The second patch for Baldur's Gate 3 is right around the corner, and we already know a lot about what's going to be in it. We've got fixes, tweaks, and justice for Karlach heading our way in the near future, but a recent chat between Larian CEO Swen Vincke and IGN has also revealed that one of our companions is about to get significantly chattier, too. That is, so long as you didn't kill her as soon as you met.
The companion in question is Minthara, the luxuriously evil drow you encounter drawing up war plans for the Absolute in the game's Act 1 goblin camp. If you're anything like me (and around 65% of players) your acquaintance ended there, because she's one of the three leaders you have to murk to help out the tieflings and Druids of Emerald Grove. But for those few, nefarious players who laid waste to the Druids' grove, BG3's second patch is going to end a "very stupid bug" that was preventing the evil companion from delivering "about 1500 lines" of dialogue.
Vincke told IGN that "there were a couple of bugs that caused some of the companions to not react as they should. And so that felt like the content was not showing up." In the case of Minthara, that means "there's about 1500 lines… that weren't showing up as a result of a very, very stupid bug" that Larian has now managed to track down and fix as part of the game's next big patch.
Although Minthara's blocked lines were perfectly functional in previous versions of BG3, at some point they got cut off. That's contributed to the character feeling a little bit lightweight in comparison to the game's main companions like Karlach, Gale, or Astarion. While that is kind of intentional—Vincke calls her a "sidekick" in contrast to the game's full-fat origin characters with their associated personal quests—there was definitely meant to be more to her than is currently in the game. "It doesn't help that some of her lines are not triggering. So that doesn't do her justice," he told IGN.
That could always change in future updates, though. After Larian fixes her currently blocked content, Vincke says the studio will "see how she's going to land with the fans," after which it might "do something extra with her". That works for me. I just hit Act 3 in my own playthrough, which (I think) means I'm nearer to the game's end than its beginning. Once I've tucked away my first run, I'll probably immediately start up a second, evil one. If Larian can get Minthara all chatty and polished up in time for that, well, that sounds good (bad) to me.
