What is the best build for Assassin?
Arcanjo
Member Posts: 155
Best Race (in order):
1) Halfling (Excellent bonus to thief, excellent resistances and practically, but it has -1 strength (Bad for backstab) and gains +1 dex (for Good?))
2) Elf (If you use ranged weapon with poison he had seen a great choice, but long sword does not seem to be the best weapon for him, but he gains +1 Dex (for Good?) And has no penalty to strength.)
3) Orc (Some members indicated as the best assassin to Backstab, but it takes a lot of penalties in bonuses to move in the shadows and hide in the shadows, however gains +1 strength and has no penalty to dexterity.)
Best Weapon (Melee):
1) Dagger of Venom? (Damage: 3-6, Speed: 0, THACO +2, 6 poison dam. per round)
2) Staff of Striking? (Damage: 10-15, Speed: 1, THACO +3, each attack uses a charge)
-> If you have better option, what would it be?
Best Weapon (Ranged):
1) Not found a viable option, which suggest? (LongBow, ShortBow, Crosbow, Dart or Sling)
Best Armor:
1) Shadow Armor (AC 4, +15% Hide in Shadows)
2) Boots of Stealth (+35 Stealth) or Boots of Speed (Increases movement speed)
3) Here still do not know what the best choices? (Rings, Bracer, Gauntlets, Amulet, Cloak and helm)
-> If you have better option, what would it be?
Weapon and Armor list:
Melee - http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate/melee.html
Ranged - http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate/ranged.html
Armor - http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate/armor.html
1) Halfling (Excellent bonus to thief, excellent resistances and practically, but it has -1 strength (Bad for backstab) and gains +1 dex (for Good?))
2) Elf (If you use ranged weapon with poison he had seen a great choice, but long sword does not seem to be the best weapon for him, but he gains +1 Dex (for Good?) And has no penalty to strength.)
3) Orc (Some members indicated as the best assassin to Backstab, but it takes a lot of penalties in bonuses to move in the shadows and hide in the shadows, however gains +1 strength and has no penalty to dexterity.)
Best Weapon (Melee):
1) Dagger of Venom? (Damage: 3-6, Speed: 0, THACO +2, 6 poison dam. per round)
2) Staff of Striking? (Damage: 10-15, Speed: 1, THACO +3, each attack uses a charge)
-> If you have better option, what would it be?
Best Weapon (Ranged):
1) Not found a viable option, which suggest? (LongBow, ShortBow, Crosbow, Dart or Sling)
Best Armor:
1) Shadow Armor (AC 4, +15% Hide in Shadows)
2) Boots of Stealth (+35 Stealth) or Boots of Speed (Increases movement speed)
3) Here still do not know what the best choices? (Rings, Bracer, Gauntlets, Amulet, Cloak and helm)
-> If you have better option, what would it be?
Weapon and Armor list:
Melee - http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate/melee.html
Ranged - http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate/ranged.html
Armor - http://mikesrpgcenter.com/bgate/armor.html
0
Comments
Never put points into Hide...the little bit you get from shadow armor is all you need and by the time you get boots of speed, your MS should be enough to get a total 55+% chance of hiding when shadowed (without boots of stealth), which is all you need, once you can outrun enemies.
Darts starting out or when there's a large group of tough enemies (used with poison weapon), then Dagger of Venom for most targets BS, and staff of striking for things you absolutely want to DIE!? (I consider recharging items with buyback an exploit and don't use it, so have to spend SoS's charges wisely).
(* Darts, Single weapon *, dagger *, quartstaff *. (or two-handed style in place of single, but I've found single weapon is more useful...you can pick up the missing style in BG2..also want to get scimitar style in the sequel..using belm and later Scarlet Ninja-to are awesome for enemies you can't backstab..especially if you dual-wield them, under IH, while using tenser's from a scroll or the figurine that does pretty much the same thing).
Shadow armor, obviously
Boots of stealth until you get the boots of speed, which are flat out superior.
All the rings of invisibility you can find (there should be 2), the +thac0 bracers, amulet doesn't matter...greenstone I guess, there are no helms for assassins in BG1, cloak of balduran. Belt of giant strength, or belt of piercing, whichever you need more (with 18 base str, + str manual...probably piercing..ranged will be your biggest enemy when hit/fading, if you went with a halfling, you'll definitely want the str belt)
Elf (sleep/charm resistance; +1 DEX; +1 racial bonus to hit with longsword and bow stacks well with the Assassin's +1 to hit/dmg bonus).
Melee Weapon: Dagger of Venom for backstabbing (doubles with the Assassin poison ability); Varscona +2 or Drizzt's Icingdeath +3 for general melee, and Staff-Mace +2 for slashing/piercing resistant enemies. The Short Sword of Backstabbing +3 would be a more appealing option if it actually offered a +1 to the backstab modifier.
Ranged Weapon: Short Bow (since pure-class Assassins can't use long bows) or Darts. Darts can be really effective, since you get 3 attacks per round, can use a buckler while throwing them, and for the wide variety of darts, especially the Darts of Stunning.
Armor: Shadow Armor at lower and mid-levels for the +15% to HS; Drizzt's Mithril Chainmail +4 for higher levels, as Potions of Perception can replace the bonus to HS (I forgot that Drizzt's chain cannot be used by pure-class thieves. I was thinking of my Fighter/Assassin).
