Baldur’s Gate’s most famous barbarian wasn’t actually a barbarian at all. Technically speaking, Minsc was a ranger - a man of the woods who just happened to spin into a rage during battle, hitting friend or foe for extra damage, while ignoring blows that would fell a tree. It was a classification that came with its benefits: since every ranger was entitled to an animal companion, Minsc had justification for his connection to Boo, the “miniature giant space hamster” that lived in his inventory. But the primary reason for the misnomer was a gap in the rules of Dungeons & Dragons.
“Second edition didn’t have the barbarian class,” remembers lead designer James Ohlen. “Baldur’s Gate 2 used third edition classes, but by then, it was too late.”
Larian Studios, the current custodians of the series, don’t have any such issues. Working with D&D’s fifth edition, which has full and flavoursome rules that allow players to embody barbarians, the developers have adapted the class for use in Baldur’s Gate III. It’s a typically meticulous transposition that holds true to the tabletop game’s definition of what makes a barbarian boil: “More than a mere emotion, their anger is the ferocity of a cornered predator, the unrelenting assault of a storm, the churning turmoil of the sea.”