I will say illusionist/thief just to be different. Lots of opportunity to backstab and then go invisible, all in one small package. Plus having invisibility handy means not having to go in and outside of enemies LOS if you want to do repeated backstabs (unlike a clerics sanctuary).
You forgot the awesome backbashing of the Cleric/thief - Half-orc 19str with DUHM + Sanctuary with best club or staff is monster damage and less enemies have armor that gives extra protection from bashing damage vs slashing or piercing...
I want to vote Assassin, I really do. Based on the information in the original post though, what you're looking for is versatility and overall combat ability. For *that* I voted fighter/thief since multiclass characters are always great on flexibility and wearing multiple hats.
Everyone eventually uses staves, because the staff of the ram +6 (1d6+12 +1d4) is the BEST BS weapon in the game...that doesn't involving spellcasting. The staff of striking for BG1 (1d6+9), but it has limited charges, so make it count.
The only time you'd use something other then a staff would be to abuse Assassination with IH, and possibly time-stop.
You forgot the awesome backbashing of the Cleric/thief - Half-orc 19str with DUHM + Sanctuary with best club or staff is monster damage and less enemies have armor that gives extra protection from bashing damage vs slashing or piercing...
Although strength bonus damage is added *after* the backstab multiplier, so it's not quite as good as it looks (but still hits hard!)
I've played all three a decent amount, and I say Fighter/Thief, whether it be dual or multi class. I personally prefer Thief--->Fighter.
Assassin can get up to very high backstab multiplier, but THAC0 and HP sucks compared to Fighter/Thief and Stalker. There's no use having the potential of doing a lot of damage if you're not able to hit your target. They are able to poison their weapon, but it's kind of useless if you've got 7x backstab multiplier, anything you hit that's susceptible to backstab will most likely die. It could be useful if you're doing a normal attack, but that's not what this discussion is about. If you take the Assassination HLA, then an Assassin would be extremely deadly, but that's not exactly backstabbing, it's just applying the modifier to a normal attack.
I personally think that a Stalker is inferior to a Fighter/Thief in pretty much every way except he can cast some spells. He might progress faster in levels than a multi class F/T, but he has nothing on a dual class T-->F other than the fact that he doesn't have to go through a period of waiting before having both sets of skills. And the backstab modifier progression rate is slow too. I guess if you like dual wielding a Stalker gives you two free bonus proficiency in that, but that has nothing to do with backstabbing. In terms of pure backstabbing, I think the Stalker is by far the least competent.
I think dual class is better than multi class F/T because whichever order you like to do it, you can get a decent amount of levels in one class and still eventually be able to reach the second highest level in the other class.
@LordRumfish I am sort of trying to figure out who is the overall best based on people's honest opinions. It is a difficult question to answer because there are many moving variables. I am not trying to lead people to a certain answer, rather trying to get them to focus on the area I have interest in (in hopes that they don't tell me who can do max damage and such things). Keep in mind that darting in and out of shadows while the rest of the party distracts the enemy would be part of combat and, I imagine, very good use of an assassin. If you really like assassin more you should probably vote for it.
Heh, to be perfectly honest I made a swashbuckler on my latest runthrough, so my opinion of backstabbing is a bit suspect. I appreciate the flavor of assassins though, and if you're planning on exporting the character to BG2 then they are very serviceable.
You forgot the awesome backbashing of the Cleric/thief - Half-orc 19str with DUHM + Sanctuary with best club or staff is monster damage and less enemies have armor that gives extra protection from bashing damage vs slashing or piercing...
Although strength bonus damage is added *after* the backstab multiplier, so it's not quite as good as it looks (but still hits hard!)
And it's the sort of damage that keeps on giving after the BS is done - or if you prefer another backbash is only a sanctuary away ;-)
The answer for you is F/T, based on what you said you're looking for. You're not interested in truly maximizing backstab, and you want the backstab to be an available option all the time. You clearly want a F/T.
I won't get into the maths of highest damage potential, but it involves prep work. Others have touched on it. But I can talk about your character progression.
