Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion PSA - Recruiting Minthara In A Good Playthrough

Just saw this post:

https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=927158&#Post927158

Has anyone here had this issue?

I'll be sure to keep an eye out, thanks for bringing it to my attention.

A few people also mentioned that they're experiencing crashes when trying to knockout Minthara, but for me it's so far silky smooth. Just arrived at the Gobo camp, so will be some time before I get to ACT 2 ^^

The new dialogues with Minthara are not yet in the game?

So far I've knocked Minthara out with no problems after making her temporarily hostile at the goblin camp. After long resting, she was standing in her usual spot stock-still and I couldn't interact with her (which makes sense because the whole thing with Minthara is weird/buggy right now). She'll probably warp to Act 2 once I get there, I'll have to see. Love the Selûne forum signature btw, it's really nice!

Most likely not, but I'll be checking thoroughly once I get to ACT 2. Halsin had nothing to say when I initially brought her over during my tests, but I'm guessing he has to become an actual companion first for any camp drama to occur.


Yup she does that if it was done right so it is nice to hear, because heard a few horror stories from a few people trying to recruit her. Got no clue how they manage to break her so much

Also thanks, just a simple homage to a favorite in-game moment of mine ^^

If you want one and have any ideas, could make one for you.

1) I am not yet convinced of Minthara's full recruitability.

I have yet to see proof to be convinced that Minthara has been made fully recruitable with Patch #5. In order to be fully recruitable, she'll have to be just like any Origin character recruited as an active companion. As you know, once a companion, always a companion - BG1,2,3 all work this way - until or unless the game takes them away from you due to your certain action or inaction (for example: you can kill companion Shadowheart a million times and she's still there ready to actively greet you - until someday you do something that triggers the game into thinking it's time for her to vanish forever or fight you to death or otherwise get permanently removed from the remaining part of the game).

2) Minthara is always recruitable to all player parties.

This may come as a surprise to many players. But it is true: she is always recruitable in the full release of this game - from before patch #1 to patch #5. No, you don't have to turn her into a goat or sheep or use any such weird tricks. Also, it doesn't matter whether or not you knock her out. As long as you don't fight/kill her (which makes perfect sense if you plan to recruit a living person, rather than a dead/undead cold body), she will show up in Act 2 and can be convinced with your actions + words to permanently join you.

Technically, the only change made with Patch #5 in this matter is that Halsin will not automatically die if Minthara is alive at the very first instant the player party sets foot beyond the boundaries of Act 1. With patch #5, as long as Minthara has been knocked out once, the script that is meant to auto-kill Halsin will not run. Prior to Patch #5, the sheep trick was essentially meant just to fool this script, as it turns out that a polymorphed version of Minthara does not trigger the script. With patch #5, a knocked out version of Minthara (which is much easier to deal with than a polymorphed version of her) can also deactivate the script. Without the auto-kill script being triggered, Halsin and Minthara can be both alive in Act 2/3.


== Some extra comments ==

3) I personally hate the knocking out method for recruiting her due to lack of any story-based hint on her recruitability this way. She reveals her potential recruitability if you have gone purely evil as she commands. If you don't, the only sign that hints at her potential recruitability is when you loot her dead corpse: Oops, have I just unknowingly killed a potential companion?!

4) The biggest Minthara bug known to me: unable to talk to her.

My Karlach party (only level 6) killed about two dozen level 8 guards to rescue Minthara (an unusually large-scale, challenging battle for a level 6 party on Tactician difficulty). After all 4 party members unanimously liked/approved her joining and she pledged her newly found loyalty to Karlach, nobody can talk to her any more. I reported this as a bug to Larian but don't know if or when this may be addressed. Patch #5 does not have a fix to this bug. I have wasted dozens of hours to figure out a workaround and wasn't able to.

5) Minthara is not pure evil (or at least not as evil as Viconia).

