Auntie Ethel/Combat

Overview

Combat

This page focuses on Auntie Ethel's behavior during her combat encounters, and on tactics for overcoming her. She can be fought as a boss in the Riverside Teahouse in the Sunlit Wetlands if meddling in her affairs.

Auntie Ethel can also be encountered again as a boss in Act Three beneath the Blushing Mermaid.

Act One

Attacks and abilities

 A Coven of Hags ()

You'll never find your Auntie Ethel.

Recharge: Per combat

 Auntie's Trickery ()

Now which is which?

Recharge: Per combat

 Break Illusion ()

Fix a broken item.

 Claws ()

Damage: 6~20

2d8 + 4Slashing

Lash out with deadly claws.

 Melee: 1.5 m / 5 ft

 Damsel in Distress ()

Better choose the right one, dearie.

Recharge: Per combat

 Hold Person ( + )

Hold a humanoid enemy still. They can't Move, Act, or React. Attacks from within 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 ( + )

Damage: 2~16

2d8Poison

Possibly  Poisons the target.

CON Save

 Range: 18 m / 60 ft

 Throw ()   –  Flammable Slime Bomb

Damage:

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

Damage:

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 ()

Damage: 2~8

2d4Psychic

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 prioritizes fleeing through her fireplace using  Break Illusion in the first few turns, and summons the four Redcaps outside if the party has not already killed them. Sometimes, attempting to defeat 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.  Command: Halt can be used to stop her from escaping for a single turn if she is rendered visible, though she has a fairly high enough Wisdom to make saves against the spell.

In older versions of the game, it was possible to delay her flight and trap her upstairs by casting  Arcane Lock on the staircase into her lair. This seems to have been removed in a patch or hotfix at some point.^{[Needs Verification]}

Fight in the Overgrown Tunnel

The first turns of the Auntie Ethel fight are pre-determined. Unless the party launch a preemptive strike while hidden, Auntie Ethel initiates combat through dialogue when approached. Her first turn in combat, when started this way, is always throwing a flammable slime bomb on Mayrina's suspended cage. The party 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 party previously sold Auntie Ethel any spell that costs a Bonus Action ( Feather Fall is a good option), she casts that spell as her Bonus Action. With this strategy, Auntie Ethel's first turn is completely ineffective.

If the party did not previously defeat 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 is dispelled upon taking any amount of damage and they cannot summon additional clones of themselves. If all are defeated, Ethel can refresh their supply with  A Coven of Hags - this time, however, the original hag is invisible rather than in the mix of illusions, and the number of illusions summoned can vary. She also eventually uses  Damsel in Distress, a wily illusion where she teleports Mayrina into her proximity and adopts her appearance.

When not playing mind games, Ethel attempts to weaken the party with  Ray of Sickness, and  Hold Person, and pelts them with her limited supply of poisonous slime bombs. She may mix 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

After being brought down to below 20% of her HP, when she takes her next turn, Auntie Ethel bargains for her life in exchange for a piece of Auntie Ethel's Hair - a powerful buff that permanently increases a character's chosen ability score by one. She does not do anything else on this turn; if the party declines her offer or fails a conversation ability check, the turn immediately passes to the next character, allowing the hag to be rapidly dispatched. Any surviving Masks become docile upon her death.

• Auntie Ethel only offers this deal if fought in the depths of her lair, not in the teahouse.
• If  Silenced she is unable to bargain for her life.
• In Honour Mode it is possible to cast a spell during this dialogue (such as  Enhance Ability) without triggering her Honour Mode passive.

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 is not triggered by ability check bonuses during the bargaining conversation.

Tactics

It is 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 dispels 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 destroys the illusory copies.

The party can focus on bringing as many summons as possible to the fight to attack clones, even familiars and Scratch help and do not trigger legendary action.

Ethel's copies can be distinguished from the original by selecting "Examine" on them and looking for the feature Fey Life, granted by the Tarnished Charm that the real Auntie Ethel wears and 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. Another method is to pay attention to the turn order- the real Ethel is always in the same spot in the turn order.

Her illusory disguise as Mayrina also has many hints which 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 reveals the truth since only the real Mayrina is pregnant.

Auntie Ethel is immune to Crawler Mucus.

Act Three

Auntie Ethel can be encountered again 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?

Recharge: Per combat

 Ethel's Insect Plague ()

Damage: 4~40

4d10Piercing

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 ( + )

Damage: 2~16

2d8Poison

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, the party must destroy her Pearlspore Bells. These lustrous mushroom clumps revive the hag each time she is felled, if left unchecked. The Pearlspores automatically fully heal 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. using Arrows of Ilmater or inflicting  Bone Chilled. As suggested in A Hunter's Guide to Hags, the  Burning condition also blocks the  Healing Pearl restoration. 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 is always applied. As Ethel's appearing is only triggered at the top of the second set of stairs, using  Misty Step or  Dimension Door allows the party to position themselves or some summoned allies at each of the Pearlspore Bells before the beginning of the fight. Fire Elementals are very effective as their damage prevents the Pearlspore Bells from healing. Alternatively they are an attractive target for pre-placed explosives

There are three Pearlspore Bells:

• On a cliff near the southeast corner of the room at X: 2307 Y: -116
• In the northeastern corner of the room at X: -2320 Y: -92
• On a cliff in the northwestern corner of the room, north of the gilded chest at X: -2351 Y: -96

Hag Pregnancy

During  Save Vanra it is revealed that 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 is 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 forces Ethel to regurgitate Varna. Being pregnant does not imbue any inherent combat bonuses, other than the tension of potential quest failure. If released while any combat remains underway, Vanra runs 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 with  Auntie's Trickery, any future groups that Ethel summons with  A Coven of Hags are  Invisible, making their dispatch trickier and increasing the likelihood they survive to deal extra damage. The clones can each cast Ethel's Insect Plague.  Magic Missile and Arrows of Many Targets are very effective for removing the clones after they are made visible through  See Invisibility (spell) or  Create Water. 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 does not allow a jump but which are not otherwise obstructed indicate the presence of an invisible clone.

Haste Spores

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