Editing Auntie Ethel/Combat

{{PageSeo
| title = Auntie Ethel
| keywords = hag, boss, mayrina, hair
| description = This page focuses on Auntie Ethel's behaviour during her combat encounter, and strategy on overcoming her. Auntie Ethel can be encountered as a boss in Baldur's Gate 3.
| image = Auntie Ethel.jpg
}}
{{Combat tab}}
{{Infobox creature
| name = Auntie Ethel
| image = <gallery>
Auntie-Ethel-Hag.webp|In-game
Portrait Ethel.png|Portrait
</gallery>
Auntie-Ethel-Hag.webp
| size = Medium
| type = Fey
| race = [[Hag]]
| ac = 17
| e hp = 78
| hp = 112
| t hp = 145
| movement m = 9
| weight kg = 75
| level = 5
| str = 18
| dex = 14
| con = 16
| int = 13
| wis = 14
| cha = 18
| str save prof = yes
| wis save prof = yes
| cha save prof = yes
| extra init = 5
| h conditions = Legendary Action: Weird Magic Surge
| passives = Alert, Darkvision, Fey Life @ Tarnished Charm, Opportunity Attack
| h passives = Alert, Darkvision, Fey Life @ Tarnished Charm, Legendary Action: Weird Magic Surge, Opportunity Attack
}}
__NOTOC__
This page focuses on '''Auntie Ethel'''<nowiki/>'s behavior during her combat encounter, and tactics for overcoming her. She can be fought as a boss in the [[Riverside Teahouse]] in the [[Sunlit Wetlands]] if the party choose to meddle in her affairs.

Auntie Ethel can be encountered again as a boss in [[Act 3]] within [[The Blushing Mermaid]].

== Attacks and abilities ==
{{Feature box|Auntie's Trickery}}

{{Feature box|A Coven of Hags}}

{{Feature box|Damsel in Distress}}

{{Feature box|Ray of Sickness}}

{{Feature box|Throw|item=Poisonous Slime Bomb}}

{{Feature box|Throw|item=Flammable Slime Bomb}}

{{Feature box|Vicious Mockery (Auntie Ethel)}}

{{Feature box|Claws (Hag)}}

{{Feature box|Hold Person}}

{{Feature box|Break Illusion}}

== Allies ==
* 2x [[Redcap (creature)|Redcap]] and 2x [[Redcap Blood Sage]] (if fought in her Teahouse)
* [[Mask of Regret]], [[Mask of Terror]], [[Mask of Servitude]], and [[Mask of Vengeance]] (if not previously killed/incapacitated in the Underground Passage)

== Encounter ==

=== Fight in the Teahouse ===
Ethel can be attacked in her human form in the Riverside Teahouse, though she will try to make this encounter as brief as possible. +7 Initiative gives her a high turn priority and prevents preemptive strikes. She will prioritize fleeing through her fireplace using Break Illusion in the first few turns, and will summon the 4 [[redcap]]s outside if the party did not already kill them. Sometimes, attempting to destroy her here requires bringing her hit points to zero before she can take a single action. 

She may further attempt to evade aggression by drinking a [[Potion of Invisibility]]; this can be thwarted by pickpocketing or purchasing it from her in conversation. Ethel may use [[scrolls]] in this phase, if they are part of her trader inventory. The player can greatly delay her flight and trap her upstairs by casting [[Arcane Lock]] on the staircase into her lair. 

=== Fight in the Overgrown Tunnel ===
The first turns of the Auntie Ethel fight are pre-determined. Unless the player launches a preemptive strike while hidden, Auntie Ethel will initiate combat through dialogue when approached. Her first turn in combat, when started this way, will always be throwing a flammable slime bomb on [[Mayrina|Mayrina's]] suspended cage.

If the player did not previously kill or incapacitate her Mask servants (e.g. [[Mask of Regret]]), she spends a turn summoning them to her side as allies. If they were already dealt with, she casts {{SAI|Auntie's Trickery}} instead.

