Minsc's Berserk Ability

BelgarathMTH

Hi, I just thought I'd share this, because I only just found out about it.

For years, I've always avoided using Minsc's berserk ability, because it used to cause him to go out of player control and to attack party members.

On a hunch, I just activated it in BG:EE 2.0, and lo and behold, it functions normally, retaining player control, and working just like a player character berserker would.

Holy crap! Minsc's usefulness rating just went up about three points in my book. He can now tank demi-liches and elder orbs with no fear of Imprisonment, for example. He can berserk during any mage encounter and be immune to any mind-affecting crap they can do to him. That is so *awesome*!

I'm curious, does anyone know if this is new to 2.0, or has it been in the EE's all along, and I just didn't know about it?

I loudly applaud this change, whenever it happened.

Lord_Tansheron

Never made much sense that a hamster-loving birds-and-puppies caring friend of all things good and righteous would suddenly turn into a frothing killing machine and wade over the broken corpses of allies that just happened to be next to him.

Getting real strong at the cost of nearly keeling over later - now THAT sounds like a guy who got hit in the head and now has an IQ equal to his BMI.

BillyYank

Really? I'll have to give that a whirl. I'm thinking a good testing ground is right in the middle of the xvart village.

BelgarathMTH

Shoot, this isn't as good as I first hoped. Minsc's berserk script is changed, but he can still go out of player control.

It looks like he no longer attacks friends, but, if you get him into melee range with an enemy, he does leave player control at that point - he won't stop attacking enemies even if you order him to.

I just fought the amazon assassin party outside the Nashkel mines lower entrance.

Minsc had the Spider's Bane greatsword, so, I ordered him into Dynaheir's Web to melee the amazons. We were still taking too much damage from the ranged attackers inside the Web, so, I decided to order him back so Dynaheir could use her Wand of Flame to cast a Fireball into the Web. About this time, Minsc got poisoned.

He had left my control, and so I couldn't get him to drink an antidote. The amazons were about dead from ranged attacks and the Fireball (which had hurt Minsc, on top of the Poison), so I ordered both my cleric and Jaheira into the Web to attempt Slow Poison. Both of us got stuck in the Web.

Minsc died of Poison, due to being too berserk to respond to the order to stop attacking and drink an antidote, and the fact that Jaheira and I were unable to get to him through Dynaheir's Web.

Oh well. However, it does seem that at least his berserk script has been changed to make him not attack party members. I still think that makes his berserk ability less risky than it used to be, although I will have to be more careful about activating it than I had thought at first.

Severon

upon reading this i caused Minsc to go berserk. .... and shortly afterwards, Safana got chunked.

BelgarathMTH

@Severon, really? Are you using version 2.0? He doesn't attack friends in my game. If he walks next to them, he just stands there. Maybe it's an alignment thing.

BelgarathMTH

Welp, I just had Minsc attack Jaheira after going berserk, so it's not at all what it seemed at first. I still think the script has changed to make it a bit less likely to happen, but it can happen. I had to use an Acclamation spell to get him unberserked pronto, since he was both wearing the Boots of Speed and Hasted by Dynaheir.

Oh, well.