The Rashemi Berserker - Minsc
“Sword at my side and hamster at hand.”
Minsc is a Beast Master Ranger, Berserker Barbarian, and Champion Fighter, swinging his greatsword with Boo by his side. Yes, there’s mechanical overlap with Beast Master and Boo, and yes, I wrote the build anyway.
Gameplay Notes
This is designed to approximate Minsc’s gameplay in previous games: rushing to the front lines of combat and swinging a big sword. The Ranger and Barbarian levels are used largely for lore purposes, and don’t have too much gameplay benefit - this is a true example of a multiclass that is weaker than any of its components. That being said, unlocking the Berserker ability (instead of the generic Rage) and having the ability to Summon Companion (even though you probably won’t, because you have Boo automatically) adds to the roleplay of being Minsc. Worth it, in my opinion!
Stats and Leveling
Final build: Level 5 Beast Master Ranger, Level 3 Berserker Barbarian, Level 4 Champion Fighter
Minsc’s (default) stats: STR 12 / DEX 17 / CON 13 / INT 8 / WIS 15 / CHA 10
Updated stats: STR 17 / DEX 14 / CON 15 / INT 8 / WIS 8 / CHA 10
[this is the one time I will break my own rule about changing companion stats, because this makes NO SENSE. I get that it’s because Rangers in 5e rely more on WIS, but that’s not a good enough reason for the default monstrosity…]
Level 1 - Ranger Level 1
- Favoured Enemy: Ranger Knight [he literally became a statue so he could protect Baldur’s Gate again when it needed him. that being said, RIP the unused heavy armor proficiency since this is a Barbarian build]
- Natural Explorer: Wasteland Wanderer: Cold
Level 2 - Ranger Level 2
- Fighting Style: Defence
- 1st Level Spells [take utilities like Longstrider and Enhance Leap]
Level 3 - Ranger (Beast Master) Level 3
- Summon Companion [I guess you can use this if you want, but it’s mostly for the character vibe since we already have Boo]
Level 4 - Ranger (Beast Master) Level 4
- Feat: ASI+ STR>18, CON>16
Level 5 - Ranger (Beast Master) Level 5
- Extra Attack
- Companion Bond [can anyone tell me if this actually applies to Boo? all my research so far has failed me, though I assume it doesn’t…]
- 2nd Level Spells
Level 6 - Barbarian Level 1
- Rage [we’re aiming for Berserker mostly to match his backstory]
Level 7 - Barbarian Level 2
- Reckless Attack
Level 8 - Barbarian (Berserker) Level 3 [yay! he is a Berserker again!]
Level 9 - Fighter Level 1
- Fighting Style: Great Weapon Fighting
Level 10 - Fighter Level 2
- Action Surge
Level 11 - Fighter (Champion) Level 3
- Improved Critical Hit [if you’ve read enough of my guides, you’ll know that I tend to avoid using Battle Master unless it actually fits the character, despite it clearly being the best subclass]
Level 12 - Fighter (Champion) Level 4
- Feat: ASI+ STR>20
Items
Armor - Adamantine Scale Armour (1 Grymforge)
Melee Weapon - Sword of Chaos (3 Murder Tribunal) [how many times does Minsc have to kill Sarevok? maybe if he steals his sword, it’ll be for real this time lol]
Ranged Weapon - whatever you have laying around
Amulet - Amulet of Misty Step (1 Defiled Temple) [i’m very aware this is not the cream of the crop. he’s recruited in act 3, and there aren’t many build defining items that make a 5/3/4 level split make optimized send, so here are some qol upgrades]
Helmet - Flawed Helldusk Helmet (3 Forge of the Nine) [i like the vibe of Minsc being untouchable by mages, so the bonus to Saving Throws seems fitting]
Ring 1 - Ring of Regeneration (3 Sorcerous Sundries)
Ring 2 - Crusher’s Ring (1 Goblin Camp) [i’m not giving strong items to Minsc, usually, so this is largely qol as well]
Gloves - Legacy of the Masters (3 Forge of the Nine)
Boots - Blackguard’s Greaves (3 Murder Tribunal) or Unwanted Masterwork Graves (3 Forge of the Nine)
Cloak - Fleshmelter Cloak (3 House of Healing Morgue) [if you haven’t given it to anyone else - it’s pretty good for frontliners]
Lore and Flavor
Minsc’s Berserk ability in previous Baldur’s Gate games provides a challenge when creating a lore-friendly build. I think the easiest way to replicate this ability is with a Barbarian Rage, and I think it’s cute that one of the subclasses is called Berserker, so I went with that. The issue this poses is that suddenly, Minsc shouldn’t be wearing heavy armor, which feels like a really big tradeoff to me, so I did want to point that out. A future Minsc build without Barbarian levels is in the works, with fewer nods to his lore but better gameplay.
In this build, I also break my self-imposed rule about changing companion statistics because… obviously. Minsc should be high STR and low WIS, like he is in previous games — I tried to get as close as I could. Also, I always pick the Wasteland Wanderer: Cold for Minsc’s Natural Explorer because it feels the most appropriate to his time in Rashemen.
The other thing to point out is that Minsc gets pretty much no benefits from the Beast Master subclass. If you just take Find Familiar and Summon Companion out of your hotbar and stick with summoning Boo, that is probably for the best. But I wanted to respect the fact that his bond with Boo is his Ranger companion, even though the game doesn’t handle it that way.
Basically, making a realistic build of Minsc is hard and definitely way below a threshold of optimization. [I run into similar problems with Jaheira - something something DND 2e blah blah changes in 5e… you get the point] But, by the time you recruit him in Act 3, you probably have some impressive party members already, so I think it’s fine.