backstab - how to

cybercat · Post by **cybercat** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 1:10 am

I've started playing SoA with a fighter/thief mostly to pick up the thieving skills in a party weighted to spellcasters (jaheira, viconia, kelsey ... and later imoen and solaufein).

But I don't know how to successfully backstab

Only once have I been successful in hiding in shadows after the enemy has had sight of the character. All other times, hide in shadows has failed.

My hide in shadows/move silently scores are about 120% each. Do they have to go higher to succeed in hiding in shadows while battle has been joined? [I've seen it work with some of the thieves when escaping Irenicus' dungeon, and in the basement of the tanner/flayer quest]

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 1:25 am

You need to be out of sight of any enemy for hide in shadows to work. The times you've seen people vanishing and then backstabbibg before your very eyes (rune assassins etc), they've been using potions of invisibility or some other item. The thief with Mencar Pebblecrusher has a ring of invisibility for instance.

Nae'run · Post by **Nae'run** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 3:01 am

You also have to use the right kind of weapon! since you are a fighter thief, you have to know that you can't use blunt weapons for backstab, I also think that goes for two handed weapons!

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 3:32 am

Yeah, only thief weapons will work: long sword, short sword, dagger, club and quarter staff (iirc).

Bloodmist · Post by **Bloodmist** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 3:55 am

And, of course, you will have to stand behind the person you want to backstab. Note the name

serjeLeBlade · Post by **serjeLeBlade** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 4:58 am

Originally posted by kopywrite
Yeah, only thief weapons will work: long sword, short sword, dagger, club and quarter staff (iirc).

No quarterstaff, I fear.
(Ask Jan about his Staff of the Magi...)

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 5:54 am

Originally posted by serjeLeBlade
No quarterstaff, I fear.
(Ask Jan about his Staff of the Magi...)

If the SotM was a backstab weapon too, it would be uber uber powerful.

Thankfully, the reason you can't back stab with it is because its flagged as wizard only. Any other quarter staff that isn't class specific (hello staff of the ram+6) can be used.

For the same reason, Valygar's katana can't be used to backstab but all other katanas can. This may have been altered by a Baldurdash fix though.

(Forgot katanas and maybe scimitars (?) in my list)

serjeLeBlade · Post by **serjeLeBlade** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 6:15 am

Originally posted by kopywrite
If the SotM was a backstab weapon too, it would be uber uber powerful.
Thankfully, the reason you can't back stab with it is because its flagged as wizard only.

How odd

. Good to know it anyway.
(You know, since most NPC thieves happen to be some kind of mage-thief combination... you can guess the reason of my wrong assumption)

UserUnfriendly · Post by **UserUnfriendly** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 1:06 pm

fighter thief, due to some bug in the game engine, can get multiple assassinate special ability....

a pure assassin or thief can get only one....

get as many points as you can in dual and get spectral brand in tob, or with sola and item upgrade get celestial fury +5,

have sorc or mage cast improved haste, and when you are spinning into battle, if things get bad, click on assassinate, and thin out the herd.....

i got over 15 assassinate when i was fooling with a sk assassin fighter...

assassinate, while impr hasted, will give you one hit one kill for most tough fodder, works on undead even, and with imp haste and good bracers, you can seriously go thru a horde of mindflayers, even improved ones...

cybercat · Post by **cybercat** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 7:42 pm

Originally posted by Bloodmist
And, of course, you will have to stand behind the person you want to backstab. Note the name

I didn't realise that the game took it so literally

Thanks everyone. I was ready to turn the generic thief into a swashbuckler to get the AC modifiers if the backstab ability was a gonner. But now ...

@kopywrite I hope that the baldurdash fix hasn't made it impossible to backstab with a katana.

@user oh yeah ... I'm looking forward to the ToB abilities. Assasinate, assasinate, assasinate **evil laugh**

kopywrite · Post by **kopywrite** » Fri Sep 20, 2002 11:59 pm

I hope that the baldurdash fix hasn't made it impossible to backstab with a katana.

Not at all -- the fix allows Valygar to backstab with his family blade (I think). All other katanas are fine to backstab with. One in particular is especially nasty...