Backstabbing with a bow?

[obamafish]

Is it possible?
I think I read that it is allowed by the AD&D rules, but failed to get a backstab shot with Imoen no matter how much I tried, regardless of the distance.

[Julius Borisov]

Backstabbing is possible only with a melee weapon a thief can use.

You can't backstab with a bow.

[wendigo211]

Ranged sneak attack is possible in 3.0 and later editions, I don't think it was allowed in the first 2 editions.

[Eisenfell]

Originally posted by undercat:

Is it possible?
I think I read that it is allowed by the AD&D rules, but failed to get a backstab shot with Imoen no matter how much I tried, regardless of the distance.

in baldurs gate only a melee weapon useable by a single class thief.

in terms of raw damage the best weapon in bg1 is the Staff Mace+2(quarterstaff)
and in bg2 the Staff of the Ram+4/6

if you want maximum cheese you could make a lvl2mage dualed to thief and use staff of the ram for backstab then switch to staff of magi making you invisible , walk away like a boss , rehide and backstab again with staff of ram.
of course a thief with 3 million xp and use any item could do this too.

[ZirzoR]

Originally posted by Eisenfell:

Originally posted by undercat:

Is it possible?
I think I read that it is allowed by the AD&D rules, but failed to get a backstab shot with Imoen no matter how much I tried, regardless of the distance.

in baldurs gate only a melee weapon useable by a single class thief.

in terms of raw damage the best weapon in bg1 is the Staff Mace+2(quarterstaff)
and in bg2 the Staff of the Ram+4/6

if you want maximum cheese you could make a lvl2mage dualed to thief and use staff of the ram for backstab then switch to staff of magi making you invisible , walk away like a boss , rehide and backstab again with staff of ram.
of course a thief with 3 million xp and use any item could do this too.

Why on earth would you dual a mage lvl 2 into thief, the atrocious amount of low HP is going to rek you.

Figher > Thief is alot better for raw damage. + nice bonus health.

Or thief > max backstab multiplier > into mage works aswell. (Again low HP and you will get one shotted later)

Never dual class a mage at level 2, has zero use.

[Eisenfell]

Originally posted by ZirzoR:

Originally posted by Eisenfell:

in baldurs gate only a melee weapon useable by a single class thief.

in terms of raw damage the best weapon in bg1 is the Staff Mace+2(quarterstaff)
and in bg2 the Staff of the Ram+4/6

if you want maximum cheese you could make a lvl2mage dualed to thief and use staff of the ram for backstab then switch to staff of magi making you invisible , walk away like a boss , rehide and backstab again with staff of ram.
of course a thief with 3 million xp and use any item could do this too.

Why on earth would you dual a mage lvl 2 into thief, the atrocious amount of low HP is going to rek you.

Figher > Thief is alot better for raw damage. + nice bonus health.

Or thief > max backstab multiplier > into mage works aswell. (Again low HP and you will get one shotted later)

Never dual class a mage at level 2, has zero use.

dont talk nonsense... a lvl2 mage can use Wands/ Scrolls ..and your ATROCIOUS LOW HP between a mage2/thief and a pure thief are 4 less...FOUR HP ! gosh i cant life without them ...thinking your familiar will give you 6/12/24 hp allready...ohh wait thats more than you lose...

[fauxpas]

To be fair, there isn't that big of a HP difference between d4 and d6 at 2nd level and although I wouldn't recommend it the fringe case of trading a few HP for a cheap UAI isn't something to dismiss out of hand like that.

[Eisenfell]

Originally posted by fauxpas:

To be fair, there isn't that big of a HP difference between d4 and d6 at 2nd level and although I wouldn't recommend it the fringe case of trading a few HP for a cheap UAI isn't something to dismiss out of hand like that.

exactly... mage 2 works with any legit combination as a cheap use any item ... like i said scrolls become suddenly a one use item like potions , and your regular mage is too busy flinging his own spells as to use scrolls.

Wands are powerfull and plenty.

Mage only items like staff of magi , who is free invisibility , magic dispel on hit , fireballs , spelltrap etc. to name one of the more Mentionable ones.

there are Plenty of decent Mages already so you maybe dont want to dual into a full mage yourself. (Edwin, Imoen , Nalie and the "Half" mages like Jan Jansen , Hear'dalis and Aerie)
But the benefits you get from a lvl2mage infront of your main class may outweight any Kit Bonus you get.

