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Being the RPG newbie that I am, I never really enjoyed the thief class much. I always thought, "hey, they can pick locks.. yeehaw... what the hell else can they do for me?"

That is, until i was doing the Haer'Dalis quest, and was 'Hiding in Shadows' past those salamanders and the Yuan Ti priest to get his little portal gem by the alter.

What happened when i came out was, one of the salamanders was hitting my people.. and so i ran around the corner and hit the salamander with my blade, doing somewhere near 100dmg. I was in utter shock, until i read "backstab quadruple damage."

I had heard of backstabbing, but never used it.. i never realized the potential and i never realized how to properly use it. That being said, i was very happy with myself.

Here's a shot of me taking out a little dwarf using the backstab in the sewers after doing the Unseeing Eye's quest.

Try backstabbing with an assassin's 7x backstab damage.

Just out of curiosity, what weapon were you using? I only ask because the weapon you use can add a whole bunch of damage to the backstab. A weapon like the Staff of the Ram (I believe I have the name right) can really do some damage, especially if, like Sojourner said, your PC is an assassin.

I was using the Blade of Roses.

urm...improved haste, and mislead...and a good weapon...

Very interesting, KeeB



I'm speechless.

Anyways, somethings I would advise for a backstabbing thief:

1) A human dual-class fighter/thief (with a warrior's high Strength), along with a good blade could possibly be devestating at higher levels. I don't know what level you'd be able to attain in Thief by the end of SoA, but you should be able to attain quite a powerful backstab modifier (especially powerful if you were a Fighter/Assassin with one of the mods that allows you to dual-class kits with the expansion installed).

2) There are some powerful long swords in Throne of Bhaal (up to +5, though only to +3 in the regular game), though I'd suggest short swords for SoA if you want damage really powerful monsters w/ your backstab since there is a +4 short sword later on).

Happy hunting.

I'm partial to an elven fighter-thief, myself. I soloed one through ToB - now SHE was devastating (except against dragons, who have this annoying habit of being immune to backstabs). Those girdles of Giant Strength are must-haves, along with the Boots of Speed, and Staff of Striking and/or Celestial Fury in SoA, then Staff of the Ram in ToB. My PC was doing obscene backstab damage, IIRC, around 400.

best of all, a fighter thief, due to a glitch in the game engine, can get the "assassinate" special ability up to about 11 times...use with improve haste and good dual wields to kill off a bunch of enemies quickly and easily...

If I remember correct, the thief gains the ability to "Use Any Item" at high levels, so I'm wondering if anyone has tried backstabbing with Staff of the Magi. I mean every hit will be a backstab because you are always invisible.

I haven't played a theif yet so I'm asking if someone has done it before.

Cheers!

Coco

Originally posted by Coconut_Crab
If I remember correct, the thief gains the ability to "Use Any Item" at high levels, so I'm wondering if anyone has tried backstabbing with Staff of the Magi.

Backstabs will fail with this weapon for one reason: Any weapon unusable by single-class thieves can't be used for backstabbing. The UAI ability does not override this.

The best critical i've ever had with my PC (Assassin ) using staff of the ram was something like 1000+ damage (Critical x7 + insane damage from the staff, strength 25)

Not sure, been like 1 year 1/2 since i last played BG2:SoA/ToB

Originally posted by Sojourner
Backstabs will fail with this weapon for one reason: Any weapon unusable by single-class thieves can't be used for backstabbing. The UAI ability does not override this.

So the awesome 2-handed sword Carsomyr also cannot be used to backstab then?

Originally posted by Coconut_Crab
So the awesome 2-handed sword Carsomyr also cannot be used to backstab then?

Afraid so.