You’re standing in the Sunlit Wetlands—or the Putrid Bog, if you’ve managed to see through the illusion—and you’re staring at a "kindly" old lady. But your gut is screaming. You know she’s a hag. You know she’s got Mayrina trapped. Now you’re asking yourself the big question: should I kill Auntie Ethel Act 1 or let her live? Honestly, it’s one of the most mechanically significant choices you’ll make in the first twenty hours of Baldur’s Gate 3.
It isn't just about being a hero. In this game, sometimes being "good" actually costs you some of the best permanent stat boosts available.
Let's be real. Ethel is a monster. She’s a fey creature who feeds on misery, and she has a basement full of living statues and cursed masks to prove it. If you’re playing a Paladin, your Oath is probably itching. But if you kill her too early or too quickly, you might miss out on a piece of loot that makes the endgame significantly easier.
The Mechanical Reality: Auntie Ethel’s Hair
The biggest reason people hesitate to kill Ethel is the Auntie Ethel’s Hair. This isn't just a flavor item. It’s a consumable that grants a permanent +1 bonus to any ability score of your choice. In a game built on the D20 system where hitting an even number (like 18 or 20) increases your modifier, that +1 is massive. It’s the difference between a 17 Strength and an 18 Strength.
If you just burst into her tea house and smite her into oblivion during the first round of combat, you lose this. You don't get the hair. You just get a dead hag and a very confused Mayrina. To get the hair, you have to play her game. You have to fight her in her lair, get her health down to roughly 10% or 20%, and then wait for her turn. She’ll stop the fight and offer you a deal: her scalp (the hair) in exchange for letting her leave with Mayrina.
With a high enough Charisma check (Persuasion or Intimidation), you can actually have your cake and eat it too. You can bully her into giving you the hair and letting Mayrina go. That is the "optimal" play for most players.
💡 You might also like: Playing A Link to the Past Switch: Why It Still Hits Different Today
Why You Might Actually Want to Kill Her
Maybe you don't care about the stats. Maybe your build is already "online" and you just want the satisfaction of ending her. If you decide to go for the kill, there are a few things to consider.
First, killing her frees the people in the Entrance Gallery—mostly. The masked servants won't immediately turn friendly, but if you knock them out instead of killing them, and then kill Ethel, they can eventually find some semblance of peace. The petrified dwarf? He gets cured. The elf looking into the future? His torment ends.
Killing her also grants you a decent chunk of XP and access to her loot immediately. You’ll find the Corellon’s Rethink staff and some decent potions. But let's be honest: the loot on her corpse isn't nearly as good as that permanent +1 stat boost.
The Mayrina Problem
Mayrina is a bit of a mess. She thinks the hag is going to bring her husband back to life. If you kill Ethel, you’re the one who has to break the news that the "deal" was a sham. You’ll find a wand called Bitter Divorce in the back room of the lair. If you have that wand, you can choose to resurrect her husband, Connor.
Spoiler: He’s a zombie.
📖 Related: Plants vs Zombies Xbox One: Why Garden Warfare Still Slaps Years Later
Whether you kill Ethel or take the deal, you still get to decide Connor’s fate. You can give Mayrina the wand and let her take her zombie husband back to Baldur’s Gate, or you can keep the wand for yourself and have a free, albeit smelly, summon for the rest of the game.
The "Let Her Live" Strategy
So, let's say you decide not to kill her. You want that hair. You’ve gotten her low, she’s made the offer, and you’ve passed the check to save Mayrina and get the loot. Ethel disappears.
Is she gone forever? No.
Without spoiling too much of the later game, hags are notoriously hard to kill. They have "Lairs" and "Circles." If you let her live in Act 1, she’ll definitely show up again in Act 3. Interestingly, even if you "kill" her in Act 1, she often finds a way back anyway, though the narrative context changes slightly. Choosing to spare her for the hair is generally considered the "meta" choice because the long-term consequences of her survival are manageable, while the +1 stat boost is irreplaceable.
Fighting Tips: If You Choose Violence
If you do decide to kill Auntie Ethel in Act 1, don't just run in swinging. She’s a level 5 caster with some nasty tricks.
👉 See also: Why Pokemon Red and Blue Still Matter Decades Later
- The Clones: She creates illusions of herself. The easiest way to find the real one? Look at the debuffs. The real Ethel will usually have any status effects you’ve applied to her (like Faerie Fire or Bleed), while the clones won't. Also, hitting a clone once makes it disappear. Magic Missile is your best friend here because it hits multiple targets.
- The Fire: She’ll light Mayrina’s cage on fire. You need to throw a water bottle at it or use the "Create Water" spell immediately.
- The Invisibility: She loves to disappear. See Invisibility potions or Volo's Ersatz Eye (if you’ve let him perform "surgery" on you) make this fight trivial.
The Verdict
So, should I kill Auntie Ethel Act 1?
If you are a min-maxer or playing on Tactician/Honor Mode: No. Do not kill her immediately. Get her low, take the deal for the Hag's Hair to get that +1 stat, and use your Charisma to save Mayrina anyway.
If you are roleplaying a high-morality character who refuses to negotiate with monsters: Yes. Kill her, but do it in her lair so you can save the victims in the masks and the petrified dwarf.
The reality is that Baldur's Gate 3 is a game of trade-offs. Sparing a monster for power is a very "D&D" thing to do. It feels dirty, but that 20 Strength at level 4 feels real good when you’re swinging a greatsword.
Practical Next Steps for Your Playthrough
- Check your stats: Look at your primary ability score. If it's an odd number (13, 15, 17, 19), you need that hair. It will increase your modifier and make you objectively more powerful.
- Prepare for the fight: Bring Gale or a Wizard with Magic Missile. Bring a Cleric with Create Water to save Mayrina.
- The Conversation: Put your highest Charisma character (usually a Bard, Paladin, or Warlock) closest to Ethel when she’s near 10% HP. You want them to trigger the dialogue so you have the best chance of winning the Intimidation/Persuasion check.
- Save Mayrina's Husband: Don't forget to grab the wand "Bitter Divorce" from the table in the Acrid Workshop (the room behind the boss arena). Whether you kill Ethel or not, the wand is there.
- Check the Masks: If you killed Ethel, go back and talk to the people wearing masks in the first room. Some might still be hostile, but one (the Mask of Regret) will have unique dialogue and can be encountered later in the game.