Auntie Ethel/Combat: Difference between revisions

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.  

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. 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 {{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 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.

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.

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. [[Void Bulb]] and [[Spiked Bulb]] have large AoE and deal 1 damage which will destroy illusory copies.

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.

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.

She lies in wait invisible, but if you approach her location with a character with [[Invisibility]] and [[See Invisibility (Condition)|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 not unable to.