Auntie Ethel, aka the Hag, is a minor villain in Baldur’s Gate 3 who might, depending on your actions, follow you all the way from Act 1 to Act 3.
The Hag is a particularly crafty creature who will disrupt your plans with thralls, curses, and fake out deaths. Everywhere she goes misery is sure to follow, and if you stick with this questline throughout the game you’ll meet quite a handful of the Hag’s victims. By the time Act 3 rolls around, you’ll probably want to defeat her in the name of all those she’s wronged, but if you’re just in this for the XP and loot, I’m not going to judge you. Here’s how to find and defeat the Hag in BG3.
Where to find the Hag in BG3
You can find the Hag in Act 3 at her hidden lair beneath the Blushing Mermaid in Baldur’s Gate. There’s a series of quests to follow through Act 3 that will lead you down the optimal path to defeating the Hag. First head over to the Elfsong Tavern and look for some fliers on the ground. Reading one of them will trigger the “Help the Hag Survivors” quest. Make your way to the house where the survivors are hiding out. After talking to them, and potentially triggering a fight with a secret enemy in their midst, you should be given the “Avenge the Hag Survivors” quest. Now you’re almost ready for the showdown, but before you leave the house look for a safe hidden behind a desk on the ground floor. Inside are the ingredients and recipe for a potion called Hag’s Bane. Craft the potion, then walk over to the Blushing Mermaid’s basement prepared for a big fight.
How to defeat the Hag in BG3
When you get into the basement of the Blushing Mermaid, you’ll first encounter some of the Hag’s thralls. You need to defeat them before heading through a secret door hidden in a stone wall. Now you’re in the actual boss room, and it’s showtime. Notice that there are three clusters of mushrooms scattered about the room. You need to destroy those before killing the Hag, otherwise the mushrooms will heal her, essentially starting the entire battle over again. After you’ve destroyed the mushrooms, throw the Hag’s Bane at Auntie Ethel and she’ll puke up Vanra, her last victim.
Once Vanra is safe, you’re cleared for full-on combat. The Hag doesn’t have any notable resistances, so feel free to use your standard combat strategy to bring her down. Keep in mind that there are two large chasms on either side of this room, and if you manage your positioning just right, you may be able to push the Hag down one of the holes to finish the battle without breaking a sweat.
How I beat the Hag in BG3
In Baldur’s Gate 3’s Lower City, there are a number of things you expect to see: a series of crime lords all vying for control of the city’s underworld? Check. An incredibly powerful sorcerer trying to control arcane concepts he can’t possibly begin to understand? Yes, of course! The annoying Hag you (probably) killed earlier in the game coming back to life just to spite you? I guess!
Yep — that’s right! Remember Auntie Ethel? The seemingly innocent character who turned out to be an evil Hag who feasted on human flesh? I sure hope you didn’t expect her to stay dead, because a quest you receive by visiting the Basilisk Gate Barracks called Save Vanra, which leads into other quests called Help the Hag Survivors and Avenge the Hag Survivors, brings Ethel back into the rogue’s gallery of recurring villains in Baldur’s Gate 3.
I don’t really want to talk about my step-by-step experience for this series of quests — instead, let’s discuss how to put Ethel into the ground for good. If you’re playing as a morally upright character, you might feel an obligation to save Vanra from becoming the next Hag, and the game seems to suggest the only means of doing so is using the Hag’s Bane grenade. I, for one, went through the trouble of crafting the Hag’s Bane and I am here to tell you it’s wholly unnecessary.
If you’d like to simply go straight to Ethel’s lair and put her out of her misery — for good, this time — just make sure you toggle non-lethal damage and stick to using mostly melee attacks. If you can knock her out instead of killing her, you’ll have saved Vanra and earned the respect of her mother. If you’re feeling extra petty, feel free to toggle non-lethal damage off once Vanra has run off and deliver one final melee attack to end the Hag once and for all.
At least until she finds a means to return a second time, at which point I break my PS5.