[obamafish]

Thanks everyone for clarifying!

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Eisenfell:

in terms of raw damage the best weapon in bg1 is the Staff Mace+2(quarterstaff)

Aule's Staff is +3, though.

[ZirzoR]

Originally posted by Eisenfell:

Originally posted by ZirzoR:

Why on earth would you dual a mage lvl 2 into thief, the atrocious amount of low HP is going to rek you.

Figher > Thief is alot better for raw damage. + nice bonus health.

Or thief > max backstab multiplier > into mage works aswell. (Again low HP and you will get one shotted later)

Never dual class a mage at level 2, has zero use.

dont talk nonsense... a lvl2 mage can use Wands/ Scrolls ..and your ATROCIOUS LOW HP between a mage2/thief and a pure thief are 4 less...FOUR HP ! gosh i cant life without them ...thinking your familiar will give you 6/12/24 hp allready...ohh wait thats more than you lose...

By your logic it would just be better to use fighter to get extra APR/Grandmaster in staffs and Thaco0/HP and then dual to Thief for use all items.

If you are going to BG1 > Import BG2

And yes 4HP can be the difference of you dying or not mind you.

a Fighter with 18-19 con for the first 7-9 levels and then dual into thief has LOADS of more hp then a mage/thief ever would.

And then once you can use any item get a familiar scroll and get even more HP.

[fauxpas]

4 HP is seldom the difference between living and dying and one of the pros to Eisenfell's idea us that you get access to UAI for the entire game, whereas with yours you have to play through most of the saga before seeing the payoff.

[ZirzoR]

Originally posted by fauxpas:

4 HP is seldom the difference between living and dying and one of the pros to Eisenfell's idea us that you get access to UAI for the entire game, whereas with yours you have to play through most of the saga before seeing the payoff.

mage lvl2 > pure thief sounds really weak tbh. sure in BG1 you can basicly just backstab the last boss to death with a bunch of invis potions.

But cmon, I was talking about import to BG2 and beyond.

By then you should be able to reach 25+ thief after lvl 7-13 fighter quite easy.

Even faster if you solo or just duo party.

He would never be able to kill the last boss with that character solo.
And he would probably be super weak and his thiefs skills would be over the needed caps for using them so its just a total waste because he dualed at lvl 2.

pure thief is weak, we all know it, and what's the point of mage lvl 2 if you are going to UAI anyway?

Seems to counter the logic behind it somehow, meh.

In a full party or 4-6 character It doesnt really matter what you do, the games is easy enough as it is solo.

I think more characters basicly just makes it harder.
I play with 1-4 character only beyond that is just meh, unless you play for the story.

I dont play for the story anymore since i've already done it multiple times, I play for the gameplay and going with that logic I wouldnt want a weak thief in my party that can use scrolls and wands that dont even cast spells at current level. (There is a tweak I know but its basicly just makes it easier)

I would make a proper dual class with fighter for grandmastery and then thief for UAI and backstab/traps.

For multi-class I would probably go Illusionist/Thief gnome for extra slots and traps.

I already soloed the game as a illusionist/thief so I doubt I would do it again.
Trying out a small party now, see how it goes.

I really dislike dual classing because it feels like such a waste when you could go for super later game builds with multi-classing anyway.

Dual classing imo has less HLA later on and I like to have loads of them.

Alright rant over, no offense, I'm still working out the kinks of my aspergers social skills, hopefully I wasnt rude or anything, take it with a grain of salt.

[fauxpas]

Since you mentioned it yes you came off as a little rude but I'm not a believer in "safe spaces" so no harm no foul.

However I do disagree with you, unless I missed something, no-one was asking about tricking out their build for a solo run (And I personally don't see the point of "solo runs" without the story and banter I might as well play IWD.); but even so I think you are discounting the advantage of being able to use your "cheap UAI" throughout the entire saga as opposed to waiting to unlock it sometime mid/late BGII.

[Flick]

Originally posted by undercat:

Is it possible?
I think I read that it is allowed by the AD&D rules, but failed to get a backstab shot with Imoen no matter how much I tried, regardless of the distance.

you have to go point blank to backstab with the bow