Auntie Ethel/Combat

Overview

Combat

This page focuses on Auntie Ethel'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 chooses to meddle in her affairs.

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

Act One

Attacks and abilities

 A Coven of Hags ()

You'll never find your Auntie Ethel.

 Auntie's Trickery ()

Now which is which?

 Break Illusion ()

Fix a broken item.

 Claws ()

2d8 (2~16) + Strength or Dexterity modifier Slashing

Lash out with deadly claws.

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5  ft

 Damsel in Distress ()

Better choose the right one, dearie.

 Hold Person ()

Hold a humanoid enemy still. They can't Move, Act, or React. Attacks from within  Range: 3 m / 10 ft are always Critical Hits. At the end of each turn, the affected creature can make a Wisdom Saving throw to end this condition.

WIS Save

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Ray of Sickness ()

2d8 (2~16) Poison

Possibly  Poisons the target.

CON Save

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Throw ()   –  Flammable Slime Bomb

Normal weapon damage

Throw a character or item from the world or your inventory. Your Strength affects how much weight you can throw. Heavier items deal more damage. The damage of weapons with the thrown property is the same as the weapon's melee damage.

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Throw ()   –  Poisonous Slime Bomb

Normal weapon damage

Throw a character or item from the world or your inventory. Your Strength affects how much weight you can throw. Heavier items deal more damage. The damage of weapons with the thrown property is the same as the weapon's melee damage.

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Vicious Mockery ()

2d4 (2~8) Psychic

Insult a creature: it has Disadvantage on its next Attack roll.

WIS Save

 Range: 26 m / 87 ft

Allies

• 2x Redcap (if fought in her Teahouse)
• 2x Redcap Blood Sage (if fought in her Teahouse)
• Mask of Regret (Overgrown Tunnel) (if not previously killed/incapacitated in the Underground Passage)
• Mask of Servitude (Overgrown Tunnel) (if not previously killed/incapacitated in the Underground Passage)
• Mask of Terror (Overgrown Tunnel) (if not previously killed/incapacitated in the Underground Passage)
• Mask of Vengeance (Overgrown Tunnel) (if not previously killed/incapacitated in the Underground Passage)

Encounter details

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 Redcaps 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's suspended cage. The player can throw water on Mayrina's cage from afar, before combat is initiated, to completely neutralize the slime bomb, at no cost. In addition, if the player has previously sold Auntie Ethel any spell that costs a Bonus Action ( Feather Fall is a good option), she will cast that spell as her Bonus Action. With this strategy, Auntie Ethel's first turn is completely ineffective.

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  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  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  Ray of Sickness, traps them with  Hold Person, and pelts them with her limited supply of poisonous slime bombs. She mixes in melee attacks and  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  Silenced.
• On Honour Mode any attempt to cast a spell during this dialogue (such as  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  Hold Person, it is entirely possible for them to end up paralyzing the entire party.  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. Area-of-effect weapons are another strong option, along with party members dual-wielding hand crossbows for extra shots. A character with high movement speed (e.g. through  Haste or  Longstrider) with active  Spirit Guardians will also make quick work of the clones without triggering  Legendary Action: Weird Magic Surge multiple times. Void Bulbs and Spiked Bulbs have large AoE and deal 1 damage which will destroy illusory copies.

You can focus on bringing as many summons as possible to the fight to attack clones, even familiars and Scratch help and they don't trigger legendary action.

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, since it limits her moveset to just melee attacks and grenades. Striking her with silencing weapons, such as the Sussur Dagger, Sussur Greatsword or Sussur Sickle, is the best way to inflict this condition since the main alternative, the spell  Silence, can be easily walked out of. However, being  Silenced will prevent Ethel from bargaining with the hag hair.

She lies in wait invisible, but if you approach her location with a character with  Invisibility and  See Invisibility you can ensure that you can get one spell off before she does anything. Using  Faerie Fire will trivialise the fight. When she casts Auntie's Trickery the real hag will be marked, and furthermore she will never cast A Coven of Hags or Damsel in Distress, probably because A Coven of Hags requires that she turns invisible, which she is unable to.

Act Three

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 her lair in the bar's basement.

Attacks and Abilities

 Auntie's Trickery ()

Now which is which?

 Ethel's Insect Plague ()

4d10 (4~40) Piercing

Locusts attack everyone within range, make the area Difficult Terrain, and impose Disadvantage on Perception Checks. Ethel and her allies are immune to the effects.

CON Save

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

AoE: 6 m / 20 ft (Radius)

 Ray of Sickness ()

2d8 (2~16) Poison

Possibly  Poisons the target.

CON Save

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

Allies

• Captain Grisly
• Mask of Terror (The Blushing Mermaid) (if not previously killed/incapacitated)
• Mask of Servitude (The Blushing Mermaid) (if not previously killed/incapacitated)
• 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. 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

For full details, see Save Vanra

Ethel has swallowed Vanra Bergauz alive, 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 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 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  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, Smokepowder 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  Haste Spores on any party members who do so, allowing them an extra action per turn.