick around and investigate an area that may have been a bad lead anyway (with this option contingent on
speaking to the goblin who talks about the battle at Waukeen's Rest
)
If anything this thread is a lot of fun for brainstorming new ideas about Minthara. I'm sorry for kind of just jumping in and posting my insane rambles about her sdhgdsf. But I'm having a lot of fun doing it.
