anyways rambling on tumblr bc i dont wanna work i powered through act i to see what happens when you side with the goblin camp (to get some Action with Minthara) and while i LOVE LOVE LLOVED the minthara content i did not enjoy raiding and massacring the grove.

i think......idk there needed to be some tweaks so the option had a bit more nuance where the persecution faced in the grove can be twisted to where SOME of the tieflings (like mol & co, arabella and her parents, rolan, etc) could be convinced to join the cult if only to save their own skin for the time being.

this isn't to like, erase the consequences of these actions, but to offer a bit More Alternative Routes for a path that honestly, kind of sucks so much that barely anyone chooses it so larian was convinced to do a work around with minthara so more people could have her around.

Recruiting Minthara Without Doing A War Crime - BG3

Opening Disclaimer: I do not know every variable, I am sharing what I did to recruit Minthara in BG3 since basically every guide in the internet is wrong and says you must do a war crime to recruit MInthara. You will lose out on the Minthara post battle sex scene and she remains mutually exclusive with Halsin you either have her or him but she can be obtained as a party member and even has exclusive voiced dialogue for Karlache and Wyll whom many say you are also locked out of to recruit her. Also this is totally intentional and accounted for but in my personal run I am getting some bugs, idk if it's an everyone issue or a me issue the game is still very new.

To Attack The Grove or to Kill Everyone In The Goblin Camp, that is the question, one that needs not an answer. You can do quests in both places, talk to Minthara, and more and still walk away from this fight.

All you need to do is simply progress the plot ignoring these two binary options. You'll need to ensure Minthara does not know the location of The Druid Grove so for me the way I did it was I rescued Sazza then killed her in the goblin camp before she could rat out the location and turn on me right before she would have walked me over to MInthara. It triggered a small fight but I destroyed the drums they played to trigger an alarm and have everyone fight me meaning I only had to kill four Goblins or so. I went to talk to Minthara and told her I had no clue where the druid grove or her item were but i'd totally look into it. I grabbed everything I wanted from the Goblin camp and before that did all of the Tiefling kid side quests except stealing the artifact in The Druid grove, upgraded Karlache's infernal engines, looked around everywhere I could. I did not at any point meet or talk to Halsin.

Then from there I simply went to the Underdark, you may be be able to take the Gith path instead, idk I didn't do it but I personally went to The Underdark by way of Feather Falling in the Phase Spider Monarch's layer down into it. From there I found some slavers, killed them and stole their boat. I sailed away to a forge where more slavers were living, I helped them save a true soul, helped the true soul kill them and then killed The True Soul. With that I was on my marry way and entered act 2. This I believe triggers time to have progressed in the game and everything will have gone into motion. I wanted to be sure though that I had done everything correctly so I headed to Moon Rise towers as fast as I can. I did some fights, got to the tower and found Minathara getting yelled at by her boss and thrown into a prison. In the prison two women are trying to wipe her mind. I killed all the guards before trying to help her out in the prisons area and freed some other prisoners. Stole a bunch of stuff then went to the girl herself. I then killed the people trying to brainwash her after talking to them for a little, walked out with Minthara, the guards at multiple times were like "why the fuck do you have Minthara" I smooth talk my way out of each situation, we leave moonrise and I tell her she can stay in our camp. From there she is a party member.

The game suggests you don't bring Minthara back into Moonrise Towers with you, I have got some light glitches on my own run when going to areas that are before you can normally recruit minthara and going to camp sometimes she spawns over at The Goblin camp where you first meet her. The Goblins seem to be basically fine so what happened with the tiefling and druids. Well the tieflings were forced to leave the druid grove but they were gonna do that anyway and the same quests are triggered as if you didn't do that as far as I undertand. I have met one of the tieflings already in act two and they were not mad at me for not helping the grove. The grove however did do the ritual and is no longer accessible. I will update this when I enter Baulder's Gate if I find out I like idk caused the death of a bunch of characters for not siding with either but I don't think I cased any deaths at all, I think I spared the most lives, the most peaceful bitch.

I want to end of the note that there is more to Minthara than Girlboss, Gaslight, Gatekeep. She for narrative reasons is a fun character to have. She is cold for sure but I think the game does a pretty good job justifying it and you can see right away glimmers of her warming up. In terms of a party member her kit is interesting, she starts with tadepoles already in her head so if you were totally avoiding them like me you'll be able to see a few of the powers in action given you have no option to remove them from her.

i finished it………….holy shit why was beating the literal elder brain easier than fighting cazador and viconia the proper ways. anyway i am Bereft. i miss them already (is about to start a new playthrough as we speak) (and this time i am SAVING LAE’ZEL)

favorite bits

- treeboy was too distraught over the idea of losing karlach so he and wyll moved to avernus with her and they are TRULY tres horny boys (because i made loreleaf a tiefling, get it). based on the dialogue options in the epilogue it sounds like its assumed that was the karlach romance option??? treeboy did not get to brag on his boyfriend at all. but i am into them being a queerplatonic little polycule of sorts so i’m mostly okay with it.

- halsin is still so horny for my treeboy and it delights me. loreleaf got to be so loved on in this game and it makes me very happy. i would literally do another treeboy run just to do a halsin romance (or maybe the halsin/astarion??? i WILL figure out how to make astarion love my boy. i will figure it out. or maybe just write fic about it idk.)

- when karlach says she adores tav as she’s about to die 😭😭😭😭😭😭 i too almost died

- jaheira is soooo slept on she’s such a good character. i adore her.

- i think loreleaf would mount another adventure just to get lae’zel back. she got so fond of him after the party rescued her and i will be daydreaming the second, even more terrifying lae’zel rescue for a while. because i refuse to believe that’s how she ended up, okay, we went through TOO MUCH CULT SHIT to lose a family member to another one

- the emperor is a little bitch baby. “ooh why won’t you kill a man who hasn’t done anything to us, why don’t you trust me, wah wah” even lae’zel let the guy live temporarily, you ass. i’m glad astarion one-shotted you.

- in the final battle i literally lost loreleaf and shadowheart completely and lae’zel knocked herself prone and astarion was too far away to hit the brain, it really was just orpheus doing my dirty work in the end, poor guy.

- uhhhhhhhhh i’m going to cry about halsin if i think about him too long, i’m just. he got his family and his home 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

- i’m a little sad that shadowheart didn’t get more for her epilogue, especially considering how close she and loreleaf were, but at least i got to hug her again (which was very funny because his horns stabbed her directly in the eye both times they hugged)

- i. i love this game. so much. i can’t wait to do it all over again :’)