Each clone of Auntie Ethel functions as a duplicate of the hag, having all of her magical abilities but lacking the bombs in her inventory. Each of them will be dispelled upon taking any amount of damage. Necessarily, they also cannot summon additional clones of themselves. If they are all defeated, Ethel can refresh their supply with {{SAI|A Coven of Hags}} - this time, however, the original hag will be invisible rather than in the mix of illusions, and the number of illusions summoned can vary. She will also eventually use [[Damsel in Distress]], a wily illusion where she teleports Mayrina into her proximity and adopts her appearance. 

When not playing mind games, Ethel barrages the party with {{SAI|Ray of Sickness}}, traps them with {{SAI|Hold Person}}, and pelts them with her limited supply of poisonous slime bombs. She mixes in melee attacks and {{SAI|Vicious Mockery}} - two attacks she falls back on when out of grenades and spell slots.

==== Bargaining for Auntie Ethel's Hair ====
When brought down to 30 health or lower, when she takes her next turn, Auntie Ethel will bargain for her life in exchange for a piece of [[Auntie Ethel's Hair]]- a powerful buff that permanently increases one of a character's stats by 1. She will not do anything else on this turn; if the party declines her offer or fails a conversation ability check, the turn will immediately pass to the next character, allowing the hag to be rapidly dispatched. Any surviving Masks become docile upon her death.

'''Notes'''
* Auntie Ethel will only offer this deal if fought in the depths of her lair, not in the teahouse.
* She will be unable to bargain for her life if she is {{cond|silenced}}.
* On ''Honour Mode'' any attempt to cast a spell during this dialogue (such as {{SAI|Enhance Ability}}) can trigger her Honour Mode passive and cause the fight to resume, preventing the party from getting the Hag hair.

=== Honour mode ===
Auntie Ethel gains [[Legendary Action: Weird Magic Surge]] on [[Honour mode]], punishing the player for casting spells by multiplying Ethel's presence with more illusory copies. The legendary action can be triggered during the bargaining conversation, causing the conversation to exit as if the party had declined the offer.

== Tactics ==
It is very important to take out Ethel's illusory copies as quickly as possible. Since the illusions can cast {{SAI|Hold Person}}, it is entirely possible for them to end up paralyzing the entire party. {{SAI|Magic Missile}} is a particularly effective counter to them since it can hit many of the illusions at once and any amount of damage is enough to dispel them. When playing on Honour Mode, however, spell use is heavily punished, so area-of-effect weapons become quite important, along with party members dual-wielding hand crossbows for extra shots. A character with high movement speed (e.g. through {{SAI|Haste}} or {{SAI|Longstrider}}) with active {{SAI|Spirit Guardians}} will also make quick work of the clones without triggering [[Legendary Action: Weird Magic Surge]] multiple times. Even a lowly void bulb will dispel the illusory copies if it catches them in its pull.

Ethel's copies can be distinguished from the original by selecting "Examine" on them and looking for the feature [[Fey Life]]. This is granted by an item that the real Auntie Ethel is wearing ([[Tarnished Charm]]) which is not duplicated for the clones, so they do not have this feature. Another way is to check Ethel's clothing : the real hag has red clothes, while the clones have blue clothes. And yet another method is to pay attention to the turn order- the real Ethel will always be in the same spot in the turn order.

Her illusory disguise as Mayrina also has many hints that reveal her true identity. Examining the two's statistics reveals key differences (such as the [[Fey Life]] feature once again) that can uncover the true victim. Alternatively, looking at the character models will reveal the truth since only the real Mayrina is pregnant.

Auntie Ethel is also very vulnerable to being [[Silenced (Condition)|silenced]], since it limits her moveset to just melee attacks and grenades. Striking her with silencing weapons, such as the [[Sussur Dagger]] or [[Sussur Greatsword]], is the best way to inflict this condition since the main alternative, the spell {{SAI|Silence}}, can be easily walked out of. However, being {{cond|silenced}} will prevent Ethel from bargaining with the hag hair.

