Minthara got the short end of the companion stick in Baldur’s Gate 3, only available for recruitment after murdering a group of innocent Tieflings and Druids. Yet, one hero has sensationally found a way to recruit the Drow Paladin while still taking the righteous path.
Enter pao870111. The Taiwanese gamer first shared their deeds to forum.gamer.com before ZookeepergameDeep360 translated and amplified their reach to Reddit. As a proviso, before we weave you this tale of wonder, it is highly recommended that should you wish to replicate it you’d best start a trail of saves. This is most certainly an (ingenious) exploit and not something the developers had intended, so it could break something.
Our operation begins when Halsin, desperate to save the Emerald Grove occupants, directs you to eliminate the leaders of the Goblin tribe. Minthara is one of them, yet her hostility upon attack is only temporary according to the game itself. This means that, by knocking her out rather than killing her, she will wake up and return to the office she oversees following a Long Rest. This is the first major, unexpected deviation and it shows; Minthara can no longer enter dialogue with the player.
As of the time of writing, it is entirely possible to continue on your merry way as if everything were normal. Halsin believes all of the leaders are dead, Emerald Grove can be saved and your story may progress all the way up to first encountering the Moonlight Towers waypoint. Then, it’s time to stop. Stage two is about to commence.
Return to the Goblin Camp and through the power of Polymorph transform Minthara into a sheep. Follow this up with ‘Dominate Animal’ and congratulations are in order! She is now accompanying your party. But that’s not good enough, we say. Much like Magneto, we ask for the real Minthara.
Fast traveling back to the Moonlight Towers waypoint, the grueling task of reaching Ketheric Thorm’s throne room will consume most of your time. Minthara will aggro against any guards and, indeed, yourself in her regular form. Thus, you must continue to apply ‘Polymorph’ and ‘Dominate Animal’ whilst you literally carry her across the bridge. This is achieved with a high-strength character picking her up as an ‘improvised weapon’ before setting her back down gently to administer the ‘medicine’ again.
Leave and disengage the party from her in as safe a spot as possible, away from all the guards upon reaching your destination. Should all be in order, Minthara’s judgment cutscene will play. From here, reality somewhat returns to normal. You can rescue Minthara as you would have in an ‘Evil’ playthrough. Do note, referencing events that did not happen and co-existing with companions she isn’t meant to will be par for the course from here on out. Keep those saves hot.
So what did we learn from all this aside from managing something thought only possible through the aid of mods? Folks really want to experience Minthara without unnecessarily killing people. One wonders how Larian Studios will react now that this strategy is in the open. I believe it’ll likely look to patch this as soon as possible.
Minthara, infamously, has had much of her companion dialogue removed; leaving her a character with so much potential but little depth beyond her personal arc. Many believe this was a fully intentional act on the part of the developers to make the gruesome choice at the grove feel more like an alternative option than the ‘canon’ one.
Yet, as someone who is well and truly primed for a redemption arc by the time you recruit her, I personally believe that it would be in Larian’s best interest to make this discovery a little more official. If you knock Minthara out rather than kill her as instructed, she re-appears at Moonrise Towers having failed in her task. It would make so much sense to have her turn to you for help despite a rocky start. Not to mention, convincing Halsin and your other companions of her worth would make for a brilliant set of skill checks.
I can only conclude with this. Larian recorded so many lines of dialogue to flesh out Minthara further, why not use them?
