Minsc being a companion opens up another can of worms (or several, even). The obvious one is that he knew the Bhaalspawn, and depending on how Larian plays their cards, that could go very poorly for players of the Original Saga. I don't think many people actually er....enjoy the 'canon' ending for the Bhaalspawn - I for one don't particularly savor the idea of listening to Minsc talk about his adventures with 'Abdel Adrian' for forty+ hours, and I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting the details of the Bhaalspawn's saga to be as vague as possible so I can insert my own idea of how things occurred into the blanks. So far Larian has played that pretty well, even using gender-neutral pronouns to mask the identity of the Bhaalspawn, but it could be difficult to keep that going forward when Minsc, who knew the Bhaalspawn personally-is in the party.

Another concern is that he's a much loved character from the Original Saga. We know that Larian's planning to kill off the party members not in our active party at the end of act I. Now I for one don't want Minsc's blood on my hands-I was already a little miffed that WoTC killed off another Original Saga character in the comic tie-in, and Minsc meant a lot more to me than them. So am I going to feel forced to take him with me to avoid that fate? Party size is already small. I don't like the idea of being forced to take party members to avoid them being killed.

There's also the question of how well he'll end up being written. As mentioned above, he originally had brain damage. This is a tricky subject to write around, but add to the fact that his goofy demeanor revolved around that particular injury, and that his buffoonery is an aspect of his character that WoTC has really played up in marketing (to the point of flanderization IMO) Plus add to that the fact that he is a romance option, the fact that we have the ability to talk to animals, plus the fact that we can actually play as him....there's a lot that Larian could very easily 'get wrong' with the character.

Really, he seems to me a perfect example of a character who absolutely should not be playable, yet we know almost for certain that he will be in the release version.

Last edited by Leucrotta; 19/11/22 05:52 PM.