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

Dealing with Minthara in Baldur's Gate 3 is difficult as she's a powerful Drow Paladin to battle, who can also end up as a companion. Initially, she's a fierce leader in the Cult of the Absolute who will stand in your way in Act 1 of Baldur's Gate 3, so the obvious choice is to fight her, but you can deal with her in other ways too. 

Obviously, as one of the three Baldur's Gate 3 goblin leaders, killing her will contribute towards helping the Emerald Grove, but you can follow a more evil path and side with her - a fitting choice for any BG3 Dark Urge players - or even knock her out in a particular way, causing her to show up again in Act 2. In short, there are many ways to skin the proverbial cat that is the Drow Paladin, so here are the main ways we've found for dealing with Minthara in Baldur's Gate  3, including killing, joining, and recruiting her.

Baldur's Gate 3 Minthara options

• Knock her out at the goblin camp 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).

Baldur's Gate 3 Minthara: Knock her out at the Goblin Camp

As of Patch 5, you can now recruit Minthara to your adventuring party without massacring the Emerald Grove or some other workaround. Using the following method does mean you won't get Minthara in your camp until a ways into Act 2, and you won't romance her (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. Get to Minthara's chamber in the goblin camp before freeing Halsin.
2. Commit a crime in front of Minthara. This can be attacking the goblin she's speaking to  or stealing something in front of her. This will immediately lead into combat, and it's imperative that Minthara has the 'Temporarily Hostile' status.
3. Toggle Non-Lethal Attacks on and beat Minthara until she goes down. Strangely, this counts as you killing Minthara for the goblin leaders quest, so you can carry on as normal. 
4. When you reach Moonrise Tower in Act 2, you'll see Minthara being interrogated and judged by Ketheric Thorm and Z'rell. 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 Towers. Guards will stop you if they notice you with Minthara, so you'll need to deal with them as you escape.
6. Once you're clear of the tower, Minthara will initiate a conversation with you, thanking you for rescuing her. You can tell her the location of your camp, causing her to move there and become a recruitable Baldur's Gate 3 companion.

It's quite an involved, long-winded, and tricky 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.

There are other ways of recruiting Minthara peacefully that work slightly differently, including knocking her out and then polymorphing her into a sheep, dominating her to make her friendly, then taking Sheepthara to Moonrise Towers so that she can be judged. 

Or you can disrupt the Druids' ritual at the grove and then quickly leave to cause a fight between the Tieflings and the Druids to break out. With the Tieflings dead, the game will assume you've sided with Minthara, leading into the victory party with the Drow Paladin and her goblin underlings. While you personally haven't killed anyone, all that bloodshed was caused by you and not much else changes compared to just fighting alongside Minthara, which we've also explained below - Wyll and Karlach still disapprove and leave camp, for example. But if it's enough to convince you that you "harmlessly" recruited Minthara, more power to you.

Baldur's Gate 3 Minthara: Kill her at the Goblin Camp

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.

Baldur's Gate 3 Minthara: Kill her at the Emerald Grove

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.

Baldur's Gate 3 Minthara: side with her and Raid the Emerald Grove

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 - in fact, she becomes a companion and Baldur's Gate 3 party member afterwards. However, fighting in the Grove is enough to cause both Karlach and Wyll to leave your camp permanently. 

Bear in mind that this pathway will therefore considerably change up the events of the first part of the game, so, 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.

© 12DOVE. Not to be reproduced without permission.