r/BG3 1d ago

Finished the game, check the Reddit and realize I missed a companion.

So, all ready starting a new run. I’m late to the BG3 party, and just finished it for the first time last night - amazing game.

I wanted to avoid spoilers to I avoided this place like the plague until now and I see posts about someone named Minthara.

Name isn’t ringing a bell, so I look her up and it’s the Drow from the Goblin Camp! I just killed her and moved on after a quick conversation.

Looks like it’s time for another run to try and recruit her

437 Upvotes

126 comments sorted by

327

u/Kitanetos 1d ago

Might want to look up how to recruit her, or you'll just miss it again. ;)

39

u/UnderseaNightPotato 13h ago

Haven't gotten her yet. Have killed Orin in 2 rounds. Ended the whole Raphael fight in 3.

But that angry, lilac queen dies every time I try and rescue her dumbass in Act 2. And I just don't have the heart to get her in Act 1.

It's tearing me apart, Lisa.

10

u/AnAngryNun 9h ago

Just cast invisibility on her (there's a ring you get not too much earlier that lets you cast once for free) and run out the front door. 10 rounds is a lot of time. You could also enter TBM and dash a bunch to guarantee she makes it in under 10. No fighting, no checks.

4

u/UnderseaNightPotato 9h ago

I. Feel. Like. A. Moron. Never even tried to use the invis ring. Bless you and everything you stand for 💖

3

u/AnAngryNun 8h ago

Not a moron! The amount of things this community (myself included!) experiences for the first time, even after hundreds of hours of playing, is staggering. Happy to help!

3

u/Tall-Tangerine-6441 10h ago

Really? Saving her seems pretty easy

4

u/UnderseaNightPotato 10h ago

In my runs, she's got the self-preservation of the ironhand gnomes. No clue. I've seen my friends do it. And she somehow doesn't run directly into abject bullshit for them. But her pathing for me has always been suicidal at best 🤷🏻‍♀️

3

u/Tall-Tangerine-6441 10h ago

If you pass the speech checks, you can just walk her straight out of the area and then send her to camp. No concern for fighting with her (although I did because the extra action economy was helpful)

1

u/UnderseaNightPotato 10h ago

It's less about fighting her and more about fighting others around her. I also usually main dummy characters so passing anything other than strength or con checks is...dubious. My bard got close, but that MP run got cut short.

2

u/Tall-Tangerine-6441 10h ago

No I meant her being involved in fighting at all. You can leave with her, then come back for the other stuff in the dungeon after she's safely away at camp

1

u/UnderseaNightPotato 10h ago

Yeah what I'm saying is my characters tend to not pass those checks lol. I'll get lucky one of these days. But so far all my checks at that point have been below 8 🫡 Character flaws lol. This is whatcha get when you main barbarians haha

373

u/RedGeist_ 1d ago

old man voice Back in my day we couldn’t recruit Minthara unless we unspeakable evil redacted

65

u/usernamescifi 1d ago

I tried out that evil path once.... It was disturbing how easily that raid on the Grove played out. It's definitely the path of least resistance. 

39

u/New-Sheepherder4762 1d ago

Yeah, having to massacre the room full of non-combatants was… oof.

3

u/kokuyoseki_ 13h ago

Yes that's tough, we used non lethal damage to knock the civillians (and most of the others) out before the goblins reached them

6

u/thesanguineocelot Monk 8h ago

Knowing Goblins and what they do to their victims, that could be significantly worse than just mercy-killing them.

21

u/jeremycb29 1d ago

If you did not miss out on so much content it would be the way I would play. It’s such a leap forward in treasure and ease of play.

7

u/Wise-Start-9166 22h ago

If you're level 3 and Wyll turns against you it is pretty dangerous

8

u/stuckinplace 21h ago

I can honestly say in 3 evil runs, I’ve never faced Wyll or Karlach. Leaving them in camp usually ends with “member has left” and never heard from them again.

