Baldurs Gate 3: How to beat Auntie Ethel (Green Witch) in BG3?

Auntie Ethel is the green witch responsible for the kidnapping of the pregnant Mayrina. She is one of the toughest bosses in the first act of Baldur's Gate 3, and you will face her in the tunnel beneath her teahouse in the swamps. On this page of the guide, we described how to defeat the green witch and save Mayrina.

• How to save Mayrina?
• How to defeat Auntie Ethel?
• Rewards for defeating Auntie Ethel

How to save Mayrina?

During the fight with Auntie Ethel, you will also need to watch out for Mayrina. The witch will try to kill her twice during the fights. Mayrina starts the encounter trapped in a cage, which Ethel sets on fire. When the cage burns down, Mayrina will die. To save her, you can open the cage by pressing the button located on the other side of the arena or extinguish the fire with water or ice (e.g. a water summoning spell, Ray of Frost cantrip, or by throwing a bottle of water into the cage).

In the middle of the fight, Ethel will suddenly disguise herself as Mayrina. You will need to identify the fake Mayrina and attack her. Pay attention to Mayrina's belly - the real Mayrina is pregnant, while the disguised Ethel is not. Attack the Mayrina without a pregnant belly. You can take a closer look at them by hovering over them with the cursor and pressing the T key on the keyboard.

How to defeat Auntie Ethel?

Auntie Ethel can prove to be a difficult opponent due to her special ability - she can make clones of herself. The clones die after taking any amount of damage, but they are indistinguishable from the real witch and can cast spells - the more the clones, the faster Ethel will overwhelm you with a barrage of spells. Use area attacks to destroy as many clones as possible at once and find the real Ethel. Void bulbs, which you could have collected plenty of in the prologue and around the nautiloid wreck, will be very useful here - they have a very large explosion radius and deal one point of damage, so they will immediately destroy all clones within the range.

Once you discover the real Ethel, consider applying a damage-over-time effect on her, such as burning. When Ethel clones herself again, she will still have the status effect, allowing you to immediately identify which enemy is the real one. Ethel deals high damage, but her main spell is a poison ray cast on a single target - without clones, she won't be a threat to the entire party. However, try not to group your characters together, as she can throw sludge grenades at you. Destroy the clones as soon as they appear, and you will quickly defeat the witch. Occasionally, when creating clones, Ethel may also become temporarily invisible - eliminate all the copies and wait for her to become visible again.

When Ethel's health drops to a critical level, she will try to negotiate with you. She will ask you to let her go and leave her with Mayrina, and in return, she will offer you power.

1. If you agree, Ethel will leave with Mayrina and her child. Her victims will remain trapped, and you will receive witch's hair - an extremely powerful item that, when used, gives you a permanent +1 to any statistic.
2. If you refuse, you will have to finish off Ethel, freeing her still-living victims.
3. By passing an Intimidation or Deception check (DC 20), you can let Ethel go but also force her to release Mayrina. Mayrina will be free, and you will receive the witch's hair, but Ethel's other victims will remain trapped.

Rewards for defeating Auntie Ethel

Defeating Auntie Ethel will allow you to enter her workshop, where you'll find plenty of loot - some decent equipment and a lot of money and valuable rings. However, the best reward for defeating her is the Corellon's Grace quarterstaff, which you will find on her corpse. It grants a +1 bonus to unarmed attacks and +2 to saving throws if you are not wearing armor. It will work excellently in the hands of a monk, sorcerer, or wizard.

Baldur's Gate 3

August 3, 2023

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