i really hate Minsc and this hamster ,ok some lines of him are funny but in real life i would never take him along...
even from bg1 i was taking along the other ranger.

I think Minsc is damn cool. Get him with a nice AC and put the two handed sword Luricar in his hand. He will knock some shit down!!

I like his comments too. He is a little comic relief in a pretty dark game. I suppose you hated C3PO and JarJar too huh? Oh wait, everyone hates JarJar...=)

-Bishop

Minsc...he might be dumb and carry a mouse. BUT he swings a 2 hander better than anyone and he uses a bow like no other! I kinda like his overall quest, to protect "his witch".

yeah you probably are about the only one to hate minsc. he is a great bowman and two handed swordsman plus his quirky comments are cool. if you chucked him out of your party you'd be weird!

well i hated minsc in number 1, but hes much better in number 2.
although he isn't doing as much damage as korgan and keldorn (i like my fighters but thats cos they have carsomyr and crom faeyr... if i had warblade then he would be much better
WHERE IS WARBLADE ANYWAYS??

Go for the eyes Boo! AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEE!

Yes! You are the only one who hates Minsc. Watch your back, boo has you a contract out on you.

Dont feel bad i hate him too, his dialoge is irratating and he sucks monkey testicles as a fighter, korgan, anomen, and keldorn are much better. I hate that guy, and his little rodent.

what?? you prefer two stuck up tincans and a footstool instead of minsc & boo?? you are one perverted person

b

im just stating the facts, and they are: keldorn, anomen, and korgan are better fighters. thats all there is to it. korgan because he can get 5 star specialization, keldorn because of corsmyr, and anomen becasue he gains a lot of exp and 2 wisdom after he becomes a knight, hes an excellent cleric. and i have girdles and gauntlets of strenght to go around

ahh.. but if you play to optimize fightingpower you shouldn't play with any npc fighters at all.. you can make a lot better if you do a mpgame.. so the question in my mind has nothing to do with who is better than who (I don't even use any armor heavier than studded leather cause I think heavy armor is for fruits, I rarely use shields cuz they are also fo fruits) it's about style .. besides anomen is the most useless character in the game (he is much worse than minsc) he can't hit jack with his thac0 (at least not while I had him in the party to do his quest) .. and frankly a lawnornament is only so much fun ..

b

Minsc is the kewlest guy in the game except for the guy that gets hit by lightning in trademeet, Minsc rules!!

none can see, but my battlecry might give me away...

Aegis

You are the only one. I think there are better fighters in BG2 than Minsc (who never struck me as a Ranger, his kit would have been better as a Berserker or Barbarian) but I could never hate him. He has the second funniest dialogue in the game after Jan. Though I did find Kivan in BG1 very funny as well.

And of course in real life you wouldn't take him on! He'd be in a mental ward, don't you think? Big, big man...small, small brain...

no your not the only one that hate Minsc, i don't care much for him eather. he's a wimp!

Thats it Artea, boo just put out a hit on you too!

But stred
there's no-one as good as Kivan in Bg1

But still Minsc does suck
I NEVER had him (killed him in bg1 ) and hope i never will he just isn't really a good fighter is he

I don't like him that much. I do like his comments and his stupidity. But in combat, he's easilly charmed, confused, chaosed etc. and he has a knack of taking a lot of hits. I went through the game with my fighter and Keldorn and Jaheira as tanks, and with that combination I rarely had use for archers and mages! Minsc only got in the way and I spent half the time dispelling magic cast on him!

Minsc is an OK fighter. My problem is that he seems to make his comments more than anyone else. For every time that Aerie talks about "Such wonderful Stories", Mincs has said "...den of stinking evil...", "...hamsters and rangers everywhere, rejoice!", and "But kicking for goodness" half dozen times each. It's funny the first 1000 times, but after a while I want to drop kick that rodent into the next game. I would buy a bunch of intelegence potions if it would make him shutup.

thanks Artea,Jakkin,Kaël,bpm07,Dawnsight i was starting to think that i am the only one.
As for the rest in pure fighting worth keldorn is soo much better (dont forget:holy avenger,dispel magic,true sight,sav thr. +2)
Even Valygar is better,much cooler character and i really hate that they didnt have Kivan in bg2 he was THE ranger.