3

u/Wise-Start-9166 14h ago

I had Wyll in my party and he sided with the tieflings when I turned against them. That first fight was dangerous enough but the real trial was clearing out the rest of the grove with careful use of short rest and other resources.

1

u/Labhaoise 16h ago

My first run was a durge play through. And somehow wyll stayed with me after I wiped out the Grove . No idea how that happened.

1

u/Wise-Start-9166 14h ago

Was he waiting to be resurrected?

1

u/Labhaoise 14h ago

I'm not sure. It's been so long . I didn't know what I was doing back then. Wiped out the Grove and goblin camp so no party for me. None of my companions would sleep with me. I fantasised about Gales hand not knowing what would happen . I believed Wyll re Karlach. Shart killed La'zeal. Shart threw a hissy fit and left because I gave nightsong to Balthazer. I ended up with Astarion, Wyll and hireling called shart 2.0

12

u/theturtlelord9 1d ago

I remember how the update that made it so you could recruit Minthy on a good run came out less than a week after I killed her. Of course at this stage in the playthrough one week of playing meant the latter half of Act 1, so there was no way I was going back.

3

u/microfishy 15h ago

I turned her into a sheep.

6

u/ChefArtorias 1d ago

Didn't they implement the knock out method a few months after launch? lol

I mean, I've been playing since a few weeks into the early access too. We're basically dinosaurs of this game.

4

u/codybevans 23h ago

From what Ive read it could be pretty tricky before patch 7. Something to do with her cutscene causing her not to show up at moonrise. Patch 7 just made it a lot simpler.

2

u/ChefArtorias 23h ago

I meant the initial implementation of being able to recruit her without raiding the grove. This game has changed SO many times since I started playing I have a hard time keeping track of what happened when.

You're right tho, there a lot of bugs involved in her recruitment.

2

u/dimias89 21h ago

Haha, yeah the knock out. I tried it once. Only to be dumb enough to tell halsin to wait there. So i could long rest. When i came back halsin was dead.

1

u/Hotlush 14h ago

Did it on one of my runs and it just bugged laezel so that she'd never talk to me. Going to have to try a full evil run once I've got this runs Karlach romance achievement.

2

u/ChefArtorias 14h ago

Full send evil embrace Bhaal run is fun if you can stomach it.

1

u/Hotlush 14h ago

The ironic part is my very first complete run was as durge. I'd completely avoided spoilers before playing so went "that sounds interesting" and it was a surprisingly close fit to my last TT character (warlock with a succubus patron who is struggling to not go full evil). Mostly did resist though and the save is sat there, at netherbrain complete, waiting for patch 8 and it hopefully fixing the no dialogue bug.

1

u/ChefArtorias 14h ago

So you are having the no dialogue thing or you are just worried about it? When was this? Just curious because in my 2k hours I've never encountered that particular bug but also haven't played in months and only started seeing it recently.

107

u/Aranel611 1d ago

Honestly if you’re playing normally you probably wouldn’t get Minthara on a first play though. Missed is a strong word for it.

29

u/g-row460 1d ago

Yeah more like a secret character. Like Reptile or something.

9

u/_Vard_ 1d ago

Seriously, i thought the same thing

you really only recruit her in a rather EVIL playthru

5

u/MosesGunnPlays 1d ago

...I got her playing normally. Lost out on Wyll and Karlach though, they didn't care for me too much after the day's events.

25

u/TheCrystalRose Sorcerer 1d ago

Most people aren't necessarily going full tilt Evil for their first run.

13

u/Aranel611 1d ago

The vast majority of people wouldn’t make the choice that allows you to get her the standard way on a first play through. They’re also not going to meta game cheese it, so most people wouldn’t have her.

40

u/redbull_catering 1d ago

I get it. I missed Karlach my first run through. Karlach. Sure felt dumb when I figured it out.

16

u/Internal_Set_6564 1d ago

I killed her on my first run through. Wyll had been non-stop shit talking her, so Started a fight as soon as I could. I also staked Astarion for being a vampire.