Minthara is only as evil as her Drow origin dictates. Once she becomes a permanent companion, she'll be a lot different (similar to Viconia in BG2 and Lae'zel in BG3 after you have raised their approval ratings). Technically, Minthara fits a "good" party much more than the pure evil BG2:SOA version of Viconia does.



== To every player ==

I'd appreciate it (and surely many others would too) if you would share some experiences after you have successfully recruited Minthara using the knock out method - especially in Tactician/Honor mode - confirming here that you have got a fully working companion using this method.

Thank you in advance!

Yes, she is a full companion. Meaning you can have her in your active party, respec her, equip her, talk to her (she has dialogues and stuff).

Showing all this was unnecessary since it should be clear by default that recruiting her involves her becoming a full companion, while all the Tieflings are alive and well along with Halsin in ACT 2.

So! I just got to Moonrise, after making Minthara temporarily hostile and knocking her out, and I'm pleased to say that recruiting her went off without a hitch.

I have recruited Minthara using the new method, but either she has very little content, or it bugs her dialogue. The only dialogue she had was the conversation that starts when clicking on her, and then you can ask her opinions on companions. She also had some 'one liner' comments that companions sometimes have in different areas. But there were no camp scenes, no dialogues with other companions, and no comversations where she would approach my character.

Tbh, it wasn't worth the effort, because she plays like a hireling this way.

I tried that way and she doesn't show up in act II.

I killed the other leaders first, so the whole camp was hostile. I knocked her out and her corpse dissappeared once I got into act II but she is nowhere to be found in moonrise tower.

This sucks. I am in honour mode so not even a way to reload

That's the issue.

Minthara has to be knocked out before the rest of the camp is wiped, as is mentioned in the instructions she must not be hostile.

yeah now I get that but come one... it shouldn't be so hard to make that happen..

Can I talk to Halsin but ONLY killing the goblins in the cellar, first. Than Halsin waits downstairs till you kill the leader. And THAN I go to MInthara ....

Will this work?

Yes, you can free Halsin and let him sit there until you are ready to wipe the goblins.

Minthara however has to be knocked out before Ragzlin is killed, since his death makes the entire camp hostile.

I don't THINK it's been specifically mentioned so I'll chime in to say if you take Sazza to Minthara which will cause Minthara to automatically start the raid, you can still make her temporarily hostile after the dialogue as long as you pick the dialogue to let the raid go ahead. She'll start walking away as she normally would when starting the raid but will still become Temporarily Hostile as described in the instruction post. Just don't let her walk too far before initiating combat so that nothing unexpected happens. And it's probably advisable to kill the other two leaders before leaving in this case just for quest safety.

Minthara does not automatically start the raid if the player simply refuses to do it, even when Sazza is rescued.

Simply tell her you don't want to do the raid after saving Sazza and then tell her you got other stuff to do first. Anything else is a completely unnecessary complication.

Good lord this website's constant 504 errors, sorry about the multi-posts. I've had Minthara start full hostile combat when telling her not to do the raid in that conversation. Must've misremembered which dialogue I chose when that happened. Still, point was mainly Sazza's quests can be done while still recruiting Minthara with the knockout.

Using the method suggested by Crimson, I'm currently in Act 3 with Minthara playing as the Dark Urge (resist the urge/good playthrough) on Honour mode!

I'm just about to cross the 80 hr mark hehe.

Not only Minthara defeat Ketheric and save the Tiefs (including Alfira) but she also saved Halsin, twice!

I posted a gang of screens and reflections here... like all the spoilers, for how I handled this approach with Honour. Also how my Durge is narratively explaining all this meta via my Groundhog day internal narrative. I also had issues with Larian forums timing out constantly, so I took it the Tav'ern cause it's cozy, and I can attach images there much more conveniently.

https://tavernrpg.com/threads/bg3-honour-mode-strategy-tactics-many-spoilers.388/

Anyhow it's been great fun! Minthara has been a blast!