I'm not playing with latest patch. I haven't made it very far either. I started 1 game with a warlock cleared the goblin camp. There was no vendor there except for the goblin outside. I found the pain guy by a crevice, all he said was, these goblins are out for blood, I'm leaving you should too. I beat Ethel she offered a a stat increase to let her go.

I thought a sorcerer might be better than a warlock so I started a new game. I did pretty much the exact same thing I did in the first game. Now the goblin camp has a vendor inside the fortress and the pain fanatic guy will give you a permanent buff if you let him whip you. Ethel won't offer the stat increase to let her go, no matter which way I beat her.

Is this a bug, or did I not do something, or is it just different for different classes?

no its not a bug and yes you did something

the difference is how many fights you got "seen/ noticed" having before getting to the vendour and the pain guy... in your first run it was enough to make the goblins attack you on sight but in the second run you still had at least some chance to win them over

p.s its not just goblins, the grove [as a whole], the druids [on their own] & even anti all have a certain level before they thou down on sight against you

anti needs to be below a certain health at the start of her turn in order to give up

Ahh I see. Thank you for letting me know.

And here I thought this would be a thread about how much changed in BG3 since release !