16

u/Not_Nic_Cage420 1d ago

I almost did too! Talked to Wyll at the party after beating the goblins and he mentioned her still being out there. Glad I made the detour, she became my favourite companion

8

u/heyzeusmaryandjoseph 1d ago

I was talking with a friend over text about BG3 and when I mentioned I was romancing Karlach he was like "who?". He completely bypassed her as a companion

Truth be told, he wanted to date me. I knew it wasn't meant to be after that

4

u/narpasNZ 1d ago

We missed karlach, wyll, and shadowheart. plus minthara, jaheria, minsc.

We really only had asterion, laezel, gale, Halsin.

10

u/Sparkly_Crow_1789 23h ago

How... How did you miss SHADOWHEART?!

13

u/narpasNZ 23h ago

OK so, technically speaking we interacted with her, but she died so early I didn't recall her name by the time we were a few hours in.

Note, I'm really good at avoiding subs/spoilers etc, so I play games fully unguided and blind. I was also playing co-op.

This is what I remember happening:

Found 'some lady' in a pod on the ship at the start. Interaction with the console failed, so I looked around. Hanging on the ceiling was some sort of orb , I shot it and acid fell on her pod thing, this didn't help her escape, so we moved on. Found the key? Then came back and let her out, but as I interacted with the console, the game forced me to stand in the acid.

I died walking out, and she did too. We had a revivify scroll so got me up, and just carried on.

We are tabletop players so just kind of rolled with the consequences.

Now, you might be thinking that's tragic, but, it gets better.

We got to the crash beach site, and find her body again (ooh nice touch). My wife loots her (and we have a big laugh as we discover 'take all' meant her underwear too).

Well she finds a revivify scroll on her, so we think 'well ok let's see if we can revive her, even though it's been more than a minute'.

She's alive, then starts asking me about some kind of artifact.. I have no idea what she's talking about (It wasn't me who looted her) so I deny having it.

She goes hostile, attacks us, and we decide to try knocking her out with non-lethal.

Combat ends, we carry on, never saw her or knew who she was till we told this story to our friends after we finished the game.

8

u/Sparkly_Crow_1789 23h ago

.... Yeah that definitely sounds like DnD shenanigans all right. That is. One unlucky sequence of events.

1

u/captnpierce222 12h ago

Lol I missed Lae'zel on my first playthrough

3

u/Skybreaker_C410 1d ago

The exploration really left me overwhelmed and confused my first playthrough, so i missed tons of the starting area and managed to completely miss Astarion, and Lae’zel. I only got Lae’zel cuz the shows up again at the mountain pass.

I also fought my way INTO the goblin camp because i just assumed they would be hostile, so i snuck in and attacked immediately. That run i got the Last Light, finally felt like i understood the game, but hated my build. So started completely over which was my first “real” play through, i feel.

2

u/MAmerica1 23h ago

Me too. Accidentally triggered the druids to massacre the grove, so she wouldn't join me and then I killed her. Also missed Lae'zel, but I don't remember how. I didn't get anyone else beyond origin, and I was playing Shadowheart, so I just had the same companions the whole game.

2

u/holy_shell 20h ago

I missed Wyll on my 1st playthrough since I just dont like kids and when I saw a bunch of kids training I was like "oh yeah sure bye, Im not talking to you all" 😂 I didn't pay attention too much in act 1 because I was afraid that im short of time. It was a miracle that I did all big fights in act 1 though

2

u/MadMatchy 18h ago

Not only did I miss her, I killed her for Wyll

20

u/HumanReputationFalse 1d ago

Minthara is more of a secret companion. Someone you need to go out of your way to get to join you

4

u/Not_Nic_Cage420 1d ago

Ah thanks, good to know!

1

u/travers329 1d ago

Can you just use non-lethal attacks, leave her knocked out, and then grab her in act II?