Misc: Boots of Stealth (+20% to MS adn +15% to HS is a must-have), Cloak of Non-Detection, Potions/Rings of Invisibility, Potions of Perception, Potions of Mind Focusing (+3 to DEX and INT), Potions of Power (THACO 80%, HP +20%, thieving skills +20%), Potions of Strength (18 STR). I really like having the Claw of Kazgaroth, but make sure to carry lots of Antidotes or Elixirs of Health due to its poison save penalty. The Gauntlets of Weapon Skill (+1 to melee) or Bracers of Archery (+2 to hit) are also great to have for THACO buffing.
While Assassins' thieving skills advance slowly at 15 points/level, there are plenty of magic items throughout the game that allow your character to compensate. Even in BG2, I was using potions, rings, and the Boots of Stealth to buff my PC's skills well through ToB, since she was my only thief in the party.
It's solely for role-playing purposes. I like to pretend that it actually does something, kind of like carrying a skull from a High Hedge skeleton in my Necromancer's inventory throughout the game. It's just more Necromancerish.
Even though I mostly use human or a half-orc.
This has been around several times...and there is no "best build".
Some have their advantages, some have different advantages.
Maybe only the human race has no advantages at all.
Btw - a bow + bolts of biting + venom = enemies not even able to move, because the poison ticks keep their avatars do the "hurt" animation 6 times a round.
Actually should have put the title, which builds you use and more efficient to consider an Assassin.
You then leave in a 50-point skills and move to hide in the shadows? The rest put in who?
- Detect traps, Pick Pocket, unlock chests
(I consider recharging items with buyback an exploit and don't use it, so have to spend SoS's charges wisely).
@mjs said "as a counter view: it's not an exploit, you're paying for a recharging service."
What bothers me about recharges is that I can't visualize that there is a magic users service that goes around recharging these wands for all the store keepers. I can't bring myself to see that magic wands are part of a regular business like a dry cleaning service. They are supposed to be something much more rare. I like to feel that wands and scrolls are a personal craft intended originally for use by the mage himself or his closest associates and that they have to be found by the adventurers.
3) Half-Orc
for sure, 19 Str brings you +7 to damage (+21 with x3 backstub)
Best Weapon (Melee):
1) Dagger of Venom
yep, poison even kills Drizzt
Best Weapon (Ranged):
1) S.Bow (pure thief), L.Bow (fighter/thief)
two shots per round from start
If it does, definitely go with half Orc.
I'm playing with a halfling assassin now in BG2. 18 strength thanks to the tome and with dohm i can get that up to an even better level. I'm using a crossbow and a longsword (for backstabbing) at the moment. Kind of pointless to point this out a week late, but you figure out the multiplied damage then you add in the damage you get from your strength bonus.
If you are playing an Assassin DON'T bother to put points into Open Locks and Find Traps. Total waste. Go ahead and do it when you hit BGII, because there are enough points going around and thieves are a rare commodity in that game, but if you do it in BG1 you are gimping your Assassin. Get a second thief.
Half-Orc Assassin sucks. Yeah, I said it. They're better off Swashbucklin'. I tend to view the Swashy and Assassin as opposites; the ideal party thieves are a Swashbuckler and an Assassin, IMO.
turbo!
What is a great thing for assassins, especially in BG2 that you can get before leaving the promenade is...
Dwarves can also use a certain cursed item that I strongly believe is the strongest equiped item in the game with almost no penalty.
Race: elf - for 19 dexterity, bonus with long swords and bows, what include short bows.
Ranged weapons:
It's a shortbow, by the way.
Gaunlets of weapon expertise for gloves
Ring of invisibility
Boots of speed
Amulet you got the one you can get your hands upon, cos there aren't many amulets in the game.
Shield - Kiel's buckler (+1 dexterity)+ tome of quickness to set dex to 21 that enhance even more the thief skills and give an extra AC point bonus.
http://stane0.tripod.com/BG1Tables.html
http://bg2download.free.fr/BG2_manual.pdf
(Elf+kiel buckler+ book of quickness= 21 dex) 21 dexterity elf = -5 AC, +25 pickpocket, +25 open locks, +20 detect traps, +25 move silently, +30 hide in shadows.
(Halfling+kiel Buckler+book of quickness=20 dex) 20 dexterity halfling = +25 pickpocket, +30 Open locks, +20 detect traps, +28 hide in shadows, +33 move silently.
Cloak - Of balduran? Cloak of displacement (CLCK03) isn't bad at all also.
bullets are weak compared to arrows and bolts that is sad
or fighter/thief
As Dreadkhan pointed out Halflings can get 19 dexterity from the get go, just like elves. So the maximum for either would be 21 with the buckler.
So... (I think this is accurate)
(Elf+kiel buckler+ book of quickness= 21 dex) 21 dexterity elf = +25 pickpocket, +20 find traps +25 open locks, +25 move silently, +30 hide in shadows.
(Halfling+kiel Buckler+book of quickness=21 dex) 21 dexterity halfling = +25 pickpocket, +25 find traps, +30 Open locks, +35 move silently. +35 hide in shadows.