Which do you prefer in a powergaming party, Minsc or Valygar?
I would imagine most people would say V, as he can BS, DW 2X katanas, and is can cast minor spells.

I would say Minsc. He seems a lot more powerful to me than Valygar.

I'd err on the Valygar side of the arguement. As stated, he is very good at dual wielding Katanas.

Although Minsc is stronger, the number of high strength items in the game makes that a moot point. Valygar has 'extra' skills (backstab, spells...) that make him more useful than Minsc generally.

With the Improved Item mod, he becomes more powerful again.

I agree, valygar is better. IMHO Minsc has jumbled proficiency points, while Valygar has them in good places. Disregarding non-combat stats, valygar has 1 less strength and 2 more dexterity. As said by Dace, the lower strength dosn't mean much, so we wind up with a ranger who can berserk and wear full plate vs. a ranger with +2 AC, backstabbage, some mage spells, and nice starting equipment.

Valygar is my choice. He's more versatile then Minsc altough Minsc is powerful too. And he can scout ahead wich can be very useful. But I don't use neither of them in my games so...

it depends on the rest of your party of course whether you want a tank or a scout - there's nothing stopping minsc dual wielding katanas as well as valygar once he reaches level 15

a often mentioned powergamey aspect of minsc as that (as i understand it) his berserker rage protects against imprisonments - i've never raged minsc myself but in my recent tactics games imprisonment has been a real issue

Xen, why don't you use Minsc as a scout? I've used him that way and it works fine.

Read my post again. I said: "/.../ and he can scout too /.../".

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">Good arguments, I usually take both of these guys.</font>

[ 03-02-2005, 01:26 PM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

For a powergaming party... probably neither, but between the two of them, Valygar.

For someone on the frontline I'd rather have Korgan or Mazzy who level faster and hence will always be a little more accurate and have a little better hit points. Korgan and Mazzy also both get racial saving throw bonuses that Minsc and Valygar both lack. For someone on the frontline that can also cast spells, I'd rather have Jaheira who can cast Ironskin.

Between the two of them, Minsc is a strong all-around character, but at any specific task (scout, tank, caster) there's always someone better. Valygar, however, does occupy a unique niche: he's got the best THACO and HP of any backstabber NPC. His family armor is nice also, though his Katana will eventually be outclassed. So if I wanted a scout in my powergaming party who could backstab (and be able to survive after losing stealth), Valygar would be my choice. There's no niche I can think of in a powergaming party that Minsc would fill better than all other NPCs.