Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Minthara is great and deserves more attention

[Spoilers]

Although, many of the characters I met during my travels in the Wilderness were interesting and engaging, there was one who stood out to me and that was, of course, Minthara. I created my first character as a High Elf Warlock and the interactions I got with her were a really nice touch. She acknowledged my race and reacted to it appropriately, her being a Drow. After raiding the Grove alongside her, she changed her tune and presented a potential romance option, which I accepted. After the intimate scene you share with her, you get two options of dialogue with her:

1. Reflect on her desires
2. Use your Wisdom to explore her fears.

If you select the first option, she remains "friendly" for the most part and acknowledges you as a potential "consort". If you select 2, however, she gets upset with you regardless if you succeeded the Wisdom check or not. I don't mind her getting angry upon failing the Wisdom check, because you don't have much of a foundation to move on with her. But if you succeed it, you find out more about her character and the Drow society she lives in, which could've led to so many more opportunities for character development for her. Instead, you get 3 options of dialogue which result in the same outcome, her being angry at you. This feels like a missed opportunity to me as she's so interesting. You find out that her fear was living as a Drow in Menzoberranzan, constantly wary of getting betrayed or murdered. Why not give us the option to win her over somehow? Perhaps add a [Persuasion] check to get closer to her rather than being shut out. She has so much potential than just being an average Drow who uses you and discards you.

Perhaps have her become one of your companions or give her more to do in the future. We could learn more about her: What was her role in Menzoberranzan? Did she partake in the trial of Lolth (my guess is yes, because she mentions a creature in her servitude, possibly a drider)? etc. She'd be great a character for an evil playthrough.

One more thing to mention is that the animation during the "sex scene" was a bit off. Most of the time they didn't look as if they were touching or kissing, mainly just swallowing air. I think their positions could be improved a bit. I realize this is hard to do especially with all the different race sizes, but it could do with a little polishing.

I was more evil than her. After we raided the grove together, I killed her. Because there was to be only one drow in power (My character was a drow priestess of Lolth). I was a bit disappointed though that upon my return to the goblin camp, goblins started to be hostile with me. I thought they would acknowledge me as their new leader or something. A narration missed opportunity.

To me, the character who really stand out in the wilderness is Karlach. But I think she will be a companion for sure.

Oooh, I agree. That would also make for an interesting twist, to become goblin leader if you choose to go against her.

Becoming the goblin leader would be terrible to implement in the narrative though because you would have a small army at your command.

I don't think it has to be overly complicated. Just being acknowledged by the goblins and them not becoming hostile towards would be enough, I think. You've already done the raid on the Grove with them, thus fulfilling their main purpose in the game. They could either bring them back in an upcoming battle towards the endgame, if there is one planned. Otherwise, I think a couple of sentences in the Epilogue (similar DA:O or DOS2) would suffice.

I mean I don't necessarily disagree but are you sure that's even the end of her story?

Also, I don't really you should be able to "convert" a Menzobberanzan Drow priestess from a life-time of being socialized to their wicked and vicious chaotic evil society by reading her mind and "exploring her fears". You're basically poking for weaknesses, that won't go over well. To compare with Baldur's Gate 2, it took multiple dialogues with less than optimal outcomes before Viconia started even remotely trusting you, I'm not sure murdering a bunch of refugees and druids is such a great bonding experience that someone who's probably lived a few hundred years in Drow society will open their heart to you

I support the author of the topic, Mintara deserves more attention and in order to become a full-fledged companion/romance

Maybe I didn't get my point across well enough in my original comment. I'm not saying you should win her over immediately, but you're only given two options and both of them lead to the same conclusion: her trying to kill you in your sleep. If you pick the [Wisdom] check, there's no point of return from it. She hates you for doing that and that's it and I think this sends the wrong message. Why should I be punished for learning something new about this character? Shouldn't we, as the players, at least have the chance to turn it around? That's why I think a [Persuasion] check would be a good thing to add so we don't hit a dead-end. She has potential for a lot of character growth. I'm not saying anything about redemption or not being evil. The only way to get this far with her is by raiding and murdering everyone in the Grove. She's definitely meant for an evil playthrough and, while I don't know what Larian has planned for her, I feel like what was given to us in EA could be improved a little.

You've obviously done more of the Minthara content than I have, but I'm afraid that what you describe sounds pretty spot-on for what seems to be the design philosophy of the game. There isn't a lot of depth to it generally speaking, and even less for the evil side of things. I'm hoping they'll add a lot more

I wish I wasn't forced to kill her.
Taking her captive and getting some information from her would have been a nice touch.

I have a large camp. Surely I could have a cage to give the evil guys in.

The camp has a cage after while. I'm sure she'd love sleeping on the ground like a wretched goblin and being fed scraps but the real question is how long before she convinces someone to set her free and slits your throat while you're sleeping?

Poor Astarion needs a blood bag anyway. I am sure he can keep guard.

You don't have to kill her, even if you piss her off by reading her mind. I didn't in the one run I'll ever do with the 'evil' option. Convinced her to not fight and she told me to head to moonrise, and avoid the goblin camp because "You were destined to die tonight" or whatever nonsense she said before walking off.

I wonder if we can cast the "mind reading" spell on her in release? It would be interesting.