GameBanshee Forums

I just finished IWD and its expansion and I'm getting ready to dive into IWD2. Man its so weird going from 2nd edition to 3rd for some reason. Anyways I tried looking up some information on my topic but couldn't seem to find much. At any rate I wanted some feedback on making a specialized backstabber. From the little bit of info I have come across basically says a pure rogue is the way to go. At this point I'm just wondering whether I should go Half-Orc and be strength based or go Halfling with weapon finesse and dual wielding. Any advice would be great as well at stat allocation and anything else that would be useful. Thanks again

Strength is your key stat for a good backstabber. Rogue is by far the best. You could consider going with a Deep Gnome for a race. They level up a lot slower, but are a very powerful race. You can add Illusionist Wizard levels for some decent spells to help out.

Thanks for the reply. So going strength-based is much better than dual wield with weapon finesse?

Actually, going STR based dualwielding is the way to go. One level of Ranger gets you Dualwielding without the DEX requirement, IIRC. Even then, an 18 STR & 16 DEX is easily achievable. Wait for kmonster, he'll give some pretty good advice.

STR-based dual wielding...mmmm...interesting. I like it. Yea I've read quite a few posts from Kmonster. He seems to know his stuff for sure. Well if thats the case am I better off going as a tiefling or something like that? I assume short swords is the way to go for this type of build? Thanks guys for the info. Its been extremely helpful.

For maximum sneak attack damage take a pure class half-orc rogue with stats 20-18-18-14-3-1, raise only strength at level up and take a damaging 2-handed weapon (halberd, axe, greatsword). You can take a barbarian level for extra speed and to get able to use those weapons effectively without having to spend feats, you'll loose about 1,75 sneak attack damage average however.

2-handed weapons do more damage than 1-handed weapons (greatsword 2-12, shortsword 1-6 and grant an extra damage bonus for strength (+15 instead of +10 with 30 str).

2-handed weapons also have higher range, assume one enemy is fighting one of your summons in battle and your rogue approaches from the back after killing another enemy. If your rogue is wielding a 2-handed weapon he'll do sneak attack damage. If he's dualwielding short swords he'll have to get very close which will make the enemy turn around ruining your sneak attack opportunity.

2-handed weapons have one cosmetic disadvantage. The game shows at least 2 attack animations per round and when you have a weapon with slow speed factor the attack will happen with the second animation, so if you do a backstab like in 2E at low levels you'll first have to watch a cosmetic swing before it will happen. When you get extra attacks this will vanish however.

If you want a dualwielding tiefling ranger1/rogue for roleplaying reasons start with 18-20-18-18-3-1 and raise only strength at level up. Use a light off-hand weapon like short sword to avoid an additional +2 penalty to hit. You can use any 1-handed weapon you like in the main hand, you can sneak attack with hammers as well as with swords, just look what's the best weapon available during the different parts in the game.

You can play pure rogue if you don't want to loose 1.75 sneak attack for the ranger level, you'll have to spend 2 feats for dualwielding and won't be able to use hammers or other non-rogue weapons effectively without spending a feat. This will allow to use half-orc without dualclassing penalty however.

O.O Wow man. You indeed are Yoda. Thanks a bunch for the info. How much behind, sneak damage-wise, is a dual wielder compared to the half-orc behemoth your describing? I was originally envisioning the whole dual wielding finesse look but I might have to try out what your mentioning. If I do go with dual wield, is Tiefling the better way to go? Also what feats are a must for this type of build? Thanks again

One thing that dualwield has an advantage in, is that sneak attack also gets added to the offhand attacks, so that a sufficient amount of Sneak Attack dice offsets the high STR bonus.
Then again, the longer reach of twohanders in a good point, and half of the monsters is probably immune to Sneak Attack. (At least in Pen & Paper, don't recall in IWDII.)

Don't take weapon finesse. You need strength for doing damage, especially when facing monsters with damage reduction. Dexterity is capped at 22 (20) if you wear (studded) leather armor. If you start with 18 str and bull's (or even champion's) strength cast by the cleric your to hit bonus from strength will become higher than your to hit bonus from dex.

The main differences between half-orc and tiefling are 2 strength, that's 1 damage and the slower levelling.

If you take the ranger1/rogue x you aren't forced to dualwield all the time, you can switch to 2-handed weapons and back.

Some useful feats for ranger1/rogue: dash, dodge, rapid shot, power attack, improved critical, envenom weapon, dirty fighting. Don't take feats which reduce sneak attack damage.

I highly doubt DEX is capped by armour for anything else than AC.

Wow I guess this is why I haven't been able to find much info on pure rogues or builds with mainly rogue levels in them. I'm kind of getting the impression now that they're not as good as I had hoped especially if making a dex-based rogue doesn't really work that well. Ok well a half-orc rogue wielding a great sword it is I guess. It will definitely be different than what I'm used to.

Ok so if I wanted to go with a halfling rogue, the best stats I can get in the beginning is 16, 20, 18, 14, 5, 3. In this case would it be better to go fighter 4/rogue X? Grab weapon focus and weapon specialization to help out in the damage department. Of course I would have to also pick up ambidexterity and two-weapon fighting. Not sure how that would be. Anyways I'm just brainstorming a bit. I like the half-orc idea as well. I do like the roleplaying part of it as well as the powergaming part so I want to toon to be cool and iconic.

Ugh. Alright if I go ranger 1/rogue X, do I start with the Rogue at level 1 or Ranger? Man I didn't realize jumping from 2nd to 3rd edition would confuse me so.

If you multiclass start with the class which gets the most skill points, that's rogue.

Yah, rogues don't give you a whole lot beyond level 3. I have 2 in my current party, but only to level 3. They aren't very strong compared to a lot of other classes.

Rogue/Thieves have always been my favorite class to play. They're fantastic in IWD1, BG series etc...They do seem to fall behind quite a bit in IWD2 which is a shame. I'm a big fan of backstabbing and love all the micromanagement that goes with it. I'm using a half-orc rogue purely for sneak attacks. He carries a great sword and has been devastating so far though he is only level 8 I believe. But sneak attack damage hasn't really been that high compared to the damage his great sword does by itself. So in many ways I miss backstab cause it was soooo devastating. But I do enjoy not having to rely on stealth for sneak attacks too. So all in all its not too bad but thieves/rogues are represented better in the other games.