Unpopular opinion: Minsc is not Good
Thalamond
Member Posts: 127
...rather he is a psychopathic chaotic evil who strikes or attempts to strike down a young group of adventurers who politely decline his demands to go on a dangerous quest to a Fortress packed with savage gnolls.
Imo this guy, despite being the most overrated and stupid character in the whole series, is, as explained above, *also* mis-matched with his alignment. A strong temper, ok, but he should stop himself after a brief burst of anger. This is not what happens when you first meet him. He is a murderer on the level of Bhaal.
And yet, we are forced to believe that he is Charname's good friend at the beginning of BGII. Sorry, this guy has always been more dangerous for humanity than Tiax.
Imo this guy, despite being the most overrated and stupid character in the whole series, is, as explained above, *also* mis-matched with his alignment. A strong temper, ok, but he should stop himself after a brief burst of anger. This is not what happens when you first meet him. He is a murderer on the level of Bhaal.
And yet, we are forced to believe that he is Charname's good friend at the beginning of BGII. Sorry, this guy has always been more dangerous for humanity than Tiax.
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And I say this as someone who adores Minsc.
LoL Your "adoration" of Minsc looks kinda sadistic. 😜
.....That having been said, you may as well go ahead with his request (demand!) and rescue Dynaheir. She can be useful, and Minsc is a large body you can throw into combat to keep the baddies away from your own precious skin. Additionally, I am not sure what happens if he dies in BG1 and is not raised back up, but (spoiler alert!) Minsc is also pretty useful in the beginning scenario of Shadows of Ahm. I do ditch him there also once replacements can be recruited, at which point I never have to deal with him and his hamster butt buddy ever again.
ok i can say the other - artisans kitpack - rashemi berserker
Umm, yeah, OK ... I am not a really good person. But aside from that, what part of "Minsc is a hamster-kissing pervert and a moron who is only useful as a meat shield" do you disagree with?
.....I was seriously annoyed to find that I was stuck with him again in ToB for some time. Yes, I can totally refuse to accept him into the party, but he is pretty useful as a meatshield early on in the campaign, so I ... rather reluctantly ... accept him until I can replace him with someone saner. Which includes basically every recruitable NPC ever. He pretty much admits that he kept "Boo" with him by sticking the wretched rodent someplace where the sun don't shine; Imoen actually gags at the concept. The boy is several cans short of a six-pack.
I absolutely agree with that. he isn't evil, he's stupid.
in fact, way back in the day, there was a picture of the original character sheet of minsc somewhere on the interwebs if i recall, and also minsc has illegally low stats as well, rangers normally cannot have less than 14 WIS and yet minsc has 6, and the reason being is because minsc suffered some sort of head wound which is why his INT and WIS are mud, and part of the reason why he thinks Boo is a hamster from space
when it comes to personality, minsc reminds me of Lenny from; Of mice and men
and there could be some of that influence since one of xzar's rare selects has a Lenny line from the book;
Ah, tell me about the rabbits
I actually find Minsc to be the stronger person of the pair between him and Dynaheir in BG1. Some advice for folks who have never found Minsc effective: Find a way to incorporate his ranger stealth, especially later in the game. IMO, a dedicated stealth character is always a strong component of a six-person party, especially in BG1. A second thief or a ranger can fulfill this role. Coran is the perfect, OP pick for this, but Minsc works fine as well.
Don't return or find a way to get back those stealth boots. Don't immediately start using Minsc as a stealth character. Think of it as an ability that you unlock as he levels up. With the boots, it's not hard to get him to pretty close to 100/100 on stealth by the end game. Very valuable for the second trip to Baldur's Gate. Very valuable for the TotSC content.
Perhaps let him use the longbow in the early game. Spending that first point in long bows also isn't bad. But with the weapons , stick with the two-hander as your main plan for the late game. The first point in two-handed style is worth it. Mace or dual maces as a back up weapon. The spider's bane is the best weapon in the game imo. Free action liberates you from alot of worries and I a reminder that it synergizes with Dynaheir's Web spells. And it enables you to be tanky on the frontline in certain fights more than high AC does. Minsc can become a vicious wizard-killer in the end game.
But yeah, the key is if you're not making a plan to use stealth, you're mis-using Minsc and you're better off with a fighter or a paladin. But he's a solid member of the party imo if you do use it.
We follow the righteous path, the path of Helm!
