In Baldur’s Gate 3, Auntie Ethel is a sweet and caring NPC who can be encountered amongst the refugee camp at Druid’s Grove. Ethel the Hag is a different story, and you might be tempted to drink some of her potions after your encounter with her without first knowing their effect.
Upon meeting Auntie Ethel, she will heal you, offer you soup, and even tell you that she can potentially assist you with your Mind Flayer Parasite. All you have to do is meet her at her home, since she doesn’t have all of her resources with her here in the Grove.
Ethel the Hag, on the other hand… is the same person. The cake is a lie and the world is ugly. This is one of my personal favorite side questlines in Baldur’s Gate 3. Even after seeing Ethel (in her human form) being confronted by two young men on the road who were accusing her of being a hag, we didn’t believe it. Usually games can tend to make these types of reveals obvious, but Ethel really does present as a sincere woman. In reality, she is anything but that.
There’s a couple of ways you can deal with (or not deal with) Ethel. If you confront and fight her in her home, you will go on a delightfully eerie goose chase through the rotting underbelly of her hut in the swamp. The choice to kill or spare her is yours, but either option results in finding yourself the proud owner of 10 ominously named and unexplained potions. Dreams really do come true!
Baldur’s Gate 3: Ethel’s potions explained
Assuming you’ve defeated Ethel, the only way out of the tunnels beneath her home is through—you’ll pass through an area called the Acrid Workshop, presumably Ethel’s brewing and evil-doing station. In addition to the Staff of Crones, a powerful magical item for spellcasters, you will find 10 potions ceremoniously staged upon a stone pedestal. The potions are:
- A Mother’s Loathing: Grants the Bite ability until next long rest (2d4 piercing damage).
- Broken Promises: Increases consumer’s Strength by two until next long rest. After that, Strength is reduced by one “indefinitely.” Not permanently, but indefinitely. Unless that’s just another one of Ethel’s tricks?
- Butterflies in the Stomach: Consumer hemorrhages, taking 1d6 damage per turn for four turns. Are you sure those were butterflies, Ethel?
- Faltering Will: Disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws until next long rest. This condition is labelled as a curse, not poison. What the hell was in that potion, Ethel?!
- Heart of Stone: Grants resistance to poison damage until next long rest. Not resistance to Ethel’s potions though, ’cause apparently those are curses.
- Insanity’s Kiss: Consumer is hostile to all other creatures for five turns. This one threw a bit of a wrench in our potion testing. Shadowheart nearly didn’t make it out.
- Lost Time: Consumer’s AC is reduced by two and then cannot make Reactions. Lasts for a whopping 50 turns.
- Lover’s Avarice: Wisdom is “indefinitely” reduced by one. Come on Ethel, not this again.
- Missing Pets: Consumer has Disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks for three turns. Why? Because they’re preoccupied with hallucinating about spiders crawling all over their skin.
- Wilted Dreams: “Something waits for the creature to sleep.” WHAT? It takes 3-18 psychic damage during its next long rest.
Shockingly, all but two of the potions have absolutely awful effects when consumed. We trusted you, Ethel. This isn’t actually bad news for the player, however. Remember, potions can be consumed as a bonus action, but they can also be thrown as a bonus action. There are some devastating debuffs in this list, so throw them at your next difficult boss.
Related: Baldur’s Gate 3: How to get the Helm of Balduran and Balduran’s Giantslayer in BG3
Disappointingly, there is no secret effect, achievement, or benefit for drinking all 10 potions at one time. We tried. All that was learned is that your character won’t die, but they will never be quite the same.
The only two potions that you should even consider drinking are A Mother’s Loathing (although the Bite ability is an action and has relatively low damage. But hey, it’s technically a positive effect) and Heart of Stone for the poison resistance (ironically, this potion has one of the more conceivably negative effects based upon its name).
There doesn’t seem to be any way to recreate Ethel’s potions, meaning they are all unique items with a one-time use. Whatever the Hag’s secret recipe was, it died with her.
