/vr/ - Retro Games

>>6303047
Garrick is crazy useful, he just confuses noobs who see his class and attributes (Bard - S14 / D16 / C9 / I13 / W14 / C15) and assume he's trash.

A Dexterity of 16 makes him a reliable enough archer for the group. This is aided by the fact that Bards have access to all bows except Composite Longbows, so they work even better than Thieves or Mages.

Next, as a fast-leveling Bard his spellcasting will actually surpass any Mage in your group through about 99% of the game. Level dependent abilities in spells, like multiple missiles in Magic Missile will therefore be stronger.

His HP is similarly better than most Mages since he operates at a d6.

With his Chaotic Neutral alignment he functionally works in either a good or evil party composition without any issue.

BG1 also likes to use Horror and fear-based spells constantly. Having a free and infinite use fear-break and immunity ability is nothing to sneeze at.

As a Bard his natural Lore (aided by him having higher than average Wisdom) means that you neither have to continually spend cash to keep items identified nor waste a bunch of first level spells prepping Identify. That's more advanced Magic Missiles in your Garrick's arsenal.

Finally, as a Bard he can pick pockets. There are a TON of great pocket picking opportunities in the game, and normally you need a second Thief (the primary Thief being your trap disarmer / lockpicker) to run through and get all those items. Garrick has that feature built in.

Garrick is a perfect choice for any party, especially when the decision is a based Bard vs the shitty donut steel EE characters.