For those who dont like Minsc: What difficulty do you play on? Minsc is a slaughter machine in my party (Though I agree he does seem very weak against confusion)

I have to agree with mandrake. Minsc is a killing machine in my parties as well. Yes, he can be susceptible to confusion, charm, etc. That's why it's important for him to wield items that give him immunity to such attacks. The talking 2H sword, Lilicor, gives Minsc immunity to confusion and charm. The (+2) Shield of Harmony is even better. Once I have that shield, its practically welded to minsc's shield arm with a good mace in his other hand.

Hmm, some flaring tempers here.
The only fighter I'd take over Minsc would be Korgan. Any fighter I take on needs to have a few requisites:
First, they need to have a good strength (and THAC0).
Second, they need to have an acceptable dexterity.
Third, they need to have proficiencies that will allow them to be useful in both close quarters and ranged combat.
That takes Keldorn and Anomen out of the equation. Anomen's a worthless cleric, anyway.
Yes, his low intelligence is a curse. However, after much thought, I (albeit regretfully) forked over Lilarcor to him, and he never got confused/charmed again.
He's also a much funnier and interesting NPC than Keldorn or Valygar, and I can tolerate his presence, which is more than I'll say for Anomen.

Well said!

A thousand posts up this thread someone asked about the Warblade (which is one of the best weapons you can put in ole Minscs hands). It's in the Adventurers Mart, Ribalds 'special wares' that it costs 50g just to look at. But it's only there after you've come back from the Underdark.

Oh, and I do, of course, love Minsc with all my heart.

Yeah valygar is way cool and a very good fighter
Backstab with low AC

yours armisael
Valygar:Minsc

first Valygar has got str 17 but forgot about the girdles of giant strengh and he has low Thac0
second Valygar has got dex 8 just like minsc
third Valygar has got prof. on katana and longbow

have you even seen valygar wielding his family blade with the celestriac fury and boots of speed

My point about Valygar was that his character is as boring as Bob Dole. And yes, I've used him. I dropped him in favour of Jan Jansen, and a more radical leap in characterisation I have never seen.

yep Kivan uled in bg1, Valygar is about as useful as a leper in an arse kicking contest sadly

I can understand it if people just don't like the Minscter's eccentric personality, that is why there is a varied personality base for players to choose from. But to degrade his fighting ability is somewhat shortsighted and suggests not properly supplying him. Next to my Kensai, the Minscter has the 2nd highest kill ratio in the game. He is a walking slaughterhouse. I liked Keldorn a lot, but he couldn't compare to a properly supplied Minsc, and Anomen was never in the group.
bpm, if you don't use archers/slingers and mages, then it is no wonder that you have problems with charm and confusion spells. Archers/slingers and mages casting magic missiles are the best spell disruptors in the game. It is rare that an enemy mage manages to successfully cast those spells against my party.
I have to agree that Korgan is the only NPC fighter that tops Minsc, and despite popular opinion I agree with Armisael, a properly equipped Jaheira ranks a close 3rd.

I still dont understand somebody can actually "hate" Minsc,
ok, you can dislike but you cant hate him, I mean he is
so loyal a person can be, maybe he has a low intelligence but
he knows what is wrong and right and fight well.
Besides he has funny interactions with other npc's.
And I think Valygar is quite boring, never had him but doing his quest
and Keldorn is an old and "righteous" person, can you image how it can
be to have a such person around, dont do this and dont do that stuffs...
Go for Korgan if you need a decent fighter..

hey relic!

"bpm, if you don't use archers/slingers and mages, then it is no wonder that you have problems with charm and confusion spells. "

I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say in my earlier message. What I was saying was that in the latter stages of the game I had three tanks that really didn't need such protection. In the VERY unlikely event of my tanks being charmed, confused etc, Keldorn (almost 100% magic resist) dispelled the magic easily. Of course in the biggest battles I used everything in the arsenal, meaning magic and bows.

I am fairly sure that if I had had Minsc instead of Keldorn the game would have been much harder for my party because Minsc needs a lot of help!

No offence to that mans offensive capabilities, he's like a bulldozer. But with his weaknesses all lying in his defence he was just to much of a burden on me.

Minsc is a pure offensive powerhouse in BG2, how can ppl hate him? I have to admit his comments gets annoying at times......
Just give him a helm of charm protection, a decent set of armour, and let him duel wield any of the following two weapons: mace of disruption, skullcrusher, stonefire, and frostreaver. (and let the body parts fly....)

with the piece of equipment there is in bg2 EVERYONE can be a tank (low dext=gaunlets of dexterity,low str.=gaunlets of ogre power,girlds of strenght) got it? sooo it all comes to that:who needs the least? for Minsc i had to fix dexterity to protect him from charm and have allways Keldorn with him to dispell everything else,also i had to tolerate his annoying personality (think of this :you fight for your life and you have along a man with a rat and need of phyciatrick help? nooo way!)
Keldorn maybe is not soo cool but he is the ideal paladin,he is exactly as i thought paladins are.

p.s. my fighter/thief was dying less times from Minsc even when i was using him as main fighter!

