Summary

• Patch 4 of Baldur's Gate 3 hints at the possibility of recruiting Minthara without committing a massacre, offering a more optimal path for players.
• The addition of a new scene between Minthara and Halsin provides an alternative recruitment option, avoiding the need for widespread deaths among interesting characters.
• While it's uncertain if this new scene will be included in the game, its potential implementation would improve the narrative flow and address player frustration, filling a gap and rewarding those who choose mercy over violence.

Every Baldur's Gate 3 campaign is likely to include its fair share of slaughter, but one big act of violence might no longer be necessary to achieve certain results. Certain party are more inclined toward violence than others, and committing unpardonable acts can sometimes be the quickest way to their hearts. The most extreme example of this is Minthara, a drow Paladin set on the massacre of the Tieflings in the Druid Grove in Act 1 of the game. Getting her on board has traditionally required making a big moral sacrifice, but the most recent patch could change things in the future.

Baldur's Gate 3 has made plenty of alterations since its launch, with most focusing on fixes to existing issues or the inclusion of quality-of-life features that were lacking. Less frequently, some changes seek to flesh out narrative or character aspects that were found lacking, like the work on expanding epilogues after players wanted more for characters like Karlach. The situation with Minthara hasn't actually received a live change, but data points to the possibility of revisions, adding another angle to make recruiting the drow Paladin possible without completely selling the protagonist's soul so early in the game.

Minthara Could Be Recruited Without A BG3 Massacre

The possibility of a new option for Minthara recruitment comes from datamined files in Baldur's Gate 3 Patch 4, as revealed by merrinla on tumblr (via TheGamer). This new scene showcases an encounter between both Minthara and Halsin in camp, an unusual scenario that hasn't been possible in the game so far. The druid Halsin tends to end up dead if the party chooses to side with Minthara, and he wouldn't be willing to work with her anyway, representing a fundamentally opposed ideology. The datamined scene still ends with the inability to recruit both at once, but it points to more optimistic scenarios for acquiring Minthara in general.

Halsin opens up the dialogue by establishing that he's unwilling to remain with the party if Minthara is recruited into it, as her willingness to slaughter everyone in Druid Grove was too odious for him to accept. He specifically states that "she was denied her bloody prize," proving that this conversation was designed to occur without the massacre happening. Although backing up Minthara at this point will result in Halsin's departure, it clearly manages to avoid the larger sacrifice of wide-spread deaths among interesting characters, making it a more optimal path than any that has previously existed.

Choosing to side with Halsin here will return things to the general status quo of a campaign with Halsin, although the consequences are tragic for Minthara. At this point, she's out of the sway of the Absolute, but letting her leave the party and the protection offered by the Artifact means that she'll fall under its thrall once more. Regardless, Halsin isn't willing to budge on the subject. He will still thank the party for helping him with Thaniel when he leaves, but his grudge against Minthara clearly runs too deep to set aside in the name of fighting the Absolute.

Baldur's Gate 3's Minthara Change Might Not Come

This additional scene is obviously exciting for anyone who finds the drow Paladin compelling but doesn't want to descend into a completely evil Baldur's Gate 3 campaign, but it's hard to say yet whether it will actually arrive in the game. Optimistically, its appearance in the latest patch means it's likely a scene recently crafted as a response to player frustration with the Minthara recruitment possibilities. In this case, it just needs to be voice acted, animated, and properly implemented to show up live in a future patch, a tall but doable order.

It's also possible, however, that this is something that developer Larian Studios has played around with but ultimately won't commit to including in Baldur's Gate 3. The game is no stranger to cut content, as it's inherently hard to make a vast, branching fantasy adventure without ultimately needing to trim some loose ends here or there to make the overall package viable. Minthara's new scene has a respectable chance of being a currently planned inclusion, but it's best not to get any hopes particularly high in case it doesn't end up panning out.

The Minthara Scene Could Make Baldur's Gate 3 Better

The best reason to add a new route for Minthara's recruitment stems from the lengths that the community has gone through in attempts to achieve similar results. Players have experimented with plenty of tricky ways to minimize collateral damage or get her and Halsin in the same camp, exposing some of the messier threads of the game's story flow. Implementing a proper method would help keep more parties on the intended track, which would no doubt have a certain appeal for Larian Studios in presenting the story in the best possible light.

Larian fixed a common method of recruiting Minthara and Halsin together in an earlier patch, so the new scene could be a possible answer to that imposed limitation.

There's also an argument to be made that the scene fills in an actual narrative gap. It's entirely possible for Minthara to theoretically survive until Act 2 even with Halsin in the party, although the game's limited implementation of non-lethal attacks having appropriate results is one reason why there isn't any official for this path. Adding this as an outcome of siding with Halsin but using a non-lethal attack on her would help fill in one such hole and reward those who decided to show mercy on one of the Absolute's thralls, tying up some dangling loose ends with an interesting scene and a new possibility for recruitment.

Killing off key characters and accepting dark fates isn't all bad in Baldur's Gate 3, as there are plenty of interesting angles to be found in a truly evil playthrough of the game. Nonetheless, having a way to recruit Minthara without taking such drastic measures is one change that could be appreciated. Minthara and Halsin may never be great friends, but a scene where they meet is a valuable addition that could eventually save Baldur's Gate 3 campaigns from murdering masses in the name of the perfect party.

Sources: merrina/tumblr, TheGamer