Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Story & Character Discussion Justice for Minthara

imo Wyll is best used as fish food... at least that gives a buff

Hopefully the new patch add more things for Minthara since she is the evil route companion...

This is what I am hoping, have sent my share of constructive Minthara feedback a while back ago and would be a really fun blast if anything was considered, would make sense for the patch to take handful of months to bake if they sweep all 'evil' paths with cinematic endings.

Just like how Lae'zel had a cinematic ending in regards to Vlaakith, would be fun if Minthara would get a visual one for thsoe who go down the path of going back to Menzoberranzan.

Just like what was posted in this compilation;
https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=940248#Post940248

Now is the time if ever to finally wrap up the development all revolving around Minthara, she still feels half baked with oversights here and there, like for example no relationship branched dialogue tree, to ask how she feels about us and ability to break up in a controlled manner and least of all the biggest ovesight, no variable greetings in accordance to her total approval rate, just stuck on the " you wish to consult" me like why even have an approval meter for her at this point otherwise, its there to gauge the players of how she slowly warms up to us as a companion.

As in even more ways to recruit her for the "good" path instead of actually giving the evil PCs some exclusive content justifying their choices?

I don't have much hope for the game's direction at this point, I am afraid.

Where are all the Minthara fans?

In light of patch 7 being cooked in the oven and likely to stay there for a good length of time yet, it would be a good fitting to see Minthara get included into the equation of patch 7..

Given if you go into a certain direction with Minthara at the very end imagine.... a cinematic scene of you and Minthara visually depicted going into a visceral and visual stunning view of Menzoberranzan or just some vision of a satisfying visual presentation from the devs or the lead people who visioned Minthara into existence for a fitting ending that Minthara deserves to have.

I could very well picture an update focusing on this aspect to wrap things up for good what feels like Minthara in the limbo of on-going development or the lack of it.

From the few spoiler pics I've seen, the new "evil" endings seem to concern the case where you become the absolute. As this is also Minthara's wish, perhaps there's a chance for an extended "evil" ending with her.

I'm not sure what Minthara wants (?). Not a Minthara player. I figured it's control, the more of it the better, which she can't really get reliably in the backstabbing, Lolth worshipping world of drow society. She's very openly anti-Lolth, she wouldn't live long there.

Ascended Astarion and her seem the most likely candidates to attempt world domination through elder brain. I can't personally imagine the subjugation of the elder brain will last, it's a very foolish thing to try, but they're both candidates that would try.

Originally it seemed to have been to have control and power and to rule in their own image, how this would have translated with the Netherbrain around I don't know but narrative felt lit got slightly changed since introduction of patch 5 to give more choices for players to explore in accordance to the player agency concept, this is why I 've always thought Minthara needs one that has nothing to do with Absolute, whether she would survive or not wouldn't seem to bother Minthara's amibition, another prime example of this is how she insists Karlach to come with her to Avernus despite the immediate and obvious danger of doing so, Menzoberranzan would be no different.

Patch 5 introduced a lot of feel-good endings for quite a few of our beloved companions so it makes sense that patch 7 will keep that in mind mostly for the evil paths and why I couldn't help but brew around selfish ideas around Minthara, write it down and get it out of my system.

Minthara is not too different from Lae'zel in terms of her ambition for leveraging power for ruling, as she's from the noble side of family after all, once you reach to epiloque with Minthara and to avoid any spoilers but if you choose to go with her back to Menzoberranzan, it is already there narratively what is goings on, all that is needed is just a mor evisual depiction to go along with for a more grounded and satisfying ending.

It is nice that the rushed placeholder endings are finally getting replaced a year later in a story-driven game, but if all Larian has to show in terms of content is just slapping evil-endings on top of a path they have consistently been ignoring since Early Access, then unfortunately it's too little and way too late. Like putting a roof on a house that doesn't even have its foundation built.

And the endings themselves don't really excite me in relation to Minthara because;

• Minthara's numerous issues as a character and a companion aren't the endings, it's everything before the endings. Her neglected character is consistently plagued with tons of bugs, broken dialogue flow, inconsistencies, unfinished development and lack of content throughout all 3 ACTs.
• Also by default she's not even evil, but calculatingly neutral. A surprisingly reasonable, pragmatic and beautifully loyal companion despite her messed-up backstory and culture, which makes her way better and more good than someone like Lae'zel who due to her youth, inexperience and ego only cares about her own idealistic views by willingly endangering the whole world and everyone around her out of principle.

So it is nice that we're finally getting proper endings (which the game should have launched with) and it makes me somewhat excited to finally see a proper conclusion to my evil Dark Urge bathing the world in crimson... but that's just about all there is to be excited about, as it has nothing to do with Minthara other than her potentially being a part of it.

But even now things aren't looking good at all for her considering these are the "notable mentions" for the update:


Wyll is getting more romantic greetings, but meanwhile;

• Minthara doesn't have a single romantic greeting at all
• Doesn't have a single variation in her greetings either
• Is the only companion that doesn't have a romance dialogue branch available
• Can't be broken up with because of that lack of romance dialogue branch
• Doesn't even have a romance scene
• Doesn't even have a single camp scene
• Several of her Dark Urge dialogue branches are inaccessible due to bugs
• Minthara & Halsin don't have a single spellcasting voice line in-game
• And plenty of other issues

Most of those issues I 've reported consistently but I do feel dumb to hope patch 7 will do anything it most definitely feels way too late, but better late than never or to get disappointed once its out than before as I do wonder (apart from wahts been teased) what is getting baked in the oven before the bakery gets boarded up, sounds like not really much and just a prime focus on mod support or perhaps there's more like the whole pointless photo mode in their pipeline, maybe will get proven wrong.

Sorry to hear you don't find excitement with all the flaws, before the game came out of early access or before even getting into early access what baffles me is why did they decide to have Minthara join the camp given how much of it feels like just on-going development of her gone frozen.

To me all this moaning says one thing - Minthara never should been added as recruitable and romanceable to being with. Halsin same.

Well at least she will be reacting to Dark Urge and Bhaal now:

Agree, jobs done in a half ass way are better not done at all.

While I do agree with the sentiment, I find Minthara a good companion to have on an evil playthrough. Even if she is rough and a bit unfinished around the edges, she is not that unfinished that I found it unbearable to have her there. Only a bit disappointed when I would check in on her and the dialog was the same, or the lack of banter. It's fine to have them there for the players who want them. It would feel empty for me at least if I could not recruit Minthara for my evil plays.

I'd say I am a bit disappointed that they continue to ignore Minthara. Can't help but sense that the developers have clear favourites.

I think that if you bring a character in as a party companion, you should have the same level of commitment to their development as everyone else, no matter if the majority of the players won't have Minthara because the route to recruiting her is less popular.

I am not a huge fan of Minthara, but I would say that fixing kissing animations for Astarion and Shadowheart over simply giving Minthara some actual character dialogue and development feels like they only care about the majority and their romance fantasies.

I don't know Larians thoughts on this. But why can't players want both? Minthara is one of my favorite companions..especially as DUrge. I don't really see you comment as much other than unnecessarily provocative.

Because they have chosen to not do both. Sure, there has been very strong opinions on the Astarion kissing animations, but who has even asked about fixing anything with Shadowheart's animations? In a perfect world I could have everything I want as a player, but in the world where development and resources are limited, I think there are priorities, and in my opinion, Minthara's lack of dialogue and development is a bigger priorty than Astarion and Shadowheart's kiss animations.

@papercut_ninja I find it a bit strange to have so strong opinions when you are not a huge fan of Minthara, but sure we all have our opinions on the game.

Personally I'm all for giving Minthara more dialog and banter. I want to know her more than we get to in the game.

Odd as it may seem, I can see where other players' opinions on what the game needs can make more sense than my own personal preferences. To be clear, I havy sympathy and understanding for players who want fixes to kiss animations and stuff too. But I can see the validity in that players who romance Minthara get way less from the game than players who romance other characters and if I am weighing which fanbase has been given the least attention and support, there is no denying that Minthara fans have been the most ignored (along with Wyll fans, but they got a few things in the last update).

Shadowheart's "kiss me like you hate me" kiss has been bugged for months and there have been several complaints about it. The Community Update probably addresses bugs and complaints that they get the most feedback about through the feedback channels, so they get less repeated tickets. While I think it would have been nice to read something about Minthy's bugs (Cerys, darling, I know you love us but please don't join every fight.) weighing them against animation updates is a little unfair, since those are completely different cups of tea. (Tangent: I was surprised to read that facial animations for the player "including with the ascended Astarion" had been changed, with spawn you don't see the face, it's all shoulder, what's there to fix?)