Minsc is good, but i cannot accept if you say hes much better than keldorn! Minsc has a really funny character, so hes amusing me always but when fighting keldorn is as good as minsc, if not better, especially when equipped with holy avenger. Not to forget his very very important 2 spells: ban magic and true sight or true eye (i have the german version of the game ). In the next game ill start i really have to think, which of them 2 shall i take... Keldorn with his fighing and magic abilities or Minsc with his psychopatic wonderfull art, which is amusing me so much... What you would do guys?

Offtopic to MidnightForce: You have the German version??? There was some speculation on the board about foreign versions of the game a while ago.... does this mean a completely translated verion o/t game???? That would really really really suck big time!! But hell, half of the european countries have all their movies dubbed anyway so you're probably used to it...(fortunately, Holland isn't one of them!! )

well i have to say that in Bg1 the work of the people who translated all things, really big sucked. But Bg2 on german is not that bad, well ok i dont ever know the english version, so i cannot say that and cannot compare both. But the translation is quite good i think. Especially when you go into a tavern and speak to a drunken man, you have to laugh if you can speak german, because they even use dialect. And im curious about some npc voices: Is jaheira having in the english version a sexy voice too? you know like ambrosia hehehe. And minsc i have to say rocks as entertainment char. Only Imoen has a crapped voice, which is really gettin on my nerves. Is this in the english version too?

MidnightForce: Could you pleasepleaseplease send me some more (lots more!!! ~drools greedily~ ) info on your german version of BG2?? I am really interested in this as I'm a language/literature student. So maybe you could email me some of the hot lines that the characters have, like for example what kind of things Minsc says (does he have an Ostfriesisch accent? ) and some quotes from characters
Thanx!!!
Oh I'm not sure about the voices as I'm female but I think Viconia and Jaheira sound quite sexy

i love the character...ive made him for icewind..complete with authentics sounds and Boo!!! of course...

I've been always whining about who I want to remove in party just to fit in another created player... I don't remove Minsc in my party even if he is so prone to charms and whatever! Even if he is so lame, I don't remove him for one reason, he is one the funniest people I know!!!! You're like going to miss half of you're BG2 game if you don't include at least him or Jan!

Come on. Minsc can get you into spellhold, all you have to do introduce him to the pirate captin. Some of the funnyest dialog ive seen.

In my opinion Minsc isn't one to be hated, but can get annoying sometimes, always rephrasing his few lines "swords, not words", "a den of stinking evil", etc. However, i just dropped him out of my party, because he had to few HP (due to con i guess) and becomes the target of domination spells to easily.
I replaced Minsc with Valygar, and to be honest, i didn't regret it one time. Valygar may not be THAT cool, but his stats are much more impressive, he does own his family armor and the way-cool katana. In fact, combined with the Boots of Speed and another weapon he's a killer.

At this point I'm in Chapter 5: my party until now:

Myself- Fighter: lvl. 17.
Valygar- Ranger: lvl. 14
Keldorn-Paladin: lvl. 12 with Corsymr ROCKS!!
Jaheira- Fighter-Druid: lvls 12-13.
Imoen - Thief-Mage: lvl. 12
Edwin: Mage: lvl. 14

Korgan: would have been an option if my head char wasn't a fighter-type.
Anomen: sucks, and he's a real tease.
Nalia and Aerie: both too weak, don't stand up against Edwin or Imoen.
Haer'Dalis: not as good as Imoen i guess
Mazzy: not as good as Korgan or the rest of the fighter-types.
Viconia: could be an option, but a bit too weak, Jaheira is a much better choice.
Cernd: didn't go to Trademeet yet.
Jan: THE MOST IRRITATING brat of them all. He even beats Anomen the wimp. I think Jan is more of circus freak show person than a sturdy adventurer. I checked him for three minutes and then i dumped him.

By the way, i'm still looking for the Girdle of Frost Giant Strength, the Blade of The Equalizer, The Talking Sword, and the Sling+5. SOme help please?

CHeers.