Mmm. Any kind of mage is more powerful than others by default, so I think Dynaheir is "better" than Minsc overall.
But paired with Minsc and Spider's Bane they are a power duo in my games. With that sword and something against mind spells he is point and destroy versus mages. They complement each other well.
Most of the toughest fights in the game are won by being able to unload a serious amount of damage, disabling, or interrupting enemy casters within the first two or three rounds of combat. There are few combats where the outcome hinges on a long, drawn-out fight.
While constitution only provides a defensive bonus, dexterity boosts your attack chances. And you should always be taking advantage of at least one attack between spell casts. Because you can often do both within a single round. This isn't BG2 where the scaling difference eradicates the mage's attacking power. Anyone who has used Viconia likely already grasps, intuitively, this approach of using both a character's spells and a ranged weapon attack.
First accident. So I am always keen on playing no-reloads that can take many long hours of adventuring and great deal of planning. On one such adventure I decided to keep him in the party. See he is not totally useless after all, or he wouldn't have been hired thug of a renowned mage. But he is so dumb and fascinated by his hamster that he specialized in a Ranger class rather than the obvious choice for his dormant skills as formidable sword fighter and strong hands to wield the heaviest of bows. Instead he wastes his potential as a kit-less Ranger. Anyways he is not useless thug.
But he is really dumb as an ox. SO here is what happens. Somewhere in Baldur's Gate I engage in a brawl inside a bar and Minsc decides to go bonkers, draws his Spiderbane and assaults a huge ogre. At this point I am not sure who is more dangerous, the ogre or Minsc and get the party to a safe distance while he tackles and cuts the bull ogre. Then to the horror of everyone Minsc turns his attention to a peaceful folk sitting on a table and enjoying his last ale of beer of his life; and splits his head right there in front of everyone and bloodthirsty for more. Panic and mayhem erupts in the tavern everyone jumping through the windows and running for the basement. Realizing what has just happened I give prompt orders for the party to evacuate asap as the mayhem will no doubt draw the attention of Duke Eltan and the Flaming Fists. And just plea to Kagain to please do something about this. Grunting angrily and always unhappy Kagain finally stands up with his shield putting himself as a shield mead deflecting Minsk.s mighty blows of rage and pure madness, while we hit the door outside in safety and eventually flea the city altogether, including Minsc who doesn't even remember what he just did. Would have cut him right there for endangering my mission with the authorities and the dukes with a grizzly backstab if it was not for Dynaheir stopping me to spare his mad friend.
After the dust settles and all is forgotten, I start to notice that something is not right with my main character. 6 out of 10 arrows miss, can't Call shot, and my favored enemy the Giant Spiders almost decimates the party in the woods. At one point I stop to check if I have been poisoned or diseased by some Ghoul or something, and what I realize is that my Archer has become FALLEN due to the massive reputation drop in the tavern a few days ago.
In other words, Minsc destroyed my adventure and my main class to rubbish. This is a hard lesson learned of how bad Minsc is.
And the second story, which will be short, but equally gruesome, is when I was saving Prism the sculptor from Graywolf. Can you guess from the first try what Minsc did ? Yep once he killed Greywolf he cut down Prism in a blink of an eye !
The takeaway from these stories. While Thalamond warns that Minsc is evil, chaotic evil, I will remind you that actually pure madness is more dangerous than pure evil.
I’ve never had any problems with Minsc doing anything other than what I tell him to do. Since 1998 I’ve seen him go berserk exactly *ZERO* times. And I almost always have him on the team. He’s not on point, but he’s a second rank heavy damage dealer. Awesome and useful character.
https://davesgaming.blog/2025/01/19/chuck-update-17/
I mostly use Microsoft Co-Pilot Image Creator. It seems to have a good understanding of plain language and renders based on what you tell it. Zeno_42 put together a website that describes at length how to get the most out of the AI.
I've been using a lot of Meta's OpenArt for my current run, because it let's me build character models from photo inputs. That's in keeping with my TV show inspired main characters. But it struggles with high fantasy (non-human characters, magic, fantastical settings) so I still prefer Co-Pilot for most work.
Chuck out my whole "Chuck and Sarah" run. Or my previous complete run "Psyche and Diomedes".
This has really inspired me to do a deep dive on characters and story. Too much fun!
youtube.com/watch?v=ZE-Lbrv63JA