Backstabbing, Role playing & Metagaming
hummer010
Member Posts: 95
I have a hard time using backstabbing in BG. I mean, I've done it, and it can be devastating, but I have a hard time deciding to do it.
I get the idea of hiding in shadows, and scouting ahead. But I can't really backstab many of the adversaries I find while scouting unless I'm doing some pretty serious metagaming. The vast majority of adversaries aren't hostile until after some sort of interaction with my party. I know they are going to attack, but my thief doesn't know that.
Then, from a role playing perspective, it always seems a bit off if my thief runs away to find a spot to hide while the rest of the party is actively engaged in combat. Yeah, it might be for the greater good if he/she can hide, and then come back and deliver a devastating backstab, but it still seems wrong.
How do you make backstabbing work for you? Do you repeatedly hide and stab in the heat of battle? Do you have your rogue hidden in the shadows before every encounter, just in case it turns hostile? Or do you just metagame it, and backstab the baddies before the party interaction?
I get the idea of hiding in shadows, and scouting ahead. But I can't really backstab many of the adversaries I find while scouting unless I'm doing some pretty serious metagaming. The vast majority of adversaries aren't hostile until after some sort of interaction with my party. I know they are going to attack, but my thief doesn't know that.
Then, from a role playing perspective, it always seems a bit off if my thief runs away to find a spot to hide while the rest of the party is actively engaged in combat. Yeah, it might be for the greater good if he/she can hide, and then come back and deliver a devastating backstab, but it still seems wrong.
How do you make backstabbing work for you? Do you repeatedly hide and stab in the heat of battle? Do you have your rogue hidden in the shadows before every encounter, just in case it turns hostile? Or do you just metagame it, and backstab the baddies before the party interaction?
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My evil F/T prepared to backstab LITERALLY EVERYBODY that we ever encountered in the wild. Dorn or Kagain would initiate conversation, and if the person proved hostile (or if I felt like it), I'd backstab them immediately.
But regardless of your alignment, with all the bandits hanging about the Sword Coast these days, it's a safe bet that a group of heavily armored thugs you've scouted is going to attack you once they've found you. Or if you're negotiating with a volatile necromancer, it's only common sense to prepare for the worst.
This actually got me in trouble at the end of ToSC, since I had my assassin, as per usual, stealth and go into the room where Aec'letec is summoned and one shot the cult leader with a critstab before she could ever initiate dialogue. As a result I was unable to complete the quest since Aec'letec was never summoned and the cult leader didn't have the Soul Taker Dagger on her body.
In short, I only think Evil thieves (maybe paranoid/violent non-lawful Neutral and Good ones) can backstab with RP justifications. Also, I rarely backstab in the midst of combat, and if I do I use a potion of invisibility or the Sandthief Ring to do so, I never run off into a corner and hide. Backstabs are best for opening combat and one shotting mages or other sqishy opponents.
It's not metagaming to have a thief scout ahead, wait for the rest of the group to catch up and initiate conversation while waiting in the shadows as backup. It's how assassins operate. It's also unlikely that the thief is the party leader, at least in my parties, the paladin/blackguard or bard leads. So I have to wait this or that way before I backstab because the thief went ahead and can't know what order the leader will give.
I never ever use hide in shadows; it's invisibility potions, scrolls and spells. Those make more sense for scouting because I can disarm traps without breaking strealth. Usually, backstabbing the boss (after the party came in range to engage henchmen) is the opener for the fight, after that, I have the thief withdraw (with poisoned weapon) until he reaches the mage and either switches to ranged weapon or can be rendered invisible again.
For me, my thief will often times sneak behind enemy lines and wait in the shadows until the enemy shows it's true colors. She (usually Imoen or Jan in BG2) will position to strike behind whatever combatant looks like either the caster or the most dangerous and wait. The rest of the party then approaches to talk. If things go south, my thief will strike from shadows. For me, I don't see this as a moral dilemma at all. I gave them the chance to prove non-hostile and they failed. Perfectly within Role Playing.
Now, on my evil party run-throughs, Monty is ready to kill anyone who even remotely looks dangerous, so no dilemma there either.
If they stay cool, well, Imoen carries on hiding...
Colin Baker told a story (and was verified by Nicola Bryant), when they were shooting their first scene together, he had to crouch down and hide behind her. Well, while shooting the scene, Colin actually bit her behind. He said 'Well, it was right there.' what a way to introduce yourself to your new co-star? But then, who wouldn't have done the same, considering....
It does derive from my metagame knowledge, but I have a Thief scout ahead to reveal hostile enemies. I position the backstabbing thief and always initiate the encounter with some sort of dialogue using the party's visible characters. A lot of that dialogue is scripted to fire when you enter the enemy's perception range anyway, which most often consists of a threat to kill you. When they declare themselves as hostile the Thief (or Thieves) makes the backstab.
I mean, if I felt really strongly about it feeling unbelievable that Thieves get to position themselves to attack too easily, I could go to the trouble to cast invisibility on all the Thieves, or have them drink invisibility potions, before the attack. But as I said, I rationalize a Thief's stealth as basically akin to a mystical skill.
If you're talking about backstabbing blue targets before they turn red simply because you the gamer knows they will turn red anyway, why not wait until they turn red then backstab?
Personally, my thieves backstab once at the beginning of combat and don't run off to re-hide. They get one shot, unless they want to drink an invis potion after their first attempt.