One BG3 Update Changes Romance For The Better, But Undercuts The Commitment

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Along with the other big additions brought by the fifth major update for , Patch 5 has also made it significantly easier to recruit Minthara without needing to commit to an «evil» playthrough. Released months after the game's initial launch, Patch 5 brings possibly the largest changes to the game yet, in the form of a playable epilogue and two new difficulty settings — the extra-challenging Honour Mode and the modular Custom Mode. With those major additions, though, the game has also introduced, as usual, a number of smaller fixes and adjustments.

Prior to the Patch 5 update for , Minthara, a drow Paladin under the thrall of the Absolute, could only normally be recruited on «evil» playthroughs — or, at least, on playthroughs where the party didn't side with the tiefling refugees. In cases where players successfully raided the grove with Minthara and the goblins, or simply moved on to later portions of the game without even picking a side, they would then get the opportunity to save her and recruit her to the party at Moonrise Tower in the second act. As of the most recent major patch, however, Minthara can be recruited (and romanced) even when siding with the tieflings and taking out the goblin camp's leaders.

However, while allowing players to recruit Minthara regardless of their Act 1 alignment means that a larger audience will get to experience her story, it also somewhat undercuts the commitment that used to be necessary for it. «Evil» playthroughs in, and in most games with similar moral decisions, tend to be the less picked option, often relegated to subsequent playthroughs of the game or not done at all, and making Minthara recruitable regardless of player alignment has the unfortunate side effect of taking away