Baldur’s Gate 3 players absolutely love this ‘underrated’ part of the game

It was haunting, exciting, and tough.

Skeleton woman with two braids and spikes on her back in BG3
Screenshot by Dot Esports via Larian Studios

Despite being almost two months old, Baldur’s Gate 3 players are still enjoying and playing the game. Many of them are completing their second or third playthroughs, which isn’t surprising due to how vast it is. It’s easy to get lost in it, and recently one player praised one of the game’s storylines that isn’t getting enough attention.

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On Sept. 30, a Reddit user FractionSoil claimed the story with Auntie Ethel is “one of the most underrated parts of the game.” They pointed out how Ethel’s lair is a “delightfully creepy place,” and the hag herself has a brilliant design. All in all, they found this part to be “one of the more memorable sections of the whole game.”

Auntie Ethel appears in acts one and three of the game, and there are a bunch of ways of finishing the quests related to her. Either way, players are forced into tough choices when interacting with the hag, and for us, it was why the storyline was so memorable. Baldur’s Gate 3 does an excellent job of forcing you to decide between hard choices.

Shows Ethel the Hag during a conversation with the creature.
She looks terrifying, that’s why we didn’t hesitate to kill her. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

Many other players agree in the comments. They underlined a bunch of Auntie Ethel’s aspects that make her stand out, including well-written dialogue and the eerie mood of her lair and the swamp she’s originally found in.

“That old lady was definitely off, so I cast speak to animals on the sheep in her neck of the woods, hoping for some advice, and the “response” I got was surprisingly unnerving. Excellent execution,” one player praised. That’s definitely one of the sublime surprises when starting her storyline, and we won’t spoil it for you, since you’ll likely want to see it for yourself.

All in all, if you’re a game developer and looking for a perfect hag or witch design, you don’t have to limit yourself to The Witcher 3’s Crones of Crookback Bog. Auntie Ethel is as scary, if not even more, than those three witches combined.

Author
Image of Mateusz Miter
Mateusz Miter
Polish Staff Writer. Mateusz previously worked for numerous outlets and gaming-adjacent companies, including ESL. League of Legends or CS:GO? He loves them both. In fact, he wonders which game he loves more every day. He wanted to go pro years ago, but somewhere along the way decided journalism was the more sensible option—and he was right.