6

u/HumanReputationFalse 1d ago

Yes, knocking her out works if you want a good alignment playthrough.

1

u/WhyBlue101 1d ago

I used non lethal attacks and she died anyway

1

u/HumanReputationFalse 1d ago

That really shouldn't happen. Something must have gone wrong or glitches out.was it recent by chance?

15

u/pvdave 1d ago

Non-lethal when turned on only applies to melee weapon attacks. Target still dies if you use spell damage, ranged, falling damage, etc. that brings their remaining hit points below 1.

3

u/WhyBlue101 1d ago

Oh shoot, I didn't know that. Must be why.

2

u/WhyBlue101 1d ago

Yeah happened today but comment below seems to solve it

13

u/Fetagirl 1d ago

If that’s the only companion you missed in your first play through then you already did better an a lot of us. I also went in blind and I missed Gale AND Laezel AND Karlach somehow. My second play through felt like a completely different game lol

3

u/Not_Nic_Cage420 1d ago

I nearly missed Karlach my first go. Only reason I found her was Wyll mentioning her at the post goblin camp victory party

9

u/GorgonSlayer07 1d ago

On my first play through I also missed Gale (thought the portal was suspicious and left it alone), Wyll (never talked to him), and Karlach (never found her). I legit thought that there were only three companions in the game (Astarion, Shadowheart, and Lae’zel)

7

u/SpicyL3mons 1d ago

My first play-through I missed so many of the companions and content 💀 BG3 taught me how to explore games

2

u/Hour_Ad_76 1d ago

I learned my lesson with FF VII. I missed out on two companions because it was my first RPG. I didn't learn about them till I was on disc 4. Too late. Couldn't beat the game with Sephy sending the whole galaxy down on my one party...

6

u/GolfArgh 1d ago

I’ve missed two and lost one during my first run. Missed the dog as well. No worries, more runs to come.

5

u/Electronic_Elk2029 1d ago

Time for another run.

You should complete about 3-4 to really play the game

4

u/Not_Nic_Cage420 1d ago

Starting a sorcerer Durge run now. My first go around was a halfling open hand monk, it was super fun to play and getting the enhanced leap is great to have a hobbit fly around punching folk

1

u/GolfArgh 1d ago

Now I know what my next main will be, sounds fun.

1

u/holy_shell 20h ago

Durge is just very good, have fun! I feel like both evil and redemption runs were very interesting, its my favourite origin.

1

u/Timiny-cricket 5h ago

I keep hearing people say “durge”

What do people mean?

1

u/SaintAkira 4h ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/BaldursGate3/s/UEO4Rj0b88

Easier to just link an explanation than type out a novel. Dark Urge.

5

u/athens619 1d ago

In my first playthrough, I completely forgot about Halsin and couldn't cure the Shadowlands. I thought I explored the entire goblin camp, but apparently, I didn't. I backtracked, and he was dead, and i was not going to reload a save since it would have been like 20 hours of gameplay gone. I did on my second

3

u/Main_Reference_1978 1d ago

Same thing happened to me lol but I was doing a very straightforward good play through so it would not have fit anyway, so cool how you can have an entirely different experience depending on how you play, man I love this game sm

3

u/MosesGunnPlays 1d ago

Yeah, my first run was a gith necromancer, and he had a creche to get to.

5

u/usernamescifi 1d ago

It's hard to recruit her if you kill her. 

2

u/Happy_Joke_5715 15h ago

It’s ok, I missed KARLACH

1

u/geekinthestreets 14h ago

Wait wait wait wait wait. Did you have Wyll? If you had him, then there was a big marker on the map for Karlach.

Did you do what I did on my first failed run and concentrate too much on the main story instead of exploring, then basically ended most of the side quests before they were done? Boy, was I under levelled when I got to act 3.

1

u/Happy_Joke_5715 13h ago

Yep you’re describing me :)

2

u/fossiliz3d 1d ago

Minthara is awesome, but she's usually a treat for second playthroughs. Almost everyone who doesn't look up spoilers kills her the first time. Something to look forward to!

