Should you join or kill Minthara in Baldur's Gate 3?

Minthara in Baldur’s Gate 3 is a Drow Paladin, an absolute powerhouse who makes for an excellent companion. However, her intentions are purely evil when you first meet her as one of the three Baldur's Gate 3 goblin leaders of the Cult of the Absolute. Killing her seems like the only real course of action, especially because one objective specifically tasks you with doing so.

However, you don’t need to kill her, and you don’t need to be playing an evil Baldur's Gate 3 character to get her in your party either. With many ways to skin the proverbial Drow Paladin cat, she's a complicated character to deal with, so we've outlined whether you should join or kill Minthara in BG3, as well as your other options, including recruiting her.

Baldur's Gate 3 Minthara options

In short, you can either attack or ally with Minthara in Baldur's Gate 3, but there are several ways you can go about doing these, and each method can have different short and long-term consequences on Minthara:

• Knock her out to recruit her as a companion in Act 2.
• Kill her at the goblin camp (with or without Halsin).
• Lead her to the Emerald Grove and betray her at the last minute.
• Raid the Emerald Grove alongside her, killing all the tieflings, to unlock her as a companion (and share an amorous moment).

How to knock out Minthara in Baldur's Gate 3

As of Patch 5, you can recruit Minthara to your adventuring party without having to massacre the Emerald Grove or use some other workaround.

The following method does mean you won't get Minthara in your camp until a ways into Act 2, which also blocks the romance opportunity (this can only happen at the goblin camp party after attacking the grove), but it does mean you avoid a lot of bloodshed. Here's what you need to do:

1. Find Minthara. The first time you'll meet her is likely in the Absolute cult's goblin camp, but if you ignore any of the following steps then, you'll see her again during the cult's raid on the Emerald Grove, regardless of which faction you side with.
2. Toggle Non-Lethal Attacks on and beat Minthara until she is knocked out. Strangely, this counts as you killing Minthara for the goblin leaders quest, so you can carry on as normal.
3. Get to Moonrise Tower in Act 2. You'll see Minthara being interrogated and judged by Ketheric Thorm and Z'rell.
4. Resolve this situation as peacefully as possible by letting Minthara get dragged to the prison below.
5. Find Minthara in the prison and kill the two Questioners next to her, then get her to follow you so you can all escape Moonrise Tower. Guards will stop you if they notice you with Minthara, so you'll need to deal with them as you escape. Once you're clear of the tower, Minthara will initiate a conversation with you, thanking you for rescuing her.
6. Tell Minthara the location of your camp, causing her to move there and become a recruitable Baldur's Gate 3 companion.

It's quite an involved and long-winded process to recruit Minthara. Strong Charisma and Wisdom-based skills are highly recommended for all the dialogue checks you need to pass to break Minthara out of Moonrise Tower too. But you'll have a potent paladin on your side at the end, so it's all worth it, even if she is quite mean - she's a good for for any Baldur's Gate 3 Dark Urge players!

Kill Minthara in Baldur's Gate 3

The simplest way of dealing with Minthara is to battle her at the Goblin Camp in Baldur's Gate 3. Right after silencing Priestess Gut as part of your mission objective to help the tiefling refugees, head across the camp and attack Minthara in the Shattered Sanctum. The fight can be tricky if you've yet to find and free Halsin in Baldur's Gate 3, especially since his strong bear paws can quickly whittle down her health and not leave her an opportunity to heal.

It's also possible to kill her in her chambers with a single arrow. Simply tell Minthara the location of Emerald Grove, and as she steps away from her desk to cross the bridge in the middle of the room, shoot it with an arrow to break it and send her plummeting to her death. You've just saved yourself a lengthy battle, though you won't be able to loot her corpse.

Betray Minthara in Baldur's Gate 3 Minthara

Another way to defeat Minthara is to turn on her at the last moment after leading her to the Emerald Grove. After telling her of the grove's location, fast travel back there and take a long rest. When you wake up, you will be able to speak with a tiefling leader to warn them of Minthara's imminent goblin ambush, and plot a fiery retaliation in response.

Once you blow the war horn and summon her, Minthara will telepathically urge you to kill the tieflings and let her through the gates. Refuse her and immediately start the battle. You'll be up against far, far more enemies if you do this, so be sure to save beforehand in case you end up regretting going up against the goblins, their drow, and some damage-sponge spiders.

Raid the Emerald Grove with Minthara in Baldur's Gate 3

Finally, if you really have no interest in going up against the hard-hitting paladin, you can turn on the tiefling refugees for real and lay siege to Emerald Grove by her side. This is a particularly cruel move, resulting in the deaths of many innocents, but it's a far easier fight to win.

After the battle, she will share in the joys of bloodshed with you and later at camp will proposition you for a more intimate encounter. However, fighting in the Grove is enough to cause both Karlach and Wyll to leave your camp permanently, and if you want to recruit Minthara, you still have to find her in Act 2 and go through the steps listed above (start from step 3!).

Bear in mind that this pathway will also considerably change the events of the first part of the game. Much like selecting the Dark Urge origin in Baldur's Gate 3, it might be an idea for your second or third playthrough. Just make sure you save your game before the battle just in case you change your mind.

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