== Act Three ==
{{Infobox creature
| name = Auntie Ethel (Act 3 stats)
| size = Medium
| type = Fey
| race = [[Hag]]
| ac = 17
| e hp = 78
| hp = 112
| t hp = 145
| movement m = 9
| weight kg = 90
| weight lb = 180
| level = 11
| proficiency bonus = +4
| initiative = +7
| str save prof = yes
| wis save prof = yes
| cha save prof = yes
| conditions = Lair Magic, Hag Pregnancy
| t conditions = Lair Magic, Fungal Resistance, Hag Pregnancy
| h conditions = Lair Magic, Fungal Resistance, Hag Pregnancy, Legendary Action: Weird Magic Surge
| passives = Alert, Darkvision, Opportunity Attack, Fey Life @ Tarnished Charm
| h passives = Alert, Darkvision, Opportunity Attack, Fey Life @ Tarnished Charm, Legendary Action: Weird Magic Surge
}}

Auntie Ethel is encountered once more in [[Act Three]]. She can be fought upstairs in [[The Blushing Mermaid]], where she is disguised as [[Captain Grisly]], or in [[The Blushing Mermaid - Basement|her lair in the bar's basement]].

=== Attacks and Abilities ===

{{Feature box|Auntie's Trickery}}

{{Feature box|Ray of Sickness}}

{{Feature box|Ethel's Insect Plague}}

=== Allies ===
* [[Grisly|Captain Grisly]], [[Mask of Terror (The Blushing Mermaid)]], [[Mask of Servitude (The Blushing Mermaid)]], and [[Mask of Vengeance (The Blushing Mermaid)]] (if not previously killed/incapacitated)

=== Encounter details ===

Ethel's abilities and tactics are much the same, simply scaled-up with the levels, with several additional twists: 

=== Pearlspore Bells ===
In order to truly kill Ethel, it's necessary to destroy her Pearlspore Bells. These lustrous mushroom clumps will revive the hag each time she is felled, if left unchecked. The Pearlspores will automatically heal to full at the end of each round, requiring them to either be burst down with massive damage in a single turn or for the party to employ heal prevention, e.g. [[Arrow of Ilmater|Arrows of Ilmater]]. Party members with the Sharpshooter feat should fire at the Pearlspores with the "Sharpshooter all-in" passive toggled on, as hitting is guaranteed and thus the extra damage will always be applied.

=== Hag Pregnancy ===
{{Hatnote|For full details, see [[Save Vanra]]}}
Ethel has eaten [[Vanra]], hoping to transform the girl into a hag to grow her coven. Killing Ethel kills Vanra as well, locking the party out of any quest rewards later on. To avoid this, it's possible to enable [[Toggle Non-Lethal Attacks|non-lethal attacks]] when dealing the killing blow, prompting instead a cutscene where Vanra is manually freed from an unconscious Ethel's belly. Alternatively, progressing through [[Help the Hag Survivors]] can provide the party with {{RarityItem|Hag's Bane}}, which when [[thrown]] will force Ethel to vomit the kid. Being pregnant does not imbue any inherent combat bonuses, other than the tension of potential quest failure. If released, Vanra will run into a corner of the room -- the party must thenceforth be cautious about stray area-of-effect damage nearby. 

=== Invisible Copies ===
After her first group of illusory copies has been summoned, any future groups that Ethel summons will also now be {{cond|Invisible}}, making their dispatch trickier and increasing the likelihood they will survive to deal extra damage. The straightforward way to deal with this is area-of-effect damage such as smokepowder bombs/arrows, void bulbs, alchemist's fire, etc. However an additional albeit cheesy technique involves activating the jump ability with a party member (preferably one with high strength and therefore more jump range), and moving the target cursor slowly across the floor: places where the cursor won't allow a jump but which are not otherwise obstructed indicate the presence of an invisible baddie. 

=== Haste Spores ===
A minor but useful feature of Ethel's lair in Act 3 is the barrelstalk fungus on the upper platform (near a patch of smaller mushrooms). Standing directly adjacent to the barrelstalk will confer {{cond|Haste Spores}} on any party members who do so, allowing them an extra action per turn.

== Footnotes ==
{{Notebegin}}{{Reflist|note}}
{{Noteend}}