1

u/FuckMyDrag32 1d ago

My first run I never found Laezel so I get it 😭😂

1

u/FuckMyDrag32 1d ago

And Halsin died in the first battle so double fucked

1

u/aqua995 1d ago

In my first run I only got Astarion, Shart and Gale, but met Laezel.

In my later runs I also the other 4: Minthara, Halsin, Wyll and Jaheira, with only the Ranger in Act3 missing.

2

u/GolfArgh 1d ago

Hell, I don’t even know who Shart is. Off to google.

edit: Oh, Shadowheart.

1

u/4schwifty20 1d ago

when you fight her, instead of killing her, toggle off lethal attacks (don't forget to turn back on after), you'll find her again in act 2.

1

u/Everstone311 1d ago

I missed Gale and Minthara in my first play through. I also missed the Wyrm in Wyrm’s Crossing which had a big story impact. I’m on my 9th play through now 🙂 Welcome to the club!

1

u/The_lost_watermelon 1d ago

If it’s helpful I was informed of gale once I got to act 3

1

u/killerspawn97 1d ago

Yep I missed her and Gale on my first run lol

1

u/develev711 1d ago

Bro dont feel bad i didnt see Wyll in the druid camp my first game and didnt even think about the fact he was on the cover art lol

1

u/Mostly-Useless_4007 1d ago

"Only" one missed on your first run?

I missed Gale, Karlach, Minthara, Jaheira, Minsc...

1

u/viking_with_a_hobble 22h ago

In 4 playthroughs now, Jaheira has yet to survive the attack on moonrise. Literally dumping sanctuary and healing her with Shart and she still manages to get knocked off the rafters/jump into HOH/literally freeze herself to death.

1

u/Mostly-Useless_4007 12h ago

She is recruitable, but you have to actually recruit her. If you don't convince her to join you, she fights her own battle, and almost always becomes toast (or ice...).

I'll also sometime make this a much easier battle by picking off enemies a little at a time. In one run, I even cleared the tower entirely before the harpers came and that made life very easy for her.

In most of my runs, I'll pick off a few that are easy and then go off to trigger the battle. Once she is recruited, I have her hang way back out of harms way and I'll do most of the work in clearing the floor.

Are you close to this in a current run?

1

u/viking_with_a_hobble 10h ago

Im about to go into act 2 now on my fifth run but… its an evil drow so… probably wont have her this time around either 😂

1

u/Mostly-Useless_4007 9h ago

Is it more evil to kill someone... or recruit them, and then betray them?

1

u/viking_with_a_hobble 9h ago

🤔 hmmmm, good point

1

u/frequentsonder 1d ago

I got near the end of my first play through and a friend asked me to start a coop. So in our new game she tells me we'll go get gale. I'm like, whose gale? She's like.. what do you mean.. haven't you got 100 hours in the game?

Turns out I skipped getting gale out of the portal.

Definitely made the replay ability factor significantly higher haha.

I love this game.

1

u/legomojo 1d ago

Most people don’t realize she was a companion until they loot her and notice she has her on unique set of underwear.

1

u/Lizzy_Of_Galtar Bard 23h ago

That's the thing about the first run.

You miss out on so many things but that's what the second run is for.....and third and fourth 😁

1

u/Labhaoise 16h ago

In on my 8th run and just did the Astarion's rock in the first camp Easter egg

1

u/Accomplished_Area311 23h ago

I’ve beaten the game 7 times and have never recruited her, for what that’s worth.

1

u/UsTheGoodBoi 21h ago

Minthy’s an absolutely treasure! You should definitely recruit her!

1

u/b34v3r55 20h ago

Mate, on my first play through I missed Gale because the prompt basically said “this portal looks dangerous, do you want to touch it” and I was like, nah, I’ve just started the game and I don’t wanna die, just walked away…

1

u/Palanki96 19h ago

I also missed her because of a stupid bug 😭

1

u/IntelligentRaisin393 19h ago

To be fair, unless you're doing an evil run or know about it in advance, there's not really any reason for you to think you could recruit her.

1

u/MostLikeylyJustFood 18h ago

I pushed her into a canyon and moved on in my current and only run! I am trying to not restart because I have already learned sooooo much - but I want to get through the game this first time.

Seems like killing her is a pretty common mistake! LOL!

1

u/Black_Waltz3 17h ago

Far from being a mistake, killing her is just as expected as killing Dror Ragzlin, Gut, the Gith patrol on the bridge, the Duegar in the underdark etc. Unless you're playing an evil run she's not meant to be recruitable without metagaming.

1

u/stardropunlocked 18h ago

I missed WYLL my entire first run.

After 134 hours, I finished my first run, and had to Google who Wyll was because I kept seeing him referenced in the subreddits. Never met Mizora (or Florrick either, actually), no idea the Duke had a son, never heard of Ansur or Wyrmway.

1

u/not_funny_user_name 17h ago

Same lol. Except I ALSO missed him on my latest durge run, it's a shame coz I wanted to try on that infernal robe. Guess I'll just booal(if it's possible, idk) Karlach in act 2. Two buffs with one demon, so to speak

1

u/arix_games 15h ago edited 15h ago

There's only 3 scenarios in which you get minthara.

1 evil run. You can slaughter the grove with her

2 skip the grove quest and start act 2. The game will consider the grove destroyed, and minthara will be available

3 cheese. You can knock her out instead of killing, and she will be recruitable at the same spot

Do note that first way locks you out of some companions, so its a trade

1

u/Disastrous_Ad6873 15h ago

I could NEVER recruit her no matter how hard I try on a good run😭 so I decided I will do a dark urge run next and recruit her

1

u/Wise-Start-9166 14h ago

I love all that. Some people focus too much on having all the dudes

1

u/mufcordie 12h ago

I killed her (because I didn’t know) and took her armor and rocked it the whole playthru. Had no idea.

1

u/munkirylz 5h ago

Better than me, I literally never found Laezel on my first.

1

u/onyx970 5h ago

I didn't recruit her until my 3rd run which was a durge run and did the knock out method until my 4th run to recruit her.

1

u/Jeaniegreyy 4h ago

I killed her on my first play through, I didn’t realize she was a companion. She was kind of threatening so when I started killing everyone in the camp I started with her. Reddit taught me you could recruit her, not only that you can recruit her without being evil (I think that’s newer though)

1

u/korbzd 3h ago

I didn't even consider non lethal damage for Minsc. I was gutted when I realised what I'd done. My run was living with all decisions and not redo. I'll have to get him next time.

1

u/ErlinaVampiress 1h ago

I killed her the first time too. Almost missed Gale as well but that is just what made our first playthroughs natural and “unique”

1

u/greatvow 1d ago

I always kill her. I just can’t be that evil

0

u/monadoboyX 1d ago

Don't feel bad I did this in my first run too

0

u/Haygirlhayyy 1d ago

Minthara. I don't have her either - snuck around the side, dealt with Halsin, snuck up the ladder and initiated combat, no dialog. Didn't even know she was a companion.

3

u/TheCrystalRose Sorcerer 1d ago

Most people realize she was a potential companion while looting her corpse and finding the "companion exclusive gear" (camp clothes, undies, alchemy pouch, keyring, & camp supply sack) there.

0

u/Quirkxofxart 1d ago

I think I’m the only person who had to look up where shadowheart was on their first playthrough.

2

u/geekinthestreets 14h ago

I bet you looted every manged fisher in that area, though.

1

u/Quirkxofxart 12h ago

Haha I did! Ended up in the old temple super early and used speak with dead on everything I could after that

0

u/randomisawesome 1d ago

Same here. I recruited Halsin before exploring the goblin camp. Aggroed everyone. And never spoke to Minthara.