Poor garrick

emjay

So it's not much of a secret that garrick doesn't get a lot of love. I was thinking about doing a RP type run where charname is a knight of some type, say a cavalier. And everyone knows knights travel with an entourage!

I thought garrick would be perfect for this role. I'm wondering if anyone has actually made him useful in combat?

ajwz

I think he's pretty effective against shoal the nereid.

BelgarathMTH

Garrick's pretty useful, I think. He can use a crossbow, wands, and cast any spell from a scroll. He can cast remove fear at any time by singing, freeing up your cleric spell slots. He can cast level 10 chromatic orb at the end of the game, possibly petrifying Sarevok. He has an extra level of damage and duration on most arcane spells over your arcane casters for most of the game.

He's also cute, charming, funny, and he will write stories, poems, and songs about your adventures, raising your reknown around the land, and your party's morale.

Oh, and he can identify items without taking up first level arcane slots or making you go through the tedium and inconvenience of resting at inns for days at a time or paying hundreds of gold to merchants.

ReadingRambo

That makes me think of the minstrel in Monty python. Khalid is sir robin

Brave brave sir robin, he bravely ran awwaaayhh

Lemernis

@ajwz That's so wrong, lol.

I've always used him to cast spells first and then use a crossbow with bolts of lighting and stunning.

With some judicious spell choices he can certainly be a help. Sleep, Blindness, Glitterdust, Charm Person, Horror, Ray of Enfeeblement, Hold, Slow, Dire Charm, Haste, etc., are all good contributions to battle.

I would consider making liberal use of his pickpocket ability too, although a paladin would hardly approve.

atcDave

I've used Garrick a few times. Even as my only wizard spell caster once. That was an interesting game...

emjay

Yeah I imagine using wands makes anyone useful. The idea behind this concept is kind ofiinspired by the sir robin idea. Having one powerful character with a big ego thus avoiding taking other powerful travelling companions

Quartz

Give him the Bracers of Archery, or Gauntlets of Weapon Expertise, and get him a pip in Longbows and watch him do work with the Longbow of Marksmanship. He's pretty good at ranged combat. And like any Bard, use his mage spells to bring up any spells you might be missing with your main mage due to their specialization.

Also, Bards level up fast ... so abuse spells that scale, e.g. Magic Missile, Chromatic Orb.

Lemernis

@emjay It sounds like a fun RP concept. So who else is going to be in this party along with your paladin and Garrick?

emjay

Well imoen makes sense as she's always second fiddle to charname. I'm then kind of attempting to use characters I avoid normally. My last game was an evil fighter cleric with xzar Monty and sharteel

Zutti

Quartz said:

Also, Bards level up fast ...

This point is brought up entirely too often on these forums. Bard is 1 level ahead of mage, often the same level in BG1. Once experience requirements get all funky in BG2, Bard pulls ahead in levels. Until then, this point is moot.

deltago

I like Garrick and I use him frequently. You get him early, he is a good secondary spellcaster, levels quickly, great lore and I enjoy his voice set.

Immy, Garrick, Ajantis, Xan, Branwen (or Yeslick) i think would be a good rp group as you described.

emjay

Yeah I was thinking of xan I actually quite like him despite the lack of evocation school

Silverstar

Don't have anything against Garrick. Been wanting to have him in my party myself. Unfortunately there's just not enough slots to go around with all the paired characters. Maybe if I didn't have Neera along... she's kinda redundant really, only gets a free pass for being "new".

Having Garrick in party with a cavalier detracts a bit from his usefulness though, seeing as you're immune to fear and can easily remove it, which is sorta what bard song is for...

Speaking of bards! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYFefppqEtE

ScytheKnight

"And the group, now starving ate Sir Robin's bard Garrick. And there was much rejoicing."

Quartz

Zutti said:

Quartz said:

Also, Bards level up fast ...

This point is brought up entirely too often on these forums. Bard is 1 level ahead of mage, often the same level in BG1. Once experience requirements get all funky in BG2, Bard pulls ahead in levels. Until then, this point is moot.

Ummm ... yes, 1 level ahead. "Often the same level in BG1" nooooo ... you just said "1 level ahead of mage." You're contradicting yourself.

Besides, 1 level DOES matter a lot in my eyes. I don't have my Level 2 Mages memorize Magic Missile ... I don't have Mages memorize ANY Magic Missiles until Level 3, and I only start to place a lot of them once they hit Level 5. With a Bard, I start firing Magic Missiles FAR sooner in the game, which is quite useful. I can't be the only one who plays this way.

emjay said:

Yeah I was thinking of xan I actually quite like him despite the lack of evocation school

Definitely go with Xan. He sounds like he would fit the ticket pretty well actually. Furthermore, with Garrick around you can bring up the lack of Evocation. Sure, you won't be firing around 12 Magic Missiles a day a la Edwin but you won't be super lacking, either. I've actually had a party where my two Arcane casters were Xan and Garrick and they worked surprisingly well together.

Mythdracon

It's a shame Garrick ends up being something of a forgetful loser in Baldur's Gate II. I always thought him to be a soulful, if naive, guy with a good heart and moderate intelligence in Baldur's Gate I, and in that sense his behavior in BGII doesn't really make much sense.

And yes, he is a charming and optimistic person, which makes his terrible stats somewhat more bearable. Bard song is useful for removing fear though, I will say, and Garrick is a lot more tolerable than Eldoth, who sounds like he wanders through life bored at everything, even dragons.

Quartz

Mythdracon said:

It's a shame Garrick ends up being something of a forgetful loser in Baldur's Gate II. I always thought him to be a soulful, if naive, guy with a good heart and moderate intelligence in Baldur's Gate I, and in that sense his behavior in BGII doesn't really make much sense.

Pretty much every cameo in BGII was out of character. As crazy as it sounds, I honestly don't personally consider those appearances canon.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Eudaemonium

@Quartz, They could always just be people with the same name. I mean, most of the names are probably pretty common, right? Especially ones like 'Garrick'.

UnknownQuantity

Why waste his portrait on his NPC? It's too good for that.

I didn't see Garrick as a nice guy. He wasn't an evil guy, but he was true to his alignment of chaotic neutral. You didn't know what he was going to do. Basically you couldn't trust him for anything. Your first encounter with him he brings you to an evil aligned mage/thief to murder some innocent people.

Lemernis

UnknownQuantity said:

...I didn't see Garrick as a nice guy. He wasn't an evil guy, but he was true to his alignment of chaotic neutral. You didn't know what he was going to do. Basically you couldn't trust him for anything. Your first encounter with him he brings you to an evil aligned mage/thief to murder some innocent people.

I chalked that up to him being youthful and excited about his first acting gig. But he does have Wisdom 14, which is above average. I suppose he needs a strong Wis score to augment his Bard Lore ability. But it doesn't square up well with Garrick coming off as gullible or naive. Somewhat based on his sounds, I tend to see him as a bit of a daydreamer type, as well.

Chaotic Neutral with high Wisdom seems like a contradiction in terms.

UnknownQuantity

Lemernis said:

UnknownQuantity said:

...I didn't see Garrick as a nice guy. He wasn't an evil guy, but he was true to his alignment of chaotic neutral. You didn't know what he was going to do. Basically you couldn't trust him for anything. Your first encounter with him he brings you to an evil aligned mage/thief to murder some innocent people.

I chalked that up to him being youthful and excited about his first acting gig. But he does have Wisdom 14, which is above average. I suppose he needs a strong Wis score to augment his Bard Lore ability. But it doesn't square up well with Garrick coming off as gullible or naive. Somewhat based on his sounds, I tend to see him as a bit of a daydreamer type, as well.

Chaotic Neutral with high Wisdom seems like a contradiction in terms.

Your right. It is interesting he has a high wisdom.

BelgarathMTH

@Silverstar, I roflmao'd at your video. That song at the end is so much like "Brave, brave Sir Garrick", I have to wonder if there's a possible cross-influence there.

It also made me think of "Joxer the Mighty" from Xena.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gIGk9PATvs

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

EnterHaerDalis

first thing I thought of was the holy grail when I saw this thread title

the amount of love for python on this forum really puts a smile on my face. Lmao

UnknownQuantity

Hercules was actually really huge before Xena came out. They were both pretty good shows for their time.

emjay

I guess the other thing I should be concerned by is killing silke that early with just imoen and a paladin

Nifft

Silke is evil, your Paladin's innate spell Protection from Evil gives you an advantage.

Being a Cavalier (and thus immune to fear) is also a useful advantage.

emjay

It's surviving lighting bolts I'm worried about as far as I remember silke doesn't use fear

Aristillius

Hmm, yes. I have been wondering who to put on the last spot i my party, perhaps Garrick would fit well?

I am at candlekeep and thinking:
Stalker charname
Imoen -> Alora
Kivan
Xan
Yeslick

My other option was Dynaheir or Ajantis, but would be cool to try a bard for once.
EDIT: Any opinions/recommendations would be nice=)