Who here thinks Minsc should be a Ranger Dual Classed to Berserker due to his headwound?
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I REALLY, REALLY....REALLLLLY think that they should consider this. If the Berserker Kit is viable to play in BG1 EE like TuTu...why not just dual him over to explain his berserk rage, he'd essentially be the same character, but instead of having too low of a Wisdom score to cast priest spells without failure percentages he would get more rage uses as time goes by, making him a much better character in BG2 later on...(he kind of plateaus otherwise in comparison to say Sarevok and others) But what do you think?
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He does make much more sense as a Berserker or Barbarian than a Ranger.
For my money, though, I'd prefer the original game to stay the same and delegate this kind of functionality to mods (with a built in mod manager). It's either SCS or BG2Tweaks which allows you to turn Khalid into a Fighter/Mage and Monteron into an Assassin.
It's good fun but after a certain point your no longer really playing Baldur's Gate. You're rolling your own party and borrowing the voice acting.
Then of course, I got carried away -- Oh man, wouldn't it be cool of Kivan was a proper Archer? And Ajantis a Cavalier? Hmmm maybe I should make Imoen a Swashie. I never use her for backstabs so ... Or, I know! Coran!
I was itching to make Garrick into a Jester or a Skald, then hit the wrong key and he turned up in my game as a Paladin.
That's when I went back to playing vanilla BG with no mods. :-P
Full endorsement then with one caveat -- he'd have to retain his original stats.
In short, I don't think this is necessary. Leave the NPCs as they are. There are only very few instances where a certain kit or new class would totally make sense.
The main PC has abilities that aren't normal...I'm not saying cool house rules abilities shouldn't be there, I'm saying Minsc is a more rewarding character when swapped to the Berserker class. He becomes a lot more fun. Fast. And higher levels continues to be a great addition, instead of a mediocre one with a fantastic personality.
@The_New_Romance I know they can't dual, I said that it was a house rules kind of thing to allow for it. But in the story, he sustained a massive head-wound and lost most of his Intelligence and Wisdom. So much so that on the Pen and Paper side of it he'd receive penalties that the game doesn't compute in the previous incarnation. Minsc is an obvious fan favorite, but originally as @Brude said, he was designed to be a Barbarian (Spoof on Conan type thing), So they broke a bunch of rules to have a Ranger fit that mold. I think...going from there, using the kits that are implemented now, under the description of Berserker it maintains that everyone who becomes one has different reasons. It's centered around an emotional instability to paraphrase. And his head wound would explain and justify it. Plus his innate ability is essentially the same as the Berserker rage already....so over time he would just get to rage more often in a fight.
I would have also added to my last post that the benefits to getting grand mastery are marginal at best, to the point that by the end of the game I doubt they would make much of a difference, but you beat me in your response to my attempts to edit it. Yes ok you get faster attack, do slightly more damage and have a slightly better chance to hit than if you specialise, but with all the buffs available in the game the benefits aren't that significant in my opinion. So I'll just end this rant by saying I really don't feel he needs to be changed.
Also I might have that handbook lying around somewhere too...hrmn.
Plus, he's been trained as some sort of ranger. He was wounded and now he's dumb. He's still a ranger, albeit a strange one, but that doesn't really mean he has to change his class. It's like a fighter who loses an arm in battle - he's still a fighter, it doesn't mean he has to become a mage now. He's just a weird fighter now. A bard who loses his voice due to a curse can still be a bard (without spellcasting as that requires vocals), he needn't become a swashbuckler. All the changes might happen, but they're far from compulsory.
Class and personality are two different things, and I like that, as it gives much more variety than class and personality overlapping 100% percent. The history of a character (or even a real person) after he "graduated" as a mage/farmer/experimental physicist/whatever is also totally distinct from that graduation/mage school diploma/farming experience itself.
Just my opinion, though, I can understand where you're coming from. I just don't think it would really add to the character or the gameplay experience.
While we are at that, time to make a petiton to make Nalia thief/fighter. BG2 has 3 thief/mages and one pure thief that dies halfway through. That's it for rogue NPC's unless you dual Sarevok in ToB (I did). How does that make any sense?
One more: Can Kivan be an actual Archer now instead of Ranger, since BG:EE has BG2 kits? Can Tiax please not suck this time around? Thanks.
Wasn't he based on someones's character who used hamsters as a means of setting off traps in dungeons?. If he stays a Ranger, he could have a special ability (like Morte's skull swarm) where he calls down a horde of hamsters to smite a target.
Just kidding - but if any changes are made I hope Minsc I trust Overhaul not to make him too serious.
I pretty much agree with @The_New_Romance's take on it.
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/5050/request-change-minsc-class-from-ranger-to-berserker-fighter#latest
...afaik BG engine doesn't support dual classing from a warrior class to another warrior class, so the whole discussion is kinda pointless.