An assassin might struggle to hit things with its backstab in the early game. Also, it's kind of squishy at first. So it takes a little while before backstab is a safe, reliable option (compared to the other classes). Also, it doesn't really have a distinct backstab advantage in BG1, which is kind of irksome. Ironically, thanks to the reduced thieving points, an assassin lags behind a vanilla thief in terms of its stealth ability.
A stalker doesn't have that early game problem, but its backstab isn't nearly as useful late in the game. It only lags behind a F/T a little bit in terms of getting the modifier to x3 and x4, but it stops at x4. And the real problem you're going to run into is that the other things it can do are just going to outpace backstab as options. Run, hide, come back, backstab for x4 damage... Or activate Greater Whirlwind and attack 10 times in a round.
The F/T will give you a decent backstab throughout the game, and while it will also have access to some potent non-stealth fighter abilities, the thief HLAs will open up options that keep backstab a viable and fun option.
@Rhyme You hit the nail on the head with that one. I have been using multi fighter/thieves since my first BG playthrough and have come to like them quite a lot more than any other class. My main reason for asking my questions was that I had little experience in the other two classes and was wondering if they were better for my purposes. I now know that they probably are not really worth my time. Thanks for all your help everyone.
Note to self: Be more careful next time you select "Poll" for a new discussion...
kensai/thief. Use any item basically negates kensai restrictions. Kensai bonus do multiplies and Kai + assasination backstabs might well be an ultimate damage source in the game.
edit oh and obviously from the choices given - assassin. It is still arguable who is the ultimate backstabbing machine - assassin or kenthief.
Comments
The only time you'd use something other then a staff would be to abuse Assassination with IH, and possibly time-stop.
Assassin can get up to very high backstab multiplier, but THAC0 and HP sucks compared to Fighter/Thief and Stalker. There's no use having the potential of doing a lot of damage if you're not able to hit your target. They are able to poison their weapon, but it's kind of useless if you've got 7x backstab multiplier, anything you hit that's susceptible to backstab will most likely die. It could be useful if you're doing a normal attack, but that's not what this discussion is about. If you take the Assassination HLA, then an Assassin would be extremely deadly, but that's not exactly backstabbing, it's just applying the modifier to a normal attack.
I personally think that a Stalker is inferior to a Fighter/Thief in pretty much every way except he can cast some spells. He might progress faster in levels than a multi class F/T, but he has nothing on a dual class T-->F other than the fact that he doesn't have to go through a period of waiting before having both sets of skills. And the backstab modifier progression rate is slow too. I guess if you like dual wielding a Stalker gives you two free bonus proficiency in that, but that has nothing to do with backstabbing. In terms of pure backstabbing, I think the Stalker is by far the least competent.
I think dual class is better than multi class F/T because whichever order you like to do it, you can get a decent amount of levels in one class and still eventually be able to reach the second highest level in the other class.
I won't get into the maths of highest damage potential, but it involves prep work. Others have touched on it. But I can talk about your character progression.
An assassin might struggle to hit things with its backstab in the early game. Also, it's kind of squishy at first. So it takes a little while before backstab is a safe, reliable option (compared to the other classes). Also, it doesn't really have a distinct backstab advantage in BG1, which is kind of irksome. Ironically, thanks to the reduced thieving points, an assassin lags behind a vanilla thief in terms of its stealth ability.
A stalker doesn't have that early game problem, but its backstab isn't nearly as useful late in the game. It only lags behind a F/T a little bit in terms of getting the modifier to x3 and x4, but it stops at x4. And the real problem you're going to run into is that the other things it can do are just going to outpace backstab as options. Run, hide, come back, backstab for x4 damage... Or activate Greater Whirlwind and attack 10 times in a round.
The F/T will give you a decent backstab throughout the game, and while it will also have access to some potent non-stealth fighter abilities, the thief HLAs will open up options that keep backstab a viable and fun option.
Note to self: Be more careful next time you select "Poll" for a new discussion...
edit
oh and obviously from the choices given - assassin. It is still arguable who is the ultimate backstabbing machine - assassin or kenthief.