Tucked away in the 2-year anniversary stats for Baldur's Gate 3 is a bizarre group of players who apparently turned the optional companion Minsc into a lord of death.
The most-respecced Baldur's Gate 3 companions, and the classes and subclasses they were given, were a major point in Larian's latest player data report. Shadowheart is, unsurprisingly, the winner. Another curious respec outside the main class was added as a footnote: just 350 people turned Minsc into a Death Domain Cleric, abandoning his Ranger and Hunter origins.
I'm with Larian on this one: "Are you folks doing okay?" the developer asks this exclusive league of 350.
"Ah yes, Minsc, God’s favourite princess," the studio added on Twitter, acknowledging that Death Domain Cleric was also one of the top picks for Shadowheart respecs. Life Domain, the correct choice, was a dead-heat tie for Shart, whose class was changed more than any other companion.
Minsc can be recruited as a companion in Act 3 provided you progress Jaheira's personal quest and choose not to kill him during a sewer battle. I managed to luck into recruiting him on my first playthrough by complete accident, so it can't be that hard to pull off. (You'll find more detail in our Baldur's Gate 3 companions guide).
Imagine the Heavy from Team Fortress 2 but with a pet hamster named Boo. That's basically Minsc. He's a goofball with more muscle than brains – not a bad build given the brain tadpoles going around in Baldur's Gate 3 – and loyalty strong enough to survive decades of petrification.
A Ranger / Hunter build suits Minsc's affinity for animals and his high Dexterity and Wisdom. Granted, Wisdom does scale very well for Clerics, but even then I wouldn't think of Minsc as a Death Domain Cleric, known for necromancy, contagions, blights, and all things deathly. Apparently 350 people would disagree.
