Today’s article veers a little off course from my normal content, and for the first time ever I’ll be talking about a dnd-adjacent video game. The game, of course, is Baldur’s Gate 3 and if you haven’t played it yet you absolutely need to check it out. It’s set in Faerun and follows the journey of some adventurers who have been infected with an illithid tadpole.
Some of the other guides online will tell you how to beat Minthara in Baldur’s Gate 3 without combat. Not me. This guide won’t show you how to defeat Minthara super easily, and there’s no secret little tricks that are going to be employed. Instead, I’ll be giving an overview of the battle setup and some strategic advice that you can use. It likely still won’t be a walk in the park, but that’s what makes it fun in the first place. Specifically, this guide will be dealing with Minthara during the Grove Raid, and not while she is in the Shattered Sanctum.
All images featured in this article were taken during my gameplay of Baldur’s Gate 3, copyright 2023 Larian Studios.
Today’s Article Will Discuss:
- Who is Minthara in BG3?
- Grove Raid Setup
- Priority #1: Goblin Sappers
- Priority #2: Barrel-tossin’ Ogre
- Priority #3: Minthara herself
Who is Minthara in Baldur’s Gate 3?
In the first act of Baldur’s Gate 3, Minthara is one of the 3 ‘goblin bosses’ (the others being Priestess Gut and Dror Ragzlin) that you can defeat in order to help out the tieflings currently residing in the grove.
She can be initially be found in the Shattered Sanctum of the Goblin Camp. This guide will specifically be discussing how to defeat Minthara during the Grove Raid. To initiate this quest, begin talking with Minthara in the Shattered Sanctum and act as if you are going to betray the tieflings. Your companions probably won’t like it, but it sets you up perfect for a double-crossing. She’ll then leave and start preparing to slaughter lots of innocents (#JustMintharaThings).
If you decide not to kill Minthara she can later be recruited as a companion, however that’s not what this guide is talking about.
How to Beat Minthara BG3: Grove Raid Setup
- Tav – Gloomstalker Ranger
- Lae’zel – Battle Master Fighter
- Shadowheart – Trickery Domain Cleric
- Gale – School of Illusion Wizard
1. Make sure that you Long Rest before the fight
You’re going to need as many hit points and spell slots as possible! It also never hurts to stock up on healing potions or scrolls of revivify. This one should be pretty obvious, especially after you try to kill Minthara the first time and get your ass absolutely handed to you.
2. Make use of the explosive barrels
All around the battlefield there are concealed barrels of oil that are buried underground. Additionally, there are a few free-standing red barrels (see image below) that can be placed where ever you want. I recommend pushing two of the barrels off the cliff and outside the gate. There are already a few concealed barrels down here, but we want to make sure to get the biggest BOOM possible.
I also put an extra barrel near the north east entrance, and another next to the top of the ladder. One got used, and the other didn’t.
3. Dip your weapons before the fight
There are a couple of bonfires at the top of the cliff that surrounds the grove entrance. In case you didn’t know, in Baldur’s Gate 3 you can dip your weapons into these flames to receive a little extra fire damage when your attacks hit. Be sure to enter Turn Based Mode when you do this (before you blow the horn still) to maximize the number of turns that you have this boon. Dipping your weapons in fire also allows any character to make the barrels explode instead of only characters that have fire attacks (such as Firebolt).
Just make sure that when you do this, you have the right weapon selected (ideally you’ll dip your ranged weapon first).
When you feel like you’re as prepared as you can be, go ahead and blow the horn to begin the raid on the Druid Grove. I had my Tav positioned at one bonfire, Lae’zel positioned by the other bonfire, Shadowheart near the top of the gate, and Gale at the horn.
P.S. During the fight, Zevlor is an absolute machine. Be sure that you keep him healed and he can output some fairly consistent damage and healing when you need it the most. The other tieflings are fairly inconsistent and miss a lot, so their main job is to soak up attacks. A truly noble sacrifice.
Priority #1: Goblin Sappers
The first thing you should do to beat Minthara is focus on killing the Goblin Sappers. These pesky little buggers are rigged with explosives and (if not stopped) will blow a hole in the gate and let the goblin army come flooding in.
Since this is the top priority, we’re going to be using some of the explosive barrels that were placed in the battle prep stage. The timing of this is very important. You want to wait as long as possible so there are lots of goblins waiting by the gate. Get the most bang for your buck. However, if you wait too long and the sappers get too close, then BOOM goes your gate.
The gate isn’t invulnerable and eventually the goblins will get through, but you want to keep them trapped down below and use the high ground advantage for as long as possible. Thanks to the ‘Sturdy’ feature of the gate, it can withstand blow after blow from enemies who deal low amounts of damage.
After you use the explosives, individually target any remaining sappers and kill them as fast as you possibly can. Use Shadowheart to cast Spiritual Weapon to deal damage to any stragglers, and to distract them from getting too close to the gate.
Priority #2: Barrel-tossin’ Ogre
With that taken care of, the next step to beat Minthara during the Grove Raid is to focus on killing the Ogre. He has quite a bit of HP, and he does this really annoying thing where he throws a barrel up top and when it explodes you realize there was a goblin inside of it the whole time. This can really mess up your plans and is just not a good time. The plus side is that when he does start throwing barrels, you can often just push the goblins off the cliff (dealing some extra damage and temporarily removing them from the battle).
As far as the actual Ogre itself, I dealt a ton of damage using Gale’s Witch Bolt. The cool thing about this spell is that you only need to succeed on a hit once. After that, Gale can safely step out of sight to ensure that concentration doesn’t get broken. It’s worth noting that in my game, Gale did take War Caster which gives Advantage on Concentration Checks. Once you hit, each turn you can then re-activate Witch Bolt as an action for guaranteed damage. At this point, that is all Gale is going to do. If you forget to re-activate Witch Bolt, then the spell ends early.
In this specific playthrough, Minthara used her Lay on Hands feature (discussed below) multiple times on the Ogre so it took a bit longer to kill it than normal. Thankfully I was able to finish it with some of the extra explosives that I placed near the north east entrance.
Priority #3: Focus on Minthara
Finally, you’re ready to kill Minthara! Now is the time to target all of your attacks on her, since she is by far the most deadly of all of the enemies in this battle. Her main strategy is to repeatedly buff and heal herself and her allies, and then come into close quarters for the kill. The abilities she uses the most to achieve this are Soul Branding and Lay on Hands.
Soul Branding
There’s not much you can do to prevent her from doing this, so it’s just good to be aware of. She’ll be casting this for the duration of the fight, and it increases movement speed and causes the next attack to deal extra fire damage. Ideally you want to avoid getting hit by anyone who has been Soul Branded for as long as possible so that the buff expires.
Lay on Hands
Her next ability is a powerful healing ability available to Paladins called Lay on Hands. Essentially she has access to a pool of hit points and can restore quite a bit of health to herself or her companions. During my fight I think she healed the Ogre two or three times, but thankfully she has to be right next to anyone she’s healing so it kept her down below for quiet a while.
Strategy for Beating Minthara
Deal as much possible damage as you possibly can from a distance, which should be fairly obvious. She can be a little tricky to hit, so when she finally did make it on top of the gate I repeatedly used Gale to cast Colour Spray. This kept her Blinded, which makes her significantly easier to hit (gives you Advantage) and also makes her miss more frequently. You may need to upcast Colour Spray as a second level spell when she first arrives if she has too many hit points.
While that was happening, I used all of my other characters to hammer her with as much damage as possible. Burn through any remaining spell slots and abilities that you still have because the battle isn’t necessarily over just yet. For me, it came down to Shadowheart using Inflict Wounds (and actually scoring a critical hit, but I definitely could have lasted a few more rounds if I hadn’t rolled this). For a first level spell, it’s crazy powerful with the only downside being that its a touch (melee) spell and you can just flat out miss.
And there you have it! That’s how you can beat Minthara in Baldur’s Gate 3. Of course, there are many different ways to achieve this, and the specifics will be determined by your party’s composition. Regardless, you will be able to use the general tactics and strategy laid out in this article to actually fight Minthara (and win). Thanks for reading the article, let me know if it helped (aaron@thealpinedm.com)!
Shout out to my Patrons Rachel Alexandria and Connor O’Keefe for making this article possible. Thank you!
And now here’s a silly joke magic item that you can use in your 5e home campaigns. If you enjoyed this article or item, please consider checking out my Patreon where you can unlock over 120+ pages of fantastic (non-joke) 5e content
Instant access to Bestiary & Arcane Vault (over 80 digital pages of 5e content)
3 Creatures and 3 Magic Items every month
Wardweaver Class: Versatile arcane tacticians who summon wards to manipulate the battlefield in their favor
Explore ancient Maps & Locations
VTT Creature Tokens
A Dungeon Master’s Guide to 5e Rogues
Learn the ins-and-outs of 5e rogues to help you better...
Read More
A Guide to Creating New Half-Races in D&D 5e
Why are there only two half races, and why is...
Read More
How to Create a Mafia in D&D
Thinking of joining the mafia in D&D? Fuggetaboudit, or you'll...
Read More