random questions, mainly 'bout assassins

[Thrifalas]

So do'h, I was thinking about re-playing as an assassin, and there's some questions I'd like to have answers on before I do.

the HLA Assassination, can you pick it more like once or it is like Smite? I have it just once with my Fighter/Thief, but as he mainly used Carsomyr I might have been thinking that I didn't need it more than once.

Weapons that you can use for backstabbing are Short Swords, Long Swords, Katanas and Scimitars? I've just used short and long swords, but Yoshimo can use Katanas, and I don't see why Scimitars wouldn't be an alternative. Bastard swords with Use Any Item, is that possible?

Lastly, on level 26 (or something similar, donesn't matter) the Cleric is supposed to gain a Symbol of their god. Do one gain that symbol even if the cleric is a pure cleric and not one of Lathander, Helm or Talos?

Aaaand... while I'm on the subject, if a thief uses armors with UAI, for example some dragon scale that in the cases of figher/thieves unables their thieving skills, do the same happens when used on a normal thief?

[dj_venom]

2. The only weapons that give backstabbing damage are those that are allowed to be used by a normal thief. Therefore you cannot backstab with the Staff of Magic (or whatever it is called) because thieves cannot normally use that weapon.

3. Though I have never tried it myself, I do believe so, as NPC clerics, such as Anomen do get them, and he isn't a certain alignment.

4. Sorry, can't answer this one.

[lompo]

N°2: actually you can backstab with staffs, because are weapon usable by fighters (staff of the Ram -> great backstabs!), but you can't backstab with staff of Magi, although you can use it, because it's not a weapon a thief can use normaly (the use is restricted to mages/sorc).
Weapons suitable for backstabbing are all the weapons allowed normaly to thieves: l./s. swords, katanas, scimitars and the other japanise blades, daggers, staffs and clubs.

N°3: all the clerics get the symbol, you get the one thaty fit with the alignement of the char.: Lathander for good, Helm for neutral and Talos for evil.

N°4: with UAI you can wear any armour, but if that armour unable your thieving skills, UAI want help you. UAI only aloud you to use what you usually couldn't.

[Phantom Lord]

[QUOTE=dj_venom]1. Assasiantion can be picked several times. For those that don't know, it lets you make every hit in a certain amount of time a backstab hit.[/QUOTE]In my current game I could only pick it once, after that it's greyed in the HLA choice screen.

As for armor, a F/M can even use non-thief armors that allow spellcasting (Bladesinger Chain etc), but the impact on thieving skills still applies.

[dj_venom]

I thought I picked it more than once in my game, though that was quite a while ago, I must be getting confused, sorry. If you have played it recently and you know it was greyed out, then I guess you would be right, I'll remove it from my other post.

[Thrifalas]

Thanks for the answer, and it's a shame that you can't use Assassination more than once. I'll probably go a Swashbuckler instead, then... Maybe... but backstabbing is a lot of fun ~~. Though choice.

Good thing with the cleric though, so I don't have to worry not to get that... thing. Thanks again!

[Phantom Lord]

Well, it's not very logical that you can pick Assassination once but certain others twice, it truly is confusing.

[Thrifalas]

Agreed. Smite is something special since it put together the two pre-needed HLA and shouldn't be able to use that much, but I think it mentions that in-game and doesn't for Assassination.

Another question though, Bards can lay trap, correct? While thieves use their trap-laying skills, bards have no such things, do they use anything like that or is it instant success for them?

[Astafas]

[QUOTE=Thrifalas]Agreed. Smite is something special since it put together the two pre-needed HLA and shouldn't be able to use that much, but I think it mentions that in-game and doesn't for Assassination.

Another question though, Bards can lay trap, correct? While thieves use their trap-laying skills, bards have no such things, do they use anything like that or is it instant success for them?[/QUOTE]

As far as I recall, all HLA traps get "instant success".

[Thrifalas]

Hmm, I think I failed some with my fighter/thief. Not sure though, would be nice it they all were insta-success.

[Astafas]

[QUOTE=Thrifalas]Hmm, I think I failed some with my fighter/thief. Not sure though, would be nice it they all were insta-success. [/QUOTE]

Well, with the Bard I've never failed a single one at least.

[lucky19]

[QUOTE=Phantom Lord]In my current game I could only pick it once, after that it's greyed in the HLA choice screen.
[/QUOTE]

In my current game where im soloing as a kensai dualed into a thief, i can also only pick assassination once.

...But in SoA i had Jan in my party and i remembered i could pick assasionation more than once. I actually did only pick it one time since his Thac0 isnt very good and he usually misses, but it isnt greyed out when i level up and i went back to check just to make sure and i could pick it a second time.

The only reasons i see for this are because Jan is multi-classed or because my current kensai/thief has too little intelligence or because its a bug. While i raised Jan's intelligence to 17 in SoA. My current stats are 23/19/19/4/19/19 with 4 being intelligence.

[dj_venom]

[QUOTE=lucky19]...But in SoA i had Jan in my party and i remembered i could pick assasionation more than once. I actually did only pick it one time since his Thac0 isnt very good and he usually misses, but it isnt greyed out when i level up and i went back to check just to make sure and i could pick it a second time.[/QUOTE]
That's why I originally said you could pick it more than once. I am sure I picked it twice with Jan, because I loved getting Jan to backstab. I have no idea why he can pick it twice though.