Baldur’s Gate 3 keeps presenting the players with difficult choices and moral dilemmas. Some of the outcomes of your choices have minor impacts, while others can change the whole course of the game. One such choice appears before the players during the first act of BG3 when you can either save Emerald Grove and its residents or raid it with Goblins to kill everyone.
This is a very difficult choice to make regarding the outcomes. However, we will be guiding you through the whole process by explaining the consequences of every single choice you make. Which companions will you end up losing or locking yourself out of quests/endings. So, let’s begin. Shall we?
What happens if you raid Emerald Grove with goblins and Minthara in BG3
To raid Emerald Grove instead of saving it in BG3, you first need to side with the Nightwarden Minthara. She is available in the Shattered Sanctum area of the goblin camp. Kill Halsin before you approach her to get her approval. Lead her to the Emerald Grove and help her kill all the Tieflings and Druids. You can make the fight a bit easier by stealing the Sacred Idol creating a battlefield between Druids and Tieflings.
The raid on Emerald Grove only becomes successful if you kill Rath, Zevlor, Halsin, Kagha and Wyll. Karlach being a Tiefling disapproves of your actions and leaves the party. If you haven’t recruited her yet, you won’t be able to do it in the future. However, it allows you to romance Minthara and recruit her later in the game.
This will also lock you out from gaining Halsin’s help with the parasite inside your brain. Eventually, Halsin will appear at your camp and you will have to kill him.
What happens if you side with Halsin and save Emerald Grove?
Now, the question is, what will happen if you side with Halsin in Baldur’s Gate 3? Halsin can be saved by starting the “Save the first Druid” quest in the Druid Grove. Halsin is available in the Worg Pen area of goblin camp, north of Shattered Sanctum. Upon saving Halsin, he will ask you to help him take down three goblin leaders. Help him kill all the leaders and goblins inside goblin camp. This will resolve the issue between Druids and Tieflings too.
You can only save Emerald Grove by killing Minthara instead of raiding it in BG3, making her unavailable for romance or recruit options later. Astarion and Lae’zel strongly disapprove of your actions, resulting in hurting your chances with both. However, you will end up gaining Wyll and Karlach as your party members. Druid Grove keeps standing where you can get help to remove the parasite from your brain, potentially leading to the good ending of BG3.
Should you raid or save the Emerald Grove in Baldur’s Gate 3
Well, this is a very difficult question to answer. But we have an amazing solution to it that we will discuss a bit later. Both options have their pros and cons, and they lead to extremely polarizing results. At this point, we recommend that you make a save and check both options (if it is not possible for you to play the game multiple times). Both options will lead you to different results with different interactions and cutscenes.
An alternate choice to stay neutral
But, as we mentioned above, there is another option we consider the best of both worlds. What if you want to recruit Wyll, Karlach, and Minthara in the same playthrough? If you want that, stay neutral. Don’t lead a raid with Minthara and her minions on Emerald Grove. Free Halsin but don’t complete his quest to take down all three goblin leaders.
Once you have done everything else in the area and recruited Wyll and Karlach, make your way to the Rosymorn Monastery. Complete the tasks there and then proceed ahead to Act 2 of Baldur’s Gate 3. You will get a warning from the game that this is a point of no return for Act 1. Simply proceed and the events of the Grove vs Goblins event will happen without any outside interference. Or well in this case, not happen.
You didn’t kill the goblin leaders on Halsin’s orders so druids don’t have an edge. As Minthara doesn’t know the location of Emerald Grove (she was keeping Halsin to extract that information), she will end up failing in her mission assigned to her by the Absolute. They will imprison her due to this failure and being unable to acquire the Artefact in your possession.
You can save Minthara in BG3 and recruit her later in Act 2. Druids of the Grove end up finishing the ritual to erect a protective barrier against goblins thus also saving the refugees in the process.
Wyll doesn’t die and Karlach never becomes angry with you. Astarion and Lae’zel remain neutral, and their disapproval is not that strong. In this way, you will end up recruiting Wyll, Karlach and Minthara in the same playthrough with you having full chances to romance any of them.
These are all the options and their outcomes if you either save or raid Emerald Grove in BG3. We recommend that you go with the third option which is also the best in our opinion. Be neutral.
