Auntie Ethel is one of the first few boss fights that you can encounter in Baldur’s Gate 3, and she comes complete with many tricks and traps to throw at you. However, there’s also a secret way to get a free and permanent +1 to any stat from Auntie Ethel when you face off against her. This is a huge gain for your character and will help put you ahead, as Ability Improvements are only received every so many levels. If you’re looking to seize this opportunity and grab the free stat improvement, then follow along below, as we have all the information you’ll need to do so.
Finding Auntie Ethel
Before worrying about getting your hands on this free Ability Improvement, you’re going to need to find your way to the Riverside Teahouse, meet the Hag known as Auntie Ethel, and initiate the Save Mayrina quest.
After initiating this quest, you will need to provoke Auntie Ethel into running away to her lair with Mayrina, and the easiest way to do so is by initiating battle. After initiating the battle, Auntie Ethel will run through the illusionary door in her fireplace within the first few turns.
Getting the +1 Ability Increase From Auntie Ethel in Baldur’s Gate 3
Once Auntie Ethel runs away, follow her through this door and you will enter her lair. She will give one final warning before disappearing behind the Gnarled Door. You now need to find a way to progress further into her lair so you can trigger the required battle and receive the free Ability Improvement, but there will be traps and puzzles along the way, such as bypassing the Gnarled Door and working your way through the Noxious Fumes. If you find yourself stuck with these obstacles, be sure to check out our complete guides covering these topics in depth.
After successfully working your way through these sections of her lair, you will enter the final section. As you walk in, you will notice Mayrina in a cage hanging above the ground. This is where the Auntie Ethel boss fight takes place, so before you do anything else, make sure to save your game, in case you need to go back and have a second attempt at securing the free Ability Improvement.
The next step is working your way through the boss fight to overpower Auntie Ethel. Our complete guide on how to beat Auntie Ethel should be able to guide you through this without many problems, but there are also a few handy pointers that I’m going to mention below to ensure your process goes as smoothly as possible.
Tips for Beating Auntie Ethel
Immediately after you have saved your game, wait at the entrance and don’t progress further into this room. Instead, if you have a party member capable of using Mage Hand, then summon the ability. Since this is an invisible entity, Mage Hand won’t trigger Auntie Ethel’s appearance and cause the fight to immediately start. Now that Mage Hand is summoned, send it toward Mayrina’s cage and use it to remove the orange glowing sphere from the pedestal.
Note: This method will only work with Mage Hand due to invisibility, or can potentially work with an Invisibility spell if you cast it on a party member with strong Stealth. Find Familiar and other similar methods won’t work.
This will drop Mayrina’s cage and enable her to exit and move freely once the fight starts. If you have not removed this orange sphere, then Auntie Ethel will light Mayrina’s cage on fire during the fight, forcing you to try and use a water Spell or throw water items at the cage to put out the fire, which can waste crucial turns and even result in Mayrina’s death if you’re unsuccessful in your attempts. For this reason, if you’re wanting to save Mayrina, finding a way to remove this sphere with invisibility is a huge help.
Once this is out of the way, you can progress further and initiate the boss fight with Auntie Ethel. During this fight, she will use Mirror Image to create clones of herself. Despite being able to deal huge damage to yourself and your allies, these duplicates are rather easy to get rid of, as they will evaporate after taking any hit of damage, even 1 HP.
For this reason, I found Magic Missile to be perfect for expelling the Mirror Image clones quickly and efficiently, as this Spell never misses the target. During this fight, my party was equipped with two Arcane Tricksters that were both capable of performing this Spell, so they made getting through each wave of Mirror Image clones an absolute breeze.
Now that you’re aware of these pointers, we can shift focus back to the battle. To receive the free Ability Increase from Auntie Ethel, you will need to get through the boss fight until it gets to the point where it seems like the tide is turning in your favor. As you drain Auntie Ethel’s health bar, keep a very close eye on the amount of HP she has left. Once this reaches 10 HP or below, stop attacking her, and ensure you have your melee-range characters positioned directly in front of her.
In my situation, I didn’t want to take any chances, so I surrounded her with not just my melee characters, but my entire party. Despite some of my party members being in critical health, I was trying to force this situation to trigger as quickly as possible and presumed that if I had a party member surrounding her at every angle she would surely initiate a conversation with one of them.
Luckily, this worked like a charm. All you need to do is skip your turn on any of your party members without attacking Auntie Ethel and dealing any more damage to her. Once her turn rolls around again, she will initiate a conversation with one of your party members, and offer a bargain of power in exchange for letting her go with Mayrina.
While there are multiple choices you can choose from, you’ll want to select one involving the power. In my case, I performed the Intimidation check and convinced Auntie Ethel to hand over both Mayrina and the power.
While this will let Auntie Ethel escape (for now), you’ll receive the valuable +1 to any Stat of your choice, which can be crucial in later stages of the game as you rely on your character’s statistical strengths more, both inside and outside of combat. This is a very valuable boost and should be used to enhance one of your best stats.
For example, my Arcane Trickster Tiefling took the +1 in Dexterity, as Stealth and Sleight of Hand are crucial to her criminalistic thieving, lockpicking, and hiding to grant Sneak Attack and trigger Surprise Rounds.
Now due to this and the combination of additional Dexterity bonuses from her armor set and Shadowheart’s Guidance Cantrip, I’ve been able to steal from some of the most intimidating individuals undetected, and have yet to come across a locked door or chest that I’ve failed to pick, which has made exploring new areas and dungeon crawling for loot feel like a walk in the park.
That’s everything you need to know about how to receive the free +1 Ability Improvement to any stat from Auntie Ethel in Baldur’s Gate 3. Now that you know how to acquire this incredibly helpful item, feel free to check out our guide on if you should take the Underdark or Mountain Pass in BG3, as you’ll likely be heading in this direction very soon.
About the author
