Making him a proper companion in Act 1 would be unfair to Minthara.
I think it's quite reasonable to get Minthara Act 1 on an evil run. I'm not a fan of Minthara recruitment on a good run -- I feel evil runs should have something special exclusive to them.
They could easily have Halsin tadpoled at the goblin camp - which would have also be a great explanation for why an archdruid is so low level and powerless.
I really like the tadpole idea, but doesn't everyone get tadpoled at Moonrise Towers? Of course they can make an exception. That they never show his power aside form opening a portal bothers me. But then they also label Kagha as an archdruid, so they are a lot looser with that term